Exploring both Custom and Pre-built themes for your eCommerce site and their pros and cons.
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Facing many important decisions while on a journey of deploying your business online, as a business owner, you need to decide on the appearance of your eCommerce site. Nowadays, eCommerce growth is increasing, competition is larger and you need to appeal to your customers. Having good products or services is not enough, you need visually attractive shop as well.
Magento or any other hosting platform for your eCommerce business will be offering you, as part of the hosting services, pre-built themes to choose from. If you are still not sure whether this is the right choice for your business or whether you should turn to a custom version join us in exploring both options and their pros and cons.
Custom theme:
- One of the main advantages of having a custom theme is that it is highly customizable. As a selling platform, it is important to be able to offer a unique presentation of the products.
- Easily optimized, no matter how complex your branding or business idea, your shop will always follow with the best possible solutions and organization.
- With better optimization comes a more responsive and faster website.
- The main con of having a Custom theme is the cost. While hosting platforms offer free pre-built themes, this approach will require more financial readiness.
- Another con would be that it takes time for the Custom theme to be put into the production phase. That can be an advantage if you are still not sure about the site’s design or structure. On the other hand, disadvantageous if you need your eCommerce site to run as soon as possible.
Pre-built theme:
- The main advantage of pre-built themes is that they are cheaper if not sometimes offered for free by hosting platforms.
- They are ready for production in much less time.
- Pre-Built themes have some very basic features that are not enough to convey your business ideas in this kind of competitive market, especially if you have a higher number of SKUs. So you have to rely on custom themes.
- The biggest con for the pre-built theme is that you will fall prey to making compromises all the time. This will cause more time and energy spent and will lead to compromising on your brand’s visual representation.
Final thoughts:
We have looked into all the pros and cons of both options and the only conclusion can be that neither is good or bad, it only depends on your needs as a business owner. Are you only starting and want to check the market first? Or you have a smaller range of SKUs? Well, a pre-built theme might be the perfect solution for you. On the other hand, if you are already established as a business and have a brand that needs to stand out, then without thinking you should opt for a custom solution. One should not be afraid of standing out, uniqueness in such a saturated market is the only logical option.
