If you’re using the Botiga theme to build your WooCommerce store, we have great news for you — we just released a bunch of new Botiga features to help you more easily customize your store and create an even better experience for your shoppers!
On September 6, 2022, we released new versions of the free Botiga theme (version 1.1.9), as well as Botiga Pro (version 1.1.0).
These features include an all-new drag-and-drop header and footer builder for all Botiga users, a custom size chart tool for Botiga Pro users, and just generally lots of helpful new ways to customize and optimize your shop and single product pages.
In this post, we want to introduce you to all of the new features so that you can start using them on your store and get the most from your Botiga theme experience.
For each new feature, we’ll share a video that shows it in action, as well as instructions for how to start using it on your site.
Let’s dig in!
Explore the New Features in Botiga Free and Pro
Here’s a quick summary of the most notable new features — keep reading for a full look at each one!
- New drag-and-drop header and footer builder
- Carousel for product gallery thumbnails
- Custom product size charts
- Featured video and audio for products
- Unique product gallery images for each variation in a variable product
- Option to set product catalog rows to equal height
- Next/prev buttons on single product pages
- Option for shoppers to choose between grid and list view on the frontend
Build Headers and Footers More Easily with Drag and Drop (Free and Pro)
One of the biggest new features in Botiga is an all-new way to help you customize your store’s header and footer via drag and drop.
The new drag-and-drop header and footer builder feature is available to all Botiga users, including the free version.
With the new builder, you’ll get a grid interface where you can control the layout of your header and footer from inside the Customizer.
To add content, you can use various components, including options to add your primary menu, site title, search box, WooCommerce icons, custom buttons, and more.
For even more customization, each component includes its own settings, and you’ll also get options to control the settings and layout for each row in the header/footer (as well as the header/footer in general).
Check out this video to see how easy it is to build custom headers with Botiga now:
You’ll also get the same type of interface to build your footers:
Again, the new drag-and-drop header and footer builder is available to all users.
However, if you’re a Botiga Pro user, you’ll get extra components to use in your designs, such as elements for login/register with popup, HTML, and shortcodes.
You can access the new builder from the Customizer — just open the Header or Footer settings areas, depending on what you want to customize.
Enable Carousel on Product Gallery Thumbnails (Free)
All Botiga users can now enable a carousel view for product gallery thumbnails.
When enabled, shoppers will be able to use arrows to breeze through your product’s thumbnail gallery. Check it out below:
To enable this setting, open the Customizer, go to WooCommerce > Single Products > Layout, and use the Gallery Thumbnail Slider toggle.
Create Custom Product Size Charts (Pro)
Need to add a size chart to your products?
With Botiga Pro, you’ll no longer need to rely on third-party size chart plugins. Instead, you can easily create your own custom size charts, complete with as many rows and columns as needed for your products.
You can also add multiple size charts, such as separate dimensions for men’s and women’s clothing.
Once you set up your size chart, shoppers will be able to access it directly from the single product page.
Shoppers can click a link/button to open the size chart. It will display in a popup so that you can keep your customers on the single product page.
Check out the video below to see what it’s like to add your size chart, as well as what it looks like on the frontend:
The size chart feature is disabled by default. You can enable it by opening the WordPress Customizer and navigating to WooCommerce > Single Products > Size Chart.
Once you enable it, you can create your size charts by going to Products > Size Chart in the main WordPress dashboard.
You can assign your size charts to every product at the global level or add custom size charts to individual products as needed.
Check out the full documentation here.
Add Featured Video/Audio to Single Product and Shop Pages (Pro)
You’re no longer limited to images for your products’ featured media — now, you can assign featured video or audio to product pages (as well as create video/audio product galleries).
This will display an audio/video player on both the single product and shop archive pages.
For video sources, you can either self-host the videos or embed them from third-party platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo.
This feature works great for digital products, but you can also use it to showcase your physical products in more interactive ways.
Here’s how to enable it:
To add video or audio to products, open the product editor for the relevant product. Scroll down to the Botiga Product Options box and use the Featured Video tab to enable and configure videos. Enabling video will also enable audio support.
Check out the full documentation here.
Show a Product Variation Gallery (Pro)
If you’re using variable products on your store, Botiga Pro now lets you showcase different product images in the gallery based on the variation that a shopper has chosen.
This helps you showcase your variable products more effectively by giving shoppers multiple ways to view each variation.
Take a look at the video below — pay special attention to how all of the product gallery images change when a different variation is selected:
To add gallery images to a variation, go to the Variations tab in the Product data box of the editor for that variable product.
Then, select the variation to which you want to add images and use the new Add Gallery Images button under the Variation Gallery Images heading:
Set Product Catalog Rows to Equal Height (Free)
If you have products with featured images in different sizes or product titles with different lengths, you’ll be happy to know that you can now set your product catalog rows to equal height with the tick of a toggle, regardless of any size differences in the products themselves.
Here’s what it looks like:
To enable this feature, open the Customizer and go to WooCommerce > Product Catalog > Product card. Then, use the Product Equal Height toggle to turn it on or off.
Add Next/Prev Buttons to Product Pages to Boost Product Discovery (Pro)
Want to encourage shoppers to engage with more of your products? Of course, you do!
With Botiga Pro, you can now add next/previous buttons to single product pages to help shoppers discover more of your products.
When shoppers hover over one of the buttons, they’ll see a preview of the product’s name and featured image. Clicking on the arrow will take them straight to that product page:
To enable/disable this feature, open the Customizer, go to WooCommerce > Single Products > Layout, and use the Product Navigation toggle.
Let Shoppers Choose Between Grid and List View (Pro)
Different shoppers might prefer to browse your store in different ways.
With the latest version of Botiga Pro, you can now let shoppers choose their preferred layout by giving them an option to easily toggle between grid and list view from the frontend of your site.
To enable this feature, open the Customizer and go to WooCommerce > Product Catalog > Layout. Then, use the Grid & List View toggle to turn this feature on or off.
Get Started with These New Botiga Features Today!
That wraps up our introduction to some of the biggest new features in our Botiga theme.
Again, both of these releases have been out since September 6, so you’re free to start using all of these new features today.
If you’re using the free Botiga theme, you should have already received an update notification in your dashboard.
If you want to access the new features in Botiga Pro (plus all of the other helpful Botiga Pro features), you can upgrade to Botiga Pro today. All of your existing settings and configurations will stay the same after upgrading — you’ll just get access to a bunch of new features.
If you’re already a Botiga Pro user, you should have received an update notification in your dashboard. If you haven’t, make sure to add your license key to take advantage of easy in-dashboard updates.
