Compared to the much greater cost of a custom-built Magento website, using a pre-built Magento theme or a template is definitely an attractive choice. While such themes are accommodating for those that want to start small, there are however some key criteria that should be kept in mind when choosing a pre-built Magento theme:
1. Your Magento theme should be compatible with the latest version of Magento and should be capable of upgrading as new versions of Magento are released.
Magento is constantly being improved. In order to take advantage of all that Magento has to offer, you will need to adapt to the newest version. Make sure that your theme is capable of doing so.
2. The Magento theme should be ready and easy to install and activate.
The theme’s website or documentation should come with clear and concise instructions on how to install, implement, and configure your chosen theme. Review this information to be sure that you understand everything you will need to do to install the theme.
3. The Magento theme should be current and compatible with your desired products and audience. Think about product presentation.
Keep in mind that certain products require certain strategies in terms of presentation. For example, shoppers for jewelry or clothing are going to need extremely high quality and descriptive images to convince them to purchase an item, because they are usually browsing for something that catches their eye. You might want to consider highlighting images with a simple background and multiple size/viewing options like more sophisticated zooming. On the other hand, someone shopping for hardware or appliances has probably done research and has come to look for the best deal or to learn more about a specific product. For them, detailed descriptions such as size, weight, power usage, and customer reviews are going to weigh in heavily. A chart or other organized informative section could give you a boost over your competitors. Remember that certain themes are designed to present your products in a certain way.
4. You should be able to customize your Magento theme as much or little as you desire. Make sure you understand what goes into customizing a theme.
Style and presentation is an important thing to think about when you’re building your store. If you aren’t going to invest in a professional designer to style your store, you are going to need to think about a theme that already has the colors and looks to match your company’s image. If you do decide to hire a designer to work on your store, you might want them to take a look at your theme to assess how easy the html and css updates will be. From personal experience, I have found that the themes which are easiest to customize are the ones that use CSS styles instead of images to create a look. For example, if a tab with a gradient and rounded edges is created by an image which is then applied as a background, this will take longer for me to change than if it was styled with css rounded edges, and a background color. Editing an image and then re-uploading it is time consuming, and this will need to be considered as part of your investment in the time your designer will need to design and style your site.
5. Make sure your Magento theme will work across all browsers.
Most designers will be able to tell you what a headache it is when something that looks great in Chrome or Firefox won’t work in Explorer or Safari. It can take a lot of extra time to locate and correct issues in cross-browser compatibility. Make sure you thoroughly research whether your chosen theme will experience any hiccups for your customers who are shopping in a different browser.
6. Will you get free support? Free upgrades? Are you working with a reliable company?
It is extremely important to work with a company with a good reputation for being reliable and helpful. When you purchase your theme, research the support policy and how you could contact the theme developers if you should experience any problems. Remember that having free support doesn’t mean having free help any time you need it. You will still need an experienced developer or a Magento developing company to do any modifications you desire.
Customer Success Manager
