Are you looking for a free theme that supports multiple presets, an attractive design and elegant text? Take a look at the Narrative Shopify theme, this is one of the most optimal choices in the current themes market. This article provides information about the pros and cons, features, styles, and Narrative example stores to start your e-commerce store immediately.
What is the Narrative Shopify theme?
The Narrative Theme supports impressive storytelling throughout the page and has a captivating design. This theme offers three different presets, including attractive typography and layout.
The Narrative Shopify theme can also be resized to provide the best shopping experience for laptops, phones, and tablets. It can work well for stores with small catalogs or single-product stores.
Narrative theme: 2 presets
Warm style
The Warm presets use the slider and carousel images. They suit brands with cozy, attractive styles. Warm is ideal for decor stores, apparel, knitwear, crafts, or comfortable. While pictures on sliders create a cozy atmosphere in the store, the carousels effectively showcase the product collections.
Light and Cold style
By applying quality images instead of bored static photos, the Light and Cold presets are great for displaying products like gadgets, jewelry, clothing, etc. The slider also plays automatically. However, you should ensure a suitable video length to avoid annoying visitors.
Narrative Shopify Theme review: Core Features
Hero Pages
It includes a hero page, sliders, and banners where you can implement videos instead of images in the Narrative Theme. The moving cursor feature enhances user interaction by dynamically shifting the quick links across the screen, providing immediate visual feedback, and creating a more engaging browsing experience. This feature is one of the most popular ways of sending your brand message to your customers.
Product Pages
They can include variation labels on the product pages and interactive suggestions on the product pages. Customers can also use filters and sort on the collection pages. Remember that the theme is about visuals, so you don’t have a zoom option when hovering over images.
Featured Slider
The featured slider is designed to provide a seamless product browsing experience directly on the homepage. It allows customers to explore product variants, such as colors or sizes, without navigating to separate pages, making it both intuitive and visually engaging.
Merchants can also use the slider to highlight additional products or upcoming promotions, giving users a preview of what’s available. With its responsive design, the slider adapts perfectly to both desktop and mobile devices.
Features for Visual Storytelling
The Narrative Shopify Theme is one of the most valuable features for telling the brand’s stories. It also presents products with appealing photography. The menu bars are placed on the left column of the page and cannot be adjusted. You can insert citation block quotes which can be utilized to publish value propositions, customer feedback, blog entries, or inspirational quotes on your site.
Cart Features
Shoppers can modify their shopping cart immediately by pressing the shopping cart icon on the top of the store. A pop-up will appear from the right side of the screen with a simplified view of the cart. Your customers can add an item to the cart and checkout immediately. It is a convenient way to shop.
Slideshows
The Narrative theme includes a flawless vertical slideshow that allows customers to scroll through products in the category. Additionally, you can locate a large photo on the left and a vertical slideshow for multiple products on the right.
Customization of Narrative
This theme is good for small amounts of stock, for example, where a company sells only one product at a time. You can alter some of the elements of the template to suit your store’s needs. Additionally, the theme supports Shopify’s drag-and-drop section editor, so you can easily add, remove, or reorder sections without coding experience.
This flexibility makes Narrative versatile, even for stores with slightly larger catalogs or those looking to highlight specific product collections.
Who is the Shopify Narrative Theme best for?
The Narrative Theme is best suited for:
- Storytelling Brands: This theme is ideal for businesses that use visuals and text to tell their story.
- Small Product Lines: small products can be displayed and describe each product or service properly to the customers.
- Artists, photographers, and designers: this is a good theme for portfolio work and presenting creative work.
- Startups & New Businesses: enables you to set up a firm foundation on which new e-commerce can establish competitive and recognizable brand images.
Narrative Shopify theme review: Pros & Cons
Pros
- Free Regular Updates: You can receive free updates to ensure the store is secure and up to date.
- Ideal for Niche Markets: This theme is good for any business that specializes in one product or a few products.
- Focus on Quality Products: It is suitable for mid to high-value products including fashion, gadgets, and accessories.
- Helpful Sales Features: Adding marketing aids and options to select types of checkouts to boost sales.
- Easy Setup with Pre-Designed Styles: Provides 4 styles, so you can quickly open your store without much effort and time.
Cons
- Low User Ratings: Some users report performance or experience that happened.
- Limited Customization Options: Advanced features and design flexibility may be limited, making it hard to personalize.
How to Install the Narrative Theme?
In July 2021, Shopify updated a new theme architecture called Online Store 2.0. Themes used in previous architecture, known as Vintage themes, these themes are not available now. The Vintage theme includes the Narrative theme.
While it can be downloaded from unofficial sources, it still contains risks for your store. Instead, you can refer to other themes like the Eurus theme that offers official support and advanced features for long-term development.
Narrative Shopify theme: Support
Chat and email support are available 24/7, so you can get help immediately. Shopify also offers extensive documentation, guides, setup steps, and customizations, helping your stores run smoothly.
However, this theme has been discontinued, so users who download it from sources outside of Shopify will receive limited support. Shopify will not be responsible for any issues that arise.
Users Review and Rating
Many users praised the theme for its easy customization, accessibility, and dedicated support from theme developers. It’s also a good choice for service-based business. They also mentioned that Narrative offers a modern theme design and layout.
Other users said the Narrative theme lacks flexibility when creating complicated layouts and sections. It might not be suitable for large inventories due to its simple design and layout.
Store Using Narrative Shopify Theme
Sweet Tooth Hotel
Sweet Tooth Hotel is probably one of the most popular examples of the Narrative Shopify theme.
Their website features plenty of blogs and photo galleries, providing a visual treat for users. Sweet Tooth Hotel encourages visitors to subscribe to their newsletter, which keeps them updated with news, special offers, and exciting updates. This not only keeps their audience informed but also builds a loyal community of fans who want to stay connected.
FAQ about the Narrative Shopify Theme
Is Narrative theme still available on Shopify theme store?
No, Narrative theme is not currently available on the Shopify Theme Store. It was a premium theme that was discontinued and is no longer supported by Shopify.
Can I customize the Narrative Theme?
Yes, This theme offers a variety of customization options. You can easily adjust colors, fonts, and layouts…make theme align with your brand.
If I can’t use the Narrative Theme, what is alternatives?
Eurus Theme (FREE design consulting or SEO audit)
The Eurus theme is a great alternative to the Narrative Shopify theme. It offers many customization options and features for $250. With a remarkable 99% positive rating on the Shopify store, Eurus is quickly gaining popularity among online retailers.
It is a modern, efficient, and attractive theme for anyone wanting to improve their online store with visually appealing features.
Outstanding Features of Eurus
- Product Filtering: Eurus simplifies the shopping experience by allowing customers to filter products based on size, shape, color, material, and price.
- Mobile-First Design: The theme uses a mobile-first approach. It optimizes menus and product info for any device. This layout ensures a smooth shopping experience on any device, anywhere.
- Blazing-Fast Loading Speed: Performance is a top priority for Eurus, as it achieves impressive loading speeds.
- Customizable Design: The Eurus theme features a user-friendly interface with numerous drag-and-drop modules and ready-made templates.
- Lifetime Support and Free Updates: Eurus provides lifetime support and updates to help you maintain peak performance. This commitment ensures that your online store stays current and continues to meet evolving customer needs.
- Slide-Out Cart: This convenience encourages customers to continue browsing and shopping.
- Convenient Checkout Features: Cart notes and gift options simplify buying. They boost customer satisfaction.
Other themes you can use to alternate Narrative:
- Dawn theme: A free, flexible theme with a clean and modern design.
- Ella theme: A versatile theme with a focus on product images and storytelling
Final Words
The Narrative Shopify theme has great design features that improve shopping. However, it is not available to download from the official Shopify. This theme has now been discontinued, and you can no longer download it from official sources. Therefore, you should carefully consider other options and explore themes with similar features from Omni Themes.
