Essence Shopify theme – Essence preset
Essence
Moderately active Highly rated sports

Essence Shopify theme

Essence preset

Created by Alloy Themes

Essence describes itself as a clean Shopify theme for visual stores, with 26 customizable sections suited to sports retailers and other small-to-medium catalogs. Product presentation relies on image hotspots, before/after sliders, and zoom, while quick buy and a slide-out cart handle the purchase path.
Source Shopify Theme Store Official
★★★★★
★★★★★
5.0 · 8 reviews · 100% positive
PRICE
$ 280,00 USD
PRESETS
3 styles
View on Theme Store
PRESETS INCLUDED Total 3
Essence Brio Cadence
Theme support
alloythemes.co/contact
Documentation
essence-docs.alloythemes.co

Independently reviewed by the eDIY editorial team

How fast is Essence?

Google PageSpeed Insights scores for the home page, out of 100

The official Essence demo scored 65/100 on mobile and 99/100 on desktop in our October 2026 test. Mobile LCP was 7.5s, CLS was 0.00, and Total Blocking Time was 16ms.

Theme demo store

Official Essence demo, home page
65 /100
Mobile
Needs improvement
99 /100
Desktop
Good

Tested Oct 2026 · Google PageSpeed Insights lab data

MetricMobileDesktop
Largest Contentful Paint 7.5s 761ms
Cumulative Layout Shift 0.00 0.00
Total Blocking Time 16ms 0ms
Speed Index 5.3s 834ms

Across 8 live stores we tested, the average PageSpeed score was 57/100 on mobile and 77/100 on desktop. Average mobile LCP was 10.1s and CLS was 0.00. These are complete production stores, so the numbers cover more than the theme itself.

Live stores average

Mean across 8 stores running Essence
57 /100
Mobile
Needs improvement
77 /100
Desktop
Needs improvement

Tested Oct 2026 · Results include each store's apps, images, tracking scripts and customizations

MetricMobileDesktop
Largest Contentful Paint 10.1s 2.3s
Cumulative Layout Shift 0.00 0.01
Total Blocking Time 625ms 413ms
Speed Index 6.5s 2.4s

Per-store results

8 live stores · tested Oct 2026
Petmate
petmate.com
Mobile 30
Desktop 76
Independent Trading Company
independenttradingco.com
Mobile 73
Desktop 98
Iron Bull Strength - USA
ironbullstrength.com
Mobile 65
Desktop 69
Restock AR
restockar.com
Mobile 32
Desktop 34
Happy Gentleman
happygentleman.com
Mobile 55
Desktop 64
USA Flag Co.
usaflagco.com
Mobile 76
Desktop 98
Carol's Daughter
carolsdaughter.com
Mobile 66
Desktop 94
GoatGun Models
goatguns.com
Mobile 57
Desktop 80

Features

Built-in features listed on the Theme Store.

Cart and checkout

  • Cart notes
  • Quick buy
  • Slide-out cart

Marketing and conversion

  • Blogs
  • Cross-selling
  • Customizable contact form
  • EU translations (EN, FR, IT, DE, ES)
  • FAQ page
  • In-menu promos
  • Promo banners
  • Quick view
  • Recently viewed
  • Recommended products
  • Stock counter

Merchandising

  • Animation
  • Before/after image slider
  • Color swatches
  • High-resolution images
  • Image galleries
  • Image hotspot
  • Image rollover
  • Image zoom
  • Product videos
  • Size chart
  • Slideshow
  • Combined listing (Shopify Plus)

Product discovery

  • Breadcrumbs
  • Enhanced search
  • Mega menu
  • Product filtering and sorting
  • Recently viewed
  • Recommended products
  • Sticky header
  • Swatch filters
32 features

Essence ranking and satisfaction

Position among all Shopify themes
#309 of 1349
Position among Shopify themes for "sports"
#17 of 73
Overall satisfaction based on all reviews
100% positive

Release history

LATEST VERSION
v4.2.0
Released July 21, 2026
Moderately active

Essence has received 2 updates in the last 12 months.

Releases in 12 mo 2
Total releases 17
First release February 6, 2024
v4.2.0 FEATURE

This update introduces the Brio style preset, with new customization for theme colors, media sections, and image hotspots, expanded page support in search results, plus improved blog pagination.

Added

  • Brio style preset for supplement and wellness stores.
  • Color palette in Theme settings > Colors.
  • Remove top spacing setting for Image with text and Video with text.
  • Content max width setting for Image with text overlay and Video with text overlay.
  • Product setting on Image hotspots blocks so you can show a product in the hotspot popup.
  • Pages in predictive search results.
  • Pages in search results can show a custom image via the custom.featured_image metafield instead of a gray placeholder.

Fixes and Improvements

  • Blog pages now use regular link navigation for more reliable paging.
v4.1.0 FEATURE

This update adds a video autoplay option to the Multicolumn section and includes general fixes and improvements.

Added

  • Added an option to automatically play videos in the Multicolumn section.

Changed

  • Updated Liquid code to comply with Shopify's new syntax requirements (no functional changes).

Fixes and Improvements

  • The "Hide sold-out variants" option will no longer hide an option if it's currently selected.
  • Other minor fixes and improvements.
v4.0.0 MAJOR

This update prepares the theme folder structure for the Theme Store redesign.

v3.2.0 FEATURE

This update adds a new setting to control heading HTML tags for SEO, adds support for free shipping thresholds in multiple currencies, and includes a range of usability improvements.

Added

  • SEO settings to control the HTML tags of headings across theme sections (e.g., h1, h2, etc.)
  • Support for defining free shipping thresholds in multiple currencies.

Changed

  • Renamed heading size options from "H1", "H2", etc. to descriptive names like "2X-Large" and "X-Large" to avoid confusion with the SEO HTML tag settings.

Fixes and Improvements

  • Page title now updates dynamically when switching between products in combined listings.
  • Enhanced product card swatches to support native Shopify color swatches.
  • Improved the quantity selector to prevent zooming when tapped repeatedly on iOS.
  • Fixed layout issue with the “Hide sold out variants” setting, which previously left empty space where sold-out variants were hidden.
  • Improved handling of long labels inside of buttons.
v3.1.0 FEATURE

This update focuses on improving the functionality and usability of the theme, including enhancements to the mega menu, variant picker, and slideshow, along with several bug fixes.

Added

  • Support for native color swatches in the variant picker.
  • Setting to show or hide the search button in the header.

Changed

  • Quick add-to-cart banner now only appears after the user scrolls beyond a certain threshold, preventing it from appearing and disappearing too often.

Fixes and Improvements

  • Improved the mega menu drawer opening animation.
  • Removed unnecessary lazy loading for better performance.
  • Fixed an issue with variant images not updating the product card image when clicked.
  • Fixed slide button size setting not applying to the second button.

Full changelog

17 releases
Loading releases…

What merchants say about Essence Shopify theme

We know about 8 reviews · showing 6

Merchant sentiment summary

AI

All 8 reviews are positive, with none neutral or negative. Merchants most often praise the responsive, helpful support, the clean modern design, and the flexible, easy-to-use customisation options. No recurring criticism appears in the reviews.

Generated from all 8 Theme Store reviews ·

Positive 8 · 100%
Neutral 0 · 0%
Negative 0 · 0%
Highly rated

Essence has received 0 reviews in the last 12 months.

Reviews in 12 mo 0
Total reviews 8
First review

Das Essence Theme ist schlicht, modern und gleichzeitig sehr funktionsreich. Der Aufbau ist logisch und leicht verständlich. Besonders begeistert hat mich der Support: super hilfsbereit, schnell und lösungsorientiert. Ein Fehler in meinem Shop wurde direkt behoben – ganz ohne auf ein Update warten zu müssen. Ich würde mich jederzeit wieder für dieses Theme entscheiden!

S
Schanner
Apr 1, 2025

We have been enjoying using this Shopify theme. It is very easy to use and has a very clean look.

L
Lakota Made
Mar 25, 2025

This theme is well-designed, user-friendly, and highly customizable. It runs smoothly and offers great flexibility for building a professional store. The support team is incredibly responsive and helpful, always providing clear solutions whenever needed. I’m very happy with both the theme and the outstanding support. Highly recommend!

O
OXYD PERFUME
Mar 25, 2025

Perfect minimalist theme for a modern store! We’ve been using the Essence theme for our Shopify store, and it has exceeded all expectations! Sleek, high-converting, and user-friendly. Separate Thank You to support for being quick and helpful. Highly recommended.

D
Di Helen
Feb 28, 2025

I’m really happy with this theme! The customization options are super flexible, making it easy to adapt to my brand. It runs smoothly and looks great on all devices, especially on mobile. The settings are intuitive, so I could set everything up without any hassle. Definitely a solid choice for anyone running a merch shop!

F
Flamingo Apparel
Feb 27, 2025

Great theme! Also fast and experienced support from the team. We would really recommend using this theme because of the features, speed, reliability and support from the theme developers!

U
Upshape
Aug 5, 2024

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