A theme is an eCommerce retailer’s most important choice when building a new WooCommerce store. There are thousands of premium WordPress themes for WooCommerce retailers to choose from. There are so many that it is difficult to know where to start or whether a theme is a good choice for your store. In this guide, we select an eight-step checklist on how to choose a premium WordPress theme and template for your WooCommerce store they’ll be happy with for years.
Checklist Choose Premium WooCommerce Theme & Template
1- WooCommerce Integration
As a WordPress plugin, WooCommerce should be compatible with most premium WordPress themes, but developers occasionally make mistakes or ignore WordPress theme development best practices.
According to BuiltWith, there are over 3 million WooCommerce stores on the web today. It is in the best interest of premium theme developers to make their themes compatible with WooCommerce, and most do. But it is always a good idea to check that the developer has worked to integrate their theme seamlessly with WooCommerce.
Before deploying themes, check your product pages, shopping cart, and homepage to verify that the theme does not break parts of your store.
2- A Consistent History of Updates
A WordPress theme must be regularly updated to ensure it remains secure and compatible with other software. Security is the most crucial consideration. Mistakes in a theme’s code can cause software vulnerabilities.
Updates fix them, but vulnerabilities will go unfixed if a developer isn’t actively working to maintain their theme. Most hacked WordPress sites result from attackers exploiting vulnerabilities in themes and plugins.
A lack of recent updates doesn’t always mean a theme is insecure, but it indicates that it isn’t actively developed, which can cause other problems. As WordPress and WooCommerce evolve, choose premium themes and plugins that will evolve too. They may fail to take advantage of new features or become incompatible if they don’t.
A lack of update consistency is also a red flag that the developer isn’t interested in improving the theme over time. WooCommerce store owners should be careful not to select themes that.
3- High-Quality Documentation
A WooCommerce theme is a critical component of a WooCommerce store. Store owners should understand its features, be able to configure it easily, and even customize it should the need arise. Without documentation that explains the theme’s features, it can be challenging to use it properly.
Look at the theme’s documentation and ensure its features and configuration options are clearly explained.
4- Reliable Support
Support is even more important than documentation. When you select and choose a premium WordPress theme and template for your WooCommerce store, you are paying for a license to use the code and customer support to help you use it, so ensure the theme developer provides adequate support.
A theme developer won’t install the theme on a WooCommerce store or customize it for free. Still, they should be willing to answer questions and help store owners to overcome challenges they run into when using the theme – especially if those challenges are caused by a problem with the theme’s code.
5- Flexible Options On WooCommerce Premium Themes
WooCommerce stores using the same theme look similar but shouldn’t have to look identical. The best themes include an array of options. Store owners can use them to change colors, menus, typography, logos, and other elements to fit their store’s brand.
Ideally, those options can be configured via the WordPress Customizer, which allows store owners to change options and see the results immediately. Check that the most important options are available in the Customizer and that there are sufficient options to brand the store to your satisfaction.
6- Aesthetically and Functionally Appropriate
There are thousands of premium WordPress themes to choose from. There are themes built for expert developers and novices venturing into their first eCommerce business. Moreover, are general themes and themes for specific eCommerce markets: beauty products, ticket sales, and clothing, for example. A theme perfect for a store selling children’s toys may not be the best design for a single malt whiskey store.
Before buying a theme, consider your market and the design choices made by your competitors. Draw a list of features and aesthetic criteria to help you how to select and choose an appropriate premium theme for Woocommerce.
7- Optimized for Performance On Premium WooCommerce Themes
An eCommerce store’s performance follows several factors, including its server resources and network latency, but the theme also has a significant impact. Themes can add PHP code, increasing the amount of server-side processing and database queries. They can also include client-side functionality with code written in JavaScript.
Before going live with a theme, use performance monitoring tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights, Chrome’s built-in Lighthouse performance suite, or GTMetrix to identify possible performance bottlenecks. Before buying, you may also want to run the same tests on the theme’s demonstration page.
8- Prefer Lightweight WooCommerce Themes
Many popular WordPress themes include custom features like page builders, carousels, and widgets. There are positives and negatives to all-inclusive themes. On the plus side, they’re convenient; store owners get a lot of additional functionality. As a result, that can make it faster and easier to get a store up and running.
However, when a retailer builds a store with an all-inclusive theme, they depend on it. If the theme change, all of that functionality change too. Pages won’t display properly. Widgets the store relies on will stop working. Returning the store to a usable state will be a lot of work.
A more future-proof approach is to choose a lightweight theme. Then add the functionality the store needs as separate plugins. That way, the store doesn’t rely on a single third-party developer.
Conclusion To Choose a Premium WooCommerce Theme
We’ve covered eight ways to spot a good (or bad) premium WordPress theme. However, they mostly break down into three groups.
- The theme’s developer can offer support and update the theme.
- The theme won’t damage your store’s performance, flexibility, or security.
- You are free to move between themes because your store doesn’t rely on the features of any particular theme.
We hope this eight-step checklist guide on how to select and choose a premium WordPress theme and template for your WooCommerce store has been of help to you! You’re sure to find a theme that provides the look and the functionality you can rely on for many years.