Changing your store’s theme changes the way your content and WooCommerce pages are displayed. It does not move your products, orders, customers, or other store data to a new site. If you are moving from Storefront, expect its classic Customizer settings, widgets, child-theme changes, and theme-specific templates to need review in Purple’s Site Editor. Use this guide to test Purple safely before switching an existing store.
Before you switch
↑ Back to topStart on a staging site, a separate test copy of your store that shoppers do not use. Make a complete backup and follow Getting started with Purple to check the requirements and install Purple from WooCommerce.com. Keep your live store on its current theme while you assess the changes.
- Make a complete backup and use a staging site or test copy of your store.
- Record your current homepage, header, footer, navigation, product layouts, and important customer journeys.
- List custom CSS, child-theme files, widgets, page-builder layouts, custom templates, and code snippets that your current theme uses.
- List the extensions, payment methods, shipping methods, and product types that are important to your business.
How Storefront and Purple differ
↑ Back to topStorefront is a classic theme that uses the Customizer, widget areas, and theme-specific PHP templates. Purple is a block theme that uses the Site Editor, global Styles, template parts, patterns, and WooCommerce blocks. Your store data remains in WordPress, but the way its presentation is stored and edited changes with the theme.
Map your Storefront customizations
↑ Back to top| Storefront customization | Purple equivalent to review |
|---|---|
| Colors and typography | Appearance > Editor > Styles |
| Header and footer | Header and footer template parts |
| Menus and widget areas | Navigation blocks, template parts, and block patterns |
| Homepage and full-width layouts | Pages and templates in the Site Editor |
| Custom child-theme presentation | Rebuild the visible result with blocks or ask a developer to assess a child block theme or plugin |
| Theme-specific features | Test each feature; there may not be a one-to-one Purple equivalent |
For each customization, record what shoppers see today, how you plan to reproduce it, and a test that will confirm the result. Rebuild visual changes with blocks where possible. Ask a developer to review anything that changes purchasing behavior or depends on your Storefront child theme. The Purple developer guide explains how to assess those customizations.
What carries over to Purple
↑ Back to topYour store data remains in WordPress and WooCommerce when you change themes. This normally includes:
- Products, categories, attributes, and product media.
- Orders, customers, and accounts.
- Pages, posts, media, and menus stored in WordPress.
- WooCommerce settings, payment settings, shipping settings, and tax settings.
What may need to be rebuilt
↑ Back to topTheme-specific presentation and customizations may not carry over automatically. Review and plan to rebuild anything that depends on your previous theme, including:
- Customizer settings, widget areas, and theme-specific menus.
- Custom CSS and PHP in a child theme.
- Custom templates, template parts, hooks, and theme-specific code.
- Page-builder layouts or blocks that depend on the previous theme.
Keep in mind that many features and customizations that previously required custom code are now available by default in WooCommerce blocks.
Review extensions and custom features
↑ Back to topStart with the extensions listed under Plugins > Installed Plugins and the Storefront extension guides. Use the table below to plan how to reproduce each feature in Purple. These are starting points for testing, not automatic transfers of settings or guarantees that the extensions work with Purple.
| Extension or feature | What to review in Purple | Check before switching |
|---|---|---|
| Storefront Powerpack | Use Styles and the relevant header, footer, product, and checkout templates for visual changes. | List each enabled feature separately. Styling alone does not reproduce two-step checkout, a sticky header, or a handheld footer bar. |
| Storefront Designer | Rebuild colors, typography, buttons, and spacing with Styles and block controls. | Compare header layouts and sticky behavior separately. |
| Storefront WooCommerce Customizer | Review Product Catalog and Single Product templates. | Check the product grid, sorting, galleries, product details, and any hidden elements. |
| Storefront Checkout Customizer | Review Page: Checkout and your payment extensions. | Do not assume that changing the layout recreates a two-step or other custom checkout flow. Test payment and validation behavior. |
| Storefront Product Hero | Build a featured-product section with a Purple pattern or WooCommerce product blocks. | Select the correct product and check images, price, links, and purchase actions. Review any existing shortcode content. |
| Storefront Parallax Hero | Rebuild the image, text, and button section with a pattern or Cover block. | A similar layout does not guarantee the same scrolling effect. Decide whether that effect is needed. |
| Storefront Reviews | Review WooCommerce review blocks and Purple testimonial patterns. | Check whether the old section shows live product reviews or manually entered testimonials. A static testimonial does not replace a live review feed. |
| Storefront Blog Customizer | Review blog, archive, and single-post templates. | Check post metadata, images, columns, and pagination on more than one post. |
| Storefront Mega Menus | Rebuild ordinary menus with Navigation blocks. | Assess multi-column or widget-based dropdowns separately. Test keyboard access and the mobile menu. |
| Storefront Footer Bar | Rebuild its content in the footer template part. | Check links and mobile layout. A content bar is different from a sticky handheld account/search/cart bar. |
| Storefront Product Sharing | Assess a sharing extension that supports your new product layout. | Social profile links are not product-sharing controls. Test each sharing action. |
| Storefront Pricing Tables | Rebuild the comparison layout with blocks, or assess an extension for dynamic pricing tables. | Verify prices, product links, and purchase actions. Manually entered prices do not update with product prices. |
| Homepage sections and product-grid settings | Review Front Page and Product Collection blocks. | Re-select products or categories, check ordering and columns, and remove sample content. |
| Site logo, sticky add-to-cart, and product pagination | Use Site Logo for branding; assess sticky purchase controls and previous/next product links separately. | Do not assume that a logo, product grid, or standard add-to-cart block recreates every Storefront feature. |
If you received a retirement notice for an extension, follow the information for that specific product. Switching themes does not automatically replace its features. Resolve essential checkout, navigation, or purchasing behavior before committing to a live migration.
- Keep the feature in your migration inventory if it affects the catalog, product page, cart, checkout, order confirmation, or My Account.
- Ask a developer to review custom child-theme behavior or extension integrations that depend on the previous theme.
- If no equivalent exists, decide whether to keep Storefront, accept a design change, move the feature into an extension, or defer the migration.
Move your store in stages
↑ Back to top- On your staging site, install and activate Purple from WooCommerce.com using the getting-started guide. Test future Purple updates on staging before applying them to your live store.
- Open Appearance > Editor and set your site identity, navigation, header, footer, colors, and typography.
- Review the homepage and replace sample content, images, products, and links.
- Review the Product Catalog, Single Product, Cart, Checkout, Order Confirmation, and My Account experiences.
- Test product search, filters, variations, add to cart, coupons, shipping, payment, customer accounts, and order emails. Check the filter layouts available in your WooCommerce version at desktop, tablet, and mobile widths.
- Test each business-critical extension and product type on desktop and mobile.
- Compare the staging store with your current store and resolve missing content or layout changes.
- Repeat the backup and testing process immediately before activating Purple on your live site.
Pay special attention to cart and checkout
↑ Back to topVerify that the existing Cart and Checkout pages are still assigned correctly and that their content and blocks appear as expected after activation. Test both empty and filled carts, shipping calculations, coupons, payment methods, validation messages, and mobile layouts.
Keep a rollback path
↑ Back to topKeep your previous theme available until testing is complete. If you find a problem after switching, reactivate the previous theme while you investigate and continue the migration on staging. Changing themes does not delete your store data. If a backup restore is needed, ask your host or developer how to preserve orders and customer changes made since the backup; restoring an older database can overwrite them.
Decide when to switch
↑ Back to topUse your inventory to decide whether to continue testing Purple or defer the switch. Keep the live store on its current theme if an essential feature has no tested replacement. Do not remove an extension until you have checked where it is used and tested its replacement on staging.
Migration effort depends on the number of layouts, custom features, and integrations that need rebuilding. Ask your developer for an estimate based on that inventory, including testing, launch support, and a rollback plan. If you need help finding a developer, see WooCommerce development services.
Before a live switch, agree how design changes will be transferred without overwriting new orders or customer data. Arrange a backup, a final test purchase, and someone who can restore the previous theme if needed. Recheck the shopping path after future theme, WooCommerce, and extension updates.
