Having a great theme is essential. If I turn up to your online store and it looks like it was designed by a 14-year-old putting together their first WordPress blog, then I’m not going to stick around. I’m going to assume your brand is amateur. I’m going to assure you are an amateur.
💡We meticulously evaluate Shopify themes and apps based on our hands-on experience. Read more about our comprehensive review process and methodology.
First impressions are everything
Your theme is your first impression. We all know how much those are worth. You might be tempted to stick with the free options that Shopify hands out to you when you sign up. But think for a second, for a couple of hundred dollars you can have an eCommerce store that looks professional, creative, and different.
You’re starting a business. Would you choose the cheapest designer if you were opening a brick and mortar store? No. So why choose the cheapest theme when opening your eCommerce store? I mean, actually think about this for a second.
This is your store. This is how I determine whether I think your brand is reputable and trustworthy, or one of those dodgy places that you quickly turn around a walk away from.
Outline
- What Make Shopify Motion Theme Special?
- What is the Shopify Motion Theme?
- Shopify Motion Theme Reviews
- How to Build Your Product Page and Homepage with the Shopify Motion Theme
- How to Customize Your Motion Themed Shopify Store
I. What Make Shopify Motion Theme Special?
I’m not trying to sell the Shopify Motion theme to you. I don’t make any money if you buy it, so I don’t really care if you choose it or not. But I’d seriously consider paying for it if I was going to open an eCommerce store today.
Why?
In short, the Shopify Motion Theme is different. There are over 2,000,000 Shopify stores out there and I’d bet money that at least 300,000 of them are using one of the free Shopify themes.
I know you get what I’m saying. Most of the stores out there look the same. It’s the ones that go the extra mile with their theme that stand out and become successful.
The Shopify Motion theme takes visual storytelling to the next level.
II. What is the Shopify Motion Theme?
The Shopify Motion Theme is designed with visual storytelling in mind. The top section encourages you to add video content to give your store a more striking look. You’ll notice the prevalence of animation and video media as you scroll through the homepage.
This is a theme that wants to show visitors what your brand is. It’s perfect for clothing, travel, accessories, tech, and pretty much anything else. If you can tell your brand’s story through visuals - which you can - then you’ll be able to bring the Shopify Motion Theme to life.
- Allows you to show your brand through visuals and animations
- Great for showing your product in action
- A unique way of building your store
- Incredible UX throughout the theme
There are three styles of Shopify Motion Theme.
2.1. Motion Theme Classic
The Classic style of the Shopify Motion Theme features a prominent top section with a centrally-orientated menu and bold fonts. Copy is kept to a minimum and the focus is on the visuals, with product collections and videos appearing throughout the homepage.
The Motion Classic theme is the most ‘in-your-face’ of the three styles.
2.2. Motion Theme Elegant
The Elegant style of the Shopify Motion Theme has a more refined touch. The fonts are thinner and more classy, making this an ideal theme for premium product lines.
2.3. Motion Theme Minimal
The Minimal style of the Shopify Motion Theme takes the same visually-striking design of the other two and delivers it in a more balanced and harmonious package. The menu is shifted to the left and sticks as you scroll through the homepage. The fonts are still bold, but they’re a little less ‘in your face’.
III. Benefits of choosing the Shopify Motion Theme
You already know that the Shopify Motion Theme is unique and focuses on visual storytelling. This helps your store to stand out from the rest of the crowd. But that’s not all this theme has going for itself.
If you are not in the mood for reading, check out our complete review and walk-through video right below!
3.1. Product quick view
Product quick view allows you to hover over an item in the collection page and get a summary with pictures of that product without leaving the page you’re on. This makes the browsing experience quicker.
You don’t take out every product when you visit a clothing store and look at it in exceptional detail, do you? No, you browse through the rails until you see something you want to try on. Product quick view is like browsing through the rails. If you find something you really like then you can leave the collection page.
3.2. Mobile optimized
The Shopify Motion Theme has been designed for mobile-first. The theme’s creators know that 87% of Shopify traffic comes from mobile. The theme is optimized to perform on smartphones because that’s what your customers are using.
The Shopify Motion Theme prioritizes mobile optimization.
3.3. Enhanced product filtering
Customers can now enter sub-collections without having to reload the collection page. Simply apply a filter and watch the products shift before your eyes. This saves time and gives a much more accomplished feel to the collection page.
3.3. Designed by Shopify pros
The Motion Theme is designed by ex-Shopifiers who created the popular Debut and Brooklyn themes. The creators have taken years of experience and unloaded it into this incredible theme.
3.4. Visual storytelling brings your products to life
The Shopify Motion Theme allows you to show your products in action. The screen fades in and out as you move from the homepage into the collections page and select a product, giving your store a feeling of continuity that you don’t get from other themes.
Landing on a product page in the Shopify Motion Theme feels familiar at first. You’re encouraged to use product videos and animations alongside photos.
The real magic begins as you scroll down through the product page.
You’re greeted with a selection of product videos, incredible opportunities to highlight product details, and chunks of copy that fit in perfectly with the eye candy, allowing you to introduce visitors to your product in writing as well as through visual storytelling.
Product pages designed with Shopify Motion Theme always look neat, clean and crisp
Check out other Shopify Theme reviews and Tutorials:
- Shopify Prestige Theme Review and Tutorial
- Shopify Brooklyn Theme Review and Tutorial
- Shopify Debut Theme Review and Tutorial
- Shopify District Theme: Tutorials and Reviews
IV. How to Build Your Product Page & Homepage with the Shopify Motion Theme
Learn how to build and customize your Homepage and Product Page with Shopify Motion theme in this less-than-8-minute video!
Building a product page on the Shopify Motion Theme is going to be more difficult than on other themes. You’ll need to prepare more to make the most of the awesome features at your disposal. Make sure you have:
- Great product photography
- Detail shots of products
- Product videos
- Video content that fits with your brand personality
Punch "Try Theme" To Have A Trial Run with Motion Theme
You’re not going to have a good-looking store if you don’t have great visual content. You can get away with a simple top-section photo on the Debut Theme, but not on the Shopify Motion Theme.
You’ll need to hire a professional photographer or videographer, or both, if you want to make the most of the Motion Theme.
4.1. Focus on product animations and videos
It’s so much more striking to have a video or animation as the first thing a visitor sees when they land on a product page. It shows the product in action. This is what the Shopify Motion Theme is all about.
Get short videos of people walking into the shot wearing your product. Couple this with excellent product photography and you’re on the road to success.
Product quick view is a great way to boost your conversion rate and save visitors time.
4.2. Make use of product quick view
The Shopify Motion Theme allows you to quick-view products from the collection page. This saves visitors time when browsing so make sure you’re optimizing your product pages for the quick view.
Some brief copy summing up the product’s key features and some stellar photography combine to make an excellent - and high converting - quick view product page.
V. How to customize your Motion Themed Shopify store
One issue merchants often have with paid themes is customization. The last thing you want after spending $360 on a theme is to have to hire a developer to make changes. You know that’s one bill you’d rather not have at the end of the month.
Fortunately, you don’t need to bring in outside help to customize the Shopify Motion Theme. If you just want to change the text, images, and other basic elements, you can do so within the standard Shopify page editor.
You’ll need the help of a page builder app like PageFly if you want to make more complex customizations like redesigning collection pages, making dedicated landing pages, and building a unique blog page.
PageFly makes customizing your Shopify store easy with a simple drag-n-drop mechanism. Choose the element you want and drag it onto the page. You don’t need to make any changes to the page coding.
Editing the code of your Shopify store can lead to problems that require a lot of work - and money - to fix. You can avoid all this by using PageFly to customize your Shopify Motion Themed store.
Conclusion
The Shopify Motion Theme is worth every penny. Most eCommerce stores look the same, while the bigger brands are free to invest thousands of dollars into making incredible stores. You need something unique to get ahead in this extremely competitive market.
Making use of visual storytelling is one of the most effective ways to draw people’s attention to your brand. The extra effort doesn’t go unnoticed and it certainly doesn’t go unpaid.
Try the demo stores of the three Shopify Motion Themes and choose the one that fits your brand personality. You can use PageFly to easily customize your Motion-themed store and make high-converting landing pages to drive-up traffic.
