How to choose the best Magento 2 theme for your e-commerce store!

Magento 2 is one of the best tools that contribute to the success of any online business thanks to its exciting features and advanced functions that are hard to find in any other platform today. However, only good features and functions are not enough for customers to pay attention to your products, you need an attractive design too. 

In this article, Magenest would love to share criteria you should consider before choosing the best Magento 2 theme for your online store. 

#1 Perfect layout and template

There is no formula to pick the best Magento theme and layout. What Magento 2 theme suits your website will be different depends on what kind of business you own. 

First, be clear on what type of website you want to build. Every website has its own specialties as well as peculiarities. Knowing your target and what your customers want can help you have a good start in finding the right theme. If you work for a fashion company, a more fashionable theme seems to suit your best. In contrast, if the technology is your field, we recommend a standard design since it makes your store look more professional. 

Free templates can be tempting to go for because of their low cost. Remember that it’s sometimes counter-productive to do so. Free templates often come with poor quality and lack technical support compared to paid ones. Generally, paid templates have better support and are well developed by experts. But it doesn't mean you should never use free templates because there are still tons of excellent ones out there. Just be careful if you don't want to waste your time, effort, and money on bad products.

The theme color should be made consistent because the color is one of the most visually aesthetic aspects of any professional website. Brand identity would be perceived differently with different colors. For instance, red is the most commonly used color in the restaurant industry to trigger energy and feelings of hunger. Meanwhile, blue logos dominate the communication industry since they can convey clear thinking and interpersonal communication.

Additionally, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very important to help your company reach out to more customers. Make sure you get an SEO - friendly Magento template for your webshop. Templates that are clumsily coded can lead to extra time to load your page, which would eventually affect your Google ranking.

Finally, the theme should come with clear and easy instructions to install and use efficiently. Even if you have professionals set up the site, you may have to do maintenance and make regular changes yourself, so make sure the selected theme is easy for you. 

#2 Megamenu and navigation bar

The navigation bar is like the website roadmap that shows people how to find what they need. The thing to keep in mind here is navigation menus should be kept in short and simple forms. This can be done by limiting the number of menu options and using short, concise names for each item. The menu words work best if they are relevant, short, and accurate for users and search engines to understand easily. For example, use a shorter phrase like “Contact” instead of “Get in touch with us” on your web page. It does not only contain fewer words but also is a standard language that attracts more people’s attention when they scan a browser. 

Read more about the mega menu right here.

#3 Proper placements of promotions and banners. 

Does an online store without any promotion blocks and banners exist? If you already get a “no” answer, your business needs one theme with appropriate arrangements for banners and blocks. Although most Magento 2 themes go with a banner and a promotional slider, it’s necessary to check them before choosing a theme. 

Remember both sliders and banners can greatly contribute to your store’s success. Sliding or rotating banners are a good way to effectively deliver messages, post updates, and promote your brand image. 

Furthermore, proper placements of promotional blocks and banners can foster your marketing campaigns as well as raise awareness among both customers and website visitors. 

#4 Customization of Theme

What you need to do after choosing a Magento 2 theme that defines the style and function of your online store, it’s time to customize the theme so that it suits your unique brand. Basically, customized themes allow your web to adjust the functionality to meet specific demands and requirements. 

Things like advertising new products, removing old ones, changing the color scheme for seasonal promotions are supposed to be easy to do. Your theme would be so helpful to your store and customers if it’s in line with reasonable growth and changes. Otherwise, you would have to redesign your web appearance every couple of months. 

In a marketplace flooded with too many online stores, a more unique design surely makes your brand stand out and recognizable among competitors.  Since a customized theme would somehow reflect your identity and distinguish you from others, this powerful tool needs noticing and taking advantage of. Besides, your effort in the theme customization process lets your customers know how serious your company is when it comes to providing them with products and services online. 

Apart from functionality and uniqueness, a custom-made website theme is also more SEO-friendly. It stands a good chance of ranking your website on top of the marketing competition since the traffic volume is more likely to increase with a specially designed web. 

#5 Speed of the Theme

Another important aspect that the search engine will consider to rank a website is the theme speed. 

If your site takes much time to load, this will lead to two negative consequences. Firstly, your customers would simply switch it off and move on to the next one because of the annoying speed. The second thing is that your site may never be found by online users since Google de-rank it in the first place due to the slow loading time. 

Therefore, your theme should not comprise too many graphics and features that are irrelevant.  All the redundant stuff can harmfully affect your page speed. If the amount of information needed to load a site is reduced, it would increase the whole loading speed. Be optimal as much as you can in providing content, and try to make your web appear in full within 3-4 seconds. 

#6 Use compatible theme only

Note that your visitors may use different web browsers such as Safari, Chrome, and Firefox to reach your site from multiple devices at any time. That’s why it’s essential to check the cross-browser compatibility to see whether your Magento 2 theme fits any browser well beforehand. 

Although almost all the premium Magento 2 themes do not encounter browser incompatibility problems, being careful wouldn’t harm. As a businessman or a CEO, you may never want visitors to reject your site just because your theme does not adapt to certain browsers. On the other hand, with a theme functioning properly across all major browsers, chances are high that your business could reach a bigger audience with more ease. 

Statistics also show us that approximately 40% of online sales are achieved through mobile devices. Therefore, your webshop needs to work effectively on mobile phones. If it doesn’t respond to mobile, this means you lose 40% of potential clients. 

In short, how compatible a theme plays a vital role in making your brand name popular globally. 

#7 Opt for a social media-friendly Magento 2 theme

The fact that media channels have played a key role in connecting people makes it worth considering this social factor for your Magento 2 theme. Social media can either help to draw customers’ attention to your store or make them lose interested in buying products on your web. 

What’s great about Magento 2 theme is that it’s provided with many built-in settings to facilitate any updates and developments in your online store. It’s simple to inform customers about promotional offers, hot deals, latest news, and so on with a Magento 2 theme via various social channels. 

Moreover, the themes can include reviews and rating columns on your web page to let visitors share their opinions about your products and services. Instant feedback and customer queries are vital to growing your company. Magento 2 theme can help you with that, gradually making brand recognition and promotion easier to achieve. 

Today, blogs have become an essential part of any famous website, so it’s better to choose a theme that has built-in blogs. The search engine needs you to have up-to-date content posted frequently to give your webpage a good search result ranking. Thus, hosting a section on your web page is a good SEO practice for your brand.

Conclusion

As a Magento 2 theme determines the look of your storefront, how attractive and accessible it is will have a great impact on your business development. Therefore, finding the right theme for your Magento 2 store is undoubtedly crucial to the company’s success. Read what you have learned with us again and make some comparisons of different themes whenever you need to choose a good Magento theme. Welcome you to our store for more information and support!