Build Your Successful Ecommerce Website with Magento

There is no doubt that ecommerce businesses are multiplying with leaps and bounds. Nowadays, practically anything can be bought online, and small business owners have to get online to stay competitive.  Talking about popular ecommerce solutions, Magento stands out from the crowd. It’s a PHP-based open-source platform dedicated to building and promoting online shop projects. The ecommerce app is quite feature-rich as well, with tons of themes and plugins available for all merchants.

Still, the application is a bit of a resource hog, so getting the right Magento hosting deal is more important than ever. You need to find a host with enough expertise to handle the installation and help with technical issues. But what makes Magento so popular? Let’s analyze all that the CMS has to offer:

Magento Features Review

There are over 100,000 online stores powered by Magento, with the app particularly preferred by enterprises and experienced developers. That’s because the platform packs hundreds of options, and taking full advantage might require some knowledge or workforce. Don’t believe us? Check out this feature set:

WEBSITE MANAGEMENT FEATURES

• Operate multiple online stores from a single administrative area
• User roles and permissions
• API access for easy third-party app integration
• Custom web designs
• Customer group management
• Integrated content management system (CMS)
• A/B and multivariate testing for deep page optimizations

CHECKOUT, PAYMENTS & SHIPPING

• Single-page checkout
•  Real-time shipping rates for courier services like UPS, FedEx, and USPS
• Effortless integration with PayPal, Authorize.net, Amazon Payments, and Google Checkout
•  Accept checks and money orders
• SSL encryption on all orders and transactions
• Online tax and shipping calculator
• Create account during checkout
• Gift messages
• Save your cards and set expiration reminders
• Manage multiple shipping addresses
• Track orders at all times
• Multiple shipments on a single order
• Country management
•  Flat rate shipping
• Free shipping
• Filters for size, weight, and Destination

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

• Speed-optimized for better SEO results
• Google sitemap generation
• Search engine friendly URLs
• Meta tags and meta descriptions at Product and Category levels
• Popular search terms generation

ANALYTICS AND REPORTING

• Google Analytics integration
• Administrative dashboard with in-depth reports
• Detailed sales reports
• Detailed tax reports
• Abandoned shopping cart records
• Most viewed products
• Best sellers
• Track low stock items
• Most searched terms on site
• Product reviews report (+RSS)
• Tags report (+RSS)
• Coupon usage

MARKETING PROMOTION TOOLS

• Poll generation
• Newsletter management
• Landing page builder
• Promotions & Discounts
• Flexible coupon management
• Free shipping promos
• Volume discounts
• Bundle product discounts
• Pricing per Customer Group
• Recently viewed products
• New items promotion
• Upsell and cross-sell features
• Send-to-a-Friend and Wishlist options

ORDER MANAGEMENT

• Create, View, and Edit orders from the admin dashboard
• Create invoices, shipments, and notes for each order
• Invoice printing
• Phone order creation
• Customer re-orders
• Email notifications for new orders
• RSS feeds for new orders

CUSTOMER SERVICE

•  Contact Us form
• User-friendly customer area
• Track order history and service updates
• Set up email for password resets
• Order and account updates via email
• Customizable order forms
• Order creation and modification through the customer area

CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS

• Order status and history
• Account re-orders
• Recently ordered items
• Unlimited address book
• Default Shipping and Billing Details
• Wishlist with user comments
• Send Wishlist via email or RSS feed
• Newsletter subscription
• Submitted product reviews
• Submitted product tags

CATALOG MANAGEMENT

• Inventory management for backordered items 
• Set minimum and maximum quantities
• Full catalog import and export
• Batch product updates
• Customizable products and bundles
• Virtual & Downloadable products
• Custom-tailored products – embroidery, monogramming, engraving, etc.
• RSS feed for custom-tailored products
• Custom-tailored Products – Image upload
• Customer-tailored Products – Date/Time options
• Tax rate calculation per customer group and product type
• Attribute sets for different products and categories
• Store-specific attributes
• Automatic image resizing and watermarking
• Special prices and advanced pricing rules
• Search Result redirects
• Create, Edit, and Delete tags
• Create, Edit, and Delete reviews
• Customer attributes
• Sort by Category options

PRODUCT BROWSING

• Multiple images for every product
• Zoom In and Zoom Out capabilities
• Product reviews
• Related products
• Stock availability
• Multi-Tiered Pricing
• Product upsells
• Grouped products
• Add to Wishlist option
• Send-to-a-Friend via email

CATALOG BROWSING

• Layered navigation for product filtering in categories
• Layered navigation for product filtering in search results
• Flat catalog module
• Category Landing Page creation
• Assign unique designs for different categories and products
• Auto-suggested terms
• Product comparisons
• Recent product comparisons
• Upsells and Cross-sells
• Popular Search Terms Cloud
• Product tag filtering
• Grid and List formats for product presentation

Magento Benefits

• Open-source platform – Magento is an open-source solution, meaning you have access to its source code to customize as you wish. This gives the ecommerce app practically limitless opportunities to expand.
• Low Cost – you can actually install Magento absolutely free of charge. All you need is an ecommerce hosting provider and a domain name for your online shop. If you have enough experience managing the app, your whole experience can be quite budget-friendly. 
• Customer Support – apart from help from your hosting provider, additional assistance can be found in the Magento Help Center. Not to mention the friendly communities where users happily share their knowledge with the ecommerce app.
• Extensive Features – you can never be too close to your customers. That’s why Magento helps with all processes associated with your online shop. You can create accounts, make custom forms, convert currencies, set up shipping, even translate your website into different languages. Whatever you’re missing – there’s probably a plugin for that.

Optimizing Magento for Best Performance

Magento might be extremely versatile, but that takes its toll on your hosting server. The application is well-known as a bit of a resource hog, so your performance optimizations are more important than ever.  Here is what you can do from your admin panel to make Magento faster and more efficient.

•  Turn off logging mechanisms
• Enable compilation
• Optimize JavaScript and CSS files
• Optimize images
• Turn on Magento Flat Catalog
• Don’t use the layered navigation if you don’t specifically need it

Why Is Magento so Special

Since its launch in 2008, Magento has grown to one of the best ecommerce platforms. That attracted the likes of eBay, which acquired the app in 2011. Today, Magento has over 4 million downloads under its belt, powering the online storefronts of companies like Samsung, Ford, and Liverpool. Small retail businesses are suitable users of the app as well. Magento utilizes a Model-View-Controller model to separate website information securely. Further more, the trained support operators are always ready to help with appropriate solutions to any of your technical problems. The ideal Magento customers are definitely larger enterprises and businesses that need a more custom ecommerce solution. The software’s versatility is like none other on the market, and big shops can take full advantage of the vast range of features.  

Final Takes

One of the first steps in launching an online shop is finding the right app for it. Magento is often the answer to most client concerns:

• feature set
• design
• security
• support
• price

It doesn’t matter if you are a small-to-medium business or run a shop with 50,000+ products – trusting this robust ecommerce solution is a no-brainer.   

FAQ

Q: Is Magento free?

A: Magento supports both open-source and commercial versions of the product. You can easily download the app for free and use it with most web hosting providers. Magento Commerce and Magento Commerce Cloud are offered for big corporate clients, with prices starting from $20,000 and upwards for licensing.

Q: Which is better – Magento or Shopify?

A: While the two ecommerce platforms serve similar purposes, their main target is different client groups. Shopify is better suited for complete beginners and users that rarely need anything outside basic shop functionalities. Magento is perfect for enterprises and large stores with thousands of products. In-depth customizations and advanced features are key for such clients, and the popular ecommerce CMS delivers well in that aspect.

Q: Does Magento require coding?

A: Magento offers enough opportunities for beginners and professional developers alike. If you only need a basic storefront for a few products, you won’t need any advanced technical knowledge. But getting the most of Magento comes through extensive customizations, and you can definitely use some PHP/CSS/Javascript knowledge for that.