About Shopify Impulse Theme: A Detailed Review in 2024

Known as the top eCommerce platform for beginners, Shopify offers 214 customizable themes to help merchants set up their stores in a flash. Among these, the Shopify Impulse theme is clearly a crowd's favorite, adopted by thousands of fashion, beauty, sports, and recreational brands!

In the following sections, our team will take a closer look at this well-beloved theme to help you decide whether it's the right fit for your store. We'll cover:

• Whether the Shopify Impulse theme is worth it
• How much it costs
• 7 outstanding features
• 3 different styles that the theme offers
• Types of businesses that likely benefit from Impulse theme Shopify
• Brands that use Shopify Impulse theme

Are you ready to discover with us? Check it out now!

What Is Shopify Impulse Theme?

Impulse is a Shopify theme developed by the Archetype development team and has been available since 2018. The theme is designed to offer a modern, high-performance solution for eCommerce stores in major fields like clothing and accessories, sports and recreation, or health and beauty.

Since its release, its rich feature set has contributed significantly to Shopify Impulse's popularity. Some of its outstanding features include:

• Customizable layouts: Tailor your store's look with flexible section arrangements.
• Advanced filtering: Enhance user experience with detailed product filters.
• High-quality visuals: Support for high-resolution images and videos.
• Responsive design: Optimized for all devices.

We will go deeper into the Impulse theme support and features in the detailed review below.

Is Shopify Impulse Theme Worth It?

Yes, totally. With its design and features, the Shopify theme Impulse is a strong choice for eCommerce stores looking to stand out. Let’s see the theme’s advantages and drawbacks in detail.

Pros and cons

Here’s an overview of the Impulse Shopify theme’s advantages and drawbacks:

Page speed test

According to Rvere's test, the Shopify Impulse theme performed as follows:

• The theme ranked #49 out of 83 Shopify themes tested for overall page speed.
• Its speed index (the time taken to display visible parts of the page) is 5375ms.
• The time to first-byte metric (which measures server response time) is 185ms.

Plus, in another test of Shopify themes, Impulse scored 0.68 for mobile page speed and 0.92 for desktop page speed.

Overall, the visible parts of the page load quickly, though the experience might still feel sluggish for users who expect a near-instant load time.

Customer support

According to our research, customer support for Impulse can be hit or miss. Some users find the support team to be quite helpful, while others have experienced longer wait times, particularly during busy periods. In such cases, merchants often need to look for help elsewhere.

How Much Is The Impulse Shopify Theme?

The Shopify theme Impulse costs you $380. It’s a one-time fee, meaning you will pay once for a lifetime license for your store. The fee includes all future updates and support from the Archetype team.

While the price tag might seem a tad high compared to some themes out there, it’s worth considering what you get in return. Impulse boasts premium features, advanced customization options, and a professional design that can elevate your store’s aesthetic. Think of it as an investment in your store’s long-term growth and success.

Before taking the plunge, you can always take advantage of Impulse’s unlimited free trial. This allows you to test the waters and explore its full potential. Remember, you only need to pay when you're happy and ready to publish your stunning new store.

Outstanding Features of Shopify Impulse Theme

The Impulse website theme introduces a wide range of features to improve your store's visual appeal and functionality. Let’s see what they are!

Engaging visual storytelling

The Shopify Impulse theme doesn't just showcase your products; it helps you tell captivating visual stories that resonate with customers. Imagine showcasing your latest apparel line with a full-screen, shoppable video lookbook or drawing customers in with subtle product hover animations that reveal intricate details.

Adding to that, Impulse’s layout harmony ensures your visuals take center stage, while features like strategically placed galleries and a variety of video options let you weave a compelling narrative around your brand and products. This emphasis on visual storytelling transforms casual browsers into engaged shoppers, leaving a lasting impression that translates into conversions.

Theme styles catering to different needs

Shopify's Impulse theme comes in three unique styles, each tailored to fit different brand personalities:

• Clean style: Best for smaller shops aiming for a minimalist look. It features a clean, uncluttered layout that puts your products front and center for a smooth shopping experience without much fuss.
• Bold style: Suited for larger stores with lots of transactions. The Bold style lets you display vibrant, eye-catching visuals that capture your brand's story.
• Modern style: A step up from the Bold style, this option includes tools to create custom banners, promotions, announcements, etc., that highlight your best offers on every page.

We will return to these theme styles in the latter half of our article, so stay tuned!

Enhanced navigation

With this Impulse theme, you'll find many useful features that improve navigation. Some examples are mega menus, filtering and sorting options, breadcrumb links, collection displays, product recommendations, and more. Let's have a quick look at each of them!

First, we have the mega menu. This feature allows you to organize your categories in a visually appealing way. That makes your store look neat and sophisticated, even when you have several categories and sub-categories. In addition, the mega menu also helps customers navigate easily and explore products without being overwhelmed. Thus, it’s ideal for stores with a wide range of products.

But it doesn’t stop there! Impulse equips you with advanced filtering & sorting capabilities. Customers can instantly narrow down their options by price, size, color, type, availability, and more. This level of control empowers shoppers to curate their ideal selection, leading to a more satisfying shopping experience and reducing the likelihood of abandoned carts.

And as customers navigate deeper, strategically placed breadcrumbs provide a reassuring sense of direction. Specifically, these breadcrumb links will be shown on product pages when customers view specific products, which helps customers browse more quickly if they want to consider more items of the same types or categories.

Lastly, the Impulse theme cleverly uses recommendations to nudge customers toward making purchases. It suggests products related to what they've searched for or bought before, which increases the chances of repeated purchases and, eventually, leads to better sales conversion.

Mobile Optimization

Another notable highlight is that the Impulse theme is optimized for mobiles, providing an excellent user experience across different devices.

One of its best features is how fast it loads on mobile – just like on desktops – which is critical to keeping customers interested in a mobile-focused world. The navigation is also straightforward, with a clean, touch-friendly menu that makes it simple for anyone, even beginners, to browse your store.

Most importantly, what sets the Shopify Impulse theme apart is how it tackles a major issue in eCommerce: the checkout process on mobile devices. Since complicated checkouts are a top reason for cart abandonment, Impulse has simplified it for mobile users, making it quick and easy to complete a purchase. This not only improves the shopping experience but can also boost your conversion rates and help your business grow by removing barriers to buying.

Merchandising

The Impulse Shopify theme provides many great features for displaying products. It allows merchants to showcase high-quality images with rollover and zoom functions, which helps attract customers and enables them to explore the items in detail. Not to mention, there are also built-in animations that facilitate the interactivity of your Shopify store.

And that’s not all; the theme’s size chart and color swatches feature on product pages further improve customers’ experience. Customers can just click on and view different options of size and color to choose the one they like most. It’s convenient and great for shopping, especially when the products are fashionable.

Marketing and conversion

Many merchants are pleased with the theme's diverse, powerful features that help smooth out marketing and sales-boosting strategy. Here are some amazing highlights:

• Blog section: The blog section allows you to create and share optimized content for search engines, meaning your store has a higher chance of appearing in search results. Plus, regular blogging with consistent style also helps establish your brand's voice and authority, which can build long-term customer loyalty.
• Product reviews and FAQ pages: Impulse makes it a breeze to add product reviews that show potential buyers what others think of your products. Meanwhile, with the FAQ pages, you can answer common questions about your products, shipping, and return policies, giving customers the confidence to buy without hesitation.
• In-stock and low-stock notices: Displaying stock levels on product pages is a great way to create a sense of urgency for customers. Specifically, when your customers see a product running low, this triggers a fear of missing out (FOMO), which encourages faster decision-making since they know the stock won't last long.
• Promotional tools: This Shopify theme introduces various promotional tools like banners, pop-ups, and tiles, all designed to capture customer attention and highlight your best deals. Better yet, they are easy to set up and customize even if you don't have a rich background in web design.
• “Recently viewed” section: As its name suggests, the “Recently viewed” section reminds customers of items they've already checked out but haven't yet purchased. Hence, whenever customers need a reminder of what caught their attention, they can easily return to those products without searching again.
• Product image zoom: This feature is very important since your customers can't physically touch or examine the products, especially items where details matter (fashion, jewelry, technology,…). When given a closer look at the product's features, your customers will feel much more confident in their buying decisions.

Cart and checkout

As briefly mentioned earlier, the cart and checkout processes play a very important role in the overall customer journey. The Impulse theme can help your store streamline this critical phase via the following features:

• Quick Buys: Customers can quickly purchase items directly from the product listings without visiting the product page. This smart design reduces the time it takes to make a purchase and potentially leads to higher sales.
• Slide-out Carts: With this feature, customers can add items to their cart while still staying on their current page. Plus, the cart can slide out from the side to show what's been added, allowing customers to either keep shopping or head to checkout.
• Cart Notes: If desired, your customers have the option to leave special instructions or notes about their order at checkout, which is handy for gifts, custom orders, or specific needs. Thanks to this direct communication method, your team will understand and meet customer demands much better, increasing their satisfaction (and even loyalty) with the brand.
• In-Store Pickups: Does your business have both online and physical stores? Then this feature is your best bet, as it lets customers buy your products online and pick up those items at the store. Needless to say, this smooth integration between online and offline experience will likely promote long-term customer loyalty and repeat business for your brand.

Styles of Impulse Shopify Theme

In the previous section, we have briefed the three layout styles the Shopify Impulse theme offers: Modern, Clean, and Bold. Now, let's explore the differences among these three in more detail here:

Clean Style: Focus on Minimalism

As the name suggests, the Clean style is all about simplicity, putting the spotlight solely on your products thanks to its minimalist design. Specifically, it has a header that sits over a large image, using a parallax effect to create a sleek look and tiles in varying sizes.

Aside from the main Shop menu (a mega menu), the rest of the menus only use a simple dropdown. As customers scroll, the header changes from a transparent overlay to a sticky white header, keeping the design clean as the background shifts from images to plain white.

Bold Style: Visual Storytelling

For growing businesses that seek a strong visual impact, the Bold style is a great choice. It uses videos as the hero content, perfect for telling your brand's story or showcasing products in action.

You can see the parallax effect becomes much more dramatic than the Clean style, guiding visitors through a series of banner images for an engaging experience. Plus, unlike the Clean style, the Bold style uses a full mega menu overlaid on the video that doesn't stick as you scroll, encouraging more interaction with the homepage. To add to the overall design, the bold black background introduces a strong, confident feel, leaving a long-lasting impression on customers.

Modern Style: Eye-catching and Functional

Lastly, the Modern style is designed for stores with huge product collections, starting with a full-width hero slideshow at the top. A striking parallax effect moves visitors smoothly through promotional banners and product collections of various sizes.

Just like the Bold version, the Modern style also includes a mega menu for easy navigation through large categories. But unlike the former, the Modern version includes all the following features below the menu:

• A rotating banner for promotions
• A “Top Picks” section to highlight your best-rated products
• Customer's shipping info and returns.

Who Should Use Shopify Impulse Theme?

As shown above, the Impulse theme offers three different styles designed to suit businesses of any size, from small boutique shops to large, well-known companies. Furthermore, the Bold and Modern styles (which emphasize striking store designs) are particularly effective for visually-driven sectors, such as:

• Fashion
• Beauty
• Sports
• Recreation
• Home decor
• Photography

10 Shopify Stores Using Impulse Theme

Modern Nursery

Modern Nursery uses the Shopify Impulse theme to build an impressive store. It displays appealing images of products throughout the pages, making the store look great. It also leverages the dropdown menu to list out its diverse categories of products.

MISSHA

You can check the store of MISSHA for an example of a cosmetics store using the Shopify Impulse theme. It uses slide show and video features to make a lively space, attracting visitors to browse. The collection feature is also well-utilized to make the shopping process more convenient.

Pentik

Pentik is another case of leveraging the theme to build a nice store. When visiting its homepage, you can easily see the visual storytelling feature of Impulse’s design. That’s because the brand has uploaded appealing images that show its products and vibes. It also indicates promotion information at the top sections, persuading customers to check more.

Manor Outfitter

For a clothing store with diverse categories and types of products, let’s see Manor Outfitter. With the mega menu of Impulse, it can organize its product options neatly. The store can also easily showcase various sizes of clothes or shoes on product pages with the theme’s available features.

Evelo

Evelo is an electric bike store using the Bold style of Impulse. It displays a dynamic video at the start of the homepage – an impressive manner of showcasing its bikes. Besides, its product images have been taken and uploaded from different angles, combined with the zoom feature of the theme. That allows customers to view the bike in detail.

Madeline Tosh

Madeline Tosh delivers a clean and nice design with a Shopify Impulse theme. Colorful images of products appear throughout its pages, showcasing the brands’ characteristics. It has leveraged the dropdown menu to display its product choices. The recommendation features are also utilized to enhance the sales volume.

Air Plant Supply Co.

This is an example of a store showing air plants and accessories. The Air Plant Supply Co. store features an impressive video with promo information to catch the attention of users. It also utilizes the visual storytelling feature to showcase its nice images of products. Furthermore, it has a blog section with various articles on caring for air plants and design with air plants.

Kappa

Eye-catching videos with smooth transitions are the first impression when browsing Kappa’s store. It brings solid and dynamic feelings to visitors. The store also showcases featured products in an organized way to attract customers to click more to view them.

Supply

Supply is a store focusing on grooming and hygiene products for men. Utilizing Impulse, it creates an elegant look for its online presence. It uses reviews and FAQ features to provide more information to convince customers to purchase.

NanaMacs

Utilizing the Modern style, NanaMacs builds a stylish Impulse website that showcases its clothing products. It uses the mega menu to display various categories of its diverse items. The store also delivers different collection pages and recommendation features to enhance customers’ experience and sales volume.

Shopify Impulse Theme – FAQs

Final Thoughts

All in all, the Shopify Impulse theme is an amazing choice for Shopify stores of any size. With its engaging visual storytelling, customizable styles, and advanced navigation features, it’s totally worth trying!

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