Enhance Your Shopify Store with Brooklyn Theme!
By Sonaksh Singh Rawat on
Selecting the right theme is crucial when setting up an online store on Shopify, a platform that supports over 1 million businesses with its comprehensive ecommerce solutions. The chosen theme significantly influences the store’s user experience, aesthetics, and functionality.
The Brooklyn theme stands out as a premier option for modern, stylish, and high-converting ecommerce stores. Tailored for fashion and lifestyle brands, Brooklyn offers a sleek design alongside superior functionality, making it ideal for showcasing products effectively. This theme prioritizes a mobile-first approach, crisp typography, and clean layouts, all of which contribute to capturing customer attention and boosting sales.
As one of the Shopify Theme Store’s most popular paid themes, Brooklyn has been chosen by over 39,000 ecommerce businesses. Its refined design and ample customization options allow for the creation of a professional online store that aligns perfectly with a brand’s identity.
This Shopify Brooklyn theme guide delves into why Brooklyn stands as a stellar selection for Shopify stores and how businesses can leverage its array of features to their advantage.
Understanding the Brooklyn Shopify Theme
The Brooklyn theme, famous on the Shopify Theme Store, is celebrated for its visually captivating design and potent ecommerce conversion features. It’s tailored for upscale brands aiming to exude high-quality and offer an engaging shopping journey.
Here are some notable features and advantages of using th Brooklyn theme:
- Modern and Minimal Aesthetic - The theme showcases a modern design with sharp typography, ample white space, and fast-loading high-resolution images, creating a sophisticated vibe that’s well-suited for fashion, jewelry, and design-focused brands.
- Immersive Product Pages - Features such as expansive image galleries, a sticky add-to-cart button, and support for product videos on product pages facilitate a deeper engagement with the offerings.
- Focus on Storytelling - Brooklyn theme is designed to help brands narrate their unique stories through video headers and featured articles, emphasizing the brand’s ethos rather than just the products.
- Premium Customizability - It offers a wide range of customization options to ensure brand identity alignment, including colors, fonts, image filters, and adjustable headers and footers.
When juxtaposed with other top Shopify themes like Debut and Supply, Brooklyn distinguishes itself with an editorial-style approach. Whereas Debut caters to more straightforward storefronts and Supply to a more industrial minimalist look, Brooklyn is the go-to choice for luxury and creative brands seeking an immersive brand experience.
Layout and Design
The Brooklyn theme offers a modern, minimalist layout that beautifully showcases products while maintaining a clean aesthetic. It gives store owners extensive options to customize the layout and design to match their brand.
Layout Options
Brooklyn offers various responsive layout options suitable for homepages and other pages:
- Classic Layout - This single column layout is optimized for storytelling.
- Grid Layout - A multi-column approach, perfect for showcasing products.
- Marquee Layout - Emphasizes visuals with a prominent image carousel.
These layout options allow the selection of the appropriate structure based on content strategy and target audience, ensuring seamless adaptation across different device sizes.
Product Showcase
The theme facilitates an effective product showcase through various methods:
- Fullscreen Image Slider - Emphasizes top products using large, striking visuals.
- Featured Collections - Captures interest in specially curated collections.
- New Arrivals Section - Generates excitement around the latest offerings.
Content blocks can be easily modified with a drag-and-drop feature to guide the user experience.
Navigation Menus
Brooklyn theme Shopify provides a versatile navigation system to assist users and improve on-site search experience:
- A main menu offering a catalog structure or customizable links.
- A secondary menu featuring customer service links.
- Breadcrumbs, tags, and filters for straightforward site navigation.
The menus, links, and icons are customizable to match brand identity.
Responsiveness and Mobile Optimization
The Brooklyn theme prioritizes a mobile-first approach, ensuring a superior user experience across all devices. In an era where a significant portion of consumers prefer shopping on their mobile devices, having a responsive ecommerce store has become indispensable for engaging customers and enhancing conversions.
The Shopify Brooklyn theme’s adaptive design effortlessly modifies its layout for different screen sizes. Whether on a desktop or mobile device, the store pages naturally transition, delivering a uniform experience. Navigation menus and product visuals are intelligently resized and rearranged to suit the device used for browsing.
Specifically on mobile devices, the Brooklyn theme presents a simplified layout, emphasizing essential ecommerce features. This streamlined design significantly improves user experience for mobile shoppers. Furthermore, it goes beyond mere responsive design by integrating mobile-centric functionalities such as tap-to-call and prominently displayed calls-to-action, which are especially beneficial for mobile users.
Brooklyn’s mobile-centric philosophy not only elevates the shopping experience across different devices but also leverages the fact that more than half of online traffic now originates from mobile devices. Its mobile-first strategy positions ecommerce sites to capitalize on this trend, enhancing the likelihood of converting mobile visitors into customers.
Owners of ecommerce sites utilizing the Brooklyn theme can be confident their stores will not only look appealing but also operate smoothly on both smartphones and tablets, thanks to its advanced mobile optimization features. The theme’s responsive nature ensures a cohesive shopping experience while promoting mobile commerce efficiency.
Conversion Optimization with the Brooklyn Theme
The Brooklyn theme offers a set of robust features designed to enhance conversion rates and boost sales for store owners. It boasts an appealing design and a strategic layout aimed at encouraging customer actions.
Key features that aid in conversion rate optimization include:
- Prominent Calls-to-Action: By enabling customization of call-to-action buttons and links in terms of size, color, and placement, the Brooklyn theme ensures visibility. Positioning these CTAs in critical areas like the header, product pages, cart, and checkout stimulates visitor interaction and conversion.
- Focus on Storytelling: It provides flexible sections for incorporating visuals, videos, and in-depth content to articulate the brand’s narrative and foster trust. Effective storytelling engages visitors, prompting them to make purchases.
- Mobile-First Design: Considering the increase in mobile transactions, the responsive design of Brooklyn guarantees a smooth experience across mobile devices, thereby reducing obstacles in the purchase path and enhancing mobile conversions.
- One-Page Checkout: The streamlined one-page checkout design of Brooklyn minimizes distractions, reducing the likelihood of cart abandonment and increasing the probability of purchase completion.
- Social Proof Elements: Facilitating the easy integration of customer testimonials, reviews, and other forms of social proof where buying decisions are made reassures customers, potentially driving sales.
Customizing the Shopify Brooklyn theme with additional features like trust badges, refined product page copy, social media feeds to establish credibility, and employing scarcity elements like countdown timers can incentivize quick action from visitors, further elevating a store’s conversion potential.
SEO Best Practices with the Brooklyn Theme
The Brooklyn theme immediately offers an advantage for search engine discoverability thanks to its optimized setup. Its clean code and lightweight design contribute to quick page loading times, which is a critical factor for ranking. Furthermore, Brooklyn simplifies the process of applying key on-page SEO elements.
Built-in SEO Features
- The theme boasts clean and minimal code, ensuring no unnecessary elements slow down the website, facilitating faster page loads.
- With intelligent lazy-loading of images and other optimized practices, it ensures quick loading times on both mobile and desktop platforms.
- It offers customization options for titles, descriptions, alt text, and other metadata to align with branding and keyword targeting needs.
- Supports the addition of schema markup, enhancing product information visibility to search engines, potentially improving listings.
- Automatically generates canonical tags to help prevent issues related to duplicate content.
- Includes a built-in XML sitemap to assist in easy indexing by search engines.
Additional Recommendations
- Optimizing Images - Compressing images and resizing them as needed can significantly boost page load speed. Including descriptive alternative text and filenames aids in search visibility.
- Crafting Descriptive Content - Well-crafted product descriptions, titles, and other pieces of content, featuring relevant keywords, are essential in drawing search engine attention.
- Implementing Internal Linking - Establishing links between related products and different sections of the site helps in setting up a coherent information structure.
- Engaging through Blogging - The addition of a blog, filled with fresh, keyword-rich content, is highly favorable for search engine algorithms.
Leveraging built-in SEO functionality, the platform provides a strong baseline for digital presence. By focusing on content optimization, product information, and other key elements, one can significantly amplify their online visibility on Shopify.
App Integration
The Brooklyn theme is tailored to effortlessly work alongside many of the top Shopify applications, affording owners the capability to further refine and amplify their ecommerce platforms. At its essence, Brooklyn lays down a solid base that can be supplemented with various apps to devise a potent, tailored ecommerce solution.
Some highly endorsed applications for integration with the Brooklyn theme encompass:
- Product Upsell, Cross-sell, and Downsell apps - These are designed to boost order values and conversion rates through upsell alerts and cross-sell suggestions. Examples include Upsell Buddy and CrossSellify, which meld seamlessly with Brooklyn.
- Email Pop-up Apps - Aimed at capturing more leads and subscriber emails through pop-up forms and enticements. Apps such as Privy and Mailchimp Popup are recommended for easy integration.
- Loyalty and Referral Apps - Intended to reward loyal customers and foster referrals, applications like Smile Rewards and ShareThis Rewards are compatible with Brooklyn.
- Social Proof Apps - These apps help to display recent sales, reviews, and other forms of social proof to cultivate trust and a sense of urgency. Judge.me, Stamped, and Berifcy are among the top picks.
- Image Optimization Apps - To enhance site speed and SEO, image optimization and compression apps such as Optimized Image and ImageEngine are advisable for integration.
With the Brooklyn theme paired with suitable apps, ecommerce merchants have the opportunity to develop a highly customized store that is set up for success in terms of conversion rates and revenue. It’s important to conduct thorough testing of new apps prior to their implementation to ensure seamless integration.
Case Studies of Brooklyn Theme Successes
Cultivate Whole Body
Cultivate Whole Body embraced the clean, minimalist aesthetics of the Brooklyn theme to enhance their online wellness presence. This theme facilitated an effective presentation of their all-natural products, supported by lifestyle imagery and clear calls-to-action that boosted sales.
Furthermore, they utilized the theme’s blogging capabilities to offer tips on healthy living, fostering repeat visits and engagement. Consequently, their Brooklyn store now seamlessly transforms visitors into committed customers.
Madel Skincare
The leader of Madel Skincare sought a Shopify theme that would mirror the brand’s luxurious essence while remaining economically accessible. The Brooklyn theme, with its abundant white space, expansive product visuals, and sleek typography, provided Madel’s digital storefront with the upscale appearance they aimed for.
The theme’s focus on visual storytelling also enabled Madel to forge an emotional connection with its audience. Remarkably, within three months of employing the Brooklyn theme, Madel witnessed a more than twofold increase in the average value of orders placed.
Troubleshooting Common Brooklyn Theme Issues
The Brooklyn theme is recognized for its user-friendly design and simplicity. Nevertheless, like any sophisticated platform, users might face occasional technical challenges. Expert troubleshooting strategies are available to address common issues associated with the Brooklyn theme.
Images Not Displaying Properly
If product images on a Brooklyn store appear blurry, stretched, or distorted, there are several solutions to consider:
- Ensure the original image sizes comply with Shopify’s recommendations, which suggest images to be at least 1000px wide for optimal results with Brooklyn’s template.
- It’s also important to avoid exceeding the image size limits allowed by Brooklyn. Images wider than 1500px will undergo automatic resizing.
- The Image Setting section within Brooklyn theme offers options to adjust thumbnail sizes and the ability to disable zoom. Tweaking these settings can help in optimizing the presentation of images.
- Uploading any images that are causing issues again can be a good step to ensure they are processed correctly. It’s also advisable to look out for compression artifacts or formatting issues during this process.
Theme Sections Overlapping
In the Shopify Brooklyn theme, the flexible sections may overlap oddly if they are not sized and organized properly. To prevent this from happening:
- Employ Section Padding settings to introduce vertical spacing between sections.
- Ensure the sections occupy the correct number of grid columns based on their content.
- Modify the size of oversized sections or alter page margins in the Layout settings.
- Turn off the Stretch Section setting for sections that should remain at a fixed height.
Mobile Menu Not Working
Should there be issues with the mobile navigation menu not toggling open as expected:
- Navigate to the Menus section within the Shopify admin to add or rearrange the desired menu items for mobile display.
- Within the Brooklyn theme, utilize the Mobile Menu settings to select either left or right placement.
- Confirm the Hamburger icon module is properly integrated into the top bar and is effectively toggling the menu open.
- Investigate any JavaScript errors on the mobile version of the site that might interfere with the menu’s functionality.
Cannot Add/Edit Certain Sections
Troubleshooting issues with adding, deleting, or editing sections in the Brooklyn theme editor involves a few key steps:
- Confirm there is no use of a legacy deprecated section that is no longer supported.
- Verify that all necessary sections contain populated modules, as some sections require them.
- Attempt to add the section through the Theme App instead of the Online Store editor for better integration.
- Ensure the Section Type is correctly set to “Theme Section” rather than “Legacy Section” to avoid compatibility issues.
Theme Speed Issues
To enhance page loading speed:
- Images should be optimized for the web, and lazy loading should be enabled in theme settings.
- The use of third-party apps/extensions, which can decrease speed, should be limited.
- Upgrading to Shopify Plus is recommended for enhanced hosting and bandwidth.
- Performance can be improved by enabling caching and minifying CSS/JS in theme settings.
For further clarification on any of the troubleshooting steps, further explanation can be provided.
Getting Started with the Brooklyn Theme
Initiating the Brooklyn theme is straightforward, irrespective of whether one is establishing a new Shopify store or migrating an existing store to Brooklyn. The essential steps to follow are outlined as follows:
1. Install the Brooklyn Theme
For new establishments, the Brooklyn theme can be selected during the initial setup process upon creating a Shopify account. For those who already operate stores, accessing the Shopify admin, clicking on “Themes,” and searching for “Brooklyn” allows for the addition of the theme to the store.
This theme, provided at no cost, will be incorporated into the account, allowing for further customization or publication of changes through the Themes section at any convenient time.
2. Configure the Theme Settings
The Theme Settings section allows adjustments to be made in regards to colors, fonts, text sizes, and additional elements to achieve the desired look and feel.
Options available include selecting between boxed or full-width page layouts, choosing accent colors, incorporating Google Fonts, and beyond.
3. Set Up Your Sections
A standout feature of Brooklyn is its adaptable section-based layout. This permits the addition and organization of various sections such as headers, banners, products, and text according to necessity.
Prioritizing the most crucial elements is advisable. Incorporating sections to highlight products or services, feature sales or promotions, and convey the brand story is encouraged. The significance of the homepage cannot be overstated - ensuring it is visually engaging and optimized for conversions is essential.
4. Customize the Design Further
Individuals proficient in CSS and Liquid markup have the capacity to refine the design and implement overrides within the theme code. It is advised not to alter the theme files directly, but rather utilize a child theme for any modifications to ensure seamless upgrades.
For the majority of users, the pre-existing customization options should suffice in achieving a compelling look and feel. It is recommended to invest time in becoming acquainted with the various features Brooklyn offers straight out of the box.
Once these steps are completed, the Brooklyn theme will be optimized to enhance the user experience of one’s store. The following sections will discuss the importance of focusing on conversion optimization and SEO. Brooklyn provides the necessary tools, enabling users to achieve success in their online business endeavors.
