WooCommerce is a wonderful addition to a WordPress blogs since it transforms the blogging platform into a really strong online store. Adding WooCommerce is normally done through some sort of plugin system. Most of these come with default user interfaces. However, they are strictly connected to the main blog theme that is utilized. Because of this, when you make a blog that is to be transformed into an online store, you want to think about the theme that you utilize. If you did not already do this, you are left with having to customize the WooCommerce installation, which is a process that can be quite complicated if you do not have the necessary knowledge. Always remember the following.

Using Custom Templates

As already mentioned, this is highly important. Almost all WooCommerce systems have some sort of templating system that is implemented. Because of this, you need to remember that every single design element can be completely customized or overwritten.

The advantage that is offered by modification systems is that you do not need to edit the core files that WooCommerce comes with as you utilize the custom theme. If you do not really know what you are doing, you should never modify the core files. Doing other things like using free widgets for WooCommerce is a much better idea.

The huge problem with modifying core files is that when the installation is updated, all modifications will be lost. Every single template will be included in the WooCoomerce templates folder. Duplicate files that you will override so that you can have a backup. Child theme use is a good idea. This will prevent losing modifications during theme updates. As you override the default themes, make sure that you customize emails since they help in increasing sales.

Adding Actions and Filters

Actions, commonly known as hooks, need to be added in order to increase conversion rates. Every single marketer out there knows this. What is interesting with WooCommerce is that there are literally hundreds of actions and filters that you can use. In the event that you are not familiarized with the hooks, you need to remember that they would allow specific elements to be added, modified or included on the visible part of the site, based on user input. This does include arrays, texts and much more. Filters and actions have to be added based on the products/services offered.

The only problem with these modifications is that you need to know some programming in order to make filter and action changes. The “remove_filter” function can be used, as an example, in a combination with “woocommerce_subcategory” addition. You will want to read tutorials about how to modify WooCommerce files to learn about the changes that can be made.

Using the WooCommerce Customizer

There are different free plugins that are available for people that want to customize WooCommerce to a really high degree. The one by Skyverge is normally recommended by professionals. You want to add the plugins in order to have a center of operation for the customizations that you do. This allows you to easily modify customizations and save them without changing anything in the core files. Such a tool will help you to make change tests and see how they would work on the main site while being able to quickly remove them if you do not like the results.

Various customizations can be made. The most common things that are normally considered include:

• Adding special button text for “Add To Cart” elements – you can do this inside the shopping loop of a product page.
• Modifying the text for login screens or page coupon screens.
• Taxing label texts.
• Modifying the button text for the Submit Order checkout page.
• Adding text to the Additional Information or the Product Description tabs in the header regions.

Translating Strings

In many modification attempts that are done by designers and shop owners we see the need to change or translate a field name, a label, one sentence or similar. Filters can easily be used in order to do this but it is only reality for those that do know a lot about the subject. If you do not have such knowledge, using plugins can be great. One of the best ones that are always recommended by professionals is “<< Say What? >>”.

Changing Styles and Colors

It is quite obvious that you want your WooCommerce site to stand out and be as unique as possible. When you use any theme, you are faced with the unwanted situation in which there are many other online shops that look similar. With this in mind, you want to change styles and colors. As a default, WooCommerce includes 5 colors that you can modify in the settings section. If you want to completely disable the default styles, adding an “add_filter” with “_return_false” setting for enqueue styles is possible. You should only do this if you really know what you do.

Unfortunately, when referring to the colors and styles, we are again restricted to what is offered by the current themes you utilized, together with the customization options that are included.

Conclusions

As you can easily notice, all the modifications that were added above can make a difference. However, there are so many others that can be considered. In most situations you do want to take a lot of time to research information about the themes that you will use. This is much more important than you may believe at first glance. That theme will have a huge impact on the appearance of your WooCommerce shop.

If you do not know much about design and you do want something unique, you will want to work with a professional designer. When this is the route that you take, look at the various different designers that can be hired. You want to work with one that has specific knowledge about working with WooCommerce elements. We say this because there are differences that will have an impact on the result. You do not want to waste time because the designer needs to learn new things while working on your project.