Introducing Aurora: New Shopify Theme for Merchants Seeking Elegance and Versatility

While each style has a distinct look and feel, they both offer the same set of features designed for visual storytelling and conversion optimization. Additionally, both styles are highly customizable, so if you have some experience customizing Shopify themes, you can adjust Aurora to fit your needs.

We'll take a closer look at some of the key features in the next section.

Aurora features

When we set out to design Aurora, our main objective was to create a high-converting theme.

We wanted Aurora to provide all the necessary sales-driving features right out of the box, so you don’t have to install a lot of additional 3^rd-party apps.

From a design perspective, we focused on achieving the level of versatility that enables you to create an online store that perfectly aligns with your branding and vision. Each block and section comes with deeply customizable settings and layouts to make your store look like no other.

Keep reading to get a better picture or jump to the section that interests you the most:

• Marketing features
• Sales-driving features
• Product discovery features
• Merchandise features

Top 3 marketing features

We’ll start our roundup with three features that will help you engage visitors from their first moment in your store.

In-menu promos

Unlike most themes, Aurora provides a more versatile approach to designing the mega menu. Specifically, it allows you to use three different block types for creating beautiful in-menu promos:

• clickable images and videos,
• featured collection,
• collections list.

This is what it looks like in the Sheer style:

and this is what in-menu promos look like in the Pure style:

Collage

Collages are a big part of brand storytelling, and Aurora makes it easy to create any collage you can think of using 5 adjustable block types:

• clickable image or video,
• collection card,
• product card,
• customer testimonial,
• or rich text block.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is an example of a collage using three different block types:

Gallery

Aurora's stylized Gallery is designed to help you create custom galleries and lookbooks. For example, you can use it to showcase your top user-generated content from social media platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok. In this case, Gallery can also serve as social proof and encourage visitors to connect with your brand.

Top 3 sales-driving features

The following features are designed to gently nudge your customers when they are already at the decision-making stage and contemplating the purchase.

Inventory status

Inventory status is a powerful tool in scarcity marketing. You can choose to display the number of items left in stock right on the product pages or encourage shoppers to act faster if a product running low.

Quick view & Quick buy

Nothing ruins a shopping experience like overwhelm and analysis paralysis. The Quick view and Quick buy features are designed to prevent that.

The former allows customers to view any product from the collection without leaving the current page, while the latter allows customers to buy the product quickly by taking them directly to the cart.

Free shipping bar (with a countdown)

If you want to incentivize customers to add more items to their cart and reach the minimum order value, the free shipping countdown does just that. It allows shoppers to easily track how much they have left to spend to qualify for free shipping, increases your average order value, and improves the overall shopping experience.

Top 3 product discovery features

Now, let's take a look at the features that can improve your customers' browsing experience and help them find what they need more easily.

Search recommendations

The first feature in this group is the search recommendations engine. While you could let customers search for products on their own, you can also create search recommendations to inspire and guide them towards the most relevant and attention-worthy categories.

Related products

Product recommendations are not new, but Aurora makes them more customizable. First, you don't have to rely on automatically generated recommendations; you can manually select and recommend specific products to your customers. Second, you can recommend entire product collections in addition to individual products, whenever it makes sense.

Smart filters

Proper search is impossible without detailed product filters, and Aurora delivers in this aspect. Shoppers can filter products by color, size, brand, availability, and other parameters you can set up for your store. This feature ensures that your customers can quickly and easily find the products they are looking for.

Top 3 merchandise features

The last section of our roundup brings three features to showcase your merchandise and drive attention to your most important products.

Images with text

Images with text is a section that helps you feature a selected set of products with a combination of a stylized collage and text. Use it as an element of your brand storytelling or as an attention-grabber for an ongoing deal.

Before and after

The Before and after feature allows visitors to slide between two images to see the transformation and the difference your product can make. Use it to show your product’s benefits in a clear and compelling way and convince customers to make a purchase.

Split image banners for slideshows

Just like collages, slideshows are highly customizable in Aurora. You can use a variety of slides, including single-image or video banners paired with text, as well as split banners with up to two images and text, as illustrated below. Such slideshows can make a great alternative to a hero image and help you create a cohesive welcome for your visitors.

Aurora roadmap

If you’re curious about what’s next for Aurora, some exciting updates are already in the works.

First, we’re currently working on a third style, so you’ll have more store looks to choose from.

Second, we’re adding several sales-boosting blocks and sections:

• Lookbooks – a gallery containing lifestyle photos and the products featured on them
• Hotspots – clickable pins on an image linking to a featured product or displaying additional information
• In-cart recommendations – order bumps displayed in the shopping cart
• Complementary products – cross-sells displayed on the product page
• Popups – promo popups, email signup forms, age verification overlays, cookie banners

To make sure you don’t miss an update, we recommend joining the #announcements channel in our Slack community.

See Aurora in action

To see Aurora in action, go ahead and find it in the Shopify Theme store. You can explore it through the demo store or try the theme on your own website. Aurora offers an unlimited free trial, so you only need to pay if you decide to publish it.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at help@getsitecontrol.com, message us via live chat or write on our Slack channel.

We can’t wait to hear what you think about Aurora. It’s our very first Shopify theme, and your feedback means the world to us.