Ella Shopify theme is a popular choice amongst Shopify merchants, especially for fashion and lifestyle brands. However, it is still not the perfect choice for many other niches due to its limitations. What are these limitations? Is the Ella Shopify theme the best Shopify theme for your store?
Let’s dive into the key features of the Ella theme, its pros and cons, and top alternatives to choose the best Shopify theme for your store!
What Do You Need to Know about Ella Theme?
Image source: Ella Shopify Theme on ThemeForest
Halothemes, a Power Elite Author on ThemeForest, creates the Ella Shopify Theme. With 10 years of experience in designing themes for eCommerce platforms, they made Ella one of the most high-quality Shopify themes.
Since its release, the Ella Shopify theme has achieved impressive success on ThemeForest, including:
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41,500+ sales
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4.8-star rating with 1.3k reviews
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Best-selling theme of the year (2022 and 2023)
The Ella Shopify theme is available for $89, an affordable price for growing businesses. This price includes:
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Theme file
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6 months of support (+$27,75 for an extended 6-month support)
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5 child themes
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60+ pre-made page layouts
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Lifetime updates
However, Ella isn’t the one-size-fits-all theme for every Shopify store. Who should use the Ella Shopify theme?
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As we mentioned from the start, the Ella Shopify theme is best for fashion, beauty, accessories, and lifestyle brands. Its clean, stunning design and product-focused layouts are ideal for brands in visually-driven industries.
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We also think the Ella Shopify theme is especially well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). With a budget-friendly price ($89) and many customization options, it’s perfect for SMBs that need flexibility without a hefty investment.
Who may need to find alternatives for the Ella theme?
- Brands outside the visually-driven industries, such as SaaS or industrial products, may not benefit much from the Ella Shopify theme. What these businesses need is a minimal, functional layout, not the style and complex layouts that Ella offers.
- Ella Shopify theme is not a perfect option for large companies. These businesses often require advanced features like advanced search, color schemes, etc. However, Ella can’t fully provide these features.
Besides, they also need the dedicated support that Ella doesn’t provide. The Ella support team doesn’t have a live chat, so their response time is often as long as 48 hours. If you want to find the best Shopify theme for your large store, check this list of the best themes for large Shopify furniture stores.
If you still want to use the Ella theme for your store, you can improve and upgrade the theme design and function with a powerful page builder. A recommended app for you is Foxify - Smart Page Builder. Its visual editor allows you to drag, drop, and design elements however you want to create new sections and layouts.
Beyond that, it offers 250+ ready-made sections and templates that cover all niches like Furniture, Electronics, Food and Drink, etc. Foxify also integrates with many apps for advanced features for large stores. Some notable plugins are FoxKit - All-in-One Sales Boost, SearchPie, Judge.me, Omnisend, etc.
What Are the Key Features of Ella Theme?
After experiencing the theme, we found out that Ella theme’s main features include ready-to-use layouts, enhanced navigation, social media integration, responsive designs, customer journey streamlining, and sales boost.
1. 50+ ready-made layouts and creative sections
The Ella Shopify theme provides 50+ ready-to-use and stunning page layouts to quickly and easily create a complete store. This number is not as much as many other themes like Minimog or Kalles, but it’s enough for SMBs to build a complete website.
These layouts include:
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32 homepage layouts for various styles and brand aesthetics
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5 collection page layouts for organizing products in an appealing way
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6 collection list layouts for showcasing grouped collections
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2 sub-collection layouts for detailed categorization
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9 product page layouts to highlight individual items with custom features
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5 blog page layouts to share your knowledge pool that connects with your audience
- 2 blog article page layouts for individual articles with unique styling
What we find special about the Ella Shopify theme is the premade layouts for some specialized pages. Beyond the normal pages like homepage, product page, and collection page, Ella provides customization for special pages that other themes don’t have. For example:
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Lookbook: Perfect for fashion and lifestyle brands. It allows customers to view curated collections or seasonal looks.
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FAQs: Helps answer common customer questions and improves support efficiency.
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Portfolio: Showcases your brand’s story, key achievements, or collaborations.
- 404 Page: Provides a stylish, branded experience even when customers land on an error page.
The Ella Shopify theme also offers a variety of creative sections and animations. You can find many amazing animations and layouts that other themes don’t offer here. These features make it easy for brands to showcase their items with flair, adding interest and engagement to the shopping experience.
Here are some notable interactive sections with animations for products and collections showcase:
- Motion banner: Create up and down motion for your image to draw customers' attention.
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Slidable spotlight: Showcase featured products or collections in a slidable carousel format. It allows visitors to browse through spotlighted items seamlessly.
- Special banner: Combine your product or collection images with rotating text. This special banner can spotlight promotional items or seasonal collections with custom messaging and styling.
2. Enhanced navigation with numerous menu layouts and quick search
The Ella Shopify theme provides many clear, well-structured menu options and an advanced search feature to enhance your store’s navigation and exploration. This feature makes Ella more versatile and suitable for more types of businesses.
- 8 mega menu layouts: Ella offers 8 different mega menu layouts to enhance navigation for larger stores. A mega menu can display many choices simultaneously, organized into columns and rows structurally. These layouts are ideal for stores with extensive product categories, providing a clear overview that enhances the shopping experience.
- Multi-level dropdown menu: This menu layout provides a deeper navigation within categories. It helps your customers quickly find specific items or collections. This layout is perfect for brands that need a simple yet organized menu to showcase various collections.
- Search block on every page: The Ella Shopify theme provides a search block available on every page. You can place a search bar wherever you want. This search bar ensures that your customers can search for what they need quickly no matter where they are on your site.
- Quick search with predictive search integration: Ella’s quick search feature is integrated with Shopify’s Predictive Search. It enables customers to see instant search results as they type. Thus, buyers can find desired products without being redirected to another search results page.
Mega menu layout by Ella Shopify theme
3. Social media integration
With visual-focusing industries, social media is equally important to an online store. Ella has done a great job in helping its users grow their social presence. It offers many sections for social media.
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Instagram feed sections: Ella offers 3 sections to display your Instagram feed, including Instagram, Instagram Visual Grid, and Instagram Special. The Instagram section simply displays your Instagram images in a row, while the others offer more creative grid layouts. These sections allow you to highlight user-generated content on social media to build trust and increase your presence on social media platforms.
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TikTok video section: A dedicated section for TikTok videos lets you feature short, engaging clips from TikTok on your store. By showcasing TikTok content, you can attract a younger audience, share product highlights, and keep your store fresh and interactive.
4. Responsive designs
The Ella theme provides a highly adaptable layout and settings that ensure your store looks great on any device.
- Mobile-responsive by default: Ella’s designs are mobile-friendly from the start. They will adjust automatically to fit desktops, tablets, and smartphones, providing a seamless experience for shoppers.
- Adjustable section settings for different devices: You can customize sections based on the device. For example, you can adjust each section's paddings and design elements for mobile, tablet, or desktop views. This flexibility keeps your store looking professional on every platform.
💡 Read More:
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How to Boost Mobile Optimization for Your Shopify Store
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Advantages of Mobile Commerce and 5 Best Solutions to Build Ecommerce Mobile Websites
5. Multiple features to streamline the customer journey
The Ella theme offers several features that simplify shopping. With these features, customers can move smoothly from browsing to checkout.
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Ajax cart popup and Ajax sidebar cart: Customers can view and edit their cart contents in a popup or sidebar without leaving the current page. This keeps the shopping experience quick and uninterrupted.
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Quick edit Cart and Quick update cart: These features allow customers to change their cart items instantly, streamlining the process and reducing the number of clicks needed.
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Quick shop: Shoppers can view product details and add items to their cart directly from the homepage, landing pages, or collection pages. This feature can save time and make browsing more efficient.
- Dynamic checkout button: Display a button for quick checkout using customers’ preferred payment methods like PayPal or Apple Pay. This button streamlines checkout and payment and encourages customers to come to checkout.
Dynamic button section by Ella theme
6. Sales-boosting features
The Ella Shopify theme includes powerful tools to help boost conversions and encourage purchases. Some significant features include:
- Bundles and discounts: Offer product bundles and discounts to encourage customers to buy more items, increasing average order value.
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Countdown timer: Create urgency with a countdown timer for limited-time offers, motivating customers to act quickly.
- Before you leave: Display an exit-intent popup to re-engage customers as they are about to leave, offering a discount or special message to retain them.
- Someone purchased notification popup: Show recent purchase notifications to build trust and encourage new customers to buy.
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Free shipping calculator message: Motivate customers to add more items by showing how much more they need to spend to qualify for free shipping.
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Recently viewed popup: Remind customers of products they’ve recently viewed.
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Product recommendations: Display personalized product suggestions to upsell and cross-sell effectively.
- Notify me when out of stock: Allow customers to sign up for notifications when a sold-out item is back in stock, keeping them engaged and informed.
What Are the Top 3 Ella Shopify Theme Alternatives?
You find the Ella Shopify theme is the perfect fit for your store? But you still want a stunning and feature-rich theme like it? Here come some top alternatives for your store.
1. Minimog
Image source: Minimog theme on ThemeForest
Minimog Shopify theme is a best-selling theme on ThemeForest. It boasts nearly 13,000 sales and a 4.97-star rating with 650+ positive reviews for its ease of use, flexibility, and powerful features. For businesses seeking a theme that combines functionality with an ecosystem of smart eCommerce tools, Minimog is a top choice.
Why choose Minimog over Ella theme?
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Multipurpose theme: Minimog offers 85+ demos for various business niches like Toys, Vehicles, Book, Food and Drinks, etc. This broader range of choices makes it ideal for stores outside the fashion and beauty sectors.
- More sales-boosting sections and features: Minimog includes many conversion-focused sections like Flash sales, Countdown timer, or Promotion countdown timer. Besides, Minimog is packed with FoxKit - All-in-one Sales Boost so that you can use all the advanced upsells, cross-sells, and sales-boosting features like Lucky Wheel, In-cart upsell, Volume Discount, etc for free.
Volume Discount feature of FoxKit, the free app packed with Minimog. Image source: Minimog demo
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Easy updates: Minimog provides a FoxHome app to help you update the theme easily without losing custom code, ensuring smooth updates and long-term usability.
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More economical: When purchasing Minimog, you’ll get 2 free Shopify apps from the same provider. One app is FoxKit, an all-in-one upsell cross-sell app, and another is FoxHome - Smart theme manager. These apps add value to the theme, allowing your store to grow and expand with minimal cost.
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More expertise and well-rounded: The team behind Minimog, FoxEcom, has a strong ecosystem of hyper-efficient Shopify solutions. With their extensive expertise, they deliver a well-rounded, reliable Shopify theme that grows with your store.
Minimog offers an unlimited free trial. Use and try Minimog now ⇒
2. Kalles
Image source: Kalles theme on ThemeForest
Kalles theme is another versatile Shopify theme known for its clean design, flexible layouts, and advanced merchandising features. With these strengths, Kalles achieves a 4.98-star rating with 1.8k positive reviews on ThemeForest.
Why choose Kalles over Ella?
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More design options: Kalles offers 60+ pre-built demos and 70+ customizable sections to help you find a style that perfectly matches your brand. This variety can be especially useful if your store needs a specific aesthetic or layout that Ella doesn’t offer.
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Advanced merchandising features: Kalles includes advanced display options like 3D product viewing and video thumbnail support. These features enhance product pages and allow customers to see items in more detail. It can be a huge advantage for stores selling complex or visually detailed products.
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Conversion and marketing tools: Kalles comes with a suite of built-in conversion and marketing tools designed to boost sales and customer engagement. From countdown timers to product bundles, these features help you create urgency and encourage larger orders without needing additional apps.
3. Glozin
Image source: Glozin theme on ThemeForest
The Glozin Shopify theme is the rising star on ThemeForest. Recently, it has been ranked 3rd among the weekly best Shopify themes. It caters to various industries, including fashion, furniture, food, and pet supplies. Glozin emphasizes affordability, flexibility, and customer experience. Thus, it’s suitable for businesses with tighter budgets and starters who need more support from the theme author.
Why choose Glozin over Ella?
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Cheaper than Ella: Glozin is priced at $69, making it a more affordable option than Ella, which is priced at $89. This lower price point can be beneficial for businesses operating on a tighter budget
- Optimized performance: Glozin is built with cleaner code, simpler designs, and fewer features than Ella. Thus, it offers more optimized page performance. While the page performance of Ella’s demo is just 75, this metric of Glozin is 100.
Left: Ella’s page performance. Right: Glozin’s page performance. Measured by PageSpeed Insights
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24/7 Support: Glozin offers premium support, so their support response time is shorter than Ella's. It ensures that help is always available whenever you encounter issues or need assistance.
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The Final Call: Ella Theme or Its Alternative?
The Ella theme is the best Shopify theme for SMBs and businesses in visually-driven industries like fashion, beauty, accessories, etc. It is famous for its visually appealing design, rich sales-boosting features, and customization options. However, the Ella Shopify theme isn’t the best theme for brands outside the visually-driven industries and large businesses.
In this article, we reviewed Ella’s strengths and limitations in this post and explored top alternatives - Minimog, Kalles, and Glozin. Each alternative offers unique advantages. Minimog stands out with its multipurpose design, extensive demos, and powerful sales-boosting features. Kalles excels in advanced merchandising and visual appeal. Glozin provides an affordable, optimized design with 24/7 support. Considering these options, you can find a theme that best aligns with your brand’s goals, industry, and long-term growth strategy.
That's for our Ella theme review. If you want to read more eCommerce reviews, insights, or guidelines, stay tuned to FoxEcom's blog. Happy selling!
