How to Theme WooCommerce Membership: A Beginner’s Guide to a Beautiful Membership Experience

WooCommerce Membership offers a powerful way to create exclusive content, sell courses, and build a loyal community. But out-of-the-box, the default styling might not quite match your brand or website. This article is your friendly guide to theming WooCommerce Membership, even if you’re a complete beginner. We’ll cover the basics and provide practical examples so you can create a beautiful and engaging membership experience for your customers.

Why Theme WooCommerce Membership?

Think of it like this: you’ve built a fantastic restaurant with delicious food (your membership content), but it’s located in a bland, unappealing building (the default theme). Theming is about making the building as appealing as the food!

Here’s why you should care about theming your WooCommerce Membership:

Brand Consistency: A consistent look and feel strengthens your brand identity and builds trust with your customers. If your website is modern and clean, your membership area should reflect that same aesthetic.
Improved User Experience: A well-themed membership area is easier to navigate and more visually appealing, leading to a better user experience. Happy members are more likely to stay members!
Increased Engagement: Visually engaging content keeps members interested and encourages them to participate in your community. A dull, uninspired design can deter engagement.
Professionalism: A polished membership area shows that you’ve invested time and effort into your business, demonstrating professionalism and credibility.

Understanding the Basics: Templates & CSS

Before diving in, let’s understand the two key components we’ll be working with:

Templates: These are PHP files that determine the structure and content displayed in different parts of your membership area (e.g., the membership page, the content restriction message).
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): This is the language used to style the visual elements of your website, including colors, fonts, spacing, and layout.

The Easiest Way: Using Your Theme’s Styling

Often, WooCommerce Membership will automatically inherit the styling from your existing WordPress theme. This means that if you’re using a well-designed theme, the membership pages might already look pretty good!

First Step: Simply activate your WooCommerce Membership plugin and visit the membership page. See how it looks! Does it blend in with the rest of your site?

Example: If you’re using the popular Astra theme, the WooCommerce Membership pages will likely adopt Astra’s default font, colors, and button styles.

Reasoning: This inheritance simplifies the theming process significantly, allowing you to leverage the existing design of your theme.

Overriding Templates: When You Need More Control

Sometimes, your theme’s default styling isn’t enough. You might want to make more specific changes to the layout or content of your membership pages. This is where overriding templates comes in.

How to Override Templates:

1. Find the Template: Locate the WooCommerce Membership template you want to modify. These are usually found in the `wp-content/plugins/woocommerce-memberships/templates/` directory.

2. Create a Child Theme: This is crucial! Never directly edit the files in the WooCommerce Membership plugin. Changes will be overwritten when the plugin updates. Create a child theme of your current WordPress theme instead. This allows you to make customizations without affecting the core theme.

3. Copy the Template: Copy the template file you want to modify (e.g., `membership-area/my-memberships.php`) from the WooCommerce Membership plugin’s `templates` directory to your child theme’s directory, maintaining the same file structure. In this case, you’d create a `woocommerce-memberships` directory in your child theme, then a `membership-area` directory within that, and finally place the `my-memberships.php` file. The final path in your child theme would be `your-child-theme/woocommerce-memberships/membership-area/my-memberships.php`.

4. Modify the Template: Now you can safely edit the copied template file in your child theme.

Example: Let’s say you want to add a custom heading to the “My Memberships” page. You would copy `wp-content/plugins/woocommerce-memberships/templates/membership-area/my-memberships.php` to your child theme at the correct location. Then, edit the copied file to add your heading:

 <?php /** Template for displaying the "My Memberships" area.
 * This template can be overridden by copying it to yourtheme/woocommerce-memberships/membership-area/my-memberships.php.
 * HOWEVER, on occasion WooCommerce Memberships will need to update template files and you
 (the theme developer) will need to copy the new files to your theme to
 maintain compatibility. If you copy this file to your theme, you will need
 to update the template file when WooCommerce Memberships releases a newer
 version.
 * @package WooCommerce Memberships
 @since 1.0.0
 */

if ( ! defined( ‘ABSPATH’ ) ) {

exit; // Exit if accessed directly.

}

My Awesome Memberships!

… (Rest of the template content) …

Reasoning: Overriding templates gives you granular control over the structure and content of your membership pages. This is essential for advanced customization.

Using CSS Learn more about How To Use Woocommerce Rest Api In Php to Customize the Look

Even if the template structure is fine, you might want to change the colors, fonts, or spacing of the elements on the page. This is where CSS comes in.

How to Add Custom CSS:

There are several ways to add custom CSS to your WordPress site:

WordPress Learn more about How To Delete Products In Woocommerce Through Cpanel Customizer: Go to *Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS* in your WordPress dashboard. This is the easiest option for small tweaks.
Child Theme Stylesheet: Create a `style.css` file in your child theme and add your CSS rules there. This is the preferred method for more extensive customization.
CSS Plugin: Use a plugin like “Simple Custom CSS” to add CSS without editing theme files.

Example: Let’s say you want to change the background color of the “My Memberships” table to light blue. You could add the following CSS to your child theme’s `style.css` file:

.woocommerce-MyAccount-memberships {

background-color: #e0f2f7; /* Light Blue */

}

Reasoning: CSS allows you to fine-tune the visual appearance of your membership area to perfectly match your brand and create a cohesive user experience. You can target specific elements using CSS selectors (like the class `.woocommerce-MyAccount-memberships` in the example) and apply styling rules.

Pro Tip: Use Browser Developer Tools

Your browser’s developer tools (usually accessed by pressing F12) are your best friend when theming. They allow you to:

Inspect Elements: See the HTML structure and CSS styles applied to any element on the page.
Test CSS Rules: Experiment with different CSS rules in real-time to see how they affect the appearance of the page.
Identify CSS Selectors: Easily find the correct CSS selectors to target specific elements.

Common Theming Challenges and Solutions

Plugin Updates Overwriting Changes: *Solution:* Always use a child theme and never directly edit plugin files.
CSS Conflicts: *Solution:* Use specific CSS selectors and inspect elements with your browser’s developer tools to identify conflicting styles. You might need to use the `!important` declaration in your CSS (use sparingly).
Finding the Right Template: *Solution:* Refer to the WooCommerce Membership documentation or inspect the plugin’s `templates` directory to locate the correct template file.

Final Thoughts

Theming WooCommerce Membership is an essential step in creating a professional and engaging membership experience. Start with the basics: check how your theme’s styling translates to the membership pages. If that isn’t enough, delve into template overriding and custom CSS. Remember to always use a child theme to protect your customizations and leverage your browser’s developer tools to inspect elements and test CSS rules. With a little effort, you can create a membership area that not only functions seamlessly but also looks fantastic!

How To Theme Woocommerce Membership