Market is the innovative e-commerce theme developed specifically for Wordpress. The idea first came about when asked to do two back-to-back projects to turn Wordpress into an auction / posting board. Both projects went over very well, and immediately began to produce email after email asking to do the same for other sites. Rather than build the same thing over and over again, we decided to modify things and build an entirely new theme featuring a lot of the functionality found in the two previous client projects. The result was the Market Theme.

What Is The Market Theme?

The Market Theme is a fully featured Wordpress theme that transforms a standard installation of Wordpress into an e-commerce storefront. Utilizing custom fields all over the place, Market allows you to easily add products, set prices, and instantly create buy now buttons automatically (using your email address as set in the Wordpress Dash). Market truly is the ultimate solution for creating an environment where you can sell your own products, both physical and digital, without any set up time at all.

Market utilizes phpThumb to generate on-the-fly thumbnails and FancyZoom to show multiple full size images of your products. It's really slick and visual appealling! And just like any other Wordpress theme, it can be customized as much or as little as you want. (But we like to think it looks pretty good by default)

How Does It Work?

Sometimes people ask, "This is more than just a theme right?"

When they say this, they are referring (in somewhat disbelief) to the fact that there is seemingly no way the Market Theme can boast such an extensive feature list without requiring any plugins. Yes, it is way more than a theme - but it still is just a theme. Market requires no plugins at all to run. Now with that said, we do highly suggest using is the Market Product Manager plugin (included free in our Download Center) to help you add and edit products easily in the Wordpress backend administration area - but it is not required.

Market does all of its magic thanks to the power of custom fields. This allows you to not only specify a price and description of the product, but to also include sizes, colors, and other types of specific product related options. Market uses Paypal for its checkout payment processing (a Google checkout module is also available), so your customers can pay with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover or Paypal.


Market also uses its own ajax shopping cart module, so your visitors can add products to their cart without having to leave your website every time as they would with a third-party shopping cart provider. And since this is still just a straight forward theme, The Market Theme works on any version of Wordpress, up to and including 2.8.2. Let's just say everything we could have possibly taken care of for this theme has been done.

Built With Skill

Market was developed by Astereo Studio, an experienced Wordpress design and theme developer. They have released numerous themes to the public for free and for pay, and have written countless articles on developing for Wordpress. Even the Market Product Manager administration plugin and the Ajax Shopping Cart were outsourced to experts who specialize in their respective technolgies. This is a very well built project from the ground up.

Constantly Improving

Since the theme's initial launch in late February '08, Market has came a long way. Currently, Market is now at version 3.52. This revolutionary new version introduced the Market Product Manager plugin and the custom coded ajax shopping cart. Previous Market 1.0 and Market 2.0 versions (which both feature slightly different design layouts), are also still available in the Download Center. You get access to all of them and more the moment you purchase a license. (alright, maybe a few seconds after) Improvements are always being made, and new versions being released. These upgrades and additions are always free to our past customers.

Affordable

With Market, you are really getting more bang for your buck.

The incredibly low standard license purchase price is well below the standard license prices found in other popular premium Wordpress themes that don't even offer shopping cart capability! Even the developers license is pleasantly affordable.

The Market Theme may be the smartest, easiest, and most affordable choice for anyone looking to sell their own products online. Take a tour and see for yourself.