One of the first things you need to do after getting started with WooCommerce, is to add an attractive yet functional theme.
Even more so than regular websites, web stores really need a strong focus on usability. Every time a visitor gets lost on your site, you will most likely lose sales which is certainly not ideal. Therefore, it’s worth taking the time to research and find the right theme for your store.
WooCommerce Themes
There are hundreds of WooCommerce themes available, both free and paid.
In this article, I will show you some of the best WooCommerce themes out there. These themes range from general purpose themes to niche specific themes for things like fashion or food.
Niche specific themes are mostly used to give the store a particular look and feel for the visitor, by using related images and colors. However, as with any WordPress (and also WooCommerce) theme, you can still customize it as much as you want.
Here are ten of the best WooCommerce optimized themes, that will allow you to make full use of WooCommerce’s extensive features.
1. Wootique
This is the default theme that comes with the WooCommerce plugin.
It’s free and quite a good theme to get started with. I have this one in use on my own WooCommerce demo.
While simple, it’s pretty functional, and I especially like how they show the featured products.
If you just want to try out WooCommerce or want to run a simple store, this theme is more than sufficient.
2. Shopping
Shopping is one of the most popular free WooCommerce themes in the WordPress theme repository.
It is a simple yet functional theme and has some similarities to Wootique. However, it has one major difference. Shopping is responsive. That means you can even run a professional mobile store at no additional cost.
I also like the attention to detail on elements such as the check mark next to a product you’ve added to your cart.
3. Cypress
Want to go unconventional? Go Cypress.
You’ll probably either find this theme ugly and annoying, or very beautiful and unique. It has a vertical navigation which allows for a one page look and feel. It also features both a slider and a moving banner.
Completely over the top of course, but if you show this to your clients they will go wild.
Keep in mind though that using these types of heavy themes might require some optimization to get them loading fast enough for your visitors.
4. Alphashopper
Wow, what a theme. Maybe a bit over the top too, but remember that those demo sites are made by using every possible short code and feature.
The Alphashopper theme neatly integrates a regular WordPress theme with WooCommerce features. Don’t forget to look at the navigation. Especially the ‘Product choice’ item which looks very professional.
This theme is not one that you can set up easily or fast, since you need to make sure all of the elements work properly. However, once you do take the time, your store will come out looking very professional.
5. Retro
Already considered as one of the best WordPress themes, Retro comes with a perfectly designed shop.
It does a great job in giving your store a real retro feeling, by using the right colors and styling. In fact, I like this style so much I’ve used it for my war movies web store. It’s versatile enough though to let you even sell chocolate cupcakes for example.
The styling, however, does narrow down its use compared to a general purpose theme. Despite this, I highly recommend to include this one in your shortlist if you are looking for a niche theme.
6. Kancing
If you like photo based themes, you will love Kancing.
Large products photos are combined with full screen sliders and banners.
It doesn’t stop with just the homepage or shop page either. The product pages are made in the same style, which makes it the perfect WooCommerce theme for selling fashion or design products.
7. JustShop
I guess these guys were pretty hungry when making this theme. At least all of the pictures used should make them hungry!
This would be the perfect theme if you were running a restaurant with a web store on the side. Why? Well, this theme combines a nicely made web store with the ability to show a restaurant menu.
While I admit this does make this theme very limited in its use, it’s a great choice if this is exactly what you need. Even if you leave out the menu option, it is still a great theme with some nice filters on the side.
8. Bazar
Bazar is a perfect example of a general purpose theme.
The theme has a fairly neutral layout and has some clever features like the ‘Shop by’ functionality which is shown in the screenshot.
The product pages are well thought out, with a nice integration of a contact form for example.
There are also specific web store short codes, which allow you to insert different product sliders quite easily.
9. Flatsome
Another great general purpose theme is Flatsome.
What’s special about this theme is the various layout and style options that it offers.
Here are just a few: Vertical Tabs, Product Look Book or even Pinterest Style.
There are so many styles available that you could make several different stores without them looking like each other.
Don’t let the fashion images used in the demo fool you by the way, this WooCommerce theme can be used for many different types of products.
10. Four56 Industry
This theme really shows just how easy it is to turn a general purpose theme into a specific look and feel simply by using the right images and colors.
In the demo they have given it an industrial look by using lots of yellow. This color is strongly associated with industrial tools as most of the leading manufacturers make their products yellow. Yes, it really can be that easy.
It also comes with quite an ingenious way of showing the product ratings (the bars underneath each product in category view). I really like the ‘Last chance to buy’ feature that is incorporated in the navigation menu (see screenshot).
This is a theme I personally really like and will probably use sometime in the near future.
Conclusion
While this list is only just a small selection of the hundreds of WooCommerce themes available, each of these themes give a very good example of how powerful WordPress is in combination with WooCommerce.
With a clever use of colors, images and styling you can really engage your visitor when they visit your online store, just like a physical store. Combined with the feature rich plugin that is WooCommerce, you can build a professional web store.
If you’ve got a great live WooCommerce store or theme to show yourself, please share in the comments.
Jacco Blankenspoor is a website developer from the Netherlands, and is currently just building lots of different websites. When he is not working on HIPAAHQ.com you might catch him grinding coffee.