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Cmsmart Ecommerce provides custom ecommerce and WooCommerce development services for web-to-print, product personalization, plugin support and API integration.
Cmsmart WooCommerce Development Lead
Leads custom WooCommerce builds: architecture, checkout, performance and integrations.
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In short
The Cmsmart Left Navigation Store is a ready-made WooCommerce store with left sidebar menu navigation, a full-screen hero and the Cmsmart Product Designer built in, made for print shops with many product categories. A shop owner can brand it, load real products and place a test order inside about an hour, no developer required.
What does it cost a print shop to launch a WooCommerce store without a plan?
Cmsmart estimates the hidden cost of a from-scratch WooCommerce build as the hours a theme, a product designer plugin, a pricing setup and a test order would otherwise take, multiplied by the owner's or developer's hourly rate. A ready-made store like Cmsmart Left Navigation Store removes most of that build time.
A print shop with business cards, flyers, postcards and signage usually has more categories than a typical retail store, and a generic theme menu buries most of them two clicks deep. Before any content goes in, someone still has to:
A simple way to see the cost: build hours saved × your hourly rate = the value of starting from a ready-made store instead of a blank WooCommerce install. The more categories a shop runs, the more that first line tends to cost when built by hand.
What would the first week look like with a ready-made print shop store?
With Cmsmart Left Navigation Store, a print shop can go from an empty WordPress install to a branded storefront with a working product designer and a test order on file inside a week, most of it spent on branding and real product content rather than plumbing.
Example scenario. A print shop owner runs the Store Setup v2 installer on a Monday morning; by lunchtime the store is live with the sample catalogue, the left-hand menu and the hero in place. The afternoon goes to swapping the sample logo and colours for their own brand, and the next two days to loading real products with printing options. By Friday they place a test order themselves, watch the print-ready PDF appear, and switch off the sample data.
How does a WooCommerce store with left sidebar menu work?
Cmsmart Left Navigation Store pairs a left sidebar menu theme with the Cmsmart Product Designer plugin on a standard WooCommerce install, so the storefront, the catalogue and the design tool all come from one license key instead of several plugins stitched together.
Four pieces do the work:
Once a buyer approves a proof, Cmsmart's approved-artwork lock stops further edits to that design, so production gets the file the buyer actually signed off. A bespoke homepage, a gang-sheet layout for apparel, an ERP/MIS connection or a B2B ordering flow is custom development Cmsmart builds on this same stack; see the going-further section below.
Cmsmart insight: most setup time on a left-navigation store goes to the menu, not the designer. Group a long category list into two or three levels before you import it, or the sidebar gets as crowded as the top bar you were trying to avoid.
What is the business value and the KPIs to track?
The value of Cmsmart Left Navigation Store shows up as less setup time before the first sale, a menu built for a large catalogue, and a product designer that attaches a usable print file to every custom order, which a print shop can track with ordinary store KPIs.
Rough payback worksheet (your own numbers): (hours saved vs. a from-scratch build) × (your hourly rate) = setup cost avoided. (reprints or file rejections per month) × (cost per reprint) = the monthly cost a working print-ready PDF step can reduce.
How do you set up the Cmsmart Left Navigation Store in the first hour?
Setting up Cmsmart Left Navigation Store means installing it once through Store Setup v2, then spending about an hour on branding, pages, products, printing options, payments, shipping and one test order before you remove the sample data.
Install first. Run the Store Setup v2 installer from your Cmsmart dashboard, or upload the theme and plugin files by hand. Either path ends with a live store and no "coming soon" screen to switch off. The full walkthrough is in Install a Cmsmart store on WordPress, so it is not repeated here.
Once the store is live, work through these steps:
Go-live checklist
Cmsmart insight: set the printing options and design areas before you write final product descriptions. Shops that write descriptions first often rewrite "choose your paper below" lines once the options panel is actually configured.
The store also renders on a phone: the left sidebar menu collapses behind a menu icon, and the product page keeps the same printing options and Start Design flow.
A note on the screenshots: they were taken on the first build of this store, which shipped Cmsmart Stores Blocks 2.1.2. The store was re-cut as 2.0.1 before release, bundling Cmsmart Stores Blocks 2.1.3, which fixes the home page on first setup on every host; the screens look the same on both builds.
What can Cmsmart build beyond the ready-made theme?
Beyond the ready-made Cmsmart Left Navigation Store, Cmsmart builds custom development on the same WooCommerce and Cmsmart Product Designer stack: bespoke homepages, print-specific pricing rules, system integrations and B2B ordering flows that the standard theme does not ship with.
Common requests we build for print shops on this storefront:
Our approach: a short discovery call, a solution design you approve, development in sprints, QA against your real products, then launch and support. See real delivery work in Cmsmart's ecommerce project case studies.
Plan my store launch with Cmsmart
For help with the install itself, branding or loading your catalogue rather than a custom build, see the store preset installation and demo import service.
Why work with Cmsmart on your store launch?
Cmsmart has run ecommerce and web-to-print projects since 2012 as a Netbase JSC division, with the Cmsmart Product Designer plugin and the Cmsmart Stores line built and supported by the same team that takes on custom development requests.
Cmsmart has delivered 6,300+ client projects since 2012, with 4,600+ completed and 1,800+ stores live today in 80+ countries, and holds a 4.2 Trustpilot rating from 404 reviews.
Related reading: the install walkthrough in Install a Cmsmart store on WordPress, branding detail in Customise your Cmsmart store in the Site Editor, and the product designer user guides. Browse the product page, try the live demo store, or start from the web-to-print solutions hub.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use my own products instead of the demo catalogue?
Yes. The sample catalogue only fills the store so it is not empty on day one. Replace or hide the sample products and categories, then add your own with your own prices, descriptions, photos and printing options.
Which plan activates Cmsmart Left Navigation Store?
A Cmsmart Fullstore license key activates every Fullstore store, including Left Navigation, from the Store Setup dashboard; a free 30-day trial key activates the same stores if you do not have a key yet.
Can I change the colours and logo without touching code?
Yes. Branding lives in the WordPress Site Editor: logo, site title, header, footer and the colour palette are all editable blocks, with no theme files to open. See the customisation guide for the exact steps.
Does a long product category list still fit the left sidebar menu?
It is built for that. Group a large catalogue into two or three menu levels before you import it; a flat list of dozens of top-level categories is harder to scan in a sidebar than a shorter list with sub-categories.
Do I need a developer to launch this store?
No. Install, branding, products, printing options, payments, shipping and a test order are all done from the WordPress dashboard. A developer or Cmsmart's own team becomes useful once you want custom pricing rules, integrations or a bespoke layout.
Can this store grow into a B2B ordering setup later?
Yes, as custom development. Cmsmart Left Navigation Store is a single-buyer storefront; shops that need company accounts, quote requests or reorder workflows move to Cmsmart B2B or a custom build on the same WooCommerce and Cmsmart Product Designer stack.