OpenCart Portal – Open Source e-Commerce software Open Cart e-commerce portal. Advice, tutorials, add-ons and everything you need to know about this Open Source shopping cart.
One of the first things which draws our attention when making a buying from an online store, is its appearance. Online shop that looks clean, impressive and is well designed ensures us that we are dealing with professional and trusted company. And in most cases that’s actually true, because it means that the vendor operating the shop is solid, has invested large resources in this store, and we will receive professional customer service. Fortunately, when it comes to OpenCart, there are a lot of themes that can be quickly installed into the store and customized to create great modern design. There is no denying that building your own template from scratch requires is daunting work and requires a lot effort, but thanks to theme system in OpenCart you don’t need to that. Just use one of the templates that are available on marketplaces and customize theme to suit your needs. Largest of marketplaces Themeforest, is dedicated to online stores and offers hundreds of templates for OpenCart, at a cost of of just40 to 60 USD each. Every template is available with complete documentation, which will make it easy to install and cutomize to meet your needs.
Most of the new templates has extensive configuration options and is equipped with separate administration panel where you can change the appearance, colors, logos, fonts, without changes in the core template .tpl and .php files, so knowledge in programming isn’t required to adapt it to your store. The installation is usually very simple and described in the documentation. In most cases you need to copy the template files to the store root directory, then run it by selecting a new template in the store. In addition, some templates may require the installation of the VQMod and enabling theme modules in the module settings. The final step is to adapt the template to your store. In most cases there will be absolutely no need to do any advanced customization, and you can completely customize your new theme by tweaking its settings in less than half an hour.
We will review here 10 most interesting and modern OpenCart themes, which are available at Themeforest and that will allow you to quickly prepare your store for action.
1. LagonShop
This is Responsive type theme which displays well on devices with various screen sizes, such as tablets and mobile phones, recommended if you are expecting that your customers will often be buying from mobile devices. Theme is very impressive graphically and since sample shops which are presented in demo are: fashion, toys, electronics and furniture, it can be used universally in a very wide range of stores. It’s SEO-optimized, which means that theme has clean and simple code. With the possibility of configuration of 1, 2 or 3 columns and extensive admin panel it has many possibilities to adapt to your requirements.
2. Sellegance
As the name suggests, this is a very elegant and attractive OpenCart theme, best used when you want to emphasize looks of your products, like fashion shops. Made in a Responsive technology and HTML5, which ensures that you store will be looking good on all browsers and on every device. From the SEO standpoint, it is important that theme does not use tables and layers, making it easy to index by search engine robots and thus giving you additional points search engine rankings which would help you in acquiring customers. You can build it without or with sidebar to the right or left side. The template does not modify any OpenCart core files, which means that you can install it on a modified version of the store.
3. Simple Great
Minimalist in appearance but very powerful in capabilities of the template, with over 300 different settings in the Administration Panel of the template. Built using HTML5 and CSS. An interesting bonus is also external blog system, which by default is not included in OpenCart, so if you are planning with building blog as a marketing tool for your store and you don’t want to setup another website, just this template – it will save you time and effort. It’s also very good theme for beginners.
4. Gazal
Graphically very impressive, definitely inspired by Amazon design, and despite complex structure, it was written with very well structured code. This is one of the best rated themes on ThemeForest and it definitely desrves its rating. Technically very advanced, also has additional blog module built-in Facebook widget for all social media fanatics.
5. Journal
Theme with a very extensive configuration capabilities. Has multilevel menu, autosuggestion search, and even a slideshow module. You can also use Google fonts, so you are not limited to the standard Arial and Times New Roman. Your customization can be saved as one of different profiles switched at any time, which is used when you are not sure how exactly your store should look like and want to experiment with different settings.
6. Pinshop
A very interesting and most original of themes presented here. Definitely not for every store, this template will transform your OpenCart into a shop which would look like popular among women social service and image board Pinterest. The products are displayed in the form of a table that is loaded as user scrolls page, presenting products in the form of aesthetic images. It is best used for clothing, jewelery, accessories or other stores adressed to woemn, where you need to make sure that your shop will be easily distinguishable.
7. Cupid
Template with huge potential configuration. You can easily change homepage template in many ways, choosing his appearance with simple administration panel. Has built over 500 fonts Google, freedom in the choice of colors and backgrounds. An interesting addition is also vector icons, which very quickly render on any device – including the Tablet and phone.
8. Aquacart
It has neat and aesthetic appearance, well suited to sell luxury products and that’s not the only one advantage of this template. It has advanced configuration options, it is built as a Responsive theme and based on CSS and HTML5. It doesn’t overwrite any files OpenCart, so it can be used even for heavily modified stores.
9. Beauty Shop
Excellent theme that you can use on any type of project, not only for stores related to fashion or cosmetics. It has more than 200 backgrounds designs, 500 Google fonts and hundreds of configuration options, including the header configuration several types of sliders, special type of promotional banners, featured products, custom footer and Facebook widget. Configuration of this template is simple and enjoyable, and at the same time it will give you the impression of complete control over the appearance of the store.
10. Herbal
Herbal is uncomplicated template in the green tones, good for health food stores, natural cosmetics, or ecology related products. It has two columns and is well documented. Very easy to setup for beginners.
