Product Archive Templates allow you to design and control how your product category and shop pages appear on your WooCommerce store. Using the Kadence Shop Kit, you can create custom layouts that perfectly match your branding and highlight your products effectively. This feature gives you full flexibility to style each archive type individually – without touching a single line of PHP.
Understanding Product Archive Templates
In a Kadence-powered WooCommerce store, Product Archive Templates define the structure and layout for pages that display multiple products – such as category archives, tags, or the main shop page. These templates are created within the Kadence Shop Kit and managed under Products > Woo Templates in your WordPress dashboard.
Each template can be built with Kadence Blocks and WooCommerce Blocks provided by the Shop Kit plugin. You can specify where each template should be applied – for example, different designs for each product category or custom taxonomy.
Main Features
- Create and manage WooCommerce templates directly in the WordPress dashboard.
- Use Kadence Blocks and Kadence Pro dynamic features for flexible design control.
- Apply templates conditionally – for example, per taxonomy, category, or product type.
- Integrate with Kadence Query Loops for dynamic product listing layouts.
- Includes two pre-designed templates ready to use in the Alpha Theme.
Step-by-Step: Creating a Product Archive Template
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to Products > Woo Templates.
- Click Add New Woo Templates to create a new template.
- Choose Product Archive as the template type.
- Use the Kadence Blocks and Shop Kit WooCommerce Blocks to build your layout. For example, use the Kadence Query Loop Block to display dynamic product listings.
- Customize your design by adding headings, images, buttons, and other dynamic elements using Kadence Pro features.
- In the Display Conditions settings, define where this template should apply (e.g., specific categories or tags).
- Publish the template and view your shop page to see it in action.
Why Custom Archive Templates Matter
By creating custom product archive templates, you gain full design control over your WooCommerce product listings. This means you can:
- Deliver a consistent and branded shopping experience.
- Highlight specific products or categories using tailored layouts.
- Improve user navigation and conversion rates with optimized design and structure.
- Reduce dependency on third-party layout builders by leveraging Kadence’s native tools.
The Alpha ecommerce theme includes two pre-designed Product Archive Templates that you can use immediately or customize to fit your store’s identity. These serve as a great starting point for exploring the full power of Kadence Shop Kit templates.
Product Archive Templates allow you to design and control how your product category,shop and search result pages appear on your WooCommerce store. Using Kadence ShopKit, you can create custom layouts that perfectly match your branding and highlight your products effectively.
This feature gives you full flexibility to style each archive type individually – without touching a single line of PHP.
What is a Product Archive?
In WooCommerce terms, an “Archive” is any page that displays a list of products. This includes:
- The main Shop Page (showing all products).
- Category Pages (e.g., showing only “Watches”).
- Tag Pages (e.g., showing items tagged “Bestsellers”).
- Search Results pages.
2 Pre-Designed Templates Included
To get you started, the Alpha Ecommerce Theme includes 2 pre-designed Product Archive Templates ready to use. You can assign different designs to different categories – for example, a grid layout for accessories and a list layout for main products.
How to Create or Edit an Archive Template
These templates are managed within the WordPress dashboard.
1. Access the Templates
Navigate to Products > Woo Templates. Here you will see a list of existing templates. You can click Add New Woo Templates to create a fresh one or edit the existing Alpha templates.
2. Template Settings
If creating a new template, ensure you select Product Archive as the template type.
3. Designing with Blocks
Inside the editor, you use Kadence Blocks to build the layout. These blocks are essential:
- Query Loop Block: This block displays the actual grid of products. You can customize how many columns are shown and what information (price, title, rating) appears for each product card.
- Kadence Filter Blocks: These blocks can only be used inside the Kadence advanced query loop but offer great flexibility.
- Sort Block, Pagination Block, Result Count Block: These and other blocks dependent on the Kadence query loop complete the picture.
4. Display Conditions (Where does this appear?)
This is the most powerful setting. Click on the Template Settings icon (top right) and look for Display Settings.
You can tell the theme exactly where to use this design:
- All Product Archives: Applies this design to every product archive.
- Product Category or Product Tag Archives: Select all or specific categories/tags (e.g., “Watch Boxes” or “Bestsellers”) if you want them to look different from the rest of the store.
- Shop Page or Search Results: You can also create unique layouts for these archive pages with the Kadence woo templates feature.
Alpha Theme Special Features for Archives
To make your shop pages stand out and improve navigation, the Alpha Theme includes two custom-coded features specifically designed for Product Archives.
1. Dynamic Taxonomy Navigation (Visual Cards)
As seen in the demo, you can display a row of visual navigation cards at the top of your shop or category pages. This system is automated via the [woo_taxonomy] shortcode, which intelligently pulls sub-categories or tags based on your current view.
Key Highlights:
- Automated Visuals: The shortcode automatically retrieves images from the taxonomy settings or falls back to the most recent product images.
- Smart Context: It automatically hides the current category or tag to avoid redundancy in the navigation.
- Mobile Optimized: Includes built-in horizontal scrolling and drag-to-scroll support for touch devices.
Common Implementations:
- Visual Cards (Standard):
[woo_taxonomy]– Ideal for main category navigation. - Text-Only Links:
[woo_taxonomy show_images="no"]– A cleaner approach for compact layouts. - Minimalist Style: Add
class="no-cards"to remove background and border styling.
Detailed Configuration: For a full list of all available attributes (sizing, padding, font control) and a deeper look at this feature, check out this guide.
2. Mobile Slide-Out Filters
Filtering products on mobile devices is often a usability challenge. The Alpha Theme solves this with a sophisticated “Off-Canvas” filter system.
How it works:
- Desktop: Your filters appear in the sidebar or designated filter area as normal.
- Mobile: The sidebar is automatically hidden. Instead, a “Filter” button appears. When a customer clicks this button, a smooth slide-out panel opens, allowing users to select price ranges, attributes, or ratings without cluttering the screen.
Setup: This feature is built directly into the Alpha Archive Templates. You do not need to configure extra plugins. If you want to know how this feature works in detail, check out this guide.
Why Custom Archive Templates Matter
By using the Alpha Theme’s archive templates, you reduce dependency on third-party layout builders and improve performance. You gain full design control to deliver a consistent, branded shopping experience that guides your customers smoothly from a category overview to a specific product.
