If you want to build a bespoke Shopify store that grabs people’s attention and converts them to sales, don’t cut corners when choosing a theme for your store. Instead, go for the theme that has all the features you’re looking for. So, is Focal Shopify theme the one you’ve been searching for then?
Well, that’s something we’ll let you decide. After testing the theme thoroughly, today, we will provide you with a detailed, unbiased Focal Shopify theme review in all key aspects, including design, features, speed, etc. Lets’ get started!
Contents
1. Focal Shopify Theme Review: At a glance
Before we dissect the Shopify Focal theme‘s aesthetics and key features, let’s have a quick look at some basic information about this premium theme choice.
Focal is a Shopify website template designed by Maestrooo– one of the most credible developers on the Shopify Theme Store, with a focus on building themes specifically for large-sized businesses.
Specifically, besides Focal, Maestrooo is also the creator of Impact, Prestige and Warehouse, which we have tested and reviewed in great detail as well:
As a typical theme under the Maestrooo ‘family’, Focal is among the top premium shopify themes with tons of sale-driven features and a visually appealing design. Nevertheless, Focal has its own unique selling points– a captivating product-grid layout and specialized editorial functionality.
Created by | Maestrooo |
Great for | Fashion, accessories, and jewelry with over 100 products that want to feature their products in lifestyle style. |
Price | $320 (one-time purchase) |
Unique features | ✨ Content-rich product pages ✨ Mega menu with inner images ✨ Suggestive search phrases ✨ Instagram-inspired features ✨ Currency switcher ✨ Trust bade sliderCart upsell |
Rating | 95% (286 reviews) |
Demo store |
2. Focal Shopify theme review: Features and functionality
So, is the Shopify Focal theme on par with its “siblings” or some popular premium themes like Ella or Enterprise? That’s what we’re going to dig down right now in this Focal Shopify theme review.
2.1. Design and layout options
As a typical premium theme, the Focal Shopify theme offers merchants four different presets, which they named after different gems– Carbon, Ivory, Quartz and Sapphire.
2.1.1. Carbon
Mood: Modern, minimalist | Recommended for: Electronics, gadgets, or accessories
First, we have Carbon– a preset of the Focal Shopify theme that presents a refreshingly clean and contemporary aesthetic. The preset cleverly combines a sense of simplicity and functionality, which would be perfect for stores selling modern gadgets or minimalist tech accessories.
2.1.2. Ivory
Mood: Vintage, dreamy | Recommended for: Fashion, home decor or custom gifts
Meanwhile, Ivory breathes a more feminine vibe to the Focal Shopify theme with its vintage color schemes and nostalgic typeface. For this reason, we would particularly recommend the Ivory preset for brands that sell clothing items, home decorations or custom gifts.
2.1.3. Quartz
Mood: Dark, sophisticated | Recommended for: Watches, jewelry or high tech
If your products shine bright like a diamond in darkness, the Quartz preset should be your go-to choice. Its dark green marble background paired with white text creates a high-contrast, visually striking effect that really puts your products front and center. On that note, we think this preset would best fit those positioning themselves in the luxury market.
2.1.4. Sapphire
Mood: Fresh, summery | Recommended for: Jewelries, beachwear, or custom crafts
If you sell jewelry pieces or beachwear clothes, Sapphire might be your best fit among all Focal’s four presets. The preset’s sleek, light typography and bluish color scheme are sure to add a fresh and relaxing vibe to your store.
2.2. Key features
Clearly, all Focal Shopify theme presets are all beautifully designed with UI-UX best practices in mind. But what about the features it offers? Let’s keep exploring in our Focal Shopify theme review.
2.2.1. Content-rich product page
If you want to build rich product detail pages, the Focal Shopify theme’s product page layout will be of great help. For instance, you can use the theme’s extra blocks to link to relevant collections, testimonials, or blogs to help customers know more about your offerings.
2.2.2. Mega menu
The next feature of the Focal Shopify theme we are impressed is the theme’s mega menu with in-banner support. As you can see from the screenshot below, the sleek menu allows merchants to organize and display their various product categories beautifully and neatly.
And if you want, you can feature your best-sellers, hot deals, or new arrivals prominently using this feature.
2.2.3. Enhanced search bar
If you want to boost your product discoverability, make sure that your site visitors can find their way to their desired items as soon as possible. And that is when the Focal Shopify theme’s suggestive search bar feature comes in handy.
As your shoppers start typing, Focal will automatically suggest relevant items.
2.2.4. Instagram-inspired features
What we like the most about the Focal Shopify theme is that the theme developer offers various Instagram-inspired features to mimic the engaging shopping features of the social platform.
- Product tagging in images: With this functionality, you can tag items directly on your lifestyle images, like taggable Instagram shopping posts. Thanks to this feature, your customers can easily visualize how your products would look like in a real-life setting and add to cart without reloading pages.
- Instagram feed: Want to boost your social proof and drive more followers to your Instagram account? Then you can leverage Focal’s Instagram feed to embed a stunning Instagram feed onto your website to beautifully showcase your products in action.
- Instagram-story-like banner: With this feature, as you view each image, its progress bar fills up. Once complete, it automatically moves to the next image in the sequence, like Instagram Stories. This creates an engaging, interactive way to showcase multiple products or promotions in an engaging format.
2.2.5. Currency switcher
Did you know that approximately 73% of customers said they prefer to buy a product or service from a website that displays information in their local language? This includes currency as well. Hence, if you’re looking to localize your store, Focal’s currency switcher would be of great help.
With the switcher, your customers can choose to shop in their preferred currency without doing all the maths (to exchange your currency into theirs). Subsequently, you’ll be more likely to drive sales from your global audience.
💡 Note: To enable customers to check out in their local language, make sure you set up and sync your currency settings with Shopify Markets.
2.2.6. Trust badge slider
Another functionality of the template that deserves to be mentioned in this Focal Shopify theme review is its trust badge slider. Normally, we notice trust badges from other Shopify themes are just mere icons.
However, with Focal, you can set up a trust badge slider. This means when your potential shoppers click on a trust badge, the theme will show a slider on the right corner to explain more depth of your trust badge.
For example, if a customer clicks on a “Secure Payment” badge, the slider might expand to show the various secure payment methods you accept, along with a brief explanation of your encryption practices. This interactive element allows you to improve your conversions by boosting trust among your shoppers.
2.2.7. Cart upsell
And last but not least, for merchants who love to run cross-sell campaigns, the Focal Shopify theme would be a life-saver.
Thanks to its cart upsell functionality, you can suggest to the visitors with the highest buying intentions relevant items that add more value to their carts.
In addition to that, the Focal Shopify theme also allows you to show a spending threshold bar, encouraging your customers to buy more to unlock more rewards.
2.3. Performance and speed
Isn’t it amazing how the Focal Shopify theme brings all the powerful features to your fingertips? But does the theme developer trade off functionality against page speed performance?
Sadly, yes. We did a random speed test using Google PageSpeed Insights on three stores using the Focal Shopify theme to check their speed performance. Here are the results:
On desktop devices, the stores scored around 70 to 80, which we believe to be quite average compared to the fastest Shopify themes like Debutify or Booster.
On mobile devices, all stores have lower speed scores than desktops. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as the speed performance is measured more strictly by Google PageSpeed Insights on mobile devices.
However, what’s really concerning is that all three assessed stores had page speed scores below 50, approximately around 30 to 40. Clearly, Focal theme developer should put more effort into optimizing their theme for page speed.
2.4. Pricing
The Focal Shopify theme costs you $320 per one-time purchase. This will give you access to:
- All four presets
- The theme’s feature set
- Pre-built blocks and sections
- Detailed documentation and tutorial on using the theme
- Periodic updates
- Support from the theme developer via email
The best part is that you can try customizing the theme with a free download and only pay when you decide to publish it.
2.5. User review and rating
As of the present, the Focal Shopify theme has received 286 reviews, with 95% of them being positive reviews. Most Focal theme users praised the template for its diverse features and how great the theme’s customer support team was.
Meanwhile, some users just don’t love the Focal Shopify theme that much and think there is still room for improvement. For instance, GlamAura said their setup for custom fields with the theme isn’t quite user-friendly.
And well, there are a few cases where some users reported bugs and technical glitches with the theme. Take Russel Watergarden & Koi, for instance, this user reported they encountered a bug when configuring their mega menu settings with the Focal Shopify theme.
2.6. Support and Documentation
Overall, Focal offer great support and have a solid theme documentation. If you are somewhat tech-savvy or you are experienced with setting up Shopify store from scratch, the theme documenation will provide everything you need: specific step-by-step guide, tips and recommendations.
If you are facing problems during setup or bugs when using the theme, contact them through their form would be the quickest way. We tried this way and the response was quick & helpful.
We have also checked the update history and conclude that Focal development team keep the theme fresh! New updates and bug fixed patches are rolled out regularly to ensure the theme seamless performance.
2.7. Pros and cons
Pros
Cons
3. Shopify brands using Focal theme
If you want to settle down with the Focal, let’s take a look at some of the best Focal Shopify theme examples for your inspiration. These examples are real life case studies that you can learn, from the way they setup the store to additional marketing and sales strategies.
3.1. Cure Hydration
CURE Hydration is an eCommerce store specializing in electrolyte drink mixes and hydration products. They offer a range of flavors and formulations designed to provide optimal hydration for various needs.
The store’s best use of Focal: Product tagging in image
The Focal theme’s product tagging feature is prominently utilized on CURE Hydration’s website. This feature allows customers to interact with lifestyle images by clicking on tagged products within the images, adding to carts, and completing checkout without having to go to product pages.
3.2. MOGLI & MARTINI
Up next, we have Mogli & Martini, a top-tier Shopify store using Focal theme for their high-quality cashmere clothing and accessories. The store emphasizes on timeless, elegant designs and sustainable, fair production practices in Nepal.
The store’s best use of Focal: Content-rich product page
Mogli & Martini leverages the Focal theme’s capability to create detailed, content-rich product pages. Their product page not only includes ordinary fields like product titles, and descriptions like other stores but also their unique selling points under sleek sections.
3.3. Lostine
Lostine is a Shopify store that specializes in American-made modern lighting, homewares, and a curated selection of rare vintage finds. Founded by a Philadelphia-based design duo, the brand focuses on unique, high-quality home decor items.
The store’s best use of Focal: Instagram feed
Lostine effectively utilizes the Focal theme’s Instagram integration feature. By embedding its Instagram feed on the website, Lostine can showcase its products in real-world settings and cleverly drive traffic to its Instagram account.
4. Focal Shopify Theme Review: Final verdict
Here comes the million-dollar question: “Is the Focal Shopify theme worth it?” Well, it depends. From our experience, here are the types of businesses should and should not use Focal.
✅ Brands that should use the Shopify theme Focal:
- Luxury and premium brands
- Content-rich businesses (e.g., blogs, magazines)
- High-volume stores
- Fashion and lifestyle brands
- Technology and electronics retailers
- Visual storytelling-focused businesses
❌ Brands that might not benefit from the Focal Shopify theme:
- Budget-conscious small businesses (due to high price point)
- Stores with minimal product catalogs
- Businesses requiring highly specialized features not included in Focal
- Stores prioritizing simplicity over extensive customization options
📚 Focal is the best Shopify themes for several purposes/niches:
• Best Shopify blog themes
• Best Shopify themes for baby store
• Best Shopify themes for marketplace
• Best Shopify themes for streetwear
5. Wrapping up
All in all, there are reasons as to why the Focal Shopify theme is among the most popular themes on the Shopify Theme Store. Despite its premium price tag, Focal offers various features to help merchants set up a stunning and functional web store.
eComStart team hopes that after reading this review, you can now decide whether to choose Focal for your online storefront or not. Don’t forget to check out eComStart.io to get all the insider tips and tricks for starting and optimizing your eCommerce store.
6. Frequently asked questions
