Magento 2 Theme Development Guide

Magento provides a versatile e-commerce solution for people who want to design and operate an online store. It’s one of the leading Content Management Systems (CMS) in the world right now. What makes Magento so amazing is the fact that it’s really accessible. You can use this CMS even if you don’t have any knowledge about website development. And you can choose from a variety of different themes and design your storefront. If you have a more advanced understanding of website development, you can do a lot more with Magento. In our Magento 2 theme development guide, we’re going to go through the entire theme development process for Magento.

Magento and Magento 2 are both open-source CMSs. This means that you can take their code and customise it in any way you want. Magento 2 theme development is ideal for businesses who want to design an e-commerce solution that complements their business operations.

Magento Vs Magento 2

There’s a lot of confusion revolving around the different versions of Magento. Before we move forward with the theme development process, let’s talk a bit about the difference between Magento and Magento 2.

Magento 2 is the new and improved version of Magento. The original Magento was and still is a great open-source e-commerce platform. However, it was far from perfect. Magento 2 improved many problems that existed in the original Magento.

As someone who’s looking to develop a Magento e-commerce theme, you shouldn’t have to worry about what version of Magento you should pick. You can get advice from Magento experts on what’s better for you. 

Why Consider Magento Theme Development?

You can find plenty of free and paid themes for Magento 2 on the internet. And many of these themes are quite well-designed. So, why should you hire a Magento theme developer and pay them for theme development? There are a number of reasons for investing in a customised theme.

• A custom Magento e-commerce theme does not restrict you in any way. And a capable Magento theme developer can design a theme that works according to your business, not the other way around.
• Your online presence becomes a direct reflection of your brand. This means that having a custom Magento e-commerce theme lets you develop a storefront that goes hand in hand with your brand image. This is incredibly important nowadays since a majority of business is going online.
• Custom e-commerce theme development for Magento also lets you develop a unique e-commerce solution for your business. And a Magento theme developer will create an e-commerce solution that is unique in terms of looks and also functionality.
• Opting for Magento or Magento 2 theme development also lets you integrate your e-commerce solution with any other software solutions that you may be using.

Magento Theme Development Process

In order to develop an e-commerce theme for Magento or Magento 2, you need to have web development skills. Theme development requires an in-depth understanding of web development and languages such as HTML and CSS. If you don’t have an in-house resource with these skilsets, you can hire a professional Magento e-commerce theme developer. We’re Magento experts who are experienced in designing and developing Magento and Magento 2 themes.

The e-commerce theme development process is the same for Magento and Magento 2. Let’s briefly go through the entire process.

Determine Your Needs

Start off by listing down what you want from your e-commerce store. Your needs will depend on the nature of your business, what you’re planning on selling (physical product, service, both, etc.), and your internal business operations. Whenever you’re about to develop a software solution for your business, it’s important to keep everyone in the loop. 

Develop an Execution Plan

Once you know what features and functionality you need from your Magento theme, you can start laying out your execution plan. You need to figure out how to implement your e-commerce solution and integrate it with the rest of your business. During this part of the process, having an expert Magento theme developer on board can be useful. A Magento theme developer team will be familiar with all of the industry best practices. Their expertise can help ensure seamless execution and integration of your e-commerce solution.

Magento Theme Development

This is where the actual development of your e-commerce solution will begin. If you don’t have Magento development expertise, this part of the process should be delegated to a Magento or Magento 2 theme development team.

The Magento theme development process begins with either two of Magento’s default themes:

• Luma
• Blank

The Blank theme is generally used to develop custom themes for Magento and Magento 2.

There are two aspects to theme development for Magento and Magento 2. Every Magento e-commerce store has a frontend and a backend. For a custom theme, both of these ends are developed from scratch. The front end is what your customers will see and interact with. And the backend is from where you control your e-commerce store. A custom theme for your business will have a backend that’s designed with all your business needs kept in mind.

Testing and Implementation

Once your theme has been made, you can move to its testing phase. In this part of your Magento (or Magento 2) theme development process, you can fine-tune features and identify problems. The testing phase is really important. This is because it determines the overall performance of your final theme.

Once you have tested it and made sure that your Magento theme developer has sorted out all issues, you can finally launch your theme. Your e-commerce store is now ready to be used!

Conclusion

Opting for Magento theme development seems unnecessary at first. However, a quick cost-to-benefit analysis can reveal otherwise. Having your Magento theme made from scratch has many benefits. You get complete control over what you want your e-commerce store to look like. You can have a store that goes hand-in-hand with your entire business process. The advantages of having a custom theme developed are endless. However, you cannot develop a Magento theme without web development expertise. So, it’s recommended to get in touch with Magento experts when you’re having your theme developed.

We at RT Labs offer a wide range of Magento development, customisation, and integration services. Our team consists of many Magento experts who can help you design a theme that works well with your business.

Interested? RT Labs is a full-service Magento e-commerce platform development firm and our experts can make sure your e-commerce platform serves your business in every way possible.Contact Us for a FREE Business Analysis session.