Not because of Shopify's Plus plan for merchants —although that is who the theme was originally created for— but because if a paid-for theme in the Shopify theme store is referred to as a 'premium' theme, then Turbo needs to have a classification that accurately portrays the tier in which it resides. Currently it is the only theme in this top tier category that we're aware of.
Things have become significantly easier for us these days in choosing a Shopify theme for a store build. Essentially it boils down to the following two options:
Almost all of our store builds over the last year or so have been one of the two options above.
That's not to say that you can't have a successful store operating on another Shopify theme —even a free one— but when it comes down to it, if you're looking for a theme that is versatile, customizable out of the box and contains features that other themes rely on apps or significant customization for, then Turbo is... well... a no brainer.
By the same token, some merchants who think they need a custom designed theme can actually achieve what they need with Turbo too. Not all of them of course, but a lot of them can have a completely unique looking store with Turbo at the base and tap into all the benefits of this richly featured premium+ theme.
Those for whom Turbo is not a good match would include:
Currently a vast majority of merchants opt for Turbo and to explain why and also illustrate why this is not a bad thing (you don't want your store to look like everyone else's) I thought to put together a list of primary reasons why you should consider it as the frontend system for your next Shopify store (re)build.
As the name suggests, Turbo is a theme built for performance. If serving your products to your customers quickly is important to you (it should be) then Turbo has you covered with it's exceptionally quick browser loading and effective caching.
Very few (if any) other Shopify themes give as many options to customize the header of your store. The placement of the logo, the ability to have navigation left, right, top and bottom and with all the extra bits and pieces it caters for, you won't need to go scouring the app store to add a simple promo bar to your shop.
With most themes you'll need to make use of an often buggy or restrictive 3rd party app for a mega-dropdown. With Turbo you get a bunch of versatile, robust and feature rich mega-dropdown options. This has been of massive benefit to us as experts and our merchant clients where we no longer need to diagnose bugs, waste time with slow support nor have to uncomfortably explain styling or functional limitations where an app runs outside of the theme.
If you're familiar with Shopify's concept of "sections" you'll know that most themes come with a bunch of pre-sets that you can use on your home page. Turbo comes with almost 20 customizable options including recently viewed products and Google Maps. There are photo galleries, featured promos and logo lists. You'd be hard pressed to need something that the theme doesn't already have as an existing available section.
As the part of your site where the magic happens (purchases) you want to be able to give your customers what they need to make that buying decision. From full width banners to tabbed content and a myriad of other options not found in any other premium theme, the product page in Turbo is unmatched by it's competitors.
As with the rest of the theme, there are elements to Turbo that you simply won't find in other themes. It comes with fully functional sidebar filters which is normally achieved via an app or significant custom work, product sorting, and even color swatches below the product thumbnails. Full width banners on your collection pages are also a reality with Turbo.
Areas like the footer which is significantly more versatile than what other themes offer, the ability to integrate your social channels effectively, Mailchimp, image galleries and more, there is really very little reason to purchase another theme.
As I've attempted to articulate in this article, at the time of writing, chances are very good that you'd be doing yourself and your ecommerce business a disservice if you go with another Shopify theme (other than a custom one if you need it).
I'd even go so far as to say that it stands head and shoulders above the rest of the themes in the Out of the Sandbox stable which are all exceptional themes and we know them all inside and out. In short the reason for this is that while they're (Retina, Parallax, Responsive & Mobilia) awesome themes, they follow Shopify's mandate of simplicity which is fine for beginner merchants except that when your needs become more demanding, redesigning your store will be a must.
Turbo allows any merchant from Basic to Plus to set up a performance oriented storefront with significant room to grow.
If you're interested in having us help you set up or customize your Shopify store whether on Turbo or something else, feel free to check out our services here.
Masthead photo by Mathew Schwartz.
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