BigCommerce Theme Development: Essential Tips and Tricks

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BigCommerce is among the leading eCommerce platforms (close to Amazon), with over 45,000+ stores running. The platform allows eCommerce entrepreneurs to maximize and manage their ventures in a customized setting. 

However, since BigCommerce is a drag-and-drop template website builder, the elements to build your store are fundamental. Almost everybody has access to the same BigCommerce themes and tools, making it challenging for you to give a unique appeal to your shop. 

But does that mean you should stop planning your eCommerce operations?

No! While there’s significant competition, you can always use some tips and tricks to make your store an exception. 

This blog looks at tips, tricks, and hacks to give your store a unique appeal. Continue reading as we learn more about BigCommerce theme development in the following sections. 

BigCommerce Themes – The Secret to Stand Out

BigCommerce themes are pre-defined layouts or templates that dictate the aesthetic appeal and the overall design of the eCommerce store. More importantly, the ideal BigCommerce theme will define your store’s category pages, shopping carts, product pages, and other relevant visual elements. 

The best BigCommerce theme comprises different elements, including templates, stylesheets, and specific configurations that work together to create the ideal design for your eCommerce store. Besides, since thousands of users use similar themes, you must be very attentive to the BigCommerce theme development to deliver superior user experiences and increase engagement.      

The Importance of Theme Selection 

Choosing the suitable BigCommerce theme is not just about leaving a lasting first impression on visitors; many other rationales are also at play. Understanding these rationales is essential to understanding the different suitable themes for you. 

Some essential rationales highlight the significance of choosing the best BigCommerce shopping theme.       

1. Visual Appeal

Of course, visual appeal is the first and one of the most apparent rationales in this list. With thousands of eCommerce stores running on BigCommerce, the ideal theme can set you apart from the crowd. It helps get visitors’ attention and increases their chances of engaging with your brand.       

2. User Experience (UX)

User experience is one of the most essentials of any performant eCommerce store. Using the right BigCommerce theme ensures visitors can easily navigate the website and find what they need. As their results or needs are met efficiently, it automatically contributes to a superior user experience.   

3. SEO Benefits

Find me an eCommerce store without an effective SEO strategy! Can’t find any? It’s because they don’t have an effective SEO performance. But this will not be a significant concern when you use the right BigCommerce theme. These themes follow all the latest SEO standards and help enhance your website’s visibility for better reach.        

4. Scalability

Performance alone is not enough to set you apart in the crowd in today’s competitive environment. You must focus on scalability, and BigCommerce themes can help eCommerce stores benefit from that scalability. These themes are ideal for making continual changes and ensuring that, most of all, traffic flows to your website.  

5. Customer Retention

Onboarding new customers is expensive, but retaining the existing ones is affordable and generates better results. This is where BigCommerce themes can be a great asset for your store as it helps drive better retention. Customers getting a superior experience in your store will likely choose you over competitors.   

6. Content Integration

Content is still one of the most essential elements of a successful, and BigCommerce themes can help make the most of it. These themes are designed for seamless and effective content integrations. It enables you to feature your content interactively and convey the right message to visitors for better conversions.   

7. Technical Support

Every once in a while, visitors might encounter a technical issue on your website. Failing to promptly address and correct these issues can cost you dearly and give poor user experiences. You can leverage the potential of BigCommerce theme customization tactics to offer seamless technical support that does not hamper your store’s user experience.    

8. Budget-Friendly

Hiring an additional service provider or using your in-house team for BigCommerce theme optimization can be an expensive ordeal. So, using your store’s pre-designed and optimized BigCommerce themes makes better financial sense. This will save operational costs and help you invest this resource elsewhere based on priorities.    

Essential Tips And Tricks While Carrying Out BigCommerce Theme Development 

BigCommerce theme development is a complex and demanding process that requires great professional expertise and attention to detail. Following the right tips and tricks is the key to getting every element right for the ideal BigCommerce theme, which can make things more manageable. 

Here are some essential hacks you could use for effective BigCommerce theme development.   

1. Keep Your Design Simple and Uncluttered

Search engine crawlers don’t respond well to clutter; remember this throughout the theme development stage. Keep your theme simple and responsive to ensure nothing hampers its speed. 

Search engine crawlers and website visitors must be able to make sense of your store’s offerings at a single glance. Failing to do so will cost you many ways, including lower search result ranks, ineffective user experience, and more. You must cut out the extravagant elements and keep your store simple and navigable for better performance.          

2. Make Your Design Responsive

Most people now use their mobile devices to access products and services online. This enhances your BigCommerce store’s accessibility, but people will not stick around on an unresponsive website. As a result, this defeats the entire point of attracting a visitor. 

This is where responsiveness can be your greatest friend, especially when focusing on specific elements that affect user experience. A responsive BigCommerce theme also helps enhance your store’s SEO performance and benefit from better visibility. You must optimize your BigCommerce theme for every device regardless of screen size.       

3. Keep Your Design Consistent and Incorporate Branding

Another important aspect of developing a BigCommerce theme is the website’s design consistency. You must ensure that every design element of the theme complements each other and creates a uniform view. You must pay close attention to essential elements of the theme, such as the following:

Optimizing these elements while ensuring they complement your design and brand is your best shot to get the most out of your BigCommerce theme. When your theme reflects your brand’s uniqueness, it also helps create a better connection between you and your customers.  

4. Add High-Quality Images and Videos

There is no shortage of content online, and customers are flooded with many options, making it even more challenging to grab their attention. This is where a well-optimized BigCommerce theme with high-quality images and videos can greatly help. You must find images and videos relevant to your brand’s offering and add them to increase engagement. 

One way to go is using infographics to highlight your offerings and their perks. But you can add some how-to videos to get visitors’ attention and drive better conversions. All images and videos in the store must be of the finest quality to leave a lasting impact on visitors.   

5. Prioritize Easy-To-Use Navigation

Navigability is one of the most important elements of every website, and BigCommerce stores are no exception on this front. You must choose a BigCommerce template that offers seamless navigation to help visitors find what they need with not more than four clicks. 

The four-click theory suggests visitors should be able to find what they are looking for in your website in not more than four clicks after opening it. It will enhance the accessibility of your offerings and ensure your visitors get the best experience in your store.      

6. Test and Refine Your Design

Simply choosing a BigCommerce theme is no good unless you test every aspect of the theme as thoroughly as possible. Testing will help determine flaws that might be holding your eCommerce store back. You can then deploy effective corrective measures to address these issues. 

Testing and optimization also help you determine more new opportunities where enhancements can help drive better performance. This will help your BigCommerce theme stand out and grab visitors’ attention while offering an uncompromised shopping experience.

7. Add Customer Reviews

People on the internet come across many websites and businesses each day offering similar or different products. But most people still find it hard to believe the claims made by the website.

This is where customer reviews become so crucial for the BigCommerce theme. Adding these reviews helps build customer trust and encourages them to take further steps and purchase.  

8. Use a Search Bar

Navigation is always essential for eCommerce stores, and adding a search bar to your BigCommerce theme can make a significant difference. Users can easily search for what they are looking for for a superior experience.  

You must also add essential keywords to your website’s content to help users find the most relevant offerings based on their search.   

9. Simplify the Checkout Process

Attracting visitors is one thing, but converting them into paying customers with successful checkout is another. Complex checkouts can often harm one’s shopping experience, resulting in them choosing others or not completing the checkout. 

A straightforward way to solve this issue is with a simplified checkout process. You must allow multiple payment modes, remove additional costs, and strive for one-click checkout to get the best results.  

10. Optimize your Store for Mobile

Gone are the days when people had to access the internet through their computers. These days, most people use their mobile devices to access the internet, making optimizing your BigCommerce theme for mobile devices essential.  

You must optimize images, videos, and content for mobile devices with different screen sizes. It allows visitors a seamless experience across all devices for a superior, uniform user experience that drives results. 

11. Choose a Responsive Bigcommerce Theme

BigCommerce offers many alternatives in choosing a suitable theme, but your priority should always be responsiveness. A responsive BigCommerce theme can distinguish between making a sale or increasing bounce rates. 

You must pick a mobile-friendly BigCommerce theme that works seamlessly across all devices. Also, ensure your theme does not have unwanted clutter, as it hampers your store’s responsiveness. Instead, go for something simple and performant.   

12. Outline Your Online Store Policies

Every business has a specific set of policies, and BigCommerce stores are no different. But what good are these policies when no one can see them? You must always choose a BigCommerce theme that offers space for highlighting your policies. 

It is essential for conveying the right message to your audience while keeping everything in check. Featuring your policies also helps visitors learn more about your business and its nature.    

13. Display Shipping Costs Upfront

No customer enjoys paying hefty shipping costs. But what customers wait more is hidden shipping costs suddenly springing up during the checkout. Your BigCommerce theme must display the shipping costs upfront. This will help customers make an informed choice while bolstering your business’s credibility and authority in the market.     

14. Incorporate Your Branding Consistently

Your brand is what you want people to know about, and the right BigCommerce theme can help you make that statement. But this also means maintaining consistency while mentioning your brand throughout the website’s homepage. 

This helps create a better image of your brand in the visitor’s eyes and build a connection with them. When visitors hear or read about a brand multiple times, they will likely remember your brand’s name for future reference.      

Testing and Debugging Your BigCommerce Theme 

You can choose the best BigCommerce theme and still see no apparent difference in your website’s performance. It could be an unknown or undiscovered element holding your website back. This is where testing and debugging your BigCommerce theme becomes so essential. 

But besides that, there are many other reasons to test and debug your BigCommerce theme regularly, and these reasons include:      

• Ensures Functional Integrity: Testing helps you determine and address functional flaws to ensure the unmatched functional integrity of your BigCommerce store.  

• Optimizes Performance: It is always important to optimize your website’s performance, and effective testing and debugging can help you realize this goal quickly.  

• Cross-Browser Compatibility: People still use different internet browsers, and effective theme testing and debugging can ensure your eCommerce store works seamlessly across all browsers. 

• Mobile Responsiveness: As most people use mobile devices to access the internet, thorough testing and debugging can help ensure your store works seamlessly and efficiently without lag across all mobile devices.     

• Error Identification and Resolution: The best part about testing and debugging is effective error detection and efficient resolution. You can easily detect and address errors hampering your website’s performance before they cause further damage.    
  
  Read more: Why BigCommerce B2B Is The Ultimate Solution For Online eCommerce Businesses

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