Posts Tagged ‘Magento Development company’

The Ultimate E-commerce Web Development Checklist for Web Store in 2021

June 15th, 2021

Setting up a new store with E-commerce Web Development is a terrifying task. Several things require your care and there’s just a little surety of success. However, it’s not a valid reason for not launching a web store. Support is present in the form of articles, videos, and expert advice. The problem is that all the info is so dispersed that it takes much effort as well as time to gather and ingest the knowledge.

To help beginners who are thinking to dive into the e-commerce pool, here’s a checklist that covers all crucial aspects of going live with an e-commerce store.

   1. Web Design as well as Layout

It’s a fact that an online store has not more than 5 seconds to appeal to the visitors. So, the design, as well as the layout of the web store, plays a crucial role in this challenge. Here’re two key tips in this context.

  • Design Better Interfaces

Website design is the foremost point of contact between your web store and the potential buyers. Thus, to succeed, you need a design that is appealing, colorful, and non-intrusive.

  • Simple as well as attractive UI

You can create appealing UI as well as store layouts to engage more users. For this, you can either add a creative banner at the top or just display small icons to represent store categories in your E-commerce Web Development.

   2.  Content and SEO

Without proper content as well SEO, your web store has no possibility of being at the apex of SERP. Store optimization can be classified into two basic aspects.

  • Create Engaging Content

E-commerce Web Development is all about eye-catching content that fascinates the visitors. Web stores have three main types of pages i.e. landing pages, product description pages, and policy pages. The content on all these pages needs a different tone, readability, and intricacy.

  • Optimization for Organic Search

Once you finish creating the content, the next step is to optimize it for a higher ranking in search results. This mainly needs some tweaks in the content structure, adding relevant keywords, and adding visual components such as videos and images.

   3. Product Details Pages

The vast majority of the users land on the item description page because here they get a glimpse of the features of the product. Thus, you have to be cautious about the two areas that affect the success of these pages:

  • Add Outstanding Item Display

E-commerce stores need to display the items remarkably with fascinating visuals as well as in-depth descriptions. To help the users make good decisions, consider showing the price and time of the product graphically. The other thing you can do is display the competitor’s price for the same product for a comparison showing that you are offering the lowest price.

  • Visual Elements Boosts Sales

A renowned Magento Development Company or a Shopify Development Company like Clap Creative can make product pages more engaging by integrating multiple product images. Moreover, video product review adds up more credibility to the item and inspires the buyer to buy it.

  4. Checkout Process

  • Make it Smooth and Simple

As per Baymard.com, over 30 % of users abandon their cart before checkout because of its intricacy. So, here’s what we can do. According to the major E-commerce Web Development companies, the checkout steps should not serve more than three clicks. It should be simple throughout the final transaction 

  5.  Support Pages

Most store owners do not know the usefulness of support pages in the entire context of store management. But it’s crucial to maintain support pages, here’s how.

  • Keep Support Pages Simple

The privacy policy, return, or refund policy pages should notably mention the details of the entire process. Just make sure that the policies are simple as well as easy to read so that the users do not have to reach customer support for help.

   6. Digital and Paid Marketing Strategy

Without a proper marketing tactic, your web store is just like a boat without oars in the middle of the sea. Thus, the store’s digital marketing tactic should involve a mix of organic as well as paid marketing tactics.

  • Combine SMM, SEM, and Influencer Marketing

Too much focus on one form of marketing could easily void the impact of other tactics. So, you have to be creative with your blend of SMM, SEM, and influencer marketing.

  • Paid Marketing for Utmost Impact

Most online stores build the hype, but don’t chase it with paid targeting. This sometimes leads to a downfall of the marketing plan. Since stores do not have apt SEO and marketing grip initially, paid marketing could prove to be quite beneficial.

  7.  Site Analytics as well as Tracking

Most store runners neglect analytics as well as tracking of store statistics as it appears too far away from the business operations of the store. However, it provides info that is the key for formulating strategies. Here’s what you can do

  • Implement Analytics Tools

Analytics tools are a great option for measuring the performance of the store. These tools help to track traffic, user activity, and the user journey till the end.  On the major side, Google Search Console tracks a lot of data such as indexed pages, the number of clicks daily, and much more.

Winding Up

It isn’t too tough to succeed in launching an e-commerce store in 2021. You have to choose the right E-commerce Development Company and must have patience. You can always reach Clap Creative, a leading Magento Development Company for easy store set up.

Manage Customers in Magento Store Properly

February 15th, 2021

If you are running a Magento shop and looking for ways on how to manage customers in Magento, then read this article. In this Magento e-commerce website Building guide, we will be discussing the important steps that you should follow in order to manage customers on your business website. Managing customer is an essential part of every business. Therefore, it is very important that we learn how to do it effectively.

 

Magento development Company

 

Managing customers in your online store involves a lot of factors. These factors include everything from managing refunds to creating excellent customer service. It is very important to know what these things are before starting to manage a customer base in an online business. There are many ways in which you can go about this task.

Manage Customers With Magento Free Themes

There are many free Magento themes available for use in your store. These free themes are usually designed with the intention of helping you manage your customers easily. However, if you plan on having more sophisticated features, then you may have to spend some money on their acquisition. Keep in mind that you are already facing financial difficulties at this point. Spending money on such unnecessary expenses may only worsen your situation and could lead to you closing your online business.

A good way to manage your customers is through user authentication. User authentication allows your customers to log in to your site using their usernames and passwords. This helps you protect their security especially when they make purchases online. Also, you will be able to track all incoming and outgoing orders accurately. You will know which orders were made and completed as well as which customer was the cause of delays.

To manage your customers in Magento, it is essential that you provide them with plenty of information whenever they make orders. This will allow them to place another order or contact you for future questions. For instance, you can tell your customers about any available promotions. You can also inform them about the status of a particular order. By doing this, you give your customers enough information to make the best decision.

It is also essential for you to keep in touch with your customers. You can add them to your mailing list using your account settings. You can also send them occasional newsletters to stay informed about the most important events in your company. By sending them messages from time to time, you will be able to engage your customers and stay in touch with them.

Magento has made it easy for you to manage your customers. Through this open-source e-commerce platform, you will be able to save valuable time that you can use for other tasks. With this system, you will also be able to save a lot of money since you don’t need to invest in complex software. Instead, you can save on the development cost since Magento offers a free 30-day trial period.

Magento gives you the power to update your products as well as your store. You can do so through a secure login. You can even change the look of your website from time to time if you want to. All of these features make Magento an ideal platform for businesses who aim to make their customers happy. Even better, you will be able to increase the number of your customers. This is because you will be able to provide them with updates on different aspects of your business.

If you want to earn more profit, you must build a strong relationship with your customers. This is possible through excellent customer support. Since your customers are relying on you to provide them with the best services, it is important to respond immediately to their needs. And one way to keep them happy is to manage their shopping cart properly.

Magento is not only beneficial for small businesses but large companies as well. Its easy accessibility means that a large percentage of its customers are individuals who are looking for easy ways to manage customers in Magento. They are more comfortable using a more personal platform, which means that they will be more likely to become repeat customers. In fact, according to a survey, a high percentage of new users prefer to use Magento than any other eCommerce solution. These users know how to interact with its easy-to-use tools and manage customers in Magento.

Conclusion

Your Magento store should provide a positive experience for customers, otherwise, they will not be likely to come back to you again. Your Magento store should be designed in a way that enables customers to access information and buy products easily. We Clap Creative provides The best business web design service for your firm. This is how you attract new customers as well as retaining your existing customers. With the right approach, you will be able to manage customers in Magento properly and bring in more profits for your business.

Emerging Utilities of Artificial Intelligence in Magento Development

June 12th, 2020

Since Artificial Intelligence is becoming more prevalent in today’s digital era, every industry is keen to thrive with it. AI is becoming a trailblazer, especially for the myriad of eCommerce giants to bring frictionless shop and user experience for their tech-lover customers.

How does it work?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence for streamlining processes by machines. It focuses on the development of such machines that think and work like humans in ways like Speech Recognition, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Machine Vision. It combines a massive amount of data with rapid iterative processing and smart algorithms, enabling the machine to learn automatically from data patterns or features.

Being an avid part of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, chatbots are serving at the frontline for streamlining every online service. There is no surprise that chatbots nowadays are the major industrial trend that combines creativity with innovation. The smart bot enables the opportunity of live-chat functionality, allows customers to browse, filter and search various products and interacts with them while understanding their emotions. Without much human intervention, chatbots empower organizations to add an individual cum smart touch to the connection between customers and businesses. As we are talking about eCommerce businesses, how the platform which empowers the millions of online stores could be left behind? Speaking of which, the major eCommerce development platform Magento is going forward at a great pace with the help of Artificial Intelligence. Let’s throw some light on how AI is backing Magento in providing remarkable user experience.

There is a multitude of AI-driven tools and extensions available now in the Magento website development beyond its quintessential features. Magento development eases the way for its customers by offering to deploy automated as well as intelligent product recommendations across their storefronts, assisting brand website’s customers to discover relevant products throughout the shopping experience while creating proactive engagement, increasing conversion, and driving revenue. With this, fast-growing Magento merchants can easily automate product recommendations to deliver a seamless eCommerce experience. This also frees up valuable time for the eCommerce stores to focus resources on other ways to grow the business.

What else can we expect from AI-driven Magento development services? 

Enhanced Search Functionality

 Search is the vital aspect of eCommerce development because only a store that provides easy search functionalities is likely to be much successful in customer experience. Magento development company can effectively execute the use of an AI extension to enhance this functionality that focuses on Natural Language Processing (NLP), which serves multiple combinations of words and delivers results that are a perfect match for the user’s search intent.

Faster Resolution of Complaints

AI also enables faster resolution of complaints and return requests. It strengthens the customer support function with a set of predefined scripts that allow the system to handle the purchase-related or any other query. This leads to improved customer experiences with AHT reduced to the minimal.

 Fraud Prevention

These significant challenges in securing financial assets cannot be ignored. AI fortifies the store’s security by using behavioural analysis to identify false claims and enhance the decision-making process.

 Furthermore, Magento merchants can integrate the Product Recommendations feature and benefit from:

  • Auto-Distributed Page Tagging and Catalog Sync  

Storefronts are instantly tagged with no coding or development required. This ensures everything is deployed correctly while making it effortless for Magento development merchants.

  • Different Recommendation Types

Merchants can choose from various functionalities that are powered by Sensei and place them across their storefront such as “Trending”, “Viewed-Bought”, “More Like This”, “Most-Purchased”, or “Recommended for You”. 

  • Embedded Merchant Experience

An integrated user interface allows merchants to easily create, curate, and deploy product recommendations directly from Magento Admin while staying on top of dedicated metrics such as impressions, views, clicks and more.

  • Streamlined User Workflow 

A well-organized workflow simplifies creating product recommendations into clear, well-defined steps. This means once the feature is activated, merchants can start recommending products to their shoppers in minutes.

Certainly, all these features can be achieved if you understand what is great for your business and which Magento development services will help you to get it done!

Disruptive innovation that will reshape eCommerce development

Summing up, the continuous advancement in digital technology has made AI tools such as Siri, Alexa, and Cortana. AI proves to be helpful for eCommerce companies because it empowers the business to analyze and manage the available customer data completely. Considering the immense benefits, the merchants should make the move sooner or later. The best way would be to hunt and hire the best Magento development services in the market with apt skills and expertise to keep standing firm in the competition.

Guidelines for Choosing the Right Magento Development Services

April 23rd, 2020

E-Commerce is all the rage these days and has been for the past decade. The e-commerce sector has seen a boom like no other industry over the last ten years. A major reason for this was the growth of technology-enabled services and the integration of retailers with logistics partners. Retailers also realized the several benefits of e-commerce like expanded reach across the country or even the world, along with saving on real-estate costs of a brick and mortar store. There are several platforms to choose from when retails opt for e-commerce development. Magento is one of the most popular platforms for e-commerce today. In this article, we will go over some of the guidelines for choosing the right Magento development services providers for your business.

Qualities Magento Development Services Providers Should Possess

Regardless of your own business requirements, there are some basic requirements that you should seek for choosing the right Magento development services for you. Below are listed some of those desired qualities.

  • Certified Magento Developers

It is the age of expertise. You cannot be expected to trust the future of your online business in the hands of amateurs. One of the basic requirements when choosing a Magento development company is a company that has an expert team of certified Magento developers. This will give you the peace of mind that your site will be worked on by professionals that know what they are doing so that you would not need to micromanage every single aspect of your site’s development.

  • Impressive Portfolio

The next requirement in good Magento development service provider is having an impressive portfolio containing a list of Magento based e-commerce sites they have created. This will give you a clear idea of the type of work they have done in the past. You would be able to judge their creativity as well as efficiency through this portfolio. It becomes easier for any business looking to hire them to see if their vision matches the level of expertise and creativity of the development agency. If things click, then you can take it further from there.

  • Awards and Recognition

There are several awards in the web development industry. Many well-renowned organizations announce rewards for top web development or Magento development agencies across the world. It will be an added bonus to work with an organization that has been recognized as being a leader in the industry and has been awarded for the same, whether based on satisfied clients or industry critics. Award-winning agencies will obviously give you a better quality of work for your money.

  • Reviews and Testimonials

Reviews can help you know directly from the agency’s previous or existing clients how their performance has been. Whether these are reviews on sites like Yelp or Trust Pilot or reviews on their own Google My Business Page, they all are helpful in understanding the performance and work-culture of the Magento development agency. This inspection will help you get a list of companies with good reviews and happy clients so that you can confidently work with them.

Internal Business Factors

Apart from the qualities that the development agency possesses, there are certain internal factors that businesses need to think about as well before they choose as Magento development company. These are listed below.

Budget

Your company must have designated a budget for developing its Magento e-commerce site. You have to take that into consideration while choosing an agency. There is always some negotiation that occurs but you need to make sure that whomever you choose to work with can get the job done within your budget and does not go overboard.

Location

Even though these days with the internet there is no need to physically visit an agency’s office for a meeting, some companies may still want to drop in from time to time to check on the progress. In such a case, you may want to choose an agency that is located in your city for easy meetings. Otherwise, you can easily communicate via video conferencing and phone calls to make updates of the project and see where the progress has been made.

References

Sometimes a reference from within the company or from a vendor you work with can also influence your decision when it comes to web development companies. If you have a trusted vendor or supplier that recommends an agency that worked for them and did a good job, you could be more inclined to look them up rather than an unknown company.

Conclusion

So, we hope that from the above article you got the awareness needed to make the informed decision that can really have a huge impact on how your e-commerce journey gets launched. At Clap Creative, we understand how important your e-commerce projects are and have had years of experience creating amazing e-commerce sites for our clients. For any information, please contact us today.

Why You Should Migrate to Magento’s Latest Version

May 25th, 2018

It has been 8 years since Magento was first announced to the e-commerce industry back in 2010 but its beta version was only made available to the merchants in 2015 with a couple of more recent editions till date. And the reaction of Magento community? Well, it kind of mixed where though most people are excited about these latest releases, there are many still contemplating whether migrating or upgrading to Magento’s latest version is worth all the hype. In this article, we will help them make the right decision.

What about Magento 1?

Initially, Magento was built as a flexible platform allowing its users to create multiple storefronts with the help of pre-made extensions or through coding chops. However, this defining feature of Magento 1 not only came with its own set of drawbacks that severely affected its user-friendliness but certain important tools were also missing right out of the box, tools such as mobile responsiveness, performance optimization, admin capabilities etc.

Due to this, a great many complaints were registered for the sluggishness of Magento 1 version. Though changes were made, they weren’t enough to have any lasting effect on the underlying issue of core speed. As a result, the programming experts in Magento team worked hard for over 5 years to design this upgraded platform known as Magento 2.

What changes can we expect in Magento 2?

Let’s begin with the fact that there’s no turning back for Magento. Sooner or later, the Magento community will learn to work with Magento 2 series up until the time Magento 3 is introduced into the market.

Also, not upgrading to Magento 2 also means that after a certain time, you will stop receiving any security or functionality updates for your themes, plugins and the overall platform itself.

So, instead of thinking about some vague benefits you might or might not get in the future, let’s talk about some of the certain changes we can expect the moment we migrate to Magento’s latest version.

  • Magento has introduced new admin user interface that can easily be rendered on mobile, other features of this admin panel include responsive design and customizable grids for better control of product filters.
  • Magento 2 offers a new code base that simplifies the customization of its various stores and makes deployment that much flexible. Also, the APIs used are much more efficient in allowing Magento developers to operate with any 3rd party solution.
  • Though product creation and rich content has always been one of Magento’s primary features, its latest version, with the help of integrations with YouTube and Vimeo and a newly guided product creation workflow has facilitated much more efficient response times, making the overall process less demanding in the backend.
  • Magento 2 has greatly enabled the efficiency of site owners to operate more freely, thus helping their businesses grow faster. Thanks to the by default indexers in Magento 2 that transform all the user data into index tables that help boost the query speed and improve the performance of your Magento store.
  • Earlier, creating content was strictly limited to the user’s ability to code (or required outsourcing) but with Magento acquisition of Bluefoot, improvements in creating new content along with page builder module are on its way and can be expected to integrate directly into Magento coding as an upgrade assistance in 2.3 version.
  • Another change in Magento 2 is the simplification of checkout process that requires much less information and completes the process in few steps. Also, customers can directly create their account on the order page. All this has greatly improved the conversion rates along with enhancing the customer’s shopping experience.

How long will it take to migrate to Magento 2?

There are a number of factors that affect the amount of time it takes for the migration to complete such as the complexity of store, data migration requirements, number of customizations, extensions required etc. but typically, for an average size store with minimal 3rd party integrations, it normally takes from 3 to 6 months.

What will this migration cost?

Due to the varying nature of Magento projects, predicting the exact cost of migration is pretty hard. Your choice of Community or Enterprise edition will also have a considerable impact on pricing. You will get exact estimates only after the evaluation of your current Magento implementation by a reputable web design company.

Will the migration be an inconvenience?

I wish I could have sugarcoated this but the answer is yes, it will be inconvenient during the migration period and may require extra investments. Because of the vast difference in the internal structure of Magento 1 and 2, this upgrade will require a complete database migration. Unfortunately, even then you cannot transfer 3rd party extensions and code customizations. Also, your SEO may suffer too unless you take care of 301 redirects first.

Bottom Line:

It isn’t the question of, whether you should migrate or not but when you should do it because sooner or later, your only choices will come down to, either upgrade to the progressive Magento 2 and be a part of this ever-growing community or pack up and go home. So, choose wisely.

Top Reasons to Migrate to Magento Store

March 29th, 2018

Magento, the world’s biggest e-commerce platform, offers tons of options for customization and integration to its users along with full flexibility and control in order to operate efficiently as well as support rapid growth. No wonder, it’s the prime choice of over 200,000 retailers worldwide ranging from small business owners to e-commerce giants. First released in 2008, Magento has outgrown its competition long ago and proved its dominance by satisfying all online shopping preferences.

Currently, there are 3 versions of Magento Development platforms available in the market.

  1. Magento Community Edition or Magento CE is the free version which is built using the open-source software and provides hundreds of themes, templates and plugins that are absolutely free to use and offer a full range of functions to fulfil every need of the store owners such as site design, payments, shipping, products and much more.
  2. Magento Enterprise Edition or Magento EE is the paid version of the e-commerce platform which allows the easy set-up and management of high-quality search results in more than 30 languages along with certain business management tools such as Drag and Drop Tools, Easy Product Creation, intuitive Admin Interface etc.
  3. Magento Go is also a hosted, SAAS service provider which is more suitable for small and emerging businesses that prefer a simple online store without the complexity of managing servers and software. Even the cost of purchasing and maintaining this robust platform is also kept bare minimum to assist small-scale retailers.

Apart from this, Magento offers its own marketplace to its consumers known as Magento Connect where one can get thousands of free and paid extensions befitting their every need as an entrepreneur. And believe me, this is just the start.

Magento community offers so many features that it’s difficult to include everything in this post. Still, I will try to include as many top reasons as possible as to why you should consider migrating to Magento if you haven’t already done so.

  • Out-of-the-Box Solution

The first and foremost reason lies in its basic structure which is designed to house your overall online presence and offers a complete out-of-the-box solution to all your e-commerce related queries including dozens of specialized tools to let you manage shipping costs, discounts, wishlists etc.

  • The Magento Dashboard

Magento dashboard provides a major benefit to retailers who are in the continuous lookout for ways to improve the performance of their e-commerce store as it comes power-packed with a vastly improved layout, professionally designed themes and templates, and a wide array of data visualization tools.

  • Single Page Checkout

The user-friendly checkout process of Magento allows its customers to place orders with few steps apart from helping in reducing the cart abandonment rates and improved conversions. It even allows guest users to easily create an account directly from the order page (of course registered users have single-step checkout options)

  • Magento Product Types

The control and flexibility Magento gives over your products is incredibly enticing. Check out for yourself

  1. Simple Products (no variations over color or size)
  2. Configurable Products (inventory for one product’s multiple options)
  3. Grouped Products (collection of simple products)
  4. Virtual Products (basically services that you offer)
  5. Bundled Products (combo of simple or virtual products)
  6. Downloadable Products (all online downloadable things)
  • Better Performance/Scalability

The built-in full-page cache is one of Magento’s strongest feature that supports up to Varnish 4.0 with HHVM 3.6 which further compiles PHP code on the fly. It also allows database sharing through the functional area by the product information to be stored in different DB server that can be retrieved at a much faster pace.

  • Easy Customization

Magento with the help of the PHP package manager lets everything specific to the module to be handled directly from a single directory. This, in turn, allows easy customization as well as maintenance of that customization by separating the business and presentation logic even during the installing of product patches.

  • Multiple Store Management

Another key feature that Magento is known for is its capability to host multiple websites with a single back-end admin panel. In simple words, with Magento, you will be able to easily manage numerous stores, offer the same products, share same categories but with the freedom to choose different prices and languages.

  • Collaboration with Google

Magento allows you to run your e-commerce store successfully by keeping track of visitors and sales with the help of certain Google services it has conceived through collaboration namely-

a) Google Analytics furnishes you with relevant data obtained through significant metrics such as lead rates, campaign results, conversion rates etc.

b) Google Checkout, an online payment processing service, has integrated with Magento to simplify the process of online purchase for its users.

c) Google Base keep track of your best-performing products along with optimizing your shopping feed’s title, categories, descriptions etc.

Closing Thoughts:

As we have seen above, Magento gives us more than enough reasons to migrate. Some we have seen above, others include advanced search, layered navigation, product comparison, SEO performance and much more. As an open source software, it is updated on a regular basis by designers which means an endless supply of new features for you along with support from the much larger Magento Community. So, what are you waiting for, hire Magento developer, and be on towards your journey to success.

Tips to Boost your Magento E-Commerce Store Sales

February 6th, 2018

The e-commerce market of today is packed to the brim with businesses scrambling for the top, trying to gain as much space as possible. However, in order to get the best out of your e-commerce store which in this case is Magento, it only seems plausible to keep oneself up to date with current marketing trends to stay ahead of the competition.

Although Magento website development company already provides a leading platform when it comes to accomplishing great wonders in the big world of e-commerce and is self-sustainable in satisfying all online shopping preferences, there are still areas where you can make certain efforts to increase the overall sale of your online store. Before we look any further into the areas of improvement, let’s look at-

Some of the Factors that Influence the Online Shopping Behaviour of Consumers:

  • Security Factors which includes payment details being lost or stolen.
  • Complex Checkout Process which lets customers abandon their shopping carts.
  • Return Policy which is easy to understand is highly appreciable.
  • Delivery Time Estimate is also an important factor that affects shopping experience.
  • Privacy Risk which includes personal information being stolen or handed over to 3rd parties for misuse.

Once you understand the current requirements and concerns of your existing customers, you can concentrate better on improving the overall performance of your Magento e-commerce store. Let’s look at the list below to acknowledge some of the-

The Speed Related Technical Parameters you should Consider in order to Boost your Magento Store are:

  1. Download the Latest Version

Upgrading your Magento installation to the latest version will be worth your efforts when you consider the new functionality features, bug fixes and performance improvements in both the Community and Enterprise Editions.

  1. Remove any 3rd party Extensions

Often times, situations require us to include 3rd party extensions into our projects. Integrating these may cost less but can also induce issues in the current projects so it’s always better to remove those whenever possible and use Extendware extensions instead.

  1. Review your Host

Improving your Magento performance depends heavily upon choosing a reliable and fast host if your current host provider is lagging you behind, its time to move to other faster options available.

  1. Deactivate the Unused Features

Disabling certain features which were previously added by you but currently not in use can greatly compromise the speed and security of your Magento website, the key here is to locate and deactivate any additional features not in use to save your site from harm.

  1. Optimizing Images

Optimizing your product images by compressing them before uploading is quite important as they can dramatically decrease the download time.

  1. Update Indexes

When data such as products, categories etc. changes, the transformed data must be updated as well. Magento by default transforms this data through indexing but in some cases, manual updates are required as well to improve the performance of your storefront.

  1. Implementing CDN

CDN or Content Delivery Network is a web service which sends the content requested by a browser via one of the edge nodes rather than from the main server which in turn reduces the loading time on the main server. Implementing CDN will ensure fast delivery of information to your shoppers.

Now that we have familiarized ourselves with the technical aspects, let’s look at the few other-

Factors to Boost your Magento Web Store Sales are:

a) Provide multiple online payment options by using Magento extensions such as PayPal, credit and debit cards along with various others instead of offering only one to make it more convenient for your online customers

b) Websites lose many customers on a daily basis simply because of their complex and time-consuming checkout process. Simplify your checkout process to contain only necessary information to ensure swift checkout process for your customers.

c) Focussing on content marketing rather than emphasizing only on product descriptions, posting unique and valuable content on your blogs on a regular basis about services, news, media etc. can do wonders for you.

d) Shopping experience nowadays is not only limited to desktops but have moved forward to tablets and mobile phones as well. Using a responsive website that works well with multiple screen resolutions will skyrocket your sales within no time.

e) Incorporating social media into your marketing strategy gives your customers a chance to share products on various social media platforms via social sharing buttons, thus turns satisfied customers into salespeople that their social circles trust.

Conclusion

Magento is a well-built platform whether in terms of speed, security or stability but you can always consider the above-mentioned tips to increase your sales through higher conversions. Optimize your Magento e-commerce store to be more accessible, interactive and user-friendly to generate more revenues.

Magento vs BigCommerce: Which to Choose in 2018

January 22nd, 2018

2018 is here with new hopes and possibilities. Maybe it’s time to start that new online store you have been thinking of since last year or maybe you are already running an online store but unhappy with the results, want to switch to a new and more profitable e-commerce platform. Whatever your plans for this year are, start working on them now because time is money.

If you fall anywhere between the two above categories, then look no further, this article is for you. We understand how choosing the right platform for your online store can mean the birth or death of your business (or maybe your dreams), that’s why we are here to discuss the best of two e-commerce giants, Magento and BigCommerce and help decide which is more suitable for your business.

Before moving through the list, let’s learn a bit about these two e-commerce giants.

Magento is an on-premise, open source platform which comes in two editions namely Community Edition which is free of cost and Enterprise Edition which is a paid feature. Being open sourced, its software must be licensed and installed on your computer to run.

BigCommerce, on the other hand, offers a SAAS (software-as-a-service) platform which is a paid service. It is cloud based which enables you to access your webstore on any web browser anywhere across the globe and on any device available via internet connection.

Both Magento and BigCommerce come loaded with various features to help you grow your business, let’s compare and find out which one better serves your needs.

  1. Magento vs BigCommerce’s Software

The primary difference lies in their software itself.

  • Since Magento is an open source platform which is free, it provides a ‘build from scratch’ model which allows you to customize the website yourself (provided you have the required knowledge), if not, then either have an in-house IT team to operate or a Magento development company.
  • BigCommerce, on the other hand, provides an out-of-the-box solution with its ready-made store application which one can customize himself with minimum knowledge required but since it’s a SAAS, you must buy a plan and pay monthly rents accordingly.
  1. SEO friendly tools

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process of generating traffic by ranking the site high on search engines.

  • Magento is considered extremely SEO friendly with its access to Google content API and Google Sitcom along with its ability to make search engine friendly URLs and meta info for products and categories.
  • In addition to all the above features, BigCommerce provides txt file with product-specific SEO keywords along with Google Shopping support and 301 redirects.
  1. Social media compatibility
  • Magento development provides various apps and integrations which facilitate sharing and selling on social media but unfortunately doesn’t come with any in-built
  • BigCommerce facilitates selling on Facebook by providing a Socialshop program but unfortunately, Twitter and Pinterest connections are not included.
  1. Themes and designs
  • Magento holds the upper hand here with a variety of free themes to choose from, (thanks to its open source platform) along with highly responsive designs.
  • BigCommerce store design is also highly responsive but with one minor setback, its limited availability of 42 paid and 16 free themes to choose from.
  1. Expenses
  • Magento is free to download however setting it up and maintaining it will require IT experts which may cost a little along with extra hosting fee since it doesn’t provide hosting of its own.
  • BigCommerce comes with a monthly subscription fee which ranges from $29.95 to $199.95 per month but since its out-of-the-box solution, no extra cost is added and it’s self-hosted as well.
  1. Easy Integrations
  • Magento integration is slightly more complex because of its open source platform and lots of customizable options.
  • BigCommerce provides a relatively easy integration due to its API which integrates well with other systems and fewer customization options.
  1. Security features

 Every e-commerce platform must provide its customers with a safe payment option or in other words, be a PCI compliant hosting provider.

  • Magento provides a built-in SSL security support, meeting PCI compliance standards is the responsibility of store owners themselves.
  • BigCommerce, being in charge of hosting and maintaining, provides PCI compliant by default to all its websites.
  1. Payment getaways

 It is a merchant service that authorizes payments processing for e-businesses.

  • Magento offers several getaway options with ‘zero’ hidden costs.
  • BigCommerce provides its customers with more than 60 payment getaway options.
  1. Extensions
  • Magento offers a massive benefit to its clients by providing more than 15,000 extensions and add-ons.
  • BigCommerce, on the other hand, lacks behind by providing 60 extensions and add-ons on its BigCommerce app store.

10.Customer Support

Providing customer support to its clients help build trust and strengthens future relations.

  • Since Magento, being free, does not provide hosting to its websites, one depends on support forums run by the Magento community itself.
  • With BigCommerce, one gets a dedicated 24/7 support with tons of other customer support services via calling, emailing, chatting etc.

Conclusion

That sure is a lot of information to process and after comparing both, we still aren’t close enough to decide which is better among the two. If we look at the popularity ratio:

  • Research shows that Magento is popular among large enterprises and BigCommerce ranges from small to medium to large.
  • Magento and BigCommerce both claim to host approximately 2,00,000 websites.
  • Magento’s clients include some of the famous brands such as Vizio, Rosetta Stone, Nike etc. BigCommerce too bags some big names including Toyota, Camelbak, Travelpro etc.

I guess at the end it all comes down to your company’s requirements. Both have the potential to turn your dreams into reality. Choose the one that best suits your needs and see your business prosper.

Comparing the Benefits Between Magento and Shopify

January 17th, 2018

Location, as we know, have always played a major role in determining the success of any company. Nobody wants to set their shop in a secluded area devoid of any customers. Similar logic applies while you try to set an online store but with a minor difference, you have to choose an e-commerce platform rather than an actual location.

Choosing an e-commerce platform may appear to be a minor difference but in no way, it is to be mistaken for a minor problem. What’s the point of establishing a nice-looking online store brimming to the top with a variety of products where customers cannot find you? It gets, even more, tougher due to the vast majority of options available (each claiming to be no.1) to pick from.

But if you look at things more closely, you will realise that there are very few platforms on top such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Shopify, Magento, Big Cartel etc. among which the main competition is actually between two e-commerce giants namely Magento and Shopify. Let’s learn a bit more about them.

Magento, originally developed by Varien Inc. in 2007 and currently owned by eBay, is an open source e-commerce platform written in PHP. Magento website development services are currently available in two versions namely Community (which is free with basic features) and Enterprise (which is paid with advanced features) edition.

Shopify, on the other hand, was launched by Snowdevil founders in 2006 by Daniel Weinand, Scott Lake and chiefly Tobias Lütke as an API (or Application Programming Interface) platform. It is basically a cloud-based e-commerce store platform written in LIQUID which enables the Shopify web design and customization to be extremely user-friendly.

Now that you are aware of them, let’s dive in a bit deeper and learn about their various benefits and what distinguishes them.

  1. Popularity Ratio

 The first thing any client will look for is the popularity ratio and here Shopify seems to hold an upper hand by hosting more than 2,40,000 websites on its domain with Magento slightly behind with 1,60,000 sites to claim its own.

But this tells more about the businesses that own them, not efficiency ratio as Shopify is mostly popular among small businesses whereas Magento is more suitable for medium or large companies.

  1. Web design/Customization

 Both Shopify and Magento provide you with the facility to build your websites from scratch choosing from various themes available which are highly responsive with robust customization capabilities.

The difference lies in the usability, where Shopify works on the drag and drop philosophy enabling easy theme customization, Magento with the help of Bluefoot (a CMS and page builder module) enable clients to build a uniquely designed website.

  1. Apps and Add-ons

When it comes to flexibility, Magento is the clear winner. Shopify with a little over 100 apps and Add-ons comes nowhere near Magento which provides more than 5000 extensions to its clients owning no doubt to the open source nature of the platform.  

  1. Expenses

Since it’s an open source network, the Community edition of Magento is completely free to use and its enterprise edition costs vary according to company’s needs. However, hosting 3rd party services may cost a little.

Shopify, on the other end, works on SAAS (software-as-a-service). Initially, you get a free trial period of 14 days after which it ranges between $29 to $179. Though you may save on hosting as Shopify is self-hosted.

  1. Payment Getaway Options

Shopify offers its users a smooth experience when it comes to payment options. With 70 payment getaways, Shopify clearly holds a major advantage here over Magento which offers far less to its users though it can be increased via 3rd party add-ons.

  1. Inventory Management

 Here you will have to choose according to your requirement as both offers bulk upload features with add and edit options. You can add unlimited products on Shopify with its monthly plans with only one exception i.e. starter pack, which costs $14 and will limit your stored items to 25 only.

With Magento you don’t have to worry about product management as it allows virtually unlimited products but faces another issue, it weighs down your site’s loading time which you won’t find in Shopify.

  1. SEO Management/Driving Traffic

When it comes to generating traffic, SEO plays a very important role as it drives more organic traffic to your stores via search engines. Both platforms are extremely SEO friendly and provide extensive SEO capabilities, however, Magento ranks slightly higher in a study of SEO scores with Shopify closely behind.

  1. Speed and Performance

The speed with which any website loads determines its success rate. If one compares Magento 1.0 with Shopify, Shopify is the clear winner, but things have changed with the coming of Magento 2.0 which is incredibly fast compared to its earlier version. 

  1. User experience

When it comes to user experience, a lot of people seem more satisfied with Shopify than Magento. Even the admin panel of Shopify requires no advance knowledge and easy to maintain whereas, with Magento 1, clients need professional help due to its complexity of setting up their store. But Magento 2.0 with its user-friendly admin panel and readymade extensions have resolved that issue which Magento 1.0 had.  

Conclusion

It’s hard to make a clear assumption as to who should be the winner as both have their advantages and disadvantages. But what we can gather from the available information is that both Shopify and Magento provide excellent hosting platforms best suited according to the customer’s needs. So choose wisely.

6 Magento E-Commerce Trends to Follow in 2018

January 2nd, 2018

Magento, since its foundation in 2007, has seen its share of ups and downs but through continued persistence and a strong will to survive it has turned out to be the most successful e-commerce development company among business world in the recent years and will continue to do so in 2018 and well beyond that.

Magento basically provides a sophisticated e-commerce platform, easy to navigate for users and operate for owners. What gives Magento an edge over its competition is its ability to increase user engagement and improve conversions by providing a variety of user-friendly options and an ease to access them.

Speaking of user-friendly options, below are listed some of the hottest Magento trends of this year which will continue to dominate in 2018. Be sure to follow them.

  1. Chatterbots-  are basically chatting robots which are designed to engage users interest by providing useful info and solving queries in real time via auditory or textual methods. It recognises keywords the user inputs and responds with a pre-programmed answer in order to move the conversation forward in a meaningful way.
  2. Omni-presence- everything is interconnected in today’s world, thanks to technology, why should our shopping experience be any different. Another hot feature added by Magento is allowing the users to be present in various shopping sites at once and the freedom to access these sites from any device.
  3. Mobile connectivity- smartphones are getting smarter by day and those who embrace it are far ahead in the race for modernisation. Magento grabbed this opportunity early on by making its software mobile-friendly and providing the users hassle-free experience of shopping anywhere, anytime.
  4. Live video feed- live video chat is another revolutionary idea implemented by Magento which has escalated the user experience tenfold since its introduction. Just the idea of another person live streaming the demonstration of his product is intriguing. One can also ask questions and clear doubts in real time thus building trust.
  5. Using social media- this feature works in collaboration with social media sites by providing links to your searched items on social media (this is called indirect marketing) for reconsideration purposes. You can also tag the product to your friends and it also provides ‘easy to purchase’ options which are just a few clicks away.
  6. Push notifications- this process works by re-engaging your visitors by providing them with an option to accept notifications for future. These notifications contain the information of newly launched products or offers/discounts, reviews from authentic users on items viewed, alerting them of pending items in shopping card and informing them about the delivery details of their products.

Magento has been a leading software company in e-commerce development for many years and a trusted name among famous brands such as Coca-Cola and Burger-King. Evaluating its growth over the years, it is safe to assume that the future of Magento is bright and the new features it introduces every year to stay on top are nothing less than icing on the cake. Stay connected to remain in touch with the future of e-commerce.