Enhancing the visual appeal and functionality of your WooCommerce shop page is paramount in the competitive world of e-commerce. One effective way to achieve this is by leveraging the power of the Astra theme, a versatile and feature-rich WordPress theme.
In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the intricate process of customizing your WooCommerce shop page using the Astra theme.
Benefits of Customizing the WooCommerce Shop Page
Customizing the WooCommerce shop page is essential for several reasons, all of which contribute to creating a unique, user-friendly, and effective online shopping experience. Here are some key reasons why businesses often find it necessary to customize their WooCommerce shop pages:
- Brand Identity: Customizing the shop page allows businesses to align their online store with their brand identity. This includes incorporating brand colors, fonts, and visual elements that create a cohesive and recognizable brand image.
- User Experience (UX): A customized shop page enhances the overall user experience for visitors to your online store. Tailoring the layout, navigation, and design elements to suit your target audience improves usability and encourages customers to explore and make purchases.
- Competitive Advantage: In a crowded online marketplace, standing out is crucial. Customizing the shop page helps differentiate your store from competitors. A unique and visually appealing design can attract and retain customers, giving you a competitive edge.
- Mobile Responsiveness: With an increasing number of users shopping on mobile devices, ensuring that your shop page is optimized for mobile responsiveness is vital. Customization allows you to create a design that adapts seamlessly to various screen sizes, improving the mobile shopping experience.
- Highlighting Special Offers or Products: Businesses often use the shop page to showcase special offers, new arrivals, or featured products. Customization allows you to strategically position and highlight these items, increasing their visibility to potential customers.
- Improved Navigation: Tailoring the navigation structure of the shop page can simplify the browsing process for customers. Easy navigation encourages users to explore different product categories, leading to increased engagement and higher conversion rates.
- Optimized Product Presentation: Customization enables businesses to present their products most appealingly. This includes choosing the number of product columns, adjusting image sizes, and selecting the information displayed on product cards, ensuring a visually pleasing and informative presentation.
- Adaptation to Business Model: Different businesses have unique needs and business models. Customizing the shop page allows for the adaptation of the online store to specific requirements, whether it’s a subscription-based model, digital products, or a catalog-style presentation.
- SEO Optimization: Customizing the shop page can contribute to search engine optimization (SEO). By optimizing meta descriptions, product titles, and other on-page elements, you can improve your store’s visibility on search engine results pages.
- Customer Trust and Confidence: A well-customized shop page instills trust and confidence in customers. A professional and visually appealing design suggests a reliable and reputable online store, which can positively influence purchasing decisions.
How to customize the WooCommerce Shop page using the Astra theme?
Customizing the WooCommerce Shop page with the Astra theme is remarkably user-friendly and straightforward. Astra provides an intuitive and powerful set of customization options specifically tailored for WooCommerce integration. With Astra, even users with minimal technical expertise can achieve a polished and personalized WooCommerce Shop page that aligns perfectly with their brand and design preferences. Let’s quickly jump in and take a look at it.
Step 1 – Install WooCommerce & Astra Theme
Before diving into customization, ensure that your WooCommerce plugin is successfully installed and configured. Subsequently, install the Astra theme by navigating to the WordPress Dashboard → Appearance → Themes → Add New. Search for ‘Astra,’ install the theme, and activate it.
Step 2 – Customize Shop Page: Container Layout
Navigate to WordPress dashboard → Appearance → Customize
Next, from the left panel click on WooCommerce → Product Catalog. Begin by selecting a Container layout. Choose from ‘normal’ and ‘full width’.
Select the layout that aligns with your store’s requirements. Next, choose the container style that you can leave at ‘default’ or select from boxed and unboxed.
Step 3 – Sidebar Layout
Choose the sidebar layout that suits your needs. Opt for no sidebar, left sidebar, or right sidebar based on your store’s design preferences.
For example, if you prefer a right sidebar, make the appropriate selection.
Step 4 – Shop Layout
Now, focus on the shop layout. Astra offers two distinct shop card designs.
We will proceed with other customizations before exploring the differences between these designs.
Step 5 – Shop Columns
Determine the number of product columns you want on your shop page. Adjust the shop columns to achieve the desired layout.
For instance, if you prefer three columns, make the necessary adjustments.
Step 6 – Products Per Page
Set the number of products displayed per page. This choice is directly linked to the number of product rows.
Adjust these settings to ensure a seamless and visually appealing shop page.
Step 7 – Shop Archive Content Width
Tailor the shop’s content width to your liking. You can either keep it at default or customize it by dragging the slider or entering a specific width value.
Choose a width that complements your overall design.
Step 8 – Shop Display Options
Explore the ‘Shop Page Display’ settings, offering three options: ‘Show products,’ ‘Show categories,’ or ‘Show products and categories.’
Select the option that best suits your store’s presentation. For instance, ‘Show products and categories’ is a popular choice for a comprehensive shop page display.
Step 9 – Category Display
Choose how you want categories to be displayed on your shop page. Options include ‘Show products,’ ‘Show subcategories,’ or ‘Show both products and subcategories.’
Make a selection based on your store’s organization and user experience.
Step 10 – Default Product Sorting
Customize the default sorting order of your products on the shop page. Choose from options such as custom ordering, name, popularity, average rating, or sort by the most recent or ascending/descending price.
Step 11 – Shop Card Structure
Decide which information you want to display on each product card. Enable or disable specific elements like category, title, price, rating, and short description based on your shop page’s requirements.
Step 12 – Shop Card Design
Now, go back to the Shop page Layout and choose between two shop card designs. Preview each design to see how it affects the placement of elements like the ‘Add to Cart’ button.
Select the design that aligns with your visual preferences and user experience goals.
Step 13 – Design Tab
In the ‘Design’ tab, further customize the alignment of content on your shop page.
Experiment with left, center, or right alignment to achieve the desired visual balance.
Step 14 – Publish & Frontend
Once satisfied with your customizations, click ‘Publish.’
Visit the front end to see the results – a beautifully customized shop page tailored to your store’s unique identity.
Astra Pro addons
That was how you can customize your shop page with the theme’s free version. You also get plenty of more customization options in design as well as general if you switch to Astra Pro.
A few of the features of Astra Pro are:
Add to Cart
- Ajax Based: Enhances the shopping experience by allowing users to add products to their cart without reloading the entire page.
- Product Quantity Button: Provides a convenient quantity button for users to easily adjust the quantity of products they want to purchase.
Header
- Customized Cart Menu: Customizes the cart menu in the header, providing a tailored and visually appealing display of the user’s shopping cart.
Shop Page
- Horizontal Content Layout: Offers the option to display shop page content in a horizontal layout, adding variety and uniqueness to the overall design.
- Breadcrumb: Incorporates a breadcrumb navigation system on the shop page, enhancing user navigation and providing a clear path back to previous pages.
- Product Styling Options: Provides a range of styling options for products on the shop page, allowing for a visually cohesive and appealing display.
- Add to Cart Button Styling: Enables customization of the Add to Cart button’s appearance to better align with the overall design aesthetic.
- Infinite Pagination: Allows users to seamlessly scroll through products with infinite pagination, eliminating the need for traditional page navigation.
- Quick View on Image Hover/Click/Button Click: Enhances user interaction by providing quick views of products, triggered by image hover, click, or button click.
- Off-Canvas Sidebar: Introduces an off-canvas sidebar for the shop page, offering additional navigation options and a modern design element.
- Colors & Typography Options: Empowers users with extensive customization options for colors and typography on the shop page.
Single Product
- Upsell Feature: Facilitates upselling by showcasing related or complementary products on the single product page.
- Image Width Option: Allows control over the width of product images, ensuring optimal presentation and visual appeal.
- Related Products: Displays related products on the single product page, encouraging customers to explore additional options.
- Vertical/Horizontal Gallery Option: Provides flexibility in choosing between vertical and horizontal gallery layouts for single product pages.
- Image Zoom Effect: Enhances the user experience by enabling a zoom effect on product images.
- Customized Navigations: Allows customization of navigation elements on the single product page for a tailored user experience.
- Product Description Layouts: Offers various layouts for presenting product descriptions, adding versatility to product pages.
- Colors & Typography Options: Extends color and typography customization options to single product pages, maintaining a cohesive design throughout the site.
Conclusion
Customizing your WooCommerce shop page using the Astra theme opens up a world of possibilities for creating an engaging and user-friendly online shopping experience. By carefully following the step-by-step guide outlined above, you can elevate your store’s appearance and functionality, ultimately contributing to increased customer satisfaction and conversion rates. Experiment with these customization options to find the perfect blend that aligns with your brand identity and resonates with your target audience.
If you are more comfortable with video content, then here is a detailed video describing the simplest way to customize your WooCommerce shop page with the Astra theme.
