Establishing an e-commerce store is a bit tricky. It has several nuances to it, a large portion of which nobody truly talks about. WooCommerce is one of the best ways to turn any simple looking WordPress website into a fully functional e-commerce store. Speaking about the few basics of WooCommerce, it is a WordPress plugin which needs to be installed and activated just like any other plugin. Being an open source plugin, it’s arguably the most feature-rich plugin too.
The list is endless, but instead, let me just say that it can be easily configured by WooCommerce developers and build a high-quality e-commerce store with WordPress. In the following post, there is a list of the first few things developers must consider while customizing WooCommerce store. These pointers mentioned below will get you started on the right foot and ensure you have proper groundwork covered before you add products or set up any marketing methods.
Define the character- Your store’s identity/name/logo and more
Your brand-new store is like a blank canvas, no identity, no distinguishing marks or anything. Henceforth, it is always advisable to create your identity first. And that can be done by taking a few basic steps such as:-
- Adding the name of your store
- Uploading a logo
- Create a catchy tagline
- Choosing the colors that actually represents your brand
Also, make sure that the visual elements you choose in your theme and use to represent your store should also be visible on your packaging or printed materials as well. And in case, you already have a logo, ask your Woocommerce development company to use those to guide the branding you are willing to create for your online store.
Additional tip: - Avoid using one color scheme online and another on a manual or product packaging as this move can potentially create confusion.
What about the theme? Change the store’s design with an eye-catching WooCommerce theme
Next step is to install a WooCommerce compatible WordPress theme. Themes, especially on open source platforms, can be easily switched in and out, so you don’t need to commit one for life. For example, if you try one and find that’s not right for your store to its customers, a WooCommerce developer always has the option to swap with a different theme.
Additional tip: - here the book is always judged by its cover. So, if possible try hiring someone who is experienced with WordPress theme design and WooCommerce customization to create something like never before for you.
Customize the way you present elements to your customers
Your job doesn’t end once you are done with the theme in WooCommerce or any other web development procedure. Using an out of the box theme is fine but one still needs to customize elements within that theme and present in such a way that the customer gets compelled to walk-in your store.
Starting from the images, widgets, text and other elements, one can customize numerous such elements on their homepage. As a customer always tends to see and experience different things depending on what they are shopping for at that time which overall offers a different experience.
For example, if you are in clothing and fashion industry, it is quite obvious for your potential customers to expect large attractive periods of your products on models on a sleek, visually attractive home page. But if you welcome them with lots and lots of text to scroll, they are more likely to feel frustrated and walk-out from your store.
Also, customize other shop relations
After deciding upon the looks of your store, it’s time for your WooCommerce developer to change the settings involved in check out procedures before adding the products.
- Decide upon the payment methods- credit card, bank transfer, PayPal, cash on delivery
- The payment gateway
- Taxes or VAT
- Any special payment settings – shipping or delivery fees on specific items
Take advantage of WordPress plugins
Currently, most of the Woocommerce development companies tend to take full advantage of WooCommerce shop WordPress plugins especially to customize their pages like shop page, product page, cart page, checkout page and thank you page.
Plugins such as:-
- Yolo WooCommerce Products Layouts Plugins- it is used to display your products beautifully and differently. It also has the potential to meet numerous requirements of products displaying and allows users an easy way to control all product items.
- WooCommerce AJAX- One of the most time-saving methods used to update the cart totals with AJAX. Which means when you change the shipping options, the cart and payment will update flowing.
Best Practices to modify and customize your website entirely
Flexibility is one of the greatest benefits of using WooCommerce to sell online. Furthermore, we want to show you a couple of ways to customize your theme, so that updating is as painless as possible.
There are mainly two ways to customize:
- Plugin- for minor changes
- Child theme- for major alterations
Using a Plugin
If you are planning for any minor alterations/modifications to the stylesheet or CSS, then the best option is to use a plugin that allows you to add custom styling. For example, install Jetpack.
Then, go to your website > Dashboard > Jetpack > Settings and enable Custom CSS.
After that go to Appearance > Edit CSS, here you will be able to add all your custom CSS styles.
Simply copy the CSS you want to change from style.css (or alt. style sheets in /styles/*.css folder) into the custom.css file, and edit it from there. As a result, this will effectively overwrite the style in style.css as the custom.css stylesheet is loaded after style.css on page load.
Using a child theme
If you wish to modify the stylesheet or CSS of a popular theme, then the best option is to use a child theme to preserve customizations against future updates. All you need to do is:
Buy a child theme- There are numerous themes that can be installed and activated to modify the look of the parent theme without coding or styling adjustments.
