In episode 35, I am sharing my own experiences when you are looking for a theme to fit your WordPress online store. There are many variables when it comes to an eCommerce site that can make an already challenging task, finding a theme, even more so. Let me guide you through some tips, insights and thoughts to get you started on the process.

In this podcast, I talk about six questions that might want to ask yourself.

* Should I use a free or premium theme?

* Should I use that slider that came with my theme?

* How does the theme I’m looking at present the homepage and my online shop?

* Will shoppers be able to find my products easily?

* Do the theme and the eCommerce plugin I am using play together well?

* Is it mobile-friendly?

* Do I use a theme out-of-the-box, with a few customizations, or a ground-up customized theme?

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: Pronto Marketing

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-october-19-2016

Hey everyone and welcome to episode 35, Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today I am flying solo on the show and wanted to chat with you a bit about finding that WordPress theme for your eCommerce site. Of course, I am talking about when you are doing a self-hosted site as opposed to a platform that may already have a selection of themes specifically for online stores

lf you have any experience having put together or planning for a WordPress site, you know that choosing a theme  can be overwhelming. We are hit with simple themes, niche themes, themes for businesses, themes focused on call-to-actions and then onto theme builders, or page builders to help you with the theme you choose. The list goes on and on. But when you are looking for that one for your online store it can even be more of a challenge, because heck, this is your store and it needs to take the customer through the process of buying your products in the easiest and fastest way.

So let’s look at the broad expanse of WordPress eCommerce themes. For example, if you go to WordPress.org and do a filter search with eCommerce, you will get 67 themes to choose from. If you Google eCommerce WordPress themes, the results go up exponentially — to 2.7 million and growing all the time.

Or how about that question that I see over and over and over in Facebook groups. It might go something like this…

Hey everyone, I am building a online store where I will be selling my jewelry. What theme do you recommend? Yep, that’s it. And what an open question. Now this person will be graced with dozens of replies of people suggesting their own themes, their favorite themes or something they recently used. Truth be known, this will likely confuse the person more than help them.

The fact is that I have written a lot of posts on this subject. Done several tutorials and even gave workshops and talks focused on just themes. Finding that perfect theme can’t be summed up in a single show, nor is there a silver bullet to finding it.

You see, eCommerce sites have too many variables to make it as easy as one-theme-fits-all. It’s tough enough to find the one you want to present your business, but throwing in the mix of selling products adds on layers of things to think through before we make that final decision.

To help you at least get started on the right path, here are seven questions that you can ask yourself as you make your way through the maze of themes.

The first question to ask yourself. Should you use a free or premium theme?

I am the first to admit that there are a lot of well-built,