Today, we are going to examine the District Shopify theme – a mid-priced but top-rated premium Shopify theme. Yup, with 100% positive reviews and a price of $220, it seems that the District theme has such a good price-performance ratio. But does it actually, though?
That’s the reason why we’ve decided to test all the ins and outs of District to give you the most unbiased review of this popular theme choice, including its:
- Design and layout
- Highlight features
- Page speed performance
- Pricing
- Pros and cons
Let’s dive in!
Contents
1. District Shopify theme overview
District Shopify theme is a premium theme developed by Style Hatch for stores that love to showcase their products and collections in a high-converting way.
Unlike some premium Shopify themes that only have the look, we believe District’s beauty comes from within. The theme has a strong focus on eCommerce features, page speed performance, and user experience in mind instead of unnecessary design elements for the sake of it. This is why we consider District one of the top Shopify themes for any niche!
So if you are looking for a product-oriented theme that hits all the right notes without breaking the bank, District should be a no-brainer solution.
Created by | High-resolution galleries, Bright designs, and Cross-selling |
Great for | 👍 Stores that are looking for a mid-priced premium Shopify theme 👍 Brands that want a minimal storefront that puts your products front and center 👍 Businesses that prioritize a theme that performs well in terms of page speed performance |
Price | $220 per one-time purchase |
Unique features | ✨ Color swatch ✨ Smart search ✨ Advanced filter ✨ Instagram feed ✨ Lookbook ✨ Multi-layout collection grid ✨ Beautiful mega menu ✨ Breadcrumb ✨ Sticky announcement bar ✨ Sale badge ✨ Currency switcher |
Rating | 100% positive (694 reviews) |
Demo store |
2. District Shopify theme review: Features and functionality
2.1. Design and layout options
The District Shopify theme has three presets– District, Energy, and Coast, which all offer you the same level of:
- Core features
- Pre-built blocks and sections
- Customization
- Speed performance
Nevertheless, because each preset comes with different layout arrangements, color palettes, typefaces, etc., they will create a slightly different look and feel to your store.
2.1.1. District
Mood: Minimal, elegant | Recommended niche: Fashion, cosmetics, jewelry
First, we have District– the default preset of the District Shopify theme. With this preset, District offers you a minimal, spacious layout that lets your products be the stars. If you believe simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, the District preset would be a perfect choice.
2.1.2. Energy
Mood: Energetic, warm, adventurous | Recommended niche: Sportswear, streetwear, gym supplies, electronic
Up next, we have Energy, a preset that comes with a warmer color palette and more animation effects. As the preset that lives up to its name, Energy would give your audience an impression of a brand that is bold, active, and always on the move. Hence, this preset would best fit stores selling activewear, streetwear, and whatnot.
2.1.3. Coast
Mood: Beachy, relaxing | Recommended niche: Home decor, accessories, gifts
And for those of you who want to pursue a calming, nature-inspired brand image, Coast is the preset you’re looking for. With a pastel color palette and spacious lifestyle image grids, this District’s preset should be able to put home decor and accessory items in their best light.
2.2. Key features
Clearly, the three District Shopify theme presets are all developed on a minimal, spacious layout with user experience in mind. So what about the theme’s functionalities? On that note, let’s keep exploring the District in terms of highlight features.
After experimenting with all the theme presets, here is a list of the District’s features we are most impressed by:
2.2.1. Product discovery
As a premium theme that has a heavy focus on products, we believe District is packed with all the features that will help maximize your product visibility.
- Color swatch
If your store’s items come in different colors, sizes, materials, etc. District’s variation swatch function would be useful. With this feature, you can add a variant swatch bar right under your product images, allowing your customers to quickly swatch their preferred variation.
The great thing is that you can add this virtual swatch not only on your product pages but also on any page, like the homepage, collection pages, etc.
- Smart search
Don’t require your site visitors to type in a grammar-free, perfect search query on the search bar to find their way to their desired items. That takes time and might sometimes show a 0 result message, which will likely make your potential customers drop off.
That’s why District’s powerful search bar is another cool function we’d love to discuss. With the theme’s smart search, the search bar will auto-recommend relevant suggestions, products, and pages as a visitor types in real-time. By simplifying your customer buying journey, you’d definitely have more chances to close the deal.
- Advanced filter
The advanced filter is another powerful tool that the District Shopify theme offers. With this functionality, your site visitors can quickly narrow down their search based on product tags, types, vendors, or any other relevant attributes specific to your store.
2.2.2. Multimedia rich sections
Besides the product-oriented features, the District Shopify theme is also well-packed with various multimedia-rich sections and blocks.
- Instagram feed
If you want to enhance trust among your shoppers so that they can make more confident purchases, try using District’s Instagram feed to embed an Instagram image gallery onto your Shopify store. This will not only add more trust signals to your store but also potentially drive more followers to your Instagram account and showcase your products in action.
- Lookbook
Lookbook is another multimedia-rich feature that comes natively with the District Shopify theme. With this functionality, you can create a magazine-like experience for your shoppers and showcase your products in curated collections.
If you sell clothing items, the lookbook of the District would be an awesome feature since you can use it to suggest your customers mix and match ideas or feature different lookbooks for different occasions.
- Multi-layout collection grid
If you have tons of collections like best-sellers, new arrivals, winter collections, autumn collections, or everything in between, the District’s collection sections would be of great help. With the theme’s multiple collection grid layout, you can feature your product categories neatly and elegantly.
2.2.3. Seamless navigation
Did you know that 94% of people claimed that navigation is one of the most important features of a website? Luckily, with the Shopify District theme, you can sleep tight at night knowing your site visitors can get around your store without any difficulty.
- Beautiful, sticky mega menu
With District, you can easily add images to your mega menu to help your potential shoppers have a more intuitive glance at what kind of products you’re selling.
Plus, to save your customers from scrolling up and down, you can set the menu to be sticky. This means the menu will always remain visible on the top of your customers’ screens, allowing them to explore your product offerings easily.
- Breadcrumb
Does your Shopify store have a complicated structure with lots of hierarchy? If so, you would be happy to know that the District Shopify theme supports adding breadcrumbs– a pro tip that is sure to enhance your store’s navigation.
The District theme’s breadcrumb feature will help your visitors know their current position and go back to any higher-level pages easily.
2.2.4. Conversion features
And last but not least, let’s see what kinds of conversion features the theme offers in this District theme Shopify review.
- Sticky announcement bar
Like the sticky mega menu we’ve just discussed, the District’s sticky announcement bar will allow you to display your store promotions at the top of your website. As users scroll, the bar will remain visible to ensure that your promotions are not overlooked.
- Sale badge
Thanks to the District’s clean, modern sale badges, it’s effortless to draw your customers’ attention to discounted items and drive more sales.
- Currency switcher
When your store displays prices in a currency your visitors are not familiar with, they will need to use external tools like Google to convert prices to their local currency. This adds an extra step to their buying journey, which surely leads to a drop in your store conversion.
Fortunately, with District, you can feature a currency switcher on top of your mega menu, allowing your customers to browse your products and check out in their selected currency.
Note: To accept payments in another currency at the checkout page, be well-noted that you need to enable Shopify Markets.
2.3. Performance and speed
With all the out-of-the-box functions we’ve just walked you through above, District is clearly a feature-rich Shopify theme. And, surprisingly, it did an amazing job on page speed as well.
We have used the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to check how the District Shopify theme performs. And as of the time being, here are the page speed performance results for all the District’s presets:
| District’s preset | Score on desktop | Score on mobile |
|---|---|---|
| District | 98 | 63 |
| Energy | 80 | 59 |
| Coast | 96 | 62 |
The District and Coast preset both scored over 95 on desktop and over 60 on mobile. This is actually an impressive result because the District’s performance is even better on some $350 to $400 premium themes we’ve tested before.
However, it seems that the Energy preset isn’t as optimized for speed as its siblings when this preset only scored 80 on desktop and 59 on mobile. Without this discrepancy, the District theme’s speed performance is awesome, given its price.
2.4. Pricing
The District Shopify theme costs $220 per one-time purchase, which will grant you access to:
- All the theme presets: District, Energy, and Coast.
- Ready-made blocks and sections
- Detailed documentation and self-help tutorials
- Free periodic updates from the theme developer
- Support via email with the theme’s settings, bugs, customization, etc.
And similar to any theme on the Shopify Theme Store, you can download the District Shopify theme to your online store, customize it to your liking, and only pay when you publish it.
2.5. User review and rating
As of the present, the District theme has received 694 reviews, and 100% of them are positive. This makes District Shopify theme one of the highest-rated templates on the Shopify Theme Store.
From our research, most of the District theme users can’t get enough of the theme developer’s passionate support.
Besides compliments on the theme developer’s support, some users expressed their satisfaction with the theme’s aesthetics and performance. For instance, the store owner of Karmar Collars loves District for its responsiveness and seamless performance.
2.6. Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
3. Shopify brands using District theme
Now, let’s take a look at some District Shopify theme examples to see how real brands out there are using the theme on their visual storefront.
| No | Store | Product |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | King Ice | Urban-inspired jewelry pieces |
| 2 | TruBeef Organic | Organic beef |
| 3 | Territory Run Co. | Running gears for men and women |
3.1. King Ice
King Ice is an online jewelry retailer specializing in hip-hop and pop culture-inspired items. The store offers a wide range of beautiful and unique jewelry pieces, including necklaces, chains, bracelets, earrings, etc.
The store’s best use of District: Collection grids
Do you see how stunningly the store featured their collections using District’s collection grid? Honestly, who wouldn’t want to click on those beautiful collections and explore the jewelry pieces King Ice has to offer?
3.2. TruBeef Organic
True Organic Beef is a Canada-based online butcher specializing in 100% organic, grass-fed, and grass-finished beef and Dorper lamb. The company offers a variety of products, including steaks, ground beef, organ meats, and curated boxes that come from regenerative organic family farms in Australia.
The store’s best use of District: Sale badges
As a prime Shopify store using District theme, TruBeef Organic cleverly uses the theme’s built-in sale badge to draw customers’ attention to their discounted beef products.
3.3. Territory Run Co.
Territory Run Co. is an independent trail running apparel brand based in Portland, Oregon. Founded by Brett Farrell, the brand offers premium gear like performance tees, shorts, caps, accessories, etc.
The store’s best use of District: Currency switcher
Besides the iconic spacious, minimal layout of District, Territory Run Co’ also makes the best use of the theme’s currency switcher to localize their store for international shoppers.
4. Is District Shopify theme worth it? Final verdict!
It’s time to revisit the question we put out at the beginning of this blog: “Is the District Shopify theme worth it?”
Well, it depends. There are some businesses that are more suitable for District theme than the others. To recap:
Use District Shopify theme if you
- 👍 Want a minimal theme with great product discovery features
- 👍 Need a theme with great loading speed
- 👍 Have a large product catalog
Don’t use District Shopify theme if you
- 👎 Are pursuing the maximalism style for your storefront
- 👎 Have a small catalog Are on a tight budget
5. Wrapping up
With various eCommerce-focused functionalities, seamless navigation, and great page speed performance at $220, the District Shopify theme actually provides merchants with great value for money.
eComStart team really hopes that this detailed theme review can help you decide whether District is worth investing in or not. Remember to check out eComStart.io for all the latest eCommerce tips and tricks for launching and scaling your online shop like a well-oiled machine.
6. Frequently asked questions
