Another crucial part of your Easy Digital Downloads store is your website’s theme.
This is what people are going to see when they come to your online store. And it’s going to help them form their first impressions of your store and your products in the store. So you want to make sure that the design of your store looks great.
The good news is that there are a lot of great themes (both free and paid) that are designed specifically for you to use for your store.
So let’s take a look at what you should be looking for when finding the perfect theme for your Easy Digital Downloads store.
Does it work?
This one is pretty self explanatory, but is always worth keeping in mind.
When looking for a theme, make sure that you check out the theme demo and put it through its paces. See how it looks at mobile, tablet and desktop screen sizes. Try to add things to your cart and see how far you can get with the checkout process.
Do the menus work? If there are sliders, are you able to control them? Try tabbing through the website on your keyboard to see if you can get to all of the links?
Make sure you do your own testing before you purchase and/or download it so that you know you’re getting something that works.
Does it fit in with your business?
Next, you need to make sure that the design of the theme matches what your business is.
For example, if you have an auto shop, you’re probably not going to want to use a theme that is built for a floral shop. And if you have a business that deals with weddings, you’re probably not going to want a design for a software business.
So just keep that in mind as you look for the right theme for your business.
Is it being maintained?
Finally, you really want to make sure that the theme is still being maintained before purchasing and using it.
For starters, if something breaks on your website and that theme isn’t being maintained, you’re more than likely out of luck. That issue isn’t going to get fixed, and you’re going to have to move to another theme.
Also, if a security risk surfaces with the theme, there’s a good chance it’s not getting fixed since it’s not maintained, and again, you’re going to have to move to another theme and do it quickly.
But bigger than those now is that a lot is changing with themes in WordPress now with the block editor and full site editing, and having a theme that’s being updated, even if it’s not specifically a block theme, can help your site from breaking with WordPress updates and give you a chance to try out the new features coming in each release.
So check to see when the theme was last updated, and if you have a question, just reach out to the developer to see if it’s still being maintained.
Suggestions to get you started
If you’re looking for a theme for your Easy Digital Downloads store, here are a few suggestions to help you get started.
- Themedd – Themedd is the default free theme that you can download from the EDD team. It’s a really simple theme that will display your downloads in a nice grid layout. It’s not much to write home about, but it can be a good starting point for your online store.
- Vendd – Vendd is another free theme from the EDD team, but it does have a few more features to offer. First, there are more design options to choose from, like the theme colors and site background. Also, there’s support for the FrontEnd Submissions add-on, allowing you to create a marketplace for people to upload their products. And there are a number of other available templates. It’s pretty powerful for a free theme.
- Astra – Astra is a powerful WordPress theme that has support for EDD built in. You can do just about anything you want to with Astra, such as custom layouts, setting your own colors and typography and so much more. And there are prebuilt site templates that you can install on your website to make the build process that much quicker. Astra is a premium theme; the base price is $59 a year. But it definitely is a worthwhile theme to use for your store.
- Digital Download – Digital Download is a nice theme for your EDD store. There’s not a whole lot to this theme, but with digital stores you don’t need a whole lot. You can customize the homepage, complete with a hero image, to show off your products. And there’s a free and premium version of the theme. It’s worth taking a look at.
Related Sections
- Easy Digital Downloads Add Ons to add to your website
- Finding an Easy Digital Downloads Theme for your Website
- Taking payments on Easy Digital Downloads
- Creating a Download Product in Easy Digital Downloads
- Getting Started with Easy Digital Downloads