Event recap: “Let’s Talk Themes with Ellen Bauer”

On December 2, 2024, we hosted a live community discussion with Ellen Bauer, WooCommerce’s Product Lead for themes, blocks, and patterns. The session brought together developers, merchants, and builders to explore the future of WooCommerce themes and provided an open forum for feedback and collaboration. A huge thank-you to everyone who joined us and shared your insights—we couldn’t build WooCommerce without your input!

Check out the recording here:

Key highlights

A new starter block theme

One of the biggest announcements was WooCommerce’s commitment to creating a new starter block  theme, replacing the decade-old Storefront. This upcoming theme is a bold step forward, aligning WooCommerce with WordPress’s modern block editor while addressing the unique challenges of ecommerce. Ellen noted that this starter theme is more than a technical update; it’s a showcase of how WooCommerce themes can leverage the power of blocks to offer flexibility, usability, and mobile-first design.

This theme will focus on real-world use cases, such as ecommerce patterns for industries like fashion and food, demonstrating the potential of block themes to inspire developers and merchants alike.

Listening to developer feedback

Community input is shaping this initiative from the start. Here are some themes that emerged during the discussion:

• Documentation Needs: Developers expressed a desire for more comprehensive resources, including a CSS cheat sheet to simplify block customization and styling.
• Customizable Checkout Experiences: There was robust conversation about how WooCommerce can maintain consistent, secure checkout styling while still offering enough flexibility for extensions and bespoke design.
• Clarifying Block Futures: Attendees raised questions about the lifecycle of WooCommerce blocks—what’s being actively developed, what’s being deprecated, and how developers can plan accordingly.
• Working More in Public: The community also expressed that they’d like to follow our work more openly from the start of projects. Ideas included sharing design snapshots and providing regular updates on our progress.

Ellen acknowledged these challenges and committed to better communication, both through regular updates on the Developer Blog and in community Slack discussions.

Building themes to inspire and improve

Ellen shared her vision for how WooCommerce can lead by example in the block theming space. To build practical, user-friendly solutions, the team is creating working prototypes and recreating popular ecommerce designs using WooCommerce blocks. This iterative approach not only helps identify gaps in block functionality but also offers tangible examples of what’s possible with WooCommerce today.

One exciting outcome of this process is the planned development of a wireframe-style pattern library, which will make it easier for developers to reuse components and customize designs efficiently.

What’s next

This event was just the beginning of WooCommerce’s renewed focus on themes and blocks. Here’s what you can look forward to:

• Transparent Development Process: Ellen and the team will share their progress through blog posts and videos, working in public to gather feedback as they go.
• Community Input Opportunities: The new starter theme and related tools will be released early for the community to test and contribute to.
• Ongoing Improvement of WooCommerce Blocks: Expect updates to enhance block styling consistency, mobile optimization, and features like mega menus and advanced search.

Ellen also highlighted the importance of mobile-first design, acknowledging that ecommerce often happens on the go, and the blocks must perform seamlessly across devices.

Thank you and stay connected

We’re grateful to everyone who participated in this event. Your feedback is helping to shape the next generation of WooCommerce themes, and we’re excited to continue this journey with you.

For updates, feedback, and further discussions:

• Visit the Developer Blog.
• Join the Community Slack.
• Subscribe to the Developer Newsletter.

We’ll be hosting more sessions like this, with the next event tentatively planned for January 2025. Stay tuned, and let’s build the future of WooCommerce together!