The BigCommerce Stencil theme is quite the buzzword when it comes to powerful theme integration. Its robust features give this framework a lot of preference and needless to say, BigCommerce store owners are finding the whole design and development associated with it extremely beneficial.
A lot of enterprises and BigCommerce stores are moving towards making the switch from BluePrint towards Stencil. It does not only offer advanced features that are not possible to undertake on the legacy theme. As of now, the BigCommerce Stencil framework gives you the chance to pick from twenty-one different themes and comes with eighty-three variations. It is curated to offer the leading themes with new trends entailing the latest tech, SEO, and design specifications.
Apparently, 38% of visitors are said to stop engaging with a particular website if the layout of the content does not appeal to them. This is definitely one issue you do not need to worry about when you adopt the BigCommerce Stencil Theme. It is one of the topmost theme solution providers and helps in the elimination of the rigid SaaS system. It also helps in creating an appealing storefront that does not only have a high visual value but also offers an optimized page load speed. Additionally, it helps with a seamless experience because of the well-optimized images and content.
Contents
BigCommerce Store Themes: What you need to know?
When we speak of the primary BigCommerce store themes, the two main options are Stencil and BluePrint. The former one is the new addition to BigCommerce themes while the latter is the older theme used by BigCommerce stores. To give a brief overview, the Stencil themes are quite innovative in comparison to the BluePrint themes. It does not only offer a faster page speed, cleaner code as well as a more optimized SEO. As official BigCommerce partners, we are adept at handling the migration seamlessly. Now, let’s take a deep dive into the BigCommerce Stencil theme framework and take a brief look at how the switch can benefit you:
BigCommerce Stencil Themes
Launched in the year 2016, the BigCommerce stencil themes allow the developers to build a robust storefront with the most advanced features in the industry. These themes are a lot more mobile-friendly and also ensure a much more responsive way to ensure that the shoppers get an indefectible experience on any device. Additionally, the biggest advantage here is that they do not have any particular code involves here needed for customizing themes. These are also quite secure and stable. Here are five key features to consider when it comes to BigCommerce Stencil Themes:
5 key features of BigCommerce Stencil Theme
1. Developer Friendly Framework
Firstly, BigCommerce is known to be an open-source platform. The stencil theme helps in verifying the codes without affecting any cloud-based setup. These are quite a developer-friendly. This makes it a lot more efficient in comparison to the BluePrint theme. You can also test, update, and even view the storefront locally without entailing the production version.
2. Google AMP support: Mobile friendly
As per Brian Dhatt, CTO of BigCommerce- AMP is crucial as it removes the extra details which allow the shoppers to see the catalogs and the product pages which helps them in finding the relevant information as well as proceed the checkout process without any hassle. The primary reason, why we are mentioning this point is because the number of mobile users is increasing rapidly.
Stencil themes are quite a great option to select. This is primarily because the stencil themes are mobile responsive and also come with Google AMP support. BigCommerce is the pioneer eCommerce platform that offers AMP enables themes that ensure merchants quite a competitive advantage. These sites load quite instantaneously. The features also simplify the website content on mobile devices. A survey was conducted in 2017 to tests AMP popularity. In this, it was found that the BigCommerce sites with AMP-enabled pages which saw a rise of 20% average in the click-through rates. Additionally, consumers are also quite bent towards AMP-enabled links as compared to those without the AMP support.
3. Seamless image optimization
As per BigCommerce, 78% of U.S. consumers say that they expect amazing product images when they buy products online. With BigCommerce stencil themes, you get to enjoy the Akamai Image Manager feature. This is quite an awesome automated image optimizer. It is designed to give out resized images which are based on the size and type of the device. BigCommerce store owners use this manager for the past few months and have seen a 70% improvement when it comes to the load time of the site.
4. SEO friendliness is high
The stencil themes are curated in order to provide an ace UX. They are also rated with a Lighthouse Performance score of 90 for desktops in general and 74 for the mobile devices. Additionally, these themes also support the rich snippets which allow the search engines in order to gain a better understanding of the content on the web-page. One of the pre-requisites for a store to succeed is by having the amazing potential of SEO. This surely helps in increasing sales and also in propelling the reach of the store.
5. Customization is hassle-free too
The BigCommerce stencil framework is quite easy to customize and this is one of its biggest advantages. It does not allow you to update the storefront without the coding. Besides, it does not only support the localization which enables you to target the customer in any of the languages globally. This basically means that you can actually define the languages to translate the theme which is based on predefined Schema.
Since it is workable for any language, easy customization is meant in order for the designers and developers to adjust the different components such as colors, fonts, items and integrate them into their store quite easily. These are primarily the reasons which make it quite easy to switch to the Stencil theme that clearly states the urge to upgrade to the BigCommerce store from the legacy theme to the new theme.
Benefits of Stencil Themes in a nutshell-
- Stencil theme framework holds the potential of offering nearly 160 variations as compared to the 58 variants which are available with the BluePrint theme.
- The best part is that stencil themes are quite industry-specific. So, be it a grocery store, sports equipment store, and fashion store; stencil themes are industry-specific too. You can choose the store theme as per your convenience and requirements.
- The Stencil framework also performs a lot more efficiently when compared to the BluePrint theme. Thus, these themes are much faster in terms of performance and their speed too.
- Stencil theme also offers a unique feature called BrowserSync which means a lot of changes can be seen in real-time on any device, be it a tablet, desktop, or mobile phone.
Why make the switch?
While, all of us are a little apprehensive about change always, making the switch from BluePrint to Stencil framework has a lot of advantages. While we completely agree that the BluePrint theme framework was built made a proper codebase; it is limited when it comes to customization or even extends the functionality.
The BigCommerce Stencil theme is quite flexible and does not come with a non-proprietary code. It can also be accessed quite easily with the help of developers and designers. BigCommerce themes are made in order to reduce the learning curve of the HTML as well as CSS.
As compared to BluePrint, it is much easier. Additionally, the Stencil themes are also quite helpful in enhancing the storefront experience for both merchants and customers. The optimized speed, security, and updates of this new framework help in a more streamlined process for the tasks that you need every day. It also helps with maintenance which is required to run a particular web store.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the BigCommerce stencil themes are efficient, faster, and quite enhanced too. They are transforming the ways we look at the design and also work towards the integration of the online stores. Whether you want to create an existing design or even go for something new, we are always here to help you make the switch with a proper strategy towards augmenting the business.
