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4 Features You Need in a WordPress Digital Product Theme

You’re ready to sell your digital wares online. You’ve selected your WordPress plugin and now you’re ready to go theme shopping. You fire up Google and enter “WordPress digital product theme” and you get 5.3 million results. Yikes.

Before you slam your laptop shut in frustration, let us help you narrow down your options. This article will cover the four key features you need to look for in a digital product theme. Focus on these, and you’ll be able to quickly narrow down the right theme for your digital downloads.

While we always have an eye on the budget, this is one area that won’t break the bank. Free themes are available and paid themes are typically well under the $100 mark. Furthermore, all of the below themes have responsive design as a feature, as most new themes are now responsive.

With those caveats taken care of, let’s dig into our feature list.

1. Compatibility With Your Chosen Digital Products Provider

This one sounds obvious, but we don’t want you to overlook it. If you’ve decided to go with Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) as your plugin of choice, for example, make sure that any themes you consider are compatible. If you prefer an “official” EDD theme, you’ll have about six to choose from. An added bonus? They’re now free.

Official Digital Downloads themes

 

If you selected WooCommerce by WooThemes as your plugin of choice, check out their themes here. They range from free to $79 for a single license.

Not using EDD or WooCommerce? No problem. Search for themes that are compatible with your chosen plugin, and you’ll immediately narrow the field.

2. A Clean, Easy to Navigate Storefront

When comparing theme design, first look for themes that are best suited to your particular type of product. In other words, don’t pick one geared for music downloads when you’re selling eBooks.

Next, make sure that the design is uncluttered and clean. You don’t want to distract the buyer from completing the sale by having a bunch of miscellaneous links in a sidebar.

Clean shopfront design
WooThemes’ Storefront has a clean, uncluttered shop front.

Finally, select a design that is intuitive and easy to navigate. Can a new customer find the information he or she needs? Can the customer figure out how to add an item to a shopping cart and complete the purchase? If not, you’ll lose the sale. Which brings us neatly to our next point.

3. An Easy Checkout Experience

According to Business Insider, approximately 74% of customers abandon shopping carts when shopping online. While some of that has to do with the psychology behind making a purchase, Statista asserts that 25% of customers abandon a purchase because the website navigation was too complicated. Other website-related reasons include websites crashing or timing out, the process taking too long and excessive payment security checks.

When looking at possible themes, take a look at how many clicks it takes to make a purchase. With each additional click, imagine potential sales lost.

The bottom line? Make it easy for your customers to get in, make a purchase, and get out. We like the checkout screen on the theme below from EDD because it’s simple, has multiple payment options, has few required fields for customer input and has a large purchase button.

Checkout screen

4. Plenty of Customization Options

I’m betting you don’t want your store to look like everyone else’s. At a bare minimum, you want it to have your logo and brand colors. If that’s all you need, most themes will satisfy that requirement (although check out the color options first). If you want more customization, the number of themes available drops dramatically, and you’ll most likely have to hand over some cash for the pleasure of a fuller palette.

Conclusion

While shopping for a theme for your digital downloads can seem overwhelming at first, using the parameters outlined above will save you time and ensure you end up with the right theme for your particular products. Let’s recap those four important points to consider:

  1. Compatibility with chosen digital products provider.
  2. A clean, easy to navigate storefront.
  3. An easy checkout experience.
  4. Plenty of customization options.

Of course, if you don’t find what you’re looking for, the IvyCats are here for you! Contact us today about customizing a WordPress theme for your specific digital products. 

Image credit: Danny Chang