A store that looks the same in the week of Diwali or Black Friday as it does in March misses an easy win. A seasonal look tells returning customers something is happening, and gives you a reason to email them. This guide covers the festival and seasonal themes for BidKing, RaffKing and PrizeX. It explains what they do and how to schedule one to switch on and back by itself, so you're not changing themes by hand at midnight.
Everyday and seasonal themes
Themes live under Appearance › Themes, with filters for Everyday and Seasonal.
- Included themes: every edition comes with Classic and Editorial. PrizeX and BidKing Pro also include Bazaar.
- Seasonal and festival themes aren't among the themes any edition includes.
There are seasonal themes for festivals and sales around the year. A few of them, as their descriptions put it:
- Diwali: "a glowing rangoli of oil lamps on the homepage, lamplight gold on a deep night blue, and a marigold-and-ivory daytime mode." It has Diwali's date built in for the years ahead, and you can set your own.
- Mega Sale (Black Friday): "yellow price tags with a live countdown to 11.11, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, 12.12 and Boxing Day, or to your own sale dates." The countdown appears in the run-up to a sale.
- Singles' Day (11.11): "four giant 1s stand side by side like tall shop windows, each holding one of your live prizes."
- Advent Market (Christmas): "an advent calendar of 24 doors on the homepage, one opening each day of December onto one of your prizes."
- New Year's Eve: "fireworks burst over a city skyline", with a countdown to midnight.
- Winter Sale: January sales, with date presets for different regions.
- Lunar New Year, Ramadan & Eid, Holi and Valentine's: each has its own homepage centrepiece. Ramadan & Eid has a daily countdown to iftar and full Arabic support.
- Halloween: "a luxury haunted-mansion look", with featured prizes in gilded portrait frames.
Every theme has a light and a dark mode. The festival themes also come in the platform's 18 languages (except Halloween), and support right-to-left languages. Most also bring their own design to pages beyond the homepage, such as raffles and the shop.
Festival dates and greetings
Each festival theme except Halloween adds its own page to the admin, such as Diwali › Date or Mega Sale › Countdown. There you set:
- the date or sale dates its countdown and greeting use;
- whether to greet visitors on the day.
On the day itself, these themes greet each visitor once with a short animation. These settings are saved with the theme, so they're still there next year.
Scheduling a theme to switch on and back
This is the part that saves you a late night. On the Themes page, each theme has a Schedule button. You choose:
- When it starts and ends, in your store's time zone.
- Which theme to switch back to afterwards.
The store switches to the seasonal theme when the window opens and back when it closes. A few rules apply:
- Switches can't overlap.
- A switch can last up to a year.
- A start time that's already passed switches straight away.
- You can cancel a waiting switch, or end a live one early, which switches back at once.
- If you change theme by hand during a switch, the switch back is skipped, so your choice is kept.
- Scheduling uses cron. If a switch is missed, the Themes page tells you to check that cron is set up.
Diwali this year falls on 8 November and Black Friday on 27 November, so now is the time to set those switches up.
Previewing before you switch
- Preview opens your store in that theme, for you only. Customers keep seeing your live theme.
- Preview switch plays the theme's dark/light switch animation in a phone-sized frame. Each festival theme has its own: diyas lighting along a golden spiral for Diwali, a rocket bursting over the screen for New Year's Eve, and a wax seal pressing an envelope shut for Valentine's.
- Reduced motion is respected. Visitors who've asked their device for reduced motion get a plain fade instead.
What stays the same when you switch
- Your content and settings. Listings, menus and settings aren't touched, because switching only changes which theme draws the store.
- Your homepage layout. The sections and their order are set under Appearance › Homepage, and the new theme draws the same layout in its own style.
- Your logo. An uploaded logo is used as it is.
- One thing does change: visitors start in the new theme's default light or dark mode.
Before a big sale, preview the theme with your real listings and check your banners on a phone.
Common questions
Can my store switch to a Diwali or Black Friday theme automatically?
Yes. Use Schedule on the Themes page to set when the seasonal theme starts and ends and which theme to go back to. The store switches on and back by itself, as long as cron is running.
Are the seasonal themes included?
Every edition includes Classic and Editorial, and PrizeX and BidKing Pro also include Bazaar. Seasonal and festival themes aren't among the themes an edition includes.
Will switching themes change my listings or homepage?
No. Listings, menus and settings stay as they are, and your homepage sections and their order are kept. The new theme draws them in its own style.
Do the themes work on phones and in other languages?
Yes. They're responsive and have light and dark modes. The festival themes, Halloween aside, come in 18 languages, and all of them support right-to-left languages such as Arabic.