Discover new perspectives of page building

Today an increasing number of users feel that the website’s design determines whether to trust a business or not. The homepage is a very important part of it. Basically, it is your shop window. It is your chance to lure customers in. This is the reason why a well-built homepage can influence the success of your shop.  

What should a good homepage look like?  

At first it is very important that the visitor can easily identify that she/he just landed on a shop and not on a simple website. So, the basic elements like the logo, shopping cart, search, navigation and login should appear on the opening screen.  

After this comes the area where you can present your products and categories in different criteria and here you can announce your special sales. These are really important parts of your store because the visitor makes the decision whether the store meets their expectations.

How to customize your PrestaShop homepage?

Usually in PrestaShop themes there is a dedicated module position (displayHome hook) where you can place modules to make this area unique. These modules can be sliders, carousels, grids, text blocks, etc. In most cases, they are coming with the installed theme, but you can complement them with modules from other sources, like PrestaShop Addons Marketplace.

PrestaShop gives the possibility to set the order of the modules as you need. So, you can move the more important modules to the top of the page and the less important ones to the bottom. Despite the fact that this is a very easy to use feature, it has some limitations, like you cannot create layouts and a hook can contain only one instance of a module.

What are the potential drawbacks of using different modules?

As you know, using a lot of different modules can cause unexpected issues. Despite the developers doing their best to produce good-quality codes, sometimes compatibility issues may appear with other modules. Solving these issues often requires the help of the developer which can extend the time of publication. On the other hand, if you use too many modules, they can make your site slow. In addition, modules from different developers may have different designs, which can impair the overall look of the site.

So, what other solutions are suggested?

If you would like to have more control over your homepage, it is time to look for a page builder. Page builders can be a great tool for beginner users and professionals too. They make it easy to implement complex designs without coding knowledge. This is great, since, even though PrestaShop is very easy to use, true customization still often requires developer skills. So, if you are a shop owner, to truly take control of your site and its design, you will likely need to be a developer, hire one, or put in the time to learn at least basic HTML, CSS, or even PHP and JavaScript. Without that, you are often limited to the functionality and design your theme has built in. This can be a frustrating situation, especially for newbie users.

Which page builder module should I choose?

It is essential to choose an appropriate and reliable page builder for your store, because pages give the basis of your shop. On PrestaShop Addons Marketplace you can choose from a bunch of page builders and composers.

The Creative Elements – Elementor based PageBuilder module is one of the most competitive in its category. It is a live drag and drop page builder which is able to edit the home page, CMS pages, product descriptions, category descriptions, brands and supplier pages.

In a nutshell:

• Creative Elements lets you create original-looking pages that are unique, compared with the standard page templates that come with your theme

• You get a 100% separate interface to work on your pages

• It does not require HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript knowledge, everything can be done on the user interface

• It works on the frontend of your shop, which means that you see your changes right away

• You can use it to create any content layout or page layout you can imagine

• The module comes with 30+ predesigned page templates, which can be a good start for your pages or a trigger for your imagination.

• It supports both PrestaShop 1.6 and 1.7 Multi Store and multi language compatible

• And most importantly it works with all PrestaShop themes, so you can keep your current design and still get all of the goodies Creative Elements comes with.

Conclusion

The main benefit of using Creative Elements is that you can create impressive page layouts/designs, even if you are not a professional nor have any experience with site building. It is also a good choice if you do not yet have a budget to hire an agency. If you are curious about the module, take a look on the demo site where you can check its possibilities.  

When you are designing your pages make sure you look at it as a whole and not just the details. Provide your shoppers with a positive user experience they will not only buy from you, but they will remember your site as a good place to shop. And that can lead to the following purchase.