I am a businessman, I own a grocery store. My sales were just average, and during the ongoing lockdown for the COVID19 pandemic, my shop was closed, and the goods were getting spoiled, which was causing me a huge loss. As grocery items are daily needed products, there was a huge demand for them, so I started taking orders via WhatsApp to provide people with the essentials, but I found it very troubling.
I wanted to increase my sales and also wanted to sell with some new products, but due to the lockdown, I was unable to do so as I was not allowed to open my store for the customers. One day my son asked me to look at Amazon for the offers, rates, and other details as he wanted to buy a mobile phone. At that time, I thought about how Amazon is working without opening a store, and like this, I also can sell my product by offering them to my customers using an online store.
What is eCommerce?
eCommerce is a way that helps in selling goods online by using the internet. With the help of an online eCommerce store, I can also sell online 24*7*365 in just a few clicks without any time limitations. I saw it as a way to increase my sales. This also allows me to start offering new products to my customers. It is all because of eCommerce that my customers and I are no longer time-bound, and there are no area limitations as my customers can order from anywhere. I can deliver the products to them anywhere. By selling grocery products online, I was even able to maintain social distance. It also allows easy money transfer by credit cards, debit cards, online banking.
Various eCommerce Platforms
While searching for how to build my virtual store, I also came to know about various eCommerce platforms. Ecommerce platforms are basically web-based softwares that helped me to have my own store on the web. Some of the best available platforms are WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, Ravendel. We can select an eCommerce platform according to our requirements and affordability.
Some of the platforms are open-source, some offer a headless approach, and some are hosted solutions. Some platforms are completely free, while some are paid. The paid platforms do provide a free trial to be chosen wisely to meet one’s needs.
What is a Theme?
To make the store look stylish, manageable, and modern, all the eCommerce platforms provide themes and to further enhance the functionality. There are plugins available. A theme is a design for your eCommerce store that may be pre-built, or you can hire a developer to code a new one for you. The themes can be default or advanced, free, or paid. According to the sales volume, products that you are offering, and as per your budget, you can opt for the theme for your online store.
BigCommerce is a hosted platform, and it helps in building an online store. A hosted platform means that they only provide an interface to us to manage tasks like adding products, checking orders kind of things. There is always a limitation with the hosted platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce when you want anything completely custom. Still, at the same time, this kind of solution is a great option for a person who is not tech-savvy and wants a simple interface.
It is imperative that your online store looks attractive and provides an easy to use interface to the customers otherwise, the site visitors will leave the website if they find the site not pleasing and Here comes the need for the theme when you want your online grocery store to look stylish and systematic.
Bigcommerce offers a free trial. Then the user needs to pay to continue the services. Bigcommerce has monthly $29.95, $79.95, $299.95 for standard, plus, and pro plans, respectively. They also have annual plans if one wants to subscribe for a year.
BigCommerce offers many themes according to the user’s requirements. There are free and paid themes available, and themes are categorized by many means like large catalogs, small catalogs, left-hand category menu, grid layout, large image, AMP-enabled, and staff pick. Also, the themes have been sorted by the industry you possess like art and craft, fashion and jewelry, health and beauty, food and beverages, and many more; this kind of array makes it easy for the user to find the right theme for their online store as per their domain.
I was checking out the Bigcommerce themes for an online grocery store, and I’ve found a few good themes, as mentioned below.
Prosper Bright
I have gone through many themes in BigCommerce and found the Prosper Bright theme a suitable option for my store as it is a paid theme, so It cost $150. It comes with 4 styles, which are “prosper bold,” “prosper bright,” “prosper minimal,” and “prosper warm.” It has many features which attracted me to have this theme for my store:
- Frontpage consists of a Slideshow, which shows the new products and the available offers. High-quality images and videos of my product have been uploaded, for the convenience of the customer.
- It prepares a product comparison table, by which my customers can easily compare products and buy things they find suitable.
- Also, it suggests my customers for the product that can be put in their cart in accordance with their search and a quick add to cart option.
- My products can be customized without the help of anyone. By this, I can update my products anytime.
- Free Customer Support and the theme updates are for free.
- Product Filtering, i.e., the product is sorted according to the category they belong to that helps in the easy search for the product.
- It offers a product showcase, and products can be viewed in list and grid form.
- Displays discounted products in a clear manner. It is flexible.
Some more BIgCommerce themes
Peak warm
The Peak warm theme costs $195. It is an impressive theme that can handle a high-volume catalog and it supports a wide range of products. It shows the best-selling items on the home page, an easily convertible theme with free updates. Consist of 4 styles: Peak Bold, Peak Warm, Peak Light, and Peak Standard. It offers complex search filters so that the product can be easily found. The theme is search engine friendly and responsive, works perfectly in all web browsers. It also has Google Enhanced eCommerce integration.
Cornerstone Bold
Cornerstone Bold is a well-developed theme by BigCommerce, which is available for free. Optimal for a wide range of businesses and brands. It is smooth and ready to use. You can add your products, logo, and brand. It includes 3 styles: Cornerstone Bold, Cornerstone Light, and Cornerstone Warm. It is equipped to build fascinating stores with handy features such as homepage carousel, social media icons, featured and top-selling products, and faceted search. Using the Theme Editor you can instantly and effortlessly style your site’s fonts and colors, all without any need to write code, you can fully express your brand.
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