Free vs. Premium Shopify Themes - What's the difference, and what should I choose?

Free or a Premium Shopify Theme?! We at KondaSoft reply to this question almost daily. It is one of the most common among our customers, and it causes a great deal of confusion. 

We will explain the main difference between both options and, most importantly, list why you should choose one.

First, there are no strict decisions here. In the end, you will have to make the call. We believe that your vision of what you are trying to accomplish with your e-commerce venture is far more important than all the listed reasons combined.

So, to keep it short, the most important difference, which we also use as our foundation when we develop our Free and Premium Shopify Themes, is the "Advanced Features."

Regarding Free Shopify Themes

Ok, let us explain the above statement better. For our Free Shopify Themes, even though the code quality is the same high quality as our Premium Shopify Themes, the number of advanced features is minimal. What you will get with a Free Shopify Theme is a solid base from which you can sell your products. That's it. That is fine if you are just getting started and you are not very knowledgeable in the e-commerce field or you are not sure and want to see if this is the right venture for you. When you are just getting started, your focus should be to learn more regarding e-commerce, to market your store, and getting quality traffic to it.

Enter Premium Shopify Themes

Before we explain to you the benefits of a Premium Theme, let us first list you some of the advanced features that our latest Premium Shopify, KS BoldShop offers:

• Announcement bar with countdown
• Currency Converter with IP detection
• Megamenu
• 'Quick view' mode
• Brands Slider
• Instagram latest posts
• Live search
• Testimonials section
• Powerful image gallery
• Advanced animations on scroll
• Collection filter 
• Sort by-products via Ajax.
• Infinite scroll (no pagination)
• Sticky Add to Cart
• Size Guides
• Product Bundles
• Recently Viewed Products
• Cart Goals
• Wishlist feature
• Sticky Newsletter
• Cookie consent bar

As you can see, the list of advanced features that are not found on our Free Shopify Themes is quite lengthy. Most advanced features are developed to increase your shop conversion rates directly and indirectly. allow

For example, features like Product Bundles, which allow you to sell multiple products at once, something like "Frequently Bought Together," can directly increase your shop's average order value (AOV), as your customer is "pushed" to buy a group of products at once with a small discount rather than just one.
Also, another interesting advanced feature is the Cart Goal, a.k.a cart threshold, which can also "trigger" your customers to buy more (to reach a specific amount in the cart), and they will get something in return when they reach this goal, e.g Free Shipping or a discount.

A feature that indirectly can help your store convert more is, for example, the Sticky Newsletter feature, which, as the name suggests, shows a sticky newsletter box when your customers scroll to a particular position. It is important to note that this feature, contrary to similar options found on other themes, will not disturb your customer browsing experience. In other words, the customer can continue shopping rather than be forced to deal with the Newsletter pop-up. So, the Sticky Newsletter feature can help you get more subscribers and indirectly help your store convert more, as you may send them promotional offers through your newsletters.

Summary

As we have stated above, it is your call to make. Even if you are just getting started, your ambitions and vision may be high, and you know very well what you are doing. If this is your case, certainly go with a Premium Shopify Theme.
On the other hand, there might be some instances in which you are satisfied with your Free Theme. It simply does the job, and you are okay with it, which is another good point as well. 

To close, we suggest you first try a Free Shopify Theme, and if you feel that your store has the potential to reach more, certainly go for a Premium Shopify Theme.