If you are new to the eCommerce business and don't know much about how to establish an online store, it can be overwhelming to put together every minute detail that goes into designing one. That's why the Shopify debut theme is the best way to get started. Shopify offers a variety of customizable debut templates that is not only easy to set up but will fit right into your budget because it doesn’t need one, it’s free! So, without much ado, let's dive into understanding different aspects of Shopify's debut theme to help you set it up, optimize, and reap the maximum benefit of it.
Shopify themes determine the architecture and functionality of your online store. There are a variety of themes supported by Shopify that are either offered by the platform itself or can be outsourced from third parties. These themes can be free or paid based on the design. The Shopify debut theme is one of the nine free themes available on Shopify that supports all the branding, messaging, and design goals of a product launch. As the name suggests, it is the best-recommended theme for debutant retailers on eCommerce platforms to build a professional store without any fuss.
The Shopify debut theme is one of the easiest ways to build a modern and elegant online store. Its clean and minimalistic approach keeps it classy, helping you establish an appealing store without much effort and resources. Here is why it is the best fit for building an online store on Shopify.
The most alluring thing about the Shopify debut theme is that it's free. This makes it the best option for new retailers. The interesting part is that even if the debut theme on Shopify is free, it is still scalable. You can use it for all kinds of stores, irrespective of the inventory size.
Even though the Shopify debut theme represents a minimalistic approach to building an online store, it still offers a myriad of features that you can choose from based on your business needs. You can leverage these features to engage with your audience and improve your product discovery.
Shopify's debut theme is an out-of-the-box solution yet super easy to use and navigate through. It can incorporate A-Z information related to product launches, including administrative details, product cataloging, and sales.
Although Shopify's debut theme has ready-to-use pre-designed templates and is quite straightforward to use, it doesn't limit the customizations you can make in these templates to make it more product specific. Shopify's debut theme gives you the liberty to add and delete elements based on your preferences. Some of the customizations supported by the Shopify debut theme include the product page design, images with custom text, collection page layout, header and footer customization, etc.
The clean and easy-to-navigate design of Shopify's debut theme enhances user experience. It's a boon for new retailers to start their eCommerce journey because it requires no/minimum monetary investment and yields professional results. What more can you ask for?
Most of your target audience prefers mobile devices to browse products on eCommerce apps or websites. This makes mobile compatibility of the Shopify theme you choose a prerequisite to performing well in the market. Shopify's debut theme is a mobile-friendly design to give your customers a hassle-free shopping experience.
79% of smartphone users make online purchases using their mobile devices.
The versatility of Shopify's debut theme provides your product page with a professional look from day one. It will help you attract more audience, and cater to them with a smooth user experience, so the visitors spend more time exploring your products and yes, make a purchase.
Shopify Debut theme offers two online store styles as follows.
As suggested by the name, the default template is applied to your Shopify debut-themed store. The default template design is minimally focused on attracting visitors' attention.
The basic design of the light layout is similar to that of the default debut style. However, the banner on top of the light layout homepage is comparatively small. This design is bold and focuses on evoking curiosity in the visitors' minds.
Even if you are using the Shopify debut theme for free, you can make tweaks to make it more brand-specific and stand out in the crowd of competitors. Here are some of the customizations that you must consider making while building an online store using Shopify's debut theme.
Shopify has defined sizes for different images that go onto the online store. While building a debut-themed store, you must comply with the specifications/parameters as follows for the best results.
However, resizing images manually can be a tedious task for stores with multiple product offerings. You can easily automate this process by using mobile applications like DoMyShoot for product photography.
On the product pages, Shopify's debut theme allows multiple text columns to be uploaded along with the product photos. This also includes blog posts and promotional content. You can also add product photos with overlay texts on the homepage. This way your customers will be able to scan the product features without having to read lengthy paragraphs. In short, your page will become more visually competent.
Go to Shopify website > Admin > Online Store > Themes > Debut > Customize > Add section > Image with text > Go to settings to adjust alignments > Save
There are many retailers out there using the Shopify debut theme to build their online store, so there are chances your store can easily skip consumers' attention. This is why you should try to choose a color palette for your online store/product pages that are unique to your brand. This way, your customers will be able to identify your brand, even without looking at your logo.
While browsing through thousands of entries in a product category, having a unique color palette is recommended to attract your target audience for both first-time and repeat business.
Here is how you can change the color palette for your debut-themed Shopify store-
Go to Shopify online store > Themes > Debut > Theme settings > Colors > Save
In any online store, visuals are everything. The quality and type of product photos you add to your debut theme will determine the volume of visitors and sales conversions your store is likely to get. Because if your target audience doesn't like what they see, they won't buy what you are selling.
Mobile applications are a budget-friendly way to obtain professional and compliant shopi for your debut-themed Shopify store.
You can choose to highlight your hero product or display all your products at once, it's up to you. With a featured collection, you can attract your customer's attention to specific products that you think have the potential to make maximum sales.
Here is how you can add a featured collection-
Go to Shopify online store > Template > Debut > Add section > Featured collection > drag and drop product selections > Save
You can also change the order of the collections in the featured section added to your homepage.
You can add featured images to each collection as well. Here how- Go to Shopify admin > Products > Collections > Featured image > Upload/Select image > Save
The header is the first thing your customer sees when they visit your product page. You can add a logo, images, menu format, color swatches, and much more to make your debut-themed Shopify store more appealing.
Here is how you can do it-
Go to Shopify online store > Themes > Debut > Customize > Sections > Header
The first step towards decluttering an online store is by categorizing the product catalog. While building a debut-themed store, make sure that you create menus and sub-menus wherever applicable. It will help you make your store look more professional and provide visitors with a smooth shopping experience where they don't have to spend much time hunting for the products they want.
Here is how you can do it-
Go to the online Shopify store > Navigation > Menus > Add menu (You can choose from different types of menus like drop-down, footer, main menu, etc.) > Drag and drop the menu items > Save
In addition to the customizations, here are some tips and tricks that will elevate the performance and sales conversion of your debut-styled Shopify store.
Predictive search is when product suggestions start appearing as a drop-down menu, even if the customer has just typed a few letters in the search bar. Turning on this feature is helpful for customers to find the right product even when they don't know the exact product name. It also saves time typing the complete product name in order to search for it. These live searches open quick links to all related products and store pages.
Promotional banners influence customers to visit an online store by effectively showcasing the available offers and discounts at the top of the Shopify store homepage. In a debut-themed online store, it adds to sales conversion by bringing in more traffic.
Nothing convinces new customers more than positive responses from your existing customers. Customer testimonials are highly effective in building the credibility of your debut Shopify store. These testimonials don't necessarily have to be typed by your customers. You can manually type feedback from customers received on different social platforms.
Manier times, it is not just the product that your customer seeks, but there are specific parameters that they want your product to qualify for before they make a purchase. It could be a specific budget they are looking for, type of discounts, best-selling options, or others.
By using product filtering customization, you can categorize and sort your offerings better to help your customers save significant time on product selection and purchase.
Product recommendation option is often underestimated by online Shopify sellers. However, it works like a charm in luring more customers into making more than one purchase. Using product recommendations, you can not only increase the sales of your mainstream product but also promote the cross-selling and upselling opportunities for your other related products. You must have seen combo recommendations like "people also viewed" or "people also bought" on eCommerce stores. That is a part of the product recommendation strategy to boost sales. It increases the product's discoverability to your target audience.
Shopify's debut theme online store supports homepage video, which you must leverage to connect with your audience. Here you can either share your brand story or other informative content to help your customers understand your vision or the usefulness of your offerings as to what value your product holds and why they should invest in it. The debut theme supports YouTube videos, which makes it a lot easier to work with.
Product slideshow allows you to showcase several products on the Shopify homepage at once. It can be used to display multiple brand images to provide your visitors with vital information about your offerings without having them manually search for it.
Add a magnifier/zoom-in feature to all your product photos to help your customer have a closer look at your product. It improves the credibility of your services and builds trust among consumers making them most likely to give you repeat business.
Social media integrations to your debut Shopify store can accelerate your online business. There are several third-party applications now available that you can use to integrate social platforms like Instagram into your Shopify store. It not only embeds an Instagram feed on your online store but also its story highlights.
In addition, adding YouTube videos on the homepage allows customers to engage with your content and hence, the brand. It is vital to building a long-term association with existing customers.
You can also explore Shopify apps to boost sales. These include the countdown timer applications to notify visitors of limited-time offers and deals.
The statistical dashboard is another valuable integration that allows you to closely monitor the performance of your debut Shopify store by keeping track of the number of views, clicks, purchases, and subscribers you gain on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.
Shopify also supports different pop-up notifications that are highly effective in reducing abandoned cart situations significantly.
On an average, the shopping cart abandonment rate is almost 70%.
Flow Hive US has leveraged video content on their Shopify debut online store homepage very well.
Garage Strength has used blog-based content on their debut themed Shopify store to improve user experience.
Well-categorized product offering gives the online store of Bullie and Co. a clean and classy look.
Simple, minimalistic, and decluttered Shopify debut theme design.
Healthy Hey has utilized blog content and videos to elevate its Shopify debut theme.
Captivating slideshow of products on the main homepage of their debut Shopify online store helps them stand out in the competition.
Pebbl is a one-product store. It shows that Shopify's debut theme can be very effectively used for any type of product.
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