Online shopping, once somewhat of a rarity, has in recent years become commonplace, and more and more consumers are doing at least some of their shopping with tablets and other hand-held devices. WordPress themes initially addressed website development project in more general terms, and largely with the PC in mind.
A new trend emerged however, due to the the need for Responsive themes to take into account the growing variety of platforms in use An even newer trend is now making itself known, as more and more responsive multi-purpose themes are being placed on the market to specifically address eCommerce website needs and requirements.
Multi-purpose themes provide the flexibility product-oriented websites often require. The design of eCommerce themes for practical uses has been a challenge that is now being answered, and represents a new trend in the business and shopping world.
The Benefits of eCommerce Multi-purpose WordPress Themes
eCommerce multipurpose WordPress themes that have recently come on the market have given web developers an impressive array of design options to choose from. The higher quality themes are extremely flexible, as must be the case to address such a wide variety of business and product-related website designs.
The challenge of addressing this need in flexibility has been answered to a large extent by the introduction of eCommerce-related pre-made layouts, together with a wide range of layout variation and customization possibilities, and options that take into account the need to incorporate blogs, reviews, testimonials, and other features into a website’s design.
Much of what has needed to be done has been addressed through advanced admin panel options, through which everything from icon fonts to shopping cart styles are managed. Features such as these that have been incorporated into pre-made layouts enable eCommerce web designers to get their projects off to a rapid start.
A pre-made layout example taken from Atelier Theme – Themeforest top seller.
eCommerce oriented, multi-purpose WordPress themes have proven to be ideal vehicles for designing feature packed, easily navigable, and often stunning online stores. What once involved a cumbersome, time-consuming design effort has, through the use of these eCommerce-oriented themes, become a quick and efficient means of attaining the same, or in most cases, improved results.
Case Study: Atelier
Atelier is a relative newcomer in the world of eCommerce oriented WordPress themes, but it has nevertheless managed, in a very short time, to take the eCommerce theme community by storm. A product created by the Power Elite Author Swift Ideas, which has sold more than 20,000 items on Themeforest, has proven to be almost unimaginably flexible and versatile in its use.
The number of stunning pre-made layouts, a total of 12, and counting, featured in the latest Atelier update, has only added to this theme’s popularity. Data from any pre-made layout can be imported using the Demo Content importer, making it possible to build upon or customize it in any way.
Atelier’s quality is unquestioned. It is readily apparent in these demos, and in the quality of pre-made layouts themselves. Your first impression of these demos will no doubt be that they are different, but exciting. The quality is there, although it is more easily observed than put into word.
Atelier’s latest superb pre-made layout Vario with Preview slider
Of particular significance are the PageSpeed and YSlow grade performance parameters. This theme, built with clean HTML5 code, was built with speed and performance in mind. An eCommerce website owner cannot afford the luxury of feature-rich, but slow-loading product pages .Atelier-designed product pages can be made to load much faster than is typical with other themes, most of which do not have these optimizing features.
Three different cart styles, add to cart, variable product, and sold out, each with their own header, makes the end user’s task much easier. These in combination with Atelier’s selection of icon fonts and notification animations significantly streamlines the shopping experience. Three product page types and 10 header types, plus several product control options, add to this theme’s already impressive flexibility.
Multiple Product Display Options and Mobile Options
Atelier’s Convoy pre-made layout.
Products can be displayed in anywhere from 2 to 6 columns, including a multi- size masonry format, and Atelier is far more than just Responsive. This theme includes tailor-made features that provide mobile users with full-site functionality for their phones or tablets.
Another interesting, and somewhat unique feature is the ability to choose among three different shop views, a standard view, and list or gallery views. Product pages come with user reviewing capabilities plus an option to display related products.
Atelier features 10 different header types. These types, taken together with a number of customizing options, including customizing using a drag and drop configurator, means the number of different header options available is, for all practical purposes, limitless. The logo can be displayed left, right, or centered, navigation can be centered or split, and the headers can be displayed at the top, to the right, or to the left of a page. Two animated page heading options, which can serve as attention grabbers, are also available. These header options, as well as options available for a number of other features, are on display on Atelier’s website.
Drag and Drop Page Builder
Atelier uses Swift Page Builder as its own robust page builder, and Visual Composer, a highly popular page builder, can also be used with this theme as well. In any event, pages can be created quickly and with ease, and those that hold some promise for future use can be stored away for use as templates.
The huge selection of Font Awesome scalable vector icons is also worthy of mention. There are presently 519 different icons available (with version 4.3.0), plus the icon library includes 197 iconMind icons and 40 icons that have been custom made for use by Atelier.
There are many other highly useful features as well, all of which contribute to final design solutions of outstanding quality. These include a custom Colorizer, social sharing and integration buttons, CSS3 animations, typographic control, portfolio and blog options, a mega menu, and much more.
Selecting Atelier makes Sense
This themes main strength lies in the combination of incredible versatility, ease of use, and the sheer beauty and elegance of its presentations. The current trend in website theme usage is definitely heading in the direction of WooCommerce-compatible multipurpose themes that are highly flexible, versatile and well supported. Atelier is all of these and more.
The support provided to its users is definitely world class. Selecting Atelier as your development tool of choice should impact your customer base, positively and substantially. The price is definitely right, as it compares favorably with other premium WordPress themes, but you will definitely get more for your money. Take a stroll through the Atelier website today, and be prepared to be impressed with what you see.
