If you are looking for a Shopify theme but are on a budget, Taste Shopify theme will make the optimal solution regarding price/performance. Though Taste is free, the theme doesn’t fall short in terms of design or eCommerce features.
After testing all the ins and outs of Taste, we’ve decided to wrap up all the aspects of the Taste Shopify theme– from layout and customization options to eCommerce features, mobile friendliness, and more!
Contents
1. Overview Taste Shopify theme
👉 Install Taste or See how Taste works in action.
1.1. Taste Shopify theme: A general look
Taste is published by Shopify itself and is one of the 12 free Shopify themes listed on the Shopify Theme Store. According to BuiltWith, Taste is currently powering over 23,000 stores on the platform.
The theme is adored by many Shopify merchants for its ease of use, pairing with spacious layouts and sufficient eCommerce features like a mega menu, sticky header, etc.
1.2. Pricing
Unlike premium themes on the Shopify Theme Store which can cost you somewhere between $150 to $380, Taste is 100% free. And the best part is that Taste still gives you a modern, spacious theme packed with essential sales and marketing features.
Not to mention that the theme is also pretty optimized for page speed and mobile devices. That’s why when evaluating its worth against the price, we think Taste stands out as an exceptional value.
Compared to other Shopify themes, Taste may not offer as many customization options or out-of-the-box features. However, given that it’s free and comes with fully customizable designs and various functionalities you need to launch a functional store, we believe Taste is worth it.
1.3. For which businesses is the Taste Shopify theme best used?
Though you can try Taste if you want, Taste is more suitable for certain types of businesses. Particularly, Taste Shopify theme would be a brilliant choice for small to medium-sized stores, especially those in the F&B sector.
How so? Well, we believe that the theme’s imagery-oriented and simple navigation is ideal for Shopify stores that want to showcase their food and beverage products in the best light possible.
In addition, Taste also offers fantastic editorial features, allowing you to bind your offerings with a convincing brand story. For instance, you could emphasize your organic quality, environmentally-friendly practices, and more.
1.4. What people say about Taste Shopify Theme
As of writing this article, Taste Shopify Theme has a moderate satisfaction rate of 60% from 5 reviews. Though the theme is applauded for its simple and spacious designs, some of the theme users aren’t that satisfied.
Let’s hear what they actually have to say!
😁 AERA: I am totally satisfied with this theme. Well matched with black-white coloring, the anonymous-pro font looks artistic and mobile responsive. I am using it at my website https://areaberlin.com, check and see the results.
😐 Bath Culture House Ltd: Easy to use, lots of options, nice layouts. I find it frustrating, though, that there is no ‘delivery instructions’ box that I can enable in the checkout section. It’s not built into the theme. This is extremely important to us – we send perishable food items out and need to make it easy for customers to leave notes re: safe place for leaving packages.
😞 EliteGadgets: Hi… I was sure I knew something about how to create a website … at least the basics. But I can not do 2 simple modifications: 1. can not add payment with credit cards (it is active in my payment options) – I just see PayPal and can not add another payment option 2. When I add a new section – I can not change the order between them – it is very frustrating
1.5. Pros & Cons – Evaluate from our real experience
Like a typical free Shopify theme, it is clear that Taste’s biggest advantage is its affordability. Instead of investing hundreds of bucks for a premium Shopify theme that you might not need yet, an elegant theme like Taste would be a wiser choice.
Here are all the possible pros and cons of Taste Shopify theme we have wrapped up for you:
| Pros | Cons |
| + If you’re starting a business or operating with a tight budget, Taste’s zero price tag is a major advantage. + Taste’s modern design is appealing to various industries. + Taste theme is well-responsiveTaste’s emphasis on high-quality imagery is a strong plus + Taste’s layout supports effective communication of your brand values and story. | – Be mindful that Taste might offer fewer customization options than premium themes. – The theme fall short in advanced features like Ajax navigation, upselling or cross-selling. – As your business grows, Taste might not scale as well with your expanding needs, as the theme better fits stores with small catalogs. |
2. Taste Shopify theme review – highlighted features
Now that you have a better grasp of Taste theme Shopify, and its pros & cons, let us walk you through all 9 aspects of the Taste Shopify theme.
2.1. Design and layout
Taste Shopify Theme offers a spacious and modern design that can effectively catch a buyer’s eye. It features bold headlines, thin strokes, and a high-contrast color palette set against an understated background. This design approach is particularly beneficial for specialty products and brands with bold branding.
The theme supports larger product cards and specialty product highlights, which aids in showcasing product quality and helps buyers make informed decisions. Additionally, its flexible design and customization settings allow you to adjust the layout and styling to match your brand vision.
Also, it’s noteworthy that Taste is optimized for visual storytelling, with longer-form text sections to support brand narratives and editorial content.
2.2. Customization options
Given that Taste is free, we are impressed by how customizable the theme can be. Here is a list of things that the Shopify Taste theme allows you to customize:
- Color schemes and animations: Personalize your store with multiple color schemes and choose from a variety of animations like fade-ins or slide-ins to enhance visual appeal.
- Product display: Customize product card shapes and styles, and support high-resolution images and videos for showcasing product details and quality.
- Content layout: Modify the overall layout, add or remove sections and blocks, and adjust styles to align with your brand’s aesthetics.
- Marketing tools: Create engaging promotion banners and set up email signup options for effective marketing.
2.3. Ease of use
Similar to any other theme listed on the Shopify Theme Store, it’s of no surprise to us that the theme is quite easy to use.
As a theme that Shopify staff developed themselves, Taste integrates seamlessly with Shopify’s infrastructure. The theme comes with an intuitive tree structure of a typical OS 2.0 theme: a page consists of multiple sections, and one section consists of multiple blocks.
The awesome part is that you can leverage Shopify’s theme editor to drag and drop any section or block on any page you wish.
For instance, you can drag and drop a product review section below the Buy Now button on product pages or a testimonial section at the bottom of the homepage, etc.
2.4. eCommerce features
An easy-to-use theme with stunning designs and layouts will allow you to customize your Shopify store without the hassles. But at the end of the day, it’s eCommerce features that help you close a deal.
And for that, let’s see all the highlighted eCommerce features of Taste for your better reference.
2.4.1. Mega menu
From our observation, Taste Shopify theme’s mega menu is sleek and can be a little too basic if you want to feature promotional banners or multimedia content on your menu.
However, if you are looking for a minimalist mega menu that adapts well to multiple devices, Taste’s mega menu still does an excellent job.
2.4.2. Cart confirmation pop-up
Up next, Taste Shopify theme has the so-called “cart confirmation pop-up”, which we found quite optimized for both conversions and page speed.
With Taste, when a customer adds an item to a cart, there will be a cart confirmation pop-up appearing on the screen, which can be reassuring and encourage them to continue shopping.
In terms of page speed, showing a cart pop-up benefits page speed as well because it only loads parts of the page, reducing the load on your server compared to full-page reloads.
2.4.3. Sort and filter
If you have hundreds of product lines, and each comes with different pricing, you will benefit from Taste’s sorting and filtering features.
From our testing, Taste Shopify theme has sufficient sort and filter features. With Taste, your customers can filter products by their stock status, price range and sort them by order numbers, date added, etc.
However, if you have a more sophisticated product portfolio, Taste’s basic sort and filter features can be quite limited.
2.4.4. Product recommendations
Like most Shopify themes, Taste has a product recommendation section at the bottom of each product detail page. This enables you to give your customers relevant suggestions, thereby improving your average order value.
2.4.5. A sleek FAQ section
If your customers have any questions or concerns that haven’t been answered yet, they are more likely to drop off instead of making it to the thank-you page.
And this is what makes us love Taste– the theme comes with an FAQ section on product detail pages, empowering you to answer your customers commonly asked questions. When your customers make more confident purchases, you’ll see magic in your conversion rate.
💡 The five eCommerce features listed above are just the highlighted ones. Check out the Taste’s feature tab on the theme listing page in case you want to see the theme’s full feature list.
2.5. Compatibility
As we mentioned repeatedly throughout the blog, Taste is developed by Shopify themselves. Well, so, of course, it’s compatible with the Shopify dashboard and infrastructure. For instance, you can feature a care guide or any extra information on your store by configuring Shopify metafields.
Regarding compatibility with third-party apps, we think it’s great as well. We tested the theme with some popular apps like Smile.io (a loyalty app), Ali Reviews (a product review app), or page builders like GemPages and PageFly, and everything works according to what they are supposed to.
2.6. Performance and speed
With Google confirming that page speed is a crucial ranking factor, make sure that the theme you choose is optimized for page speed.
Luckily, Taste’s minimalist style and minified theme code make it loads impressively fast. However, there are tons of things that can mess with your page speed.
So, for Taste to maintain its loading speed, you need to adhere to page speed best practices such as selecting high-quality apps, uploading well-compressed images, etc.
2.7. Mobile responsiveness
After testing Taste on all possible devices– laptops, mobile phones (both iOS and Android), and tablets, we can confirm that the theme adapts smoothly to various screen sizes.
To be more specific, Taste’s layout, images, text, etc., are all appropriately scaled for optimal viewing and interaction from your customers.
2.8. Support
Finally, regarding the support for the Taste theme, Shopify provides competent and helpful assistance. The support team is knowledgeable about the platform and offers valuable insights and solutions.
From our research, while there are usually some delays, especially for more complex queries, the quality of the support from Shopify Taste developers is consistently reliable.
3. Top 5 stores using Taste Shopify theme
Though we have listed all the Taste’s highlights above, we think it will be better if you can see Shopify Taste theme example in “real-life settings”. Therefore, our team has compiled a list of stores that use Taste for you to see how the theme really looks and works in action.
| No | Store | Niche |
| 1 | Aarde Skincare | Health and beauty |
| 2 | ABE Japanese Restaurant | Food and beverage |
| 3 | Magic Flight | Hand-crafted wood |
| 4 | Aber Falls Distillery | Alcohol products |
| 5 | ABDL Diapers | Baby products |
3.1. Aarde Skincare
At Aarde Skin, you will notice that the Taste theme enhances the browsing experience with its focus on visual appeal and easy navigation, allowing its customers to find what they need in an aesthetically pleasing environment effortlessly.
3.2. ABE Japanese Restaurant
For those of you interested in food and beverage, Abe Food showcases the Taste theme’s intuitive layout and responsive design. This enables them to provide their customers with a seamless shopping experience on any device, which is a key factor for customers making on-the-go purchases in the F&B industry.
3.3. Magic Flight
At Magic Flight, the Taste theme is skillfully used to reflect the brand’s focus on craftsmanship. The site’s design, which is both beautiful and detailed, showcases the quality of their hand-crafted wood products, providing an immersive experience without compromising on site performance.
3.4. Aber Falls Distillery
Aber Falls Distillery illustrates how the Taste theme can be adapted for sophisticated and premium products like alcohol. The layout is elegant, and the use of rich imagery effectively enhances customer engagement, which is crucial for brands in the alcohol industry that focus on presentation and branding.
3.5. ABDL Diapers
The ABDL Diapers Store is a perfect example for those interested in baby products. The Taste theme’s clear categorization and mobile responsiveness make shopping easy and efficient, which is particularly important for parents seeking convenience and speed.
4. Our verdict
All in all, Taste Shopify theme is currently one of the best free themes on the market at the moment. Although you won’t have cutting-edge features or bespoke customization options as premier themes, Taste has more than enough for you to launch an e-shop that functions properly.
That’s it! eComStart hopes after reading our review, you can make a more educated decision as to whether to choose Taste for your business or not.
By the way, remember to visit the topic of Shopify themes and eComStart.io for battle-tested tips and tricks to start a business without the hassle.
5. FAQs
