Working with WordPress Toward a Fantastic Virtual Storefront

What does your ecommerce site look like?

Is it colorful? Splashy? Organized?

Is it in keeping with the product or products you sell?

Appearance isn’t everything. That’s the truth. But it’s becoming harder to deny the fact that swimming in a crowded sea means you’d better be attractive to enough fish in order to survive. For online merchants, that means paying close attention to the interface your customers encounter from the time they log on to your site and the point at which they decide to buy.

Themes are one of those fun aspects of digital content. From back in the early part of the decade, when cell phones began offering interchangeable images and functions on their screens, customers have been exposed to virtual presentations of what they once viewed on paper.

The concept of a theme is so much more than a photograph or image. In practical terms, it means a synchronized application of pictures and operations. It’s customizable in a way that offers great or little control. 

Why WordPress?

When your livelihood involves selling and re-selling products, one of your primary concerns must be the way your virtual storefront appeals to potential buyers. Enter WordPress, a prolific platform for creating seamless internet sites. Once strictly a domain used by web page developers and bloggers, it’s now expanding to more complex undertakings.
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While many ecommerce players lean toward an all-in-one platform such as Shopify, others are more content with the controls they have with WordPress. If your web skills (or those of an employee or associate with web skills) are well developed, WordPress offers a competitively simple canvas for designing an attractive, compelling interface that will cement your signature style and invite new and return sales traffic.

Now that you’ve decided (perhaps) to take a stab at leveraging WordPress, it’s time to tackle the basics of your site. Here is a contemporary read on some popular themes attracting ecommerce merchants who use WordPress.

Do you recall sitting down to peruse examples of a page palette and layout, only to realize how hard it is to choose and commit to one? That’s a function of your personal taste, but the dilemma goes so much farther. Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re designing or redesigning your site:

• Does the overall style fit with your product selection?
   
  If your merchandise mix includes delicate vintage handkerchiefs once in the possession of grandma, chances are you’ll want to avoid harsh, loud displays. Conversely, if you’re selling rock-based t-shirts to head-bangers, let loose and go for something totally edgy.
  
  
• Is the look one you can live with for some time?
  
  Sure, we said looks aren’t everything, but if this is something you will be visiting day in and day out, it should be visually appealing. And if you’re hoping to establish a brand, consistency is key, and changing optics may be off-putting or confusing to customers.
  
  
• Does your layout make sense?
  
  It’s super tricky to work with home page content, especially. You want to sell, sell, sell, but you also want to form a relationship with future customers who are eager to know about your origin, your values, and your objectives as a merchant.
  
  Have a fresh set of eyes look at your prototype site, or existing site, and render a verdict. Does it offer the right balance of information? Are the columns and text boxes in the right place?
  
  
• Are the mechanics working in an orderly manner?
  
  We know it’s not particularly sexy, but the nuts and bolts of online selling requires so much more than just pretty pictures. One of the benefits of a tailored app like Shopify is a one-stop shop offering various functions related to carts, shopping, marketing, etc. WordPress is customizable, but requires plug-ins to handle those tasks. If you use it, be sure navigation is seamless, and that portals for ordering and payment are in good working order every day.

Once your site is up and running, you can concentrate on the mechanics of merchandising. But always keep in mind that the analogy of an attractive, functional web site is a brick-and-mortar merchant keeping a clean, well-stocked store that is visually enticing and easy to get around from the moment of entry to the checkout counter.