Hello @marisa2023 just to add to what my colleague mentioned. I’ve done this before and it’s pretty involved. Let me explain in depth of your options. All of them which we do not support in this forum.
WordPress doesn’t natively support running two different themes simultaneously—one for the main WordPress site and another for WooCommerce. However, you can achieve a similar effect by using the following approaches:
1. Child Theme with Custom Templates
- Create a child theme of your current WordPress theme.
- In the child theme, create custom templates for WooCommerce pages (e.g.,
archive-product.php, single-product.php, etc.).
- You can design these WooCommerce-specific templates to have a completely different layout and styling, effectively giving WooCommerce a different “theme” feel.
2. Conditional Theme Switching
- You can programmatically switch templates or styling based on conditions. For example, use
is_woocommerce() in your theme’s functions.php to load different styles or layouts when WooCommerce pages are being viewed.
function load_custom_woocommerce_styles() {
if ( function_exists( 'is_woocommerce' ) && is_woocommerce() ) {
wp_enqueue_style( 'woocommerce-custom-styles', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/woocommerce-custom.css' );
}
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'load_custom_woocommerce_styles' );
- This allows you to have a different style or even load different template parts for WooCommerce pages without fully switching themes.
3. Page Builders or Theme Builders
- Some page builders or theme builders like Elementor Pro or Divi allow you to create templates for specific parts of your site, including WooCommerce pages. You can design WooCommerce pages separately from the rest of the site, giving them a distinct look and feel.
4. Custom Plugin
- Develop a custom plugin that overrides the theme for WooCommerce-specific pages. This is a more advanced approach and involves using hooks like
template_include to conditionally switch themes, but it can be complex and may have compatibility issues.
5. Multisite Installation
- Set up a WordPress Multisite installation, where one sub-site runs the main theme and another sub-site runs WooCommerce with a different theme. This is the most drastic solution and may not be practical for all use cases.
Each of these methods has its pros and cons, depending on how different you want the WooCommerce theme to be from the rest of the site. The child theme or conditional template methods are typically the most straightforward and maintainable approaches. A lot of the child theme will depend on your current parent theme.
