What is your eCommerce Theme #1 Mistake? [Woocommerce]

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Hey,

for those who've been into ecommerce for a long time and are running their own ecommerce websites/stores:

- What would be the 3 most important things in your opinion, to pay attention for before purchasing the perfect ecommerce theme? (I'm going with WooCommerce here).

Any mistakes you've done in the past, regarding picking your ecommerce theme, that you definitely would advice against or would really like to highlight as a warning here?

Thanks in advance!

.
#ecommerce #ecommerce advice #mistake #theme #woocommerce
  • Profile picture of the author RhysEvans
    Responsiveness - how does it look on cellphones, tablets and PC's. Given most of my buyers use these devices. Choosing a theme that looks good on a 13" laptop might not look right on a 4 inch screen.

    Customizable - Many of the themes, especially the ones on Themeforest take hours to look like the demo. Some aren't even tested properly by the designers as they just want a fast buck so check reviews and don't buy a theme with only 8 purchases. Wait until more reviews come through as you'll be stuck with a dud theme and it's really hard to get refunds through envato.

    Supported - is the theme supported by the level of woocommerce your running and if you update what will happen to the theme, best to test the theme on another install of woocommerce before screwing your website up and causing hours of headaches or even worse being unable to restore.

    I personally moved away from Woocommerce as once your store grows it becomes a real challenge relying on free software and plugins. I value my customers and their data and choose to use hosted solutions to ensure my stores are always online and can travel as a digital nomad without worrying about issues that could ruin my business overnight.

    Good luck
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    • Profile picture of the author Mystery777
      Originally Posted by RhysEvans View Post

      Responsiveness - how does it look on cellphones, tablets and PC's. Given most of my buyers use these devices. Choosing a theme that looks good on a 13" laptop might not look right on a 4 inch screen.

      Customizable - Many of the themes, especially the ones on Themeforest take hours to look like the demo. Some aren't even tested properly by the designers as they just want a fast buck so check reviews and don't buy a theme with only 8 purchases. Wait until more reviews come through as you'll be stuck with a dud theme and it's really hard to get refunds through envato.

      Supported - is the theme supported by the level of woocommerce your running and if you update what will happen to the theme, best to test the theme on another install of woocommerce before screwing your website up and causing hours of headaches or even worse being unable to restore.

      I personally moved away from Woocommerce as once your store grows it becomes a real challenge relying on free software and plugins. I value my customers and their data and choose to use hosted solutions to ensure my stores are always online and can travel as a digital nomad without worrying about issues that could ruin my business overnight.

      Good luck
      Thanks a lot for your input! I guess it's then safer to go with the "best sellers", as they've got the most number of sales and reviews (usually positive).

      I'm thinking of starting with Woocommerce first, (as I'm more accustomed to wp), but would then be moving to a more professional platform when the store and sales grow (perhaps Magento).

      .
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  • If you are looking for a theme for your WooCommerce website, definitely check out WooThemes. You can select a theme from their range of WooCommerce themes, and can be 100% sure that it works right. Then another suggestion would be to plan to test purchases before you open the business. This could mean setting up a Paypal Sandbox Account (if you plan to use Paypal). A sandbox account is like a “test” account, and will allow you to dry run the payment process, test refunds, etc.

    Hope it helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author jmferret
    Speed, how it looks on different devices and how easy it's to find a particular item for a first-time visitor not familiar with your layout.
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  • Profile picture of the author seodeveloping
    I really have nothing important to add here that hasn't already been covered... But I would pick one that can be modified easily by someone you trust. You're going to want to always customize it and tweak it.
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  • Profile picture of the author NKM Dony
    I think mistake on eCommerce website ...is

    1. Resonsive design..because there are many many visitor using mobile phone for online shopping now.
    2. Website Speed is another important for visitor
    3. Using customer friendly setting
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    I'd stay away from WooCommerce completely. We made that mistake and will never do it again. Out of the box, things seem to work just fine. Add a few plugins for various things and still no problems. That is, until it is monthly security update time. We had websites down more than half the time when plugins didn't work with the updated WordPress or that no longer worked because of other plugins that applied security patches differently. That's the problem with open source solutions - too many different parts all created by different people that program differently. We spent way too much time trying to fix broken websites and went back to hosted shopping carts. Saving $10 a month or so just isn't worth it!
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