Thanks to powerful e-commerce platforms such as WooCommerce, creating an online store has never been easier. However, this accessibility also means there is fierce competition.
If your store is going to succeed, then a professional, customer-friendly design is a must. Fortunately, there’s a huge selection of e-commerce WordPress themes that can give you an edge over your competitors.
In this post, we’ll discuss what to look for when shopping around for an e-commerce theme. We’ll then share five of the best e-commerce WordPress themes. Let’s get started!
Why it’s important to choose the right e-commerce theme
Your WordPress theme dictates the overall appearance of your website. As such, it plays a significant role in your e-commerce store’s branding and online identity.
A professionally designed, visually appealing site is essential for converting visitors into paying customers:
There are almost 9,000 themes in the official WordPress repository alone. Therefore, finding the perfect one for your site can seem like a daunting task.
Furthermore, mobile devices account for 65 percent of all e-commerce traffic and 53 percent of sales. As such, your chosen theme needs to perform well across a range of mobile devices.
For this reason, it’s wise to opt for a mobile-responsive theme. Most modern software is mobile-friendly. However, with so much at stake, it’s also a good idea to manually test how your theme displays and functions on different devices.
Your choice of theme can also impact your store’s performance. As an online shop, product images will likely feature heavily across your website. WordPress themes can load multiple graphics in different ways, affecting your page load speeds. Poor code can also negatively impact your store’s loading times.
If your WordPress e-commerce site is laggy, visitors are unlikely to hang around waiting for the privilege of handing over their hard-earned cash. Research suggests that if your online store makes $100,000 per day, a one-second page delay could cost you $2.5 million.
To avoid losing out on sales, it’s essential to check reviews carefully. Here, you can see whether anyone is complaining about a drop in performance after installing the theme:
It’s also a good idea to run a performance test before and after activating your theme. Doing this can help you evaluate how the software has impacted your site’s performance.
There are many free testing tools available. However, Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) and the GTmetrix tool are two of the popular options.
Top 5 WordPress themes for online stores
Choosing the right e-commerce theme can mean the difference between securing a sale or turning customers away at the door. Get this decision right, and your store can display and perform flawlessly across desktops, smartphones, and tablets.
Let’s set your store up for success! Here are five of the best e-commerce WordPress themes.
1. Botiga
The Botiga theme features a minimalist look and feel. It could be ideal if you want to create a cleaner, more simplistic design for your e-commerce store:
While this theme could be a perfect fit for more streamlined stores, it’s also highly customizable. If you’re looking for a pop of color, then Botiga comes with several pre-set color palettes. This feature makes it easy to overhaul the theme to fit your unique branding.
Botiga includes various product card customization options, checkout styles, and product page gallery designs. As such, this theme has everything you need to build a high-converting e-commerce store.
By opting for Botiga, you’ll also get access to product filters and recommendation features. They can help customers discover new products and boost your conversions.
Today, many online stores promote their products via company blogs. Using this strategy is a great way to spark interest in your offerings and impress search engines by featuring many relevant keywords. Botiga makes adding a blog to your e-commerce site easy, which is perfect for your content marketing strategy.
Key features:
- Six archive layouts
- Five header options
- Three gallery styles for your product pages
- Multiple badge styles for notifying customers about special offers, sales, and limited-time deals
- A built-in scroll-to-top button
Pricing: You can download Botiga for free or check out the demo.
2. Neve
Performance plays a huge role in converting visitors into paying customers. High-performing WordPress software is a must, and the Neve theme is designed for speed. According to the official website, Neve takes 0.6 seconds to load on a default install:
With people increasingly shopping on their smartphones and tablets, it’s vital that your chosen theme is optimized for mobile. Neve goes one step further and renders your site as Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) content. If you were planning to publish an AMP version of your store, you might want to look at Neve.
According to Google, 60 percent of AMP domains pass the Core Web Vitals metrics, compared to 12 percent of non-AMP ones. If optimizing your site for Google’s Core Web Vitals is on your To-Do list, then it’s worth checking out Neve.
If you’re a fan of page builders, Neve is also compatible with all the major players. They include Beaver Builder, Divi Builder, and the Elementor plugin.
However, sometimes designing your own site from scratch can be daunting. If you’re looking to spin up a store with minimum hassle, Neve comes with over 80 starter sites.
Key features:
- Customize the header and footer using intuitive drag-and-drop components
- Choose between contained or full-width layouts
- Import a ready-made website using the Neve starter sites library
- Access a range of additional modules, including WooCommerce Booster
Pricing: You can download a free version of Neve. A range of premium plans is also available, starting at $59.
3. Astra
The Astra theme could be a good choice if you’re planning to use a page builder, as it integrates with Elementor, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, and more. As such, it enables you to design and develop an entire e-commerce store using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface:
By opting for Astra, you’ll also get access to over 180 starter templates, including multiple e-commerce layouts. You can use them to create a professionally designed online store within minutes. This convenience makes Astra an excellent choice for solo entrepreneurs who may not have a dedicated design and development team. We also recommend Astra to anyone who needs to create an e-commerce site fast.
When it comes to selling products and services online, speed is vital. The Astra team has made this a priority, as according to their website, this theme loads in under 0.5 seconds.
Moreover, if you plan to use Google Fonts within your online store, Astra will fetch and store these resources locally on your server. Therefore, the theme enables you to use a wide range of fonts without impacting your store’s performance.
When you launch an online store, you have the chance to connect with a global audience. If you’re planning to publish content in multiple languages, Astra is translation-ready. This makes it a good choice for stores that ship internationally.
Key features:
- Several built-in header layouts, including sticky, transparent, and mobile headers
- WooCommerce-ready
- Responsive font size
- Support for mega menus
- Requires less than 50KB of resources
Pricing: A free version is available, with a limited feature set. If you want to upgrade to Astra Pro, then licenses start at $47.
4. OceanWP
If you’re just starting out or have a limited budget, you may prefer to use a free e-commerce theme. OceanWP is completely free to download but still has everything you need to launch a successful online store:
You can use OceanWP to customize every part of your e-commerce site, including its background, navigation menus, and header style. If you don’t want to build your store from scratch, this theme also has a range of built-in templates.
Alternatively, if you want to take a more hands-on approach, then OceanWP is completely extensible. If you’re comfortable editing at the code level, you can customize the theme to meet your exact needs. Therefore, it could be a great option for WordPress developers.
Furthermore, OceanWP is WooCommerce-ready. If you’re one of the thousands of people who use this popular e-commerce platform, you can easily enable and disable different shop elements and change the order they appear in. You can also choose between a multi-step or distraction-free checkout.
Key features:
- Compatible with drag-and-drop page builders, including Elementor
- A range of shop and product category styles, including hover, image swap, and gallery slider
- Product view count settings
- A built-in quick view
- A choice between grid and list view
- Add to Cart options for unregistered or logged out users
Pricing: You can download OceanWP for free. Premium subscriptions are also available, ranging from $43-143 per year.
5. Shoppe
Shoppe is a highly customizable WooCommerce theme. It has a good selection of features that promise to make the customer’s shopping experience smoother. They include a product image zoom, wishlist, and quick look lightbox:
Shoppe also includes an AJAX Shopping Cart. It enables your customers to add products to their cart immediately without reloading the page. An AJAX cart can be invaluable for encouraging customers to purchase multiple items as part of a single transaction. As such, this feature is great for your bottom line.
If you’re looking to launch an e-commerce site in a hurry, then Shoppe could be a great option. Simply import the ready-made demo, select a skin, and you’ll have a functioning online store. This makes Shoppe a good fit for solo entrepreneurs who may not have a team of designers and developers on hand.
Furthermore, Shoppe’s layout resources are loaded only when the layout is selected. Since you’re not loading unnecessary files, this feature can deliver a performance boost.
Key features:
- More than 20 shop landing page layouts
- Over 14 header layouts and six footer layouts
- A gallery slider
- AJAX quick search
- Convenient social sharing buttons that appear alongside the buy button
- Bundled with the Themify Builder
Pricing: The Shoppe theme is priced at $59 per year. Shoppe is also included in the Master Club, which you can purchase for $89.
Conclusion
Increasingly more retailers are moving online. In a crowded marketplace, you’ll naturally want every part of your store to be perfect, including its design.
If you’re shopping around for an e-commerce WordPress theme, then check out any of the five choices we recommend:
- Botiga: A modern, clean design with plenty of customization options.
- Neve: This multi-purpose theme loads in less than a second and features over 80 ready-to-import demo sites.
- Astra: A high-performing, lightweight theme that promises to load in less than half a second.
- OceanWP: This free multi-purpose theme provides features usually reserved for premium software.
- Shoppe: A multi-purpose WooCommerce theme with plenty of added extras, including an AJAX cart and quick search.
If your store’s design isn’t up to scratch, you may struggle to convert visitors into customers. That’s where we come in! At FreshySites, our talented team of designers has worked on over 2,200 WordPress development projects. We have the skills and experience you need to elevate your store’s design and fine-tune its performance for maximum sales — and profits!
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