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Posts Tagged ‘magento development’

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.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento

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.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento

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.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento

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.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento, Shopify

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.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento

Magento E-Commerce Development Tips for Better Store Performance

November 30th, 2017

There is a lot of competition online between different Magento-based e-commerce stores. In this highly competitive marketplace, online store owners will do anything to gain a competitive edge over their competition. However, most people do not know that the key to gaining an advantage over your peers is hidden in your Magento e-commerce development techniques. By incorporating certain things into your website at the point of development or even after it, you can enhance your store’s profitability.

In this blog post, I will be discussing certain tips that can prove to be highly useful for every Magento website. Here they are –

  1. Make the site SEO friendly

SEO is what helps websites get recognized online and draw in traffic. This traffic later converts into buyers and increases your business’s revenues. From the initial phase of developing a website, you must ensure it is SEO friendly, meaning as per the SEO guidelines set by Google itself. In this scenario, hiring a Magento developer with SEO knowledge will be an added advantage.

One of the things that are the most important for ranking well through SEO is the website’s loading speed. A website that loads faster will rank better in terms of Google’s algorithm.

  1. Easy Sign-Up Process

If your website does not allow users to buy products without signing up, you need to make sure that the sign-up process is not overly complicated. There should be ideally no more than two or three steps in the entire process. Any more than that and your customers may rethink their decision to buy the product from you. The truth is that no one likes a long and tiring sign-up process.

By taking care of this one little thing at the time of Magento development, you can help yourself convert visitors into customers.

  1. Local Currency Option

If you cater to international audiences and sell your products to more than one country, it will be better to have your website automatically adjust the currency as per the visitor’s location. When customers visit your website and see foreign prices, it can be very off-putting. To make sure that you do not lose these customers to a local competitor, they must be able to view the prices of all the products in their own local currencies.

  1. Improved Shopping Cart Experience

The shopping cart experience is so crucial to the success of your Magento store that I cannot stress it enough. If the visitors go through your entire site, add products to the cart and everything goes perfectly, it can all be for nothing if they have a negative experience with your shopping cart. The best thing is to use subscription-based and fully hosted shopping cart services by Magento.

Simple to use shopping cart that gives a clear description of the products and their individual and total price will help you convert customers easily and avoid any cart abandonment.

  1. Using the Power of Social Media

Social media is a very effective tool for increasing the popularity of your website. If used smartly, it can help you with your online marketing efforts. Embed social media sharing plugins in your Magento site that will allow visitors to share various products online on their favorite social media platforms.  When users share your products online with their friends, it ensures increased traffic on that page and increased sales as well.

By following these simple but effective Magento e-commerce development techniques, you will not only gain a competitive edge but also see an increase in your website’s conversion rates. To hire Magento developers that can utilize these and many more methods to enhance your site’s productivity, contact Clap Creative for a free quote today.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento

Magento Maintenance: Best Practices to Follow

November 1st, 2017

Today, Magento is the most popular platform for creating e-commerce websites. It offers you various levels of customization. This feature-rich CMS (Content Management System) is used to create online stores that are the lifeblood of so many businesses. E-commerce is a very tough sector to be successful in because of the high level of competition. This is why Magento maintenance is so very important for the profitability of your online business.

Why is Magento Maintenance Necessary?

As stated above, e-commerce is a highly competitive sector and you cannot afford your website to crash even for a minute. Customers have so many options these days. Think of all the effort you put in trying to bring traffic to your site. The moment the traffic gets to your site if it hangs or is slow to respond it creates a negative impact on their minds. What is worse is if the site crashes. Not only will these visitors leave the site without purchasing anything, they may never return to the website at all.

To keep a competitive edge over the competition, Magento store owners keep their sites up to date. The website that is the fastest to lead and gives users a seamless experience is the one that ultimately wins customer’s hearts.

Best Practices to follow for Magento Maintenance

  1. Regular Security Checks

Security has to be the primary concern for you with your Magento website. The emphasis on Magento security is so much because, on these sites, visitors enter their personal and financial information. This information can be targeted by hackers looking to steal it. Keep your alerts active and up to date regarding any malware installation. Use various log review tools to keep a check on unauthorized admin logins. Also, actively monitor FTP and SSH for any suspicious upload or activity.

  1. Removing Test Products

Test products should be removed as not only do they lead to inaccurate reports but also slow down your front end queries. Unnecessary test orders eat up important disk space which also has an impact on the processing of coupons. Removing these products will noticeably improve the overall speed and performance of the Magento website.

  1. Get Reliable Hosting Service

Choose a web hosting service that works as per industry standards to ensure the reliability of services. Double check the coding to ensure that security is up to date. Also, for added security and customer trust, use a channel that is HTTPS secured. This also helps in SEO as well because Google gives preference to websites that use HTTPS.

  1. Configuring Magento Site Cache

Configuring the cache of the website will improve and optimize its performance considerably. You can select varnish cache that acts as a web accelerator that is also sometimes referred to a reverse HTTP proxy. This varnish helps in optimizing the speed of Magento webstore by saving a copy of the page in the RAM the moment any user visits the page for the first time. This also assists in managing the traffic and performance of the website.

  1. Hire a Magento Maintenance Company

There are so many aspects of an e-commerce business that you need to take care of. Those are the core functions of your business that need your undivided attention. Also, not every Magento store owner is overly technically savvy. That is why it is best to hire a Magento maintenance company like Clap Creative to optimize your website and to maintain its health and security.

Why Clap Creative?

Clap Creative offers Magento support and maintenance services to keep your Magento webstore in perfect condition. Some of the services that we offer under our Magento maintenance services are – speed & performance optimization, backup & security, malware removal, code review, troubleshooting and more. Get a free quote today from us to get started.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento

Magento Versus WordPress: Which Is The Better Platform?

October 25th, 2017

In the era of digitization, Magento and WordPress have emerged as the most famous platforms for constructing thriving online websites. One of the most frequently asked questions around the globe is which is the better platform between Magento and WordPress?

Comparing Magento with WordPress is like comparing apples to oranges because these are two extremes that cannot be compared. Both of them are equally good and discussed a lot in the world of Website development.

When we start peeping in the hole, we come across many similarities, differences, and some limitations that are related to Magneto development and WordPress development.

What are Magento and WordPress?

Magento is a powerful open-source e-commerce solution. It is designed to customize, manage, set up, and run your online portal. It provides maximum flexibility, scalability, and control.

WordPress is an online, open-source website creation tool written in PHP. It is probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS) in existence today. It allows you to create a beautiful website that truly represents your business.

Also, WordPress emerged as the most widely used blogging platform. It still is! But now it has also emerged as a leading content management system that supports much compliance and delivers optimal performance in various scenarios.

WordPress Vs Magento —- Similarities

On the surface level, these two platforms might seem to be very similar as they both are very SEO friendly, highly customizable, can be extensively themed, and provides a strong online support community. In addition to all this, both Magento and WordPress are content management system that enables the addition, modification, and management of the content in a simple yet highly effective manner.

Magento Vs WordPress —– Differences

When we analyze in more depth we come across many vivid differences between Magento and WordPress that are key deciding factors when we make a choice between them…

1) Difference based on programming language: WordPress is an open-source website tool that has its programming contained within a set of sequenced PHP scripts while Magento is specifically developed for e-commerce and is object-oriented. It is spread across a great number of files and folders.

2) Security: Magento is also more secure than using WordPress third-party plugins.

3) Development Scenario: Magento files are set up across a number of files and folders that share the same name. Where in WordPress all the files are largely contained within the same folder but have a unique naming convention. WordPress has its famed “Widgets” – objects that control the structural elements and design within a template. Magento has both CMS static blocks and widgets – while widgets offer a higher level of overall functionality.

4) E-commerce Plugins: Magento was developed specifically for eCommerce. Just by navigating through the Magento Admin Panel, you’ll notice that an overwhelming majority of it is devoted to eCommerce capabilities like shipping options, payment integration, inventory, price management, gift cards, or order fulfillment whereas for WordPress e-Commerce plug-ins are limited.

5) Based on Selling of products: If the sole purpose of your website is for blogging and content management and you are not intended to sell more than 20 to 25 products then the suitable platform for you is WordPress whereas if your goal is to sell products, then using Magento is highly recommended.

Conclusion

It is purely dependent on the user’s requirements and which platform to use. If the sole purpose of the website is just content management and blogging then WordPress is the one-stop solution. If the purpose of the website is purely buying and selling of goods then you have a large number of products on your website then Magento is the best solution. Using Magento for your business is beneficial as Magento is more robust.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento

Factors to Consider While Choosing a Magento Development Company

September 28th, 2017

Magento has become one of the most popular platforms for creating e-commerce websites all over the world. Many businesses choose to outsource the task of Magento development to a third party company that created their e-commerce site for them on the Magento platform. As your website is going to be the most important element of your online business, you need to careful while choosing a Magento development company to outsource to.

Below are some of the factors that you should keep in mind while choosing a Magento development company –

Services You Need

There is a wide range of services that a Magento development company may offer you. From web design services to development, from Magento security services to Magento support and maintenance services, these are all services that a good Magento development company should offer. You have to decide whether you just want a standalone service or want to take advantage of a bouquet of Magento services. Once you have decided on that, you should look at the list of services the company is offering its clients.

Check out their Portfolio

Magento development companies like to show off their list of clients and the websites they have made for them on their website. This gives you a great opportunity to see the kind of webstores that company has created. You can not only see the design of the websites created by them but you can check out their functionalities by actually visiting those sites.

Their experience

Look into how many years that company has been in service. Always choose a company that has abundant experience providing Magento development and other Magento related services. You can do research on that company online and go through their website. It will let you know how long the company has been operating and how many Magento based projects they have worked on.

See their Online Reviews

These days you can check the reviews of any company online. Same goes for Magento development companies as well. There are several platforms where companies are reviewed, Yelp is the most famous and trusted of them all. You can read the reviews of actual users that have gotten their websites developed by various companies and know their experiences. You can also check out the ratings on Yelp to see how many starts out of five they have gotten.

Know their Level of Support

After your e-commerce store is developed, there might be certain issues that arise with it. Look into whether the company offers you support for your website even after it has been developed or they simply do not give any kind of support services leaving high and dry. It goes without saying that it is always wise to hire a company that will not only create your e-commerce store but also provides support in the event something goes wrong with the site.

 

By considering these above factors, you can rest assured knowing that your new Magento store’s development is in good hands. If you are looking for an experienced Magento development company, Clap Creative provides you Magento development services that will help your online business grow by creating an attractive and fully functional e-commerce site. Our years of expertise with e-commerce development is the reason why we have been the choice of numerous clients across the USA.

To know more about our Magento services or to ask for a quote, you can contact us today.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento

6 Ways to Keep Magento Webstores Secure

September 23rd, 2017

Magento is one of the most popular platforms for developing e-commerce websites. As per a recent study, Magento has a 27% market share when it comes to e-commerce platforms. When a platform is adapted at a large scale by businesses, the security risk to that platform also increases. On e-commerce sites, users enter their confidential financial information. Hackers and cybercriminals try very hard to obtain these details for committing financial fraud. That is why, security has become one of the biggest priorities of e-commerce site owners, especially Magento e-commerce site owners.

Below are some of the ways that hackers can attack websites –

  • Cross-site scripting
  • SQL Injection
  • Remote command execution
  • Breaking Authentications…..and more

With so many ways your site can get attacked, how will you maintain your Magento security for your webstore? Below are the top 6 methods that you should follow to keep your Magento based e-commerce site –

  1. Update to latest version

This is a very basic step that I really don’t think I need to emphasize on why it is important. Magento comes out with new versions of its platform periodically and each new version has better security features than the least. You can see the patch notes that are released to know what changes are made in the newer versions. These patch notes also alert hackers on the weaknesses of outdated versions of Magento so you the smart thing to do is to update your Magento.

  1. Choose a strong Username and Password

One the primary methods hackers try to hack into a site is to find out its username and password. Keep your password at least 10 characters long, using complex combinations of numbers, letters, and special characters. Never use any string of numbers that are related to you like your birthday, anniversary etc. Also, avoid using your own name or names of loved ones as these can be easily guessed even by novices. A smart thing would be to never save your password on your computer. You should also change your password after set time intervals.

  1. Use Secure SSL Connection

When there is a secure connection to your e-commerce site, it fills your customers with confidence about transacting on our site. Use SSL encrypted connection to ensure that the data being sent to your website or from your website is secure. If your connection is unencrypted, it can be intercepted by hackers. This can result in theft of your and your customer’s data. You can easily apply SSL by going to your site’s admin panel.

  1. Change Admin Panel’s URL

This is like thinking 10 steps ahead. To carry out attacks on your site and to try and hack its passwords, attackers need to access the website’s admin panel. By default, the admin panel can be accessed by visiting www.yourdomain.com/admin. This can give easy access to your admin page to anyone looking to break-in. Once on this page, they only have one step stopping them and that is knowing your password. So, why make it easy for them by not changing the admin panel’s URL. You should change this URL to a term that is difficult to generally guess to add more security to your site. You can do this at the time of Magento development or later on as well.

  1. Different Passwords for Different Accounts

Many website owners make the mistake of using same passwords for multiple accounts so that they are easier to remember. Whether you are using the same password as your other websites or the same password as your email ID, it is never a smart idea. Access to any one of these IDs would give a hacker control over all your websites. Keep a different and unique password for each of your websites and accounts to enhance your Magento security.

  1. Get Your Website Reviewed

You should get a regular checkup done for your Magento e-commerce site. Using a Magento support and maintenance service, you can make sure whether your website’s security is up to date or not. The Magento support providers can also update your Magento version and check for changes that can be made to your site to enhance its security. They can also scan for various Malware and if their presence is detected, they can remove them as well.

Your Magento website is your business’s online marketplace and its security needs to be the topmost priority. Follow these above tips to ensure that your data and the data of your customers remain secure and confidential the way it should be.

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Categories: Ecommerce, Magento
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