XStore Theme Review: Is Your Ideal Ecommerce Toolkit? (2024)

Ease of Use

I would rate the overall ease of use of XStore at 4/5.

Here's why:

• Setting up and registering the theme is a straightforward process. There is also a comprehensive video tutorial available to guide you through the process.
• After activating and registering the theme, it won't be usable until you install the core plugin, which might be frustrating for some users.
• You don’t need to install the required plugins and import demo content directly from the setup wizard. This will make the process effortless.
• The demo content import process is fast and the dashboard is well-organized and user-friendly.
• Switching one demo to another is quick and easy. With a few clicks, you can remove old website content and import the new demo.

Installation Process

You can only purchase the XStore WooCommerce theme from the Themeforest marketplace.

The theme installation process is very easy. First, log in to your website admin panel and follow the below steps.

• Go to appearance > themes > add new > upload theme
• Browse through your files and upload XStore
• Click the install now button

It’ll redirect you to another page where you click the activate link to complete the theme activation.

Theme Setup

To set up the XStore theme, you need to register it first. Insert your purchase code under the theme registration area and hit the register button.

Great! Your theme has registered successfully.

But, you can’t still use the theme until you install the XStore plugin.

Navigate to XStore > plugins installer area. Now, you’ll get the XStore core plugin. Hit the Install button.

Once you’ve completely installed and activated the core plugin, you’ll get access to all the theme settings. Now, you’re ready to customize the theme.

⚠️ Note: When you access the plugin installer area for the first time, you’ll only see the XStore core plugin. However, after activating it, all the recommended plugins of XStore will be displayed. You’ll be able to see the plugins used in the demo website and manage them from within this interface.

Features

I would rate the overall features at 4.2/5.

Here's why:

• XStore works perfectly with WPBakery page builder and Elementor, making site customization accessible to all skill levels.
• Its performance and SEO features ensure a smooth user experience and better search rankings.
• Additional WooCommerce features include a variety of shop layouts, product page options, advanced cart, and compatibility with various plugins to extend functionality.
• With over 130 prebuilt demos, users can quickly launch a store that fits their niche.

XStore is a WooCommerce WordPress theme with advanced features and functionalities to meet any Ecommerce store needs.

Here are the core features of XStore:

1. Theme Options

The theme options panel of XStore comes with all the necessary customization settings.

You’ll find them under the XStore > theme options area.

XStore header builder is easy to use but very functional. With this builder, you can create your custom header.

You can use the connecting blocks to add elements and use its settings for better customization.

To ease your design effort, XStore offers beautiful pre-designed header templates. Navigate to the header template area.

You’ll see 10 demo templates for use. Select a suitable one that fits with your brand and customize it as you prefer.

Also, you can choose a particular header template for your mobile version.

The mobile panel includes many handy features to improve navigation and usability.

It helps you ensure a seamless mobile shopping experience for your customers.

You can add multiple sections such as search, shop, wishlist, and more which will display at the bottom of the viewport.

XStore has powerful built-in SEO options to help you achieve higher visibility and ranking for your website.

You can add a custom meta description and meta keywords.

XStore provides hassle-free speed optimization features, designed for users with no coding expertise. With a few simple clicks, you can boost your website speed and overall performance.

Here, you can enable image lazy loading, disable old browser support, activate menu ache, enable CSS modification, manage image quality, and other essentials to maximize the performance of your website.

2. XStore Builders

XStore Builders offers a comprehensive toolkit for creating custom online shops with ease. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, users can design unique layouts and add various elements without needing to code.

The builders come with a wide range of widgets and settings, allowing for deep customization of product pages, headers, footers, and more. You can also use the exclusive premade templates which are easy to import and customizable.

Under the XStore Builders area, you’ll get the following builders.

• Header
• Footer
• Single product
• Products archives
• Cart
• Checkout
• Error 404

To use a particular builder, you need to enable it.

On the next page, you will see a popup message asking you to install the Elementor Pro plugin or the Pro Elements free plugin to enhance the builder functionality.

⛔ Warning: I preferred to install the Pro Elements plugin and got an error. So I downloaded the plugin from their official website and installed it manually on my website.

Once you’ve successfully activated the plugin, you can now use the builder features.

For example, if you would like to build a single product page, you need to click the ‘+ add new’ button.

It’ll take you to the XStore templates area.

Now, choose a suitable single page template and hit the insert button for import.

After that, you can use both XStore and Elementor widgets to customize the page according to your preferences.

You can also edit the default checkout and cart page without creating a new one.

First, open a particular page with the Eleemntor editor panel.

Then use the XStore and Elementor widgets to edit and stand out the default page.

3. XStore Studio

XStore Studio is a powerful design tool within the XStore theme, providing users with a vast array of pre-designed templates and sections.

It allows for quick and easy customization of your Ecommerce site, with the ability to import various design elements that suit your brand’s aesthetic.

Whether you’re customizing an existing site or starting from scratch, XStore Studio helps bring your vision to life with efficiency and style.

Click the XStore Studio icon from the Elementor page builder editor panel.

It’ll take you to the studio page where you’ll get all templates.

Select a particular template and click the insert button to import it.

XStore Studio's interface is user-friendly and intuitive. You can use the search field to find specific section templates and the filter option to categorize templates based on their category.

4. Sales Booster

Sales Booster provides a range of features to help you achieve your Ecommerce business goals.

Here are some features you can activate in your online store to boost sales.

• Fake sale popup
• Progress bar
• Cart/checkout countdown
• Cart/checkout progress bar
• Fake live viewing
• Item sold fake indicator
• Quantity discounts
• Safe & secure checkout
• More

5. XStore OpenAI Assistant

XStore now offers an integration with OpenAI that simplifies the process of writing website content. You can generate text content quickly, without spending hours researching or brainstorming.

Just insert your OpenAI API key to activate the feature.

Pre-Built Websites

XStore enhances your website building experience with support for both Elementor and WPBakery page builders, offering exclusive 130+ pre-designed demos.

These templates are ready-to-use and make the creation process effortless, allowing you to establish a professional online presence quickly. Each demo is designed to meet industry standards, ensuring a high-quality user experience.

With easy one-click import, you can select a demo that aligns with your brand identity and customize it as per your specific needs. 

Whether you're creating a niche store or a multivendor marketplace, the XStore has got you covered.

Navigate to the import demos area.

You can filter the demos based on page builders and use the search field to find a particular demo.

Now, select a demo and hit the import button to start the process.

A child theme is a copy of the parent theme that is used to safely make customizations. It's a smart strategy to maintain your customizations while keeping your core theme up-to-date with the latest enhancements.

XStore gives you the option to create a child theme which is a plus.

Simply, click the create and use child theme button.

After creating the child theme, your next step is to import the demo content.

Press the install button and wait till the end.

⚠️ Note: The installation typically takes just a few minutes, but may vary depending on your server's speed. The most time-consuming part is installing media data.

Once, you’ve properly imported all the content your website is ready to visit.

Quick and simple!

Reliability

I would rate overall XStore reliability at 2.9/5.

Here's why:

• XStore frequent updates enhance its reliability.
• XStore scores ‘D' (55%) on GTmetrix, which is below-average performance.
• One drawback lies in the observed performance issues, particularly noticeable with larger demo sites like the Ecommerce demos.

Performance

While XStore's demo sites flaunt impressive and interactive features, the crucial question lies in its performance.

How does it hold up in terms of speed and efficiency?

I imported one of its pre-designed Ecommerce sites and tested it through GTmetrix.

It achieved an E grade with 31% performance. The full page loading took 15.5s and the page size was 2.74 MB. This result shocks me and is not good for website performance.

Then I imported another template which is lightweight compared to the previous one.

Here are the results:

This time, XStore achieved a D grade with a 55% performance score.

While there's an improvement compared to the initial test, with a page loading time of 3.7 seconds and a full page size of 1.85MB, it falls short of reaching the average performance benchmark. 

After running XStore and other multipurpose WordPress themes through GTmetrix, here is how it compares to the rest.

Theme	Fully Loaded Time	Total Page Size	Total Page Requests
Astra Theme — Outdoor Adventure Template	905 milliseconds	1.54 MB	21
Betheme Default Template	1.6 seconds	0.97 MB	55

To be honest, I’m not satisfied with the XStore performance and page speed.

⛔ Warning: The results from GTmetrix aren’t conclusive and won’t always hold true as the themes continue to update. However, they are a good indication of the themes’ performance and speed insights.

Your website's speed relies not only on a good theme like XStore but also on the quality of your hosting service.

Updates and Maintenance

XStore WordPress theme is a well-maintained tool. It offers regular updates with new features and bug fixes, ensuring compatibility with the latest WordPress and WooCommerce versions.

These are some of the highlights of the latest XStore theme update:

• It includes many new features and improvements, such as ChatGPT integration, a new UI/UX for theme options, a sleek Dark Mode option, XStore Patcher, and more.
• One of the new features is the Checkout Page Multistep Elementor widget, which allows you to create a custom checkout page with multiple steps using Elementor.
• The introduced Checkout Page Payments options details let you display the payment methods available on your site with more details and icons.
• The Show Stock Status (option) in the Elementor Products Grid widget, the Elementor Archive Products widget, the Elementor Products List widget, and the Elementor Products Carousel widget.

Fixes highlights:

• Fixed the issue of cart redirect in Elementor editor, which caused the page to reload when adding products to the cart.
• Fixed the issue of loading styles for product design type in Elementor Products (Cross-sells, up-sells, related) widgets, which caused the products to display incorrectly.

Support

I would rate overall XStore support at 4.4/5.

Here's why:

• You can directly communicate via email for personalized assistance.
• They have an organized platform for issue tracking and resolution.
• You can react to their community platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.
• You can get help from video tutorials for step-by-step guidance.
• They offer a comprehensive knowledge base and documentation for self-help and reference.

This author's response time can be up to 1 business day.

Customer Service

XStore has multiple support platforms to ensure efficient customer service.

You can get support from:

• Email
• Ticketing system
• Support forum
• Community forums
• Video tutorials and guides
• Knowledge base and FAQs

The good thing is you can easily access their support portal from your WordPress dashboard area.

To see available support portals, navigate to XStore> tutorials & support section.

To access tutorial and documentation support directly from your website's admin panel, simply utilize the XStore documentation button.

Documentation

The XStore official documentation page is well structured and categorized into different topics. You can watch video tutorials and read knowledge articles.

The articles are categorized into different topics and you’ll see the total number of articles for particular categories.

I checked some of their knowledge-based articles and found them to be well-written with relevant images.

Support Forum

To get quick community support, you can join their XStore support forum.

You can post your issues and get solutions from their support agent.

I checked some posts and noticed that their support team responds quickly to remove their customers' problems.

Community Support

XStore is also available on social platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

You may get support on their Facebook page though they just use this page only for promotional purposes.

I sent a message to them to learn a little bit about the XStore. I got back to me the very next day and said to me to go to their support forum.

XStore has an official YouTube channel where they upload video guides regularly. If you have queries, you can post comments in the video and their team will reply. I saw people's comments and their replies.

You can get help from their Telegram channel and FAQs page as well.

Pricing

I would rate the overall pricing of XStore at 4.3/5.

Here's why:

• XStore costs $59 for its single license and is quite similar to other Envato themes.
• You will get the Drag & Drop Single Builder free support.

Also, you will enjoy lifetime theme updates and free support.

Cost Breakdown

XStore price is affordable considering its unlimited set of features.

You can buy it directly from the Envato Market:

For $59, you’ll get access to the following:

• Everything that XStore offers
• Future updates
• 6 months of support from the theme’s author
• Integrated premium plugins

⚠️ Note: Purchasing a theme from Envato Market has one restriction: the regular license permits usage for only one website.

You can only purchase XStore from the Envato Market. It’s good to keep in mind that there may be extra charges involved.

• The handling fee for using a credit card during purchase.
• You will need to pay $17.63 to extend support to 12 months.

Money Back Guarantee/Refund

Kindly be aware that the refund policies set by Envato Market are applicable as the XStore WooCommerce theme is exclusively sold through their platform.

Here’s a summary of their refund policy:

Circumstance	Eligibility	Notes
Item is “not as described” or doesn’t work as it should	Yes	If the item is materially different from the description or doesn't work as expected.
Item has a security vulnerability	Yes	If it can't be fixed easily, you may be entitled to a refund.
Item support is promised but not provided	Yes	If you don't receive the promised support, you may be entitled to a refund.
Items that have not been downloaded	Yes	If not downloaded within 30 days from the date of purchase.
Resolving disputes – asking Envato to help	Discretionary	If you and the author can't agree on a refund, Envato may intervene.
You don’t want it after downloading	No	—
Item didn’t meet expectations or is of low quality	No	—
Change of mind	No	—
Bought by mistake	No	—
Lack of expertise to use the item	No	—
Item removed or author no longer active	No	Advised to download items immediately after purchase.
Purchase made over 180 days ago (supported items)	No	For Themeforest and CodeCanyon supported items.
Purchase made over 30 days ago (unsupported items)	No	For Themeforest and CodeCanyon unsupported items and other specified Envato Market items.

For Themeforest and CodeCanyon unsupported items and other specified Envato Market items.

Final Thoughts

XStore stands out as a powerful and feature-rich theme for anyone looking to build a professional online store. With an extensive library of demos, it provides a solid foundation for any project, while customization options ensure that every store can be unique.

The theme’s performance and SEO capabilities are top-notch, making it a smart choice for businesses aiming for growth and visibility.

Its seamless compatibility with Elementor and Dokan offers a playground for creating a visually stunning and highly functional multivendor online store.

Although it may be challenging for newcomers to grasp at first, the comprehensive documentation, video tutorial, and quality support forum simplify the initial challenges.

XStore offers a blend of functionality, flexibility, and design finesse, making it a dynamic and valuable choice.