CommerceGurus Blog - eCommerce news, app reviews, tips and tutorials

Building the best WooCommerce theme – focus on speed and conversions

What essential features would make up the best WooCommerce theme? We’ve been building WooCommerce themes for some time, starting with Captiva in 2014 and our best seller, Adrenalin in 2015 and our oft-imitated Suave in 2016. Over the past few years, we’ve noticed a proliferation of multi-purpose themes on marketplaces such as ThemeForest. These, on the whole, tend to feel ‘heavy’. By including dozens of javascript files, image sliders, icon libraries and the like, speed dramatically suffers.

5 proven conversion rate tips to boost your eCommerce store sales

By Simon Tomkins1 Comment

When it comes to conversion research we’re big fans of the Baymard Institute Research website. It is a web usability research center which conducts detailed studies on nearly every feature of major eCommerce websites. These conversion rate tips, based on extensive research, could make a huge difference to the turnover of your store. It is academic in nature but practical in how it presents solutions to common UX problems.

When planning our Shoptimizer theme we quickly realized that nearly no WooCommerce theme on the market has actually studied these usability reports in order to make the default experience easier and more likely to convert their visitors into customers.

Do image sliders actually work on eCommerce sites?

By Simon TomkinsLeave a comment

Sliders or carousels used to be ubiquitous on the web, especially on eCommerce websites. In 2015 Baymard reported that 52% of stores used one on their homepage. In recent years however we’ve seen a shift away from sliders, and for good reasons. Let’s investigate why.

From Visits to Journeys: How to Drive Visitors Back to Your Store

By Colm TroyLeave a comment

Most brick & mortar business owners will tell you that once a customer enters their shop, they’re very likely to purchase during their first visit. Studies confirm this opinion with offline observed conversion rates between 12 and 40%.

And there’s a reason for that: going to an offline shop takes effort. You have to physically go there, brave the weather, find a parking spot, etc. So once you’re there, you’re likely to buy.

WooCommerce Quickbooks Online Integration – How to Guide

By Colm Troy3 Comments

Today we take a look at the best WooCommerce QuickBooks Online integration options. QuickBooks is the undisputed leader of the US accounting software market.

The Best Shopify Apps to Rapidly Grow your Online Business

By Colm Troy2 Comments

Today we’re going to dive into what I consider to be The Best Shopify Apps you should install to rapidly grow your business.

New to Shopify? Check out our eCommerce platforms review and our Shopify Pricing guide to get you up to speed asap!

Growing a new online store is one of the greatest challenges you’ll face as an eCommerce entrepreneur. While Shopify on it’s own will let you get an online store up and running quicker than pretty much any other platform, it can come up a little short when it comes to driving revenue growth on an online store.