Find The Best WooCommerce Theme for Your Business

WooCommerce is a popular eCommerce tool, and one of the words most associated with it is “free.” You can download WooCommerce for free, use it to turn an existing WordPress website into an eCommerce powerhouse for free, and use the plugin’s basic set of eCommerce tools for (you guessed it) free. So when it comes to choosing a theme or template for your online store, is it smart to use one of the free WooCommerce themes available, or is it time to open your wallet?

The good news is that it’s pretty easy to find a good free theme — or a paid theme with a reasonable price tag. Many of the best WooCommerce themes are priced below $100. In this post, we’ll take a look at some free WooCommerce themes as well as some paid WooCommerce templates so you can find the best theme for your eCommerce plans, at a price that fits your budget.

What Is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin that turns a WordPress website into an online store. You can download, install, and use this hugely popular software for free, forever. But that doesn’t mean you won’t have any expenses when you use WooCommerce. For example, while you can find many free WooCommerce themes, you might decide that a premium template is well worth paying for. The choice is yours to make!

How To Pick The Best WooCommerce Theme For Your Small Business

Looking through the best WooCommerce themes, you’ll want to go with a theme that looks and feels right. After all, it’s your store! To be sure you’re making the right choice, spend some time thinking about your plans and wish list before you visit the WooCommerce theme store.

Here are some considerations:

• Budget: How much are you willing and able to pay for a WordPress theme? It’s best to set a budget before you begin to shop. In addition to free WordPress themes, you can find others priced between $20 and $100 per year. You may be able to purchase the theme permanently for a slightly higher price, too, and avoid the annual charges.
• Features: Not even the very best WooCommerce themes will have everything you’re looking for. It’s important to prioritize your wish list, so you know where you can compromise and where to draw the line. Some WooCommerce themes will be minimalist while others are highly stylized. Some will follow a column layout, and others will be boxier. And it’s not about the way your site looks. Some themes allow you to build a customized landing page or add a blog. Others will limit the number of extra pages you can easily add. Know what matters to you before you start to shop.
• Design: There are lots of options, but which one is right for your eCommerce venture? Do you want a landing page that features your products, front and center, using a photo carousel? Or would you rather have more text on your front page and then guide users to product pages? Your answer may be very different if you’re selling groceries vs. lifestyle advice or interior design.
• Ease Of Use: If you don’t have a lot of experience with web design, you’ll probably feel most comfortable with a theme that lets you use a drag-and-drop editor to customize pre-made layouts for your online store.
• Responsiveness: Your customers probably will visit your website using a variety of devices. Most themes are designed to accommodate viewers’ choice of screens. Be sure to check that the themes you like are mobile responsive, so visitors will see your best side, whether they’re using a desktop or laptop computer or a tablet or phone to browse.
• Speed: Online shoppers are notoriously impatient and don’t like waiting for web pages to load, so having a fast website helps ensure a great user experience. Check out the total size of the themes you’re considering. A theme that weighs in at 28 or 29 KB will load a lot faster than one that measures in the hundreds, but you may gain increased functionality with larger themes that offset the extra size.
• Customization Options: Some themes permit you to add your personal touch and move elements around to suit your needs. Others are fairly limited, allowing you to add photos and text blocks and not much more. If you’re looking for extreme customization options, you may be best off hiring a designer to build a theme from scratch. Many users are able to find a prebuilt theme that meets their needs. Just be aware that WooCommerce themes offer different levels of customization.
• Branding Consistency: Can you upload your logo, customize your landing page’s banner, and use your own colors and font — or something pretty darn close? Make sure the theme you’re leaning toward offers options that will satisfy you.
• Customer Support: If you think you might need some help getting your theme uploaded or would appreciate a helping hand as you set up your store, look for a theme that offers at least some level of support to users.
• Updates: In the theme store, you should be able to see when a theme was last updated. Try to find out how often themes are updated, and avoid those that wait too long, or you may run into compatibility problems down the road.
• SEO: Many themes are built with SEO in mind. In fact, many add SEO elements into the very code they’re built on. That will give you a jump on search engine rankings for your store, once it’s up and running.
• Compatability: You can find and add hundreds of WooCommerce extensions. If you already know of a few you want to add, check to make sure they’ll integrate seamlessly with the theme you choose.

Free WooCommerce Themes

Visit the WooCommerce theme store, and you’ll see some options for categories. You can choose to browse through all the WooCommerce themes or view only free WooCommerce themes, Storefront themes, or responsive themes. If you know what you’re looking for, you can search by theme name, too.

Screenshot of WooCommerce webpage, captured 3/31/2021

You’ll find 25 themes in all at the WooCommerce theme store. Many of those are free to download and use. Paid themes cost between $39 and $129 and usually include one year of free updates and support.

Here’s a look at the three free WooCommerce themes:

Storefront

Built and maintained by WooCommerce core developers, Storefront offers water-tight integration with WooCommerce software and extensions so users don’t have to worry about conflicts or glitches that can lead to downtime.

Storefront features a responsive layout, a flexible nesting grid system, and enhanced SEO performance. Its clean simple design lends itself to customization, allowing you to bring in elements that match your store and overall brand. Downloaded more than 5.1 million times, Storefront is built for eCommerce. You can display product categories on your homepage or focus on recent, featured, on sale, or top-rated products instead.

Storefront offers a pack of customization tools for $69. The Storefront Extensions bundle includes one year of updates and support and gives you a WordPress customizer that lets you change headers, footers, fonts, colors, and layouts in your store, with no coding required. You’ll also be able to add contact forms, customer reviews, site navigation, and more to your store. Full documentation is provided.

If you like Storefront but want a little something different, check out Storefront child themes. Built on Storefront’s framework, the child themes include small tweaks without losing the ability to update quickly. Two free Storefront child themes, Deli and Boutique, are discussed in this section. You’ll find information about paid child themes in the next section.

Deli

Although anyone can use this free WooCommerce theme, it was designed specifically for stores selling natural, organic, and handmade products. The color scheme and textures of the design are meant to communicate a natural impression. Since Deli is built on the Storefront theme, it offers the same easy integration with the WooCommerce core and some extensions as well as the same solid eCommerce focus. Users can change their store’s look and feel with just a few clicks, with no coding required. Stores built using the Deli theme are mobile responsive.

Boutique

Another Storefront child theme, Boutique is aimed at small stores and boutiques, giving them an easy entrance to eCommerce. Just add your logo, create a color scheme, and start selling. A mobile-responsive theme that integrates easily with WooCommerce core and several extensions, Boutique lets you display different categories of products right on your store’s home page.

Screenshot of WooCommerce webpage, captured 3/31/2021

Storefront WooCommerce Themes

Click on the Storefront category on the WooCommerce theme store’s main page, and you’ll see 14 options displayed. These are Storefront child themes, including Deli and Boutique, which are both available at no charge. The other 12 themes cost $39 each and are built for specific types of online stores, although you can use any theme to build whatever kind of store you’d like. These types of stores are specifically supported:

• Bistro
• Stationery
• Petshop
• Hotel
• Bookshop
• Arcade
• Homestore
• Pharmacy
• Outlet
• ProShop
• Galleria

Each Storefront child theme is built on Storefront’s robust core parent theme, meaning they all are 100% compatible with the latest version of WooCommerce and customer-facing WooCommerce extensions. Storefront child themes, like the parent theme, are mobile responsive, built for eCommerce, and customizable without coding. Each child theme looks a little different, to reflect its category of users. If you like the look of one theme or the other, don’t hesitate to use it for your online store, no matter what category of products you sell.

Take a look at some of the reasonably priced Storefront extensions before you choose the theme you want to use to build your online store. The $69 comprehensive Powerpack bundle, for example, gives you access to features that make it easy to configure header layouts, customize your store’s appearance, and toggle between checkout options. Some extensions, like Storefront Product Sharing, are available to download for free, giving you powerful eCommerce tools at no cost. Not all extensions work with child themes, however, so make sure you choose the right theme for the options you want to add.

WooCommerce is built using SEO-optimized code. However, the Storefront themes do not include specific SEO tools.

Responsive WooCommerce Themes

The final category available on the WooCommerce theme store is “Responsive.” Select for that trait, and you’ll pull up a list of all 12 Storefront child themes, plus Storefront itself. Those are all free themes developed by WooCommerce designers. Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean that other WooCommerce themes are not mobile responsive. In fact, it’s not clear why this category filter doesn’t pull up any of the paid themes available, so it’s probably best not to let mobile responsiveness limit your search.

If you like the look of one of the paid WooCommerce themes, just read the information on the theme’s page and make sure that it’s mobile responsive before you download it. The majority of themes available today — not all, but most — will be mobile responsive, meaning that an online store built on that theme automatically adjusts to fit whatever screen a shopper uses. Whether it’s a desktop or laptop computer, a cellphone, or a tablet, a mobile-responsive theme looks good and functions properly. You should avoid any theme that is not mobile responsive, or you risk turning away shoppers who can’t view and shop your site the way you intended.

Looking at All themes on the WooCommerce theme store, click on a theme to learn more about it. Near the bottom of each theme’s page, you’ll see a section highlighting features or offering a summary of the theme. That’s a good place to look to check that any theme is mobile responsive.

Screenshot of WooCommerce webpage, captured 3/31/2021

Building A Storefront You’ll Love With The Best WooCommerce Theme

WooCommerce has a lot to offer its users, as far as free eCommerce options go. And the number of free WooCommerce themes available only adds to that. If you’re unable to find what you like in the WooCommerce theme store, you can always visit the WordPress theme store to look for a free, WooCommerce-compatible theme there.

If you’re still wondering if WooCommerce is right for you, keep exploring both the plugin itself and the benefits and features it delivers. We think the attractive, functional, free/reasonably priced themes belong in the benefit category and hope you find the best WooCommerce theme for your online store!