Here is our complete review of the Shopify Turbo theme.
In this post you’ll see:
- What Turbo does well
- Its advanced features
- How to setup the theme properly
- Whether Turbo is worth the money
- A whole lot more
Let’s get started.
What is Turbo Theme?
Turbo is a paid Shopify theme that can potentially take your ecommerce store to the next level.
This premium theme is known for its lightning quick speed, performance, and style.
It’s the perfect Shopify theme for people looking to outperform their competitors and boost their existing store.
Many ecommerce store owners often overlook the importance of website functionality and design. This theme offers everything you need to fully revolutionize your store.
There’s a reason big merchants like K-SWISS, zeroUV, and Encircled use the Turbo Shopify theme.
Feel free to browse around their websites to get an idea of how the theme can be designed.
Turbo Theme Features
Let’s take a closer look at each of Turbo theme’s premium functionalities and features.
Images
Having stellar images is an essential part of designing a beautiful online store.
Better pictures literally translates to better conversions and sales.
Although the Turbo theme Shopify won’t magically import HD product pictures into your store, it offers the best solution to beautifully display what you already have.
The Turbo theme has:
- Full-width image sections that include many action buttons
- Homepage galleries
- Product row sliders
- Text & color settings
These are just of the few image features that Turbo offers.
Furthermore, your images are always optimized to whatever device your store browser is using.
Page Transition & Speed
With the low attention span of everyday shoppers, page transitions are extremely important for your store.
Slow loading times when opening new pages can cause customers to leave the website immediately.
According to Kissmetrics, 40% of customers will exit a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Luckily for you, the Turbo theme offers one of the quickest load times out there.
The theme’s instantaneous page transition software and enhanced mobile browsing help conquer this problem.
Turbo comes with 2 different speed settings: Ludicrous and Sport.
Both settings are designed to keep your store running as smooth and fast as possible.
Furthermore, Turbo has a smart page preloading feature for extremely fast navigation. Turbo will predict the next page a shopper will view and begin loading that page in the background.
Speed is one of Turbo’s standout features and the reason why its such a highly regarded theme.
Customization
Customizability is another important feature of a premium Shopify theme.
Since every store offers different products with different design needs, your theme needs to be able to bring your ideas to life.
Turbo theme offers near limitless customization options.
We’ve run dozens of different stores using Turbo and have learned that this theme is suitable for any store.
The pre-designed layouts, color & text options, actions buttons, and easy setup allow Turbo to be adaptable and versatile.
Promotional Section & Banners
The first thing shoppers see on your store is the homepage banner.
This important image needs to able to intrigue the viewer enough to want to stay.
If your banner is flawed or unoptimized, your store could face significant performance loss.
However, Turbo Shopify theme offers complete customization and preset options.
Furthermore, Turbo has a built-in newsletter popup that helps you collect emails.
Whether you want to use a proven template or fully customize your homepage yourself, Turbo will help you along the way.
Mobile
More than half of all online shoppers use a mobile device when purchasing something.
For this reason, it’s more than necessary to have a theme that’s optimized for mobile viewing.
Turbo not only looks amazing on mobile devices, it also has high performance levels.
After testing 36 different paid Shopify themes, Turbo had the best overall speed and functionality on mobile devices.
Navigation
Navigation is another important feature that well-designed online stores have.
Although a dull navigation won’t ruin your store, your goal should be to improve the users experience as much as possible.
Turbo allows you to add multiple menus to your page, making it easy for customers to jump from page to page.
Is Turbo the Best Shopify Theme?
It’s difficult to say which Shopify theme is actually the best because different themes offer different functions.
However, based on our experience, the Turbo Shopify theme is one of the best themes for dropshipping stores.
We’ve been using this theme for more than 3 years and have built multiple 7-figure stores using it.
The theme offers all the design capabilities and functions we desire as dropshippers. It’s extremely optimized on mobile, has unlimited customization options, and has unmatched speeds.
What We Dislike About Turbo
We’ve gone over in detail the benefits that Turbo theme offers, so let’s take a look at some of its downsides.
The biggest negative we saw when using turbo is that there are actually too many customization options. There are so many things you can change from a design standpoint that the learning curve is relatively high compared to other themes.
For this reason, we recommend you start out with a free Shopify theme and learn all its mechanics before upgrading.
Furthermore, we also learned that Turbo theme’s customer service has much to be desired.
They are often times unable to help with customization issues or diagnose problems when the theme and an app aren’t working together.
Other than these two issues, Turbo knocks it out of the park in everythings.
Keep this in mind.
Turbo Theme Pricing
Turbo theme is not cheap by any means because it will run you a cool $350.
We believe that this theme is fairly priced because a premium theme should also command a premium price tag.
However, Turbo has a 14-day guarantee where you can refund the theme if you don’t like it.
For this reason, it’s worth testing out if you’re interested.
Is Turbo Theme Worth It?
The Turbo theme is absolutely worth it if you are serious about growing your online business and think your theme is holding you back.
An improvement in your store’s conversion rate due to using the theme can outweigh the $350 price tag extremely quickly.
However, if you are just getting started and can’t afford the cost, we recommend using a free Shopify theme until your store is generating consistent sales.
Who Should Use Turbo Theme?
Any intermediate to advanced dropshipper should try out Turbo regardless of what products your selling.
Furthermore, this theme is ideal for store owners with a lot of products (200+). Since this theme excels in speed and performance, it can optimize stores with large catalogs.
We’ve used Turbo on one-product stores, niche stores, general stores, and have found success on all of them.
The theme can be molded to fit any product selection because of its infinite customization options.
If your budget allows it, this $350 theme is well worth the money. There’s a reason why it’s one of the highest rated Shopify themes in the world.
How to Purchase Turbo Shopify Theme
You can purchase the Turbo theme Shopify by visiting Out Of The Sandbox.
Out Of The Sandbox is the developer that created Turbo.
Turbo actually comes in 6 different styles:
- Portland (classic, minimal)
- Seoul (sleek, smooth)
- Florence (refined, professional)
- Chicago (dramatic, bold)
- Dubai (clean, luxurious)
- Tennessee (minimal, rustic)
You will receive all 6 styles when purchasing Turbo.
Each of these styles offer the same features, but have different default visual styles.
We’ve always used Turbo Theme Portland on all of our dropshipping stores and recommend you do the same.
How to Setup Turbo Shopify Theme
We will be showing you how to properly setup the Turbo theme, specifically the Portland style.
Keep in mind that this theme has limitless customization options, so you’ll have to play around with it and find the best settings for your own store.
However, we’ll guide you to the best of our ability and show you how we designed the Turbo theme for a one-product dropshipping store.
Let’s dive in:
After purchasing and downloading the Turbo theme, you will see a folder containing all of the different styles.
The next step is to go inside your Shopify admin panel and click ‘Online Store’ on the left-hand side.
Scroll down and click ‘Upload theme’.
Now, select ‘turbo-portland.zip’ and upload it onto your store.
This will make the theme go live on your store and remove your previous theme. All of your products, collections, and navigation menus will be saved. Changing the theme just changes the way your store is displayed.
Your page should look like this:
Next, click on ‘Customize’ and let’s start designing your new theme.
Your screen should look like this:
We will go over what to change in each menu option on the left-hand side.
Keep in mind, this tutorial is for stores that are only selling one product. If your store sells multiple products, you can still follow along and get some ideas on how to best design your Turbo theme.
Our design goal for a one-product dropshipping store is to give the shopper as much information about the product as possible.
We make several graphics that help explain the products functionality and benefits.
The specific store we will be designing today sells a neck cushion that helps with neck pain.
Feel free to copy the style of graphics we’ve made for this product.
Header
First, click ‘Header’.
Change the text in the ‘Announcement Bar’ to let customers know about your promotions or shipping offers.
Next, decide if you want to show social media icons or not.
Then, either input your store’s phone number or remove the phone number completely.
We usually remove the phone number because we have email customer support staff that handles questions.
Now, select the menu you want on your main navigation.
Usually this will be your ‘Main menu’.
Afterwards, scroll down and import your logo.
Then, use the settings to make sure your logo is properly sized and aligned with the navigation bar.
It should like similar to this:
Next, you’ll see you have the option of adding a mobile logo as well.
Click the mobile layout viewer to see if this is necessary.
Our logo looks good here, so we won’t need to upload an additional mobile logo.
However, if your logo looks off then upload a new logo with the recommended 100×50 pixel dimensions.
Now scroll down and find the social media links. Either remove or add the relevant links for your store.
Be sure to add in your customer support email address.
Next, we recommend removing the currency convertor. Based on our experience, the currency convertor is unnecessary for generating more sales and the standard USD works the best.
However, feel free to test out both options on your own store.
Afterwards, be sure to enable solid menu background color.
This makes it so your logo and menu options don’t overlap with your banner image.
Take a look at all the ‘Header’ options and make sure everything looks the way you want it to.
Be sure to save your settings and then click back.
Now, click ‘Turbo Shopify Theme’.
Turbo Shopify Theme
This is where you will upload your homepage banner image.
If you already have text in your banner image, remove the text in ‘Preheading’, ‘Heading’, and ‘Text’.
We recommend designing your homepage banner like the example above if you don’t already have one.
Next, remove the buttons as well.
Instead, click on ‘First button link’ and find the product or collection you want shoppers to view upon clicking.
If it’s a one product store, choose your product.
Save your settings.
Yoga Block Collection
With your homepage banner uploaded, the next step is to create the “How Does It Work” section.
This section is exclusively for one-product stores because it lets you explain your product in detail.
Click on ‘Yoga Block Collection’
Insert the image that supports your product like so:
Next, add in the correct information in ‘Heading’, ‘Text’, ‘Button Label’, and ‘Button Link’.
Save your changes and go back.
Energize Your Shop
Click on ‘energize your shop’.
Now type in a relatable heading and paragraph that describes your product further.
In summary, your store should look like this in the mobile view:
Save your changes and go back.
You’ll see that Turbo comes with around 11 different pre-set menus that you can adjust for your homepage.
However, we won’t be using all of them so click the eye icon to disable the following:
Now, the last section we will add to the homepage of your store is a block called ‘Rich text and image’.
Click ‘+Add Section’ and then add ‘Rich text and image’.
Rich Text and Image
We will be using this menu to tell shoppers our store’s guarantee.
Here’s what our guarantee section looks like.
Feel free to adjust the text to adhere with your own store’s promotions and policies.
Save your changes.
Next, let’s edit your footer menu.
Footer Menu
In the footer menu, turn off ‘Show theme designer credits’.
Now, adjust your menu options to look similar to this:
Yours may look different depending on which pages you have on your store.
Be sure to save all of your changes.
At this point, your homepage should be completely finished.
The next step is to adjust your theme settings.
Theme Settings
Click ‘Theme settings’ next to ‘Sections’.
Afterwards, click on ‘Performance’.
Make sure ‘Sport’ is selected instead of ‘Performance’.
After using Turbo for 3 years, we learned that Sport offers a more consistent performance. Ludicrous often loads too quickly which causes tracking errors with the Facebook pixel.
Save your changes and go back.
Next, click ‘Colors’
You’ll see that there are a lot of different places where you can choose your colors. We recommend choosing colors that are similar to your logo.
After selecting your colors, save your changes and go back.
Next, click on ‘Typography’.
This is where you can change your text font and text size.
Take a look at your own store and see if the text is okay.
We recommend increasing the size of your header text and regular text to make it easy for mobile viewers to read.
Now save your changes and go back.
Next, click on ‘Cart’ and change the ‘Cart type’ to ‘Page’.
Save your changes again and go back.
Then, scroll down and click ‘Social media’.
Here you can add all the links to your various pages.
Now go back and click on ‘Favicon’
Upload your Favicon.
Now go back and click on ‘Checkout’.
Upload your logo again.
Next, scroll down and edit the colors again to match your store’s theme.
Now your theme settings should be completely finished. Feel free to browse around and see if theres anything else you could change to optimize your store.
However, these are the settings we use when we setup our Turbo theme.
The next step is to edit your product page. Your product page is the most important page on your store because it’s where conversions are most likely to happen.
We recommend taking your time and really making sure your product page is perfect.
Turbo Shopify Theme Product Page
While you’re still in the theme editor, click your product to start editing the product page.
It will look like this:
Click on ‘Product’.
Make sure your settings match the ones shown below:
Scroll down and edit these as well.
And finally, these too.
We won’t be using Turbo’s built in product reviews because we prefer using Loox instead.
Now save your changes and go back.
Click ‘Recommended products’ and turn it off.
Since this is a one-product dropshipping store, we won’t need any product recommendations. However, if your store has more than one product you can leave this setting enabled.
The next step is editing the product description.
Turbo Product Description
Turbo offers the ability to design a luxurious product page with a lot of different boxes and placement options.
We took advantage of this advanced feature and created sections in our product description for:
- Benefits
- Results
- How Does It Work
- Who Is It For
- FAQ
- Shipping & Delivery
- Guarantee
Here’s what our product page looks like.
To turn on the Turbo product page feature, open your Shopify admin in a new tab and find your product.
Change the ‘Template suffix’ from ‘product’ to ‘product.details’.
Now go back to your theme editor and refresh the page.
You should see ‘Product|details’ appear.
You will using this new menu to fully upgrade your product page.
We recommend imitating all the sections we showed you from our product page to answer every question a potential customer could have about your product.
Once you click ‘Product details’ you can see all the blocks you can start modifying.
You will mainly be using the ‘na’maste in bed’ which is actually the ‘Image with text block’ to create two-column blocks for your product details.
Use ‘Rich text and image’ for the FAQ and Shipping & Delivery.
When finished, your menu should look like this:
Now your product page and store design should be completely finished and you’re ready to run Facebook ads.
Closing Thoughts on Turbo Theme Shopify
All in all, we accredit a part of our success to the Turbo Shopify theme. This theme has allowed to beat our competitors in terms of design and speed.
However, your store’s theme is not nearly as importive as your ad creative, ad targeting, product, and product price.
These 4 things are much more important when it comes to conversion rate and store success.
For this reason, check out our other articles on dropshipping, product research, and case studies.
The more knowledge you gain on ecommerce and marketing, the greater chances you’ll have at success.