Pixel Union’s Empire Shopify Theme Review (Best For Huge eCom Stores)

Empire by pixel union is one of the best Amazon style Shopify themes that are suitable for large catalogs and high volume stores. If you've got lots of products or sku's that you want to sell, then looking for a theme can be accommodate that can be a difficult process.

Today we'll be looking at my empire Shopify theme review. 

Lots of themes these days are designed for one product stores or multiple product stores.

However, there are very few that target large volume stores. Fortunately, empire by pixel union is the theme that you should consider if that's what you're looking for.

empire shopify theme review

It's at the top end of most people's budget at $180 but there are over 100 positive reviews on the official website and countless more positive reviews all over the internet.

Today I'll be going through the empire theme, what you get and why I specifically like this theme. I'll ultimately show you why I think you should purchase it as well.

Empire Shopify Theme Review

Some of the main standout features in the empire theme include the ability to use empires, advanced live search facility, which means as soon as you type content into the search bar, it will pre-populate and show products and store pages.

This is handy, so your users do not need to know specifically what they are looking for and can simply. Type of few words or characters, and they will be presented with some options.

Another standout feature in this theme is the quick buy option, which allows customers to quickly and easily add items to their cart without ever leaving the collections page.

A lot of people are put off by this feature and you can enable or disable it depending on your personal preferences. Additionally, to that, there was advanced product filtering on the collections pages, which allows your customers to filter products by type and sort by best sellers.

When you're running a high volume store, lots of customers want to search by the cheapest item. Especially if you're selling clothing products to find out which items may be on sale. For example.

Additionally to this, the main feature of pixel union's Shopify theme called empire is that it's optimized for large catalogs. Whether you're selling a hundred or a thousand products, this theme can handle it.

If you're trying to create a store similar to Walmart where you are listing thousands and thousands of products, then the empire theme is definitely optimized to cater for that large catalog.

Your users can show 234, 36 or 48 products per page and view as a list or image. You can set the default too. 

On that, we'll be looking at individual aspects of this theme. Now the theme comes in three different colors. With the empire graphic red, the empire supply which is in green, and the empire industrial which is in Blue.

All the themes are completely customizable. However, a lot of people are using the empire industrial theme for electronics stores, and if you have a look at the demonstration of this.

You can see there are a lot of different graphic boxes and the ability to add popular brands.

I'm going to be looking at the default graphic theme, which is the Amazon style Shopify theme.

Empire Shopify Theme Homepage 

The homepage has a large logo space across the top where you can upload your own customized logo. To the right of this is the large search box, which as I mentioned before, is automatic.

So it will search based on your customers. Characters or any other search criteria to the right of that, you can add a custom message such as the free shipping details.

empire shopify theme review

You can add whatever you want here, and you can also customize the icon. To the right of that is the cart, which at the moment, if you don't have anything in the cart, just shows an icon which you can click on.

Again, you can customize this icon entirely. Beneath that, you have the main menu bar, which again, you can add as much or as little as you want to. Empire also offers a currency switcher, which you can see on the right hand side of this menu option and allows users to select from seven different currencies around the world.

Beneath that, you've got lots of different images. That car light, two different collections. Now if you've got a tool such as Canva, then you can quickly create your own graphics for your eCommerce store, and then you can adjust the text and the buttons to suit your individual requirements. I think the banners and the graphics look incredible in this theme.

Beneath that, you've then got some additional banners for other collections, such as if you wanted to include sales or anything like that. It's entirely up to you.

You can completely customize all aspects of this theme. Beneath this. You've then got featured collections, and if a user hovers over a product, then they have the option to quick shop or choose options which will load the actual product page.

Customers can also click on the images, the title or the vendor or the price, and this will also load the product pages. Beneath this, you could have a featured product. 

Again, this can be removed or disabled depending on your options. Empire theme then offers a video collection, which is another option that you could consider if you did not want to use graphics.

You can use videos instead. Beneath this, there is more collections and an option for blog posts. As you can see, there are lots of different options for collections here, which is perfectly suited to large stores. If you want to use this theme with a smaller store, then by all means you can remove to suit requirements. 

Beneath this, you've got a large Twitter block, which can be completely customized or removed depending on your circumstances. Finally, you've got a another search box, and then you have the footer, which can be completely customized as many different menus or as few menus as you'd like.

There is also a newsletter subscription, which is the standard Shopify one. Finally, in the very bottom of the page, you can customize your copyright and remove the powered by Shopify should you wish.

Empire Product Pages


The product pages are simple, yet highly effective and will definitely help to convert your visitors into sales. On the left hand side, you've got a large image, and beneath that you've got a gallery of images.

By default, scrolling over the images, will zoom into specific areas of the image. This can be enabled or disabled based on your criteria.

On the right hand side, you've got the standard Shopify layout, which has been completely customized for the empire theme. This includes the title followed by the vendor and the reviews, which can be enabled or disabled. You then have the price, and if the product is on sale, it will also have this price as well.

Then there is the color or any other variants that you may have chosen, and then this is also followed by a quantity selector, which is available in a drop down menu.

And then the add to cart button on the right hand side is fairly large and in your face, colors can be completely customized or you can use a universal color scheme for the entire theme, such as the blue, green or red that I mentioned earlier.

Beneath this, you have social sharing buttons, which will allow visitors to share. Directly into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest by default with many other options available as well.

The one downside I see to the empire theme is that the description box is on the right hand side. If you are selling products which require a long description, this will mean your page will run quite far down on the right hand side with a lot of white space on the left.

If your product descriptions are nice and short like those in the demonstration store on empires demo store, then you will have no issues at toll.

Beneath this, you have got a option for collections such as frequently bought together or popular products that can be added alongside. Finally, you've got the customer reviews, which will allow customers or potential buyers to write reviews.

This is a great place for you to add confidence to your buyers by having reviews for specific products. You can also bulk upload reviews on the back end so you don't have to manually create a review for each product.

At the very bottom of the page, as your customers start to click on different items, a very nice feature from Empire theme comes into play called, 'You recently viewed' which helps convert buyers.

Take a look, buyers can clear this themselves. Again it can be removed should you wish.

Empire Cart Page 

When a product is added to the cart on empire theme, the default option is the cart banner pulls down from the top of the screen. This includes the product that was added as well as the cart subtotal and two buttons which allow you to view the cart and also check out.

You can change this if you would like and go straight to the cart or you can fold out from the right hand side instead.

The cart page itself is fairly simple and looks very similar to the standard Shopify theme. However, it's been customized to remove any of the unwanted junk that most stores don't actually need.

It looks really sleek and simple with the subtotal and checkout button on the top right. This is followed by a description of each product, including any variants and the price.

You can then optionally allow your users or visitors to calculate shipping on the cart page before clicking on the checkout button to complete their checkout process using the standard Shopify checkout.

You can then go in and edit the Shopify checkout. To match the rest of your store should you wish, or you can just use the standard color scheme.

Empire Additional Pages

If you want to create specific pages on your empire Shopify theme, then you will be pleased to note that they use a very simple centered design.

Some themes don't actually focus on people creating pages and instead the text runs off the screen completely. Empire has gone with a subtle simple design, which includes a centered display of about 900 pixels, which means that your text stays in the middle.

Your images also stay in the middle of the screen as well.

Empire theme comes with a contact form, which looks very sleek as well, and this includes a contact field, and again, it's centered in the middle of the screen.

You can add additional content here, such as a map or even your telephone number. One of the main stand out features for me is the blog.

Empire Theme Blog Pages

The blog looks amazing on empire theme.

It looks exactly like a WordPress blog with a main featured article across the top with multiple smaller articles down beneath. Clicking on these opens up a full screen image as well as social sharing options and a centered blog post. This makes for easy reading on large screens and the text is not running right across the page.

Empire Collections Pages


If you want to create a large scale store such as a home improvement or accessories store, then you will be pleased to know how, just how easy the collections pages are in the empire thing. For example, you can upload images and then simply create short descriptions for each category.


When you then look at the collections pages, it makes it very easy for someone to navigate through to find out what they're looking for. There's no fuss, there's no clunkiness, and there's no issues with these collections pages like you may experience on some of the other Shopify themes out there.

You can have as many collections as you want and you can do whatever you want, whether that is product images, or if you want to create specific images for those collections.

Empire Theme Verdict

Empire theme by pixel union is an amazing theme. It's at the top end of most people's budget when they are looking for Shopify themes coming in at $180 however, for that, you get an amazing theme that's packed full of features, customizable features, and world-class support.

I actually use Empire in one of my own Shopify stores.  

Speaking of support, if you're having any issues with the theme whatsoever, you can reach out to pixel union support desk who will get in contact and help you resolve your issue as soon as possible.

See, that's the thing that you can expect when you pay a little bit more for the theme on the front end, you can expect a lot more on the backend when problems go wrong. 

Pixel union is responsible for a large number of Shopify stores and they are constantly providing updates. For people who have already purchased their themes.

Don't think that once you purchase, you're going to be left in the lurch with no future updates. Pixel union is well-renowned in the Shopify space as providing some of the best themes available.

Additionally, they have other themes available such as Superstore

Last Updated on January 1, 2020 by Rhys Dale

 
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2 thoughts on “Pixel Union’s Empire Shopify Theme Review (Best For Huge eCom Stores)”

  1. Hi
    Could you please tell me if there is a limit to the number of variants or options per product? On Shopify, there is only room for three unless you add an extra app.
    Also, Is there a built-in possibility to add a feature of add-ons on the product page (for a product that is not sold separately)? Again, without adding an app?

    Thanks in advance

    Reply
    • Hello, sorry to disappoint you as I am not support but I’m curious if you ever got a response. I love the simple design of its theme and it appears to be very mobile friendly however I have read a bunch of bad reviews across the internet mostly from 2019 and 2020. I’m curious about your experience

      Reply

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