Add New Theme to Magento 2 Website: Why and How?

magento 2 add new theme

Do you want to add a new theme to Magento 2 website?

This blog post guides you on adding a theme to Magento 2 website. First, we will explain the common reasons to add a new theme to your site (and common unreasonable cases). Then, if you are determined you should add a new theme, we will discuss the method to do that.

Why should you add a new theme to Magento 2 website?

There are several reasons to add theme to your Magento 2 website. For example, to leverage the conversion rate of your product/category page, or to expand the scope of your business. However, there are times that you should not try to add the theme to your website right away. Today, we take into account both reasons listed above, and the situations when we recommend you to add a theme and recommend you not to.

To leverage the conversion rate of your product/category

add-new-theme-magento-2

The marketers always care for conversion rate optimization for their websites, as this is a measurable metric that can determine the marketing efforts, campaign ROI and ultimately the efficiency of the marketing strategy.

As a store owner, you have to know the reason behind your website visitors’ reasons for not converting. Bad design and UX can be a reason.

However, there are times that you should not mind conversion rate: when you have too little traffic to your website.

A basic A/B test requires a sampling of at least 500 traffic to be trustable. For example, let’s say your product/category page has 10 traffic/day, and you split test that 10 traffic to test 2 designs of the product page and see which one converts, then you would need 100 days to have an answer for your test.

Therefore, testing to optimize at that stage is more time-consuming than having a great impact on your business result.

If your site has low traffic, we suggest you focusing on increasing your website traffic first, by using paid advertising for a fast result, or go for content marketing if you prefer taking a long-term approach. Only after having a decent traffic coming to your website should you concern about optimizing page conversion rate.

To expand the scope of your business

add-new-theme-magento-2-expand-business-scope

Let’s say your business is blooming recently with the use of Magento 2. Now you are confident that you have enough resource to scale it. It can be: expanding the target countries, selling different products to old customers, or just entering a whole new market.

  • In the first situation, expanding the targeting countries do not requires adding a new theme. Magento 2 supports multiple store views that can display your website in different language and currencies, and you can translate your Magento 2 website. And if your current site design works for United States customers, it works for French customers.
  • In the second situation, if you are trying to sell different products to old customers, you should consider whether you should build a whole new brand (and website look) or not. We suggest you consider the relevancy of your new product category to your current one. If the new product is highly related to current one, like Magento 1 extension and Magento 2 extension, you should keep your new product category in the same website with the same theme, to create familiarity to your brand, thus leverage the position of your brand in the mind of your customers. However, in case you’ve previously sold food for teenagers and now you want to sell sneakers to them, we suggest you adding a new theme that runs on a new separate store.
  • In the third situation, if you want to enter a whole new market, we recommend you choose a whole new domain for your launching venture. The next step is to choose a theme that fits your industry, regarding main font family, colors of the theme. For example, construction-related companies often use Bold, Serif fonts to create a firm sense that is associated with their products.

How can you add a new theme to Magento website?

After you have determined you want to add theme to your magento 2 website, you need to know how to do so properly.

Upload the newly added theme to your server

  • Log in to your FTP Account using FileZilla
  • Select your zipped theme file
  • Upload the file
    drag zipped Magento 2 theme to server to add new theme
  • Unzip Theme file using SSH:
    unzip [theme name].zip>

Install the newly added theme

  • Upgrade Setup: Input
    php bin/magento setup:upgrade 

    Upgrade to add Magento 2 Theme

  • Deploy
    • In case you use Magento version 2.2.x and above, input
      php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy –f 
    • In case you use Magento version 2.1.x and lower, input
      php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy
  • Go to your Magento Admin > Content > Design > Configuration > Edit Main Website Store >add Magento 2 theme by enabling themeThen Select your theme > Save Configurationenable the newly added magento 2 theme
  • Flush Cache
    Go to System > Cache Management > Flush Magento Cache
    add-new-theme-magento-2-flush-cache
  • Import Demo Data
    In some certain themes, there can be an option to import Data to make the enabled theme look exactly like the demo. To do this, go to [Vendor_name] > Import data.
    Import data from your magento 2 theme after upload
  • Flush Cache again

Add new theme to Magento 2 site: in conclusion,

By now we think that you’ve developed some opinion on when to add theme to Magento 2 websites. In general, you should think of your current situation and determine whether you should add a new theme or not.

If you have any more question regarding adding theme to Magento sites, feel free to leave a comment below. We will be more than glad to answer you.

Once you make sure you want a new theme, check out the theme that we spent months and pride developing.

Magento 2 add theme

About Claire Parsons

Nice to meet you. I'm a copywriter, content writer & digital marketer living in Southend-on-Sea, U.K.
Previous Magento 2 Theme LESS Usage
Next Magento 2 Demo Luma Theme: 12+ Versions Data – 2020

Check Also

ebay-magento-themes

5 Magento 2 eBay Theme You Should Never Miss!

If you are pursuing the dream, which is to construct a popular marketplace on your …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *