So, you have decided to build a shiny new e-commerce store for your business using WooCommerce. Let me congratulate you first of all. You have taken the right decision.
WooCommerce is an excellent all-round plugin for building an e-commerce store using WordPress. While I commend you for this decision, you have taken I would like you to guide you on making one more decision.
And that vital decision is the selection of theme.
As I have written previously too, the selection of the theme is a crucial decision you have to make.
But the decision process of selecting the theme changes when you are choosing a theme for an e-commerce site.
So, let’s look at the point that you have to consider while selecting a theme for your WooCommerce site.
WooCommerce theme selection parameters
1. WooCommerce support
WooCommerce is a plugin that comes with its template files. And the theme you are selecting must support WooCommerce. Therefore you need to make sure while purchasing the theme, that it supports WooCommerce out of the box.
And while WooCommerce is a single plugin, there are a lot of other plugins in the WooCommerce ecosystem. The theme that you select should play nicely with at least the popular allied plugins required by your e-commerce store.
2. Speed
We are living in a fast-paced world, where attention spans are going down like anything. Everyone wants things yesterday. Now imagine having a bloated theme that takes ages to open. And now think about the sales. What will happen?
Of course, the sales will go down and may not even happen if your website takes ages to load. You need a lean theme that opens your website quickly. Study shows people leave your site within 3 seconds if it doesn’t load.
3. Mobile responsive
Majority of the visitors of the website worldwide browse websites through a mobile device. Therefore, you must use a theme that provides excellent experience on a desktop/laptop, mobile and a tab. A theme that is not mobile responsive is a nail in the coffin for your e-commerce business.
You should make sure that you are taking care of at least the three points I have mentioned above.
So, which theme to use?
There are a lot of good themes available in the market. But I am a little biased when it comes to themes. I want my themes to be lean, no bells and whistles yet providing a good customization experience. By now you should have already guessed which theme I am referring?
And you are right! I am indeed talking about Astra.
Since I have found Astra, I haven’t used anything else. Till now, I have built more than 40 websites using it.
Let’s talk about Astra.
Astra is an ultra-fast light-weight theme using which you can build a WooCommerce based e-commerce store very quickly. Astra provides out of the box support for WooCommerce.
Astra comes in two flavours. One is entirely FREE to use, and other is PRO, a paid version. Although the Pro version costs money, the cost is quite affordable for the features it is giving. And the benefits it will provide you down the line are innumerable.
So, let’s talk about the features of the Free version first
Ability to change the content width on the archive page.
Decide the number of columns for listing the products on all devices with the different form factor.
You can configure how many products you want to display on a page.
A completely configurable sidebar on the WooCommerce pages.
Add to cart option in the header
A dedicated section in the customizer for WooCommerce
Let’s see what Pro version offers
Astra Pro provides a lot of customization options as compared to the free version. To list a few
Add the Sale Bubble
elect the layout of products on the shop page depending upon your requirement. You can choose from either a grid view or a list view style.
Additional customization for the individual products page
Product image gallery layout
Ability to add the breadcrumbs
The customizable style for the add to cart
Easy and configurable product navigation
The visitors on your website can view the product images easily using the quick view option for products.
A simple two-step checkout with a coupon field
A completely distraction-free checkout option so that the conversions will increase
Style the checkout page as per your requirement
To top it off you also get an off-canvas sidebar.
And that’s not it. Astra provides two more additional excellent benefits.
1. Starter sites
Astra provides you with beautiful ready-to-use templates for your WooCommerce store. You don’t have to build everything from scratch. Not that it limits you in any way. But still, if you want to get up and running quickly, then starter templates are the way to go.
Astra starter templates library contains many pixel-perfect templates that you can use for your sites with your eyes closed. The templates are designed keeping the customers and the conversion in mind.
You can take a look at some attractive ready to use website demos listed here. You can import these templates as a complete website, or you can pick individual pages as needed.
2. 24×7 support
Astra provides you with 24/7 Dedicated email support so that you are not stuck anywhere. The support team is very knowledgable and kind. Since I have used their support, I can vouch for their quality. Also, you get access to a dedicated Facebook Group with over 10,000+ active members.
Pricing
Both annual and lifetime customers will get access to one-on-one support, extensive training, and can be installed on unlimited websites.
Now, these are the prices that are effective as on publishing date of this article. For current price, you can visit their site.
Now that you know more about Astra, I am sure you will make the right decision and go for Astra. And it’s not just me who is vouching for Astra theme. There are a lot of developers and business persons across the globe using Astra theme regularly.
I have recommended this theme to more than 3700 of my students across various continents.
So, don’t waste your time going over which theme to use for your WooCommerce store and go ahead with Astra theme.
Best of luck from me! Do share the link of your e-commerce store.
