Impulse by Archetype Themes — Shopify Theme Review - Updated 2024

A great Shopify theme can help you execute new ideas, new ways to communicate and do business for your brand. In this post, we’re highlighting and providing an in-depth review of one of the best Shopify themes we have come across in 2023, Impulse by Archetype Themes. We will share the theme’s key features, display examples using eCommerce best practices and industry trends. 

Themes can be downloaded for free or purchased for a reasonable price; either way, installing a new theme is quick and easy, and you can start selling right away. One of our favorite themes to work with is Impulse by Archetype Themes ($320, available through the Shopify Theme Store).

Do you want to learn how to use the Impulse theme? Read our guide here.

Recommended: Impulse Theme Customization Services

Popular Brands that are using Impulse for their stores: 

1. Gwen Stefani Store (shopus.gwenstefani.com) - Celebrity/Fashion
2. Solstice Sunglasses (solsticesunglasses.com) - Accessories
3. Juicy Couture (juicycouture.com) - Fashion
4. Story Jewellery (designed by Exhibea) (storyjewellery.com) - Jewelry
5. Spa Finder (shop.spafinder.com) Beauty
6. Supply (supply.co) - Men's Grooming
7. Schick Razors (https://www.schick.com) - Men's Razors
8. Anaya Home (designed by Exhibea) (anayahome.com) - Home Goods
9. Machine Gun Kelly (https://store.machinegunkelly.com) - Entertainment/Merch
10. Arccos Golf (https://www.arccosgolf.com) - Golf Apparel
11. Rachel Parcell (https://rachelparcell.com) - Fashion Women's Apparel

Merchandising

A well-designed Shopify theme can fuel sales by making it easy for customers to find what they're looking for and making it simple for them to make a purchase. The Impulse theme is designed with both aesthetics and functionality in mind, providing a visually appealing design that's easy to navigate and simplifies the checkout process.

Beauty Websites Using the Impulse Theme:

Impulse Theme Review

Impulse describes itself as a theme that is flexible, fashionable, proven design with powerful promotions. In 2022, they are now offering 20+ sections, product sales points & metafields, multiple landing, product, and collection templates, and more. New features that we love include Quick view, sales points, metafields, size & price sidebar filters, subcollections, engaging video, product page tabs, and style presets with modern design.

It's features include: 

• Large homepage slideshow, supporting desktop and mobile images
• Nice and slick loading animations
• + Fast performance and loading
• App-free filtering
• Quick-view for products
• Sub-collection support
• Product Page tabs
• Mobile-friendly and fast-loading video sections
• Modern design and font selection 
• Color swatches
• 24/7 Theme support 

Tips on how to make the most of your Impulse theme

1. Each section should have a call to action

Take advantage of Impulse's button and link selector by adding a call to action. Each new section or page should focus your traffic to take one, specific action. You should guide your customer to elements that help them through your main conversion funnel.

2. Utilize the theme's recommended products and recently viewed sections

Impulse has a great feature on the product page, and blog article page, that allows you to display posts or products that are related to the product they are viewing. This is a great feature for encouraging cross-sells, as well as keeping browsers engaged and on your site when they scroll down.

3. Display all the info for your products

Make sure you are thoughtful about presenting all the information a customer may need to consider a purchase throughout the entire customer journey. This includes shipping and return policy, size or fit guides, product features, potential uses, discounts and after-care. Ensure you’re mentioning the benefits of your product/service.

4. Display social proof

Use Impulse's awesome testimonial section on the product page with customer quotes, reviews and photos. Testimonials, reviews and ratings all help build trust. Subscribers and social followers do too (assuming the numbers are strong). Display social proof prominently, like an instagram feed, and place it strategically on the product pages.

5. Content (especially video) is King

Utilize screencasts, fun gifs, video tutorials, and product videos to engage your audience. Influencer features and stakeholder interviews can delight and inform your customer and helps humanize your brand. Make sure your brand personality shines in the shoot, and feel free to use the theme's video section on the product or homepage.

6. High-resolution images are preferred

Impulse has an amazing feature that helps you upload photos without having to worry too much about image ratios, and you can choose from square, natural, portrait and landscape. Stick to professional, high-quality photos across your shop. Fuzzy or bad quality images can hurt your reputation and conversion rate. Avoid generic stock images where you can. For great stock images that are free, we recommend Unsplash. Photos with happy, smiling people as subjects tend to perform well. Photography is an important and necessary investment for your brand.

Example of high-resolution images in the Impulse Theme:

7. Fast page load times

Impulse is one of the fastest themes in the Shopify Theme store, despite all its features. Quick page-load times are essential in ensuring a great user experience. According to Shopify, you can use tools to test your speed: "Countless studies have shown that improving your site speed is an important piece of the CVR puzzle. Google PageSpeed and the more all-encompassing Google Lighthouse audit your site’s speed, with the latter analyzing your site based on performance, SEO, best practices, and accessibility."

One of our favorite features of Archetype's Themes are their "Page Sections". To us, this is monumental and sets their theme apart from all the other offerings. It's useful because you can easily create non-commerce pages with content, imagery and information without having to rely on a developer to custom code these sections for you. A review from a merchant using the theme states: 

"This theme is fantastic. I'm not a web developer but found it flexible and easy to use. Maybe it's because the theme is so popular, but to me, it captures what a modern website should look like. Importantly, the support provided by Archetype Themes is fast and effective. I had a small customization issue with my site; within a day of contacting them, they had it fixed. Thanks very much"

In conclusion, Impulse is a well-crafted, beautifully functional shopping theme for customers, and if it's customized and configured correctly, it can lead to stronger engagement, higher repeat visits and conversion rates for your store. It's perfect for merchants who value great design.

Did you know that are are official partners with Archetype Themes? Learn more about our theme customization services for Expanse, Impulse, Streamline or Motion here.

Tip: When testing Impulse, have your mobile-phone handy to test the mobile version of the theme. Use your desktop as the starting off point, but don’t waste too much time before picking up your mobile device and testing the theme’s mobile layout.

Feeling inspired? Looking for help in customizing your online store, using the Impulse theme? Let's chat about how we can make you a beautiful eCommerce website. Contact us here.

Need some inspiration? Check out our post about luxury brands using Shopify, where we feature examples of luxury brands and retailers that stand out and shine using Shopify and Shopify Plus. 

Try Shopify for free! Sign up today and get a 14-day trial of Shopify, for free.

Interested in learning about our other theme services? Check out our other theme customization services here.