Magento is the world’s second most popular development platform for e-commerce websites. It empowers over 1% of all websites online (around 270,000) and is considered one of the most flexible environments. Magento has a ton of convenient features – automated website updates, generating SEO-friendly URLs, and so on.
Deciding to hire dedicated Magento developer teams will be a tremendous boost in all business areas – marketing, SEO, customer service, and so on. In this post, you’ll find out more about Magento tips that’ll turn an e-commerce store into a powerhouse.
Magento Market Analysis
In case you are new to Magento, take some time to get to know the platform and its community. Technically speaking, the environment is PHP-based, with the support of JavaScript libraries. Magento employs MySQL for database management.
In case you are wondering if the platform is popular among freelance Magento developer teams and store managers, these statistics will give a better understanding of the state of Magento.
- Magento empowers 12% of all e-commerce websites;
- The US has the largest community of Magento users – over 24 000 use the platform;
- Magento empowers 16% of all high-traffic stores;
- Lifestyle and electronics stores are the core users of the platform – brands like Huawei, Ford, Christian Louboutin, and more rely on Magento to support their online stores;
- Magento handles over $155 billion in transactions each year.
Statistics prove that Magento is a reliable platform for supporting e-commerce stores. By taking more time to learn the best practices of the system, developers can increase the number of website visitors, as well as customer satisfaction.
Pros and Cons of Magento For E-commerce Stores
Magento is a one-stop-shop or all e-commerce tasks – it has marketing and SEO instruments, helps optimize the user experience, and so on. However, as much as the platform scores in most development aspects, it comes with shortcomings as well. To understand if Magento is the right choice for your future project, examine its pros and cons.
Magento Pros For E-Commerce
- Multi-tier product features. Magento programming allows developers to support multiple types of a single product, display pricing in different currencies, set up a tiered pricing model, and so on.
- Multiple storefront support. Magento helps business managers create different views of the website to cater to different audiences and customer segments efficiently. For instance, with custom Magento development, you can build both a wholesale and a consumer view for the store.
- High scalability. Magento 1 has a handful of scalability issues, like the lack of search indexes optimization. The later version, however, has a much higher scalability potential. Browser caching, indexing, and the checkout process have all improved drastically.
Magento Cons For E-Commerce Websites
- Slow page loading speed. Long response times is a huge performance issue for Magento websites. Also, developers have to put up with slow data import, which makes transferring the website to the platforms times more complicated.
- Expensive plans. Magento has a limited free version – to access the platform’s full feature range, a developer will have to pay $2000+ monthly fees. That’s an unreasonably high Magento development cost for many online store owners.
- Steep learning curve. Magento is a challenging platform for a beginner to master – you will have to manage over 200 database tables and thousands of files. Such a complexity contributes to a high Magento developer salary and makes looking for a professional challenge.
Top 5 Magento Tips For E-Commerce Store Developers
Magento comes with a variety of tools that help store managers achieve stellar search optimization and security. The issue is, a Magento development company developers often neglect to get into the nitty-gritty of the system, and miss out on the opportunities to improve the website’s performance.
By following these five tips, you will start using Magento to the fullest extent and build a fast, easy to navigate and maintain e-commerce store.
Innovation #1. Automated XML map generation
An XML site map is a basic requirement for successful search engine optimization. In Magento, creating a site map for the store is straightforward and requires no advanced tech knowledge.
If you’re using Magento 2, go to Stores -> Settings -> Configuration -> Catalog -> XML sitemap. Although the platform generates sitemaps automatically, a magento ecommerce developer can fine-tune the settings.
Usually, developers choose the settings of the XML Sitemap tab the following way:
- Enabled – Yes
- Start time – any time, other than 00:00
- Frequency – Daily
- Error email recipient – the admin’s email;
- Enable submission to robots.txt – yes.
Now that you’ve fine-tuned the sitemap settings, it’s easier for Google crawlers to examine the website.
Innovation #2. Generation of search-friendly page links
Automatically creating SEO-friendly URLs is a convenient feature – be sure to benefit from it. Go to Stores -> Configuration -> General -> Web to be able to optimize URL settings. Choose Yes in the ‘Use Web Server Rewrites’ block. Choose ‘Save Config’ to apply the changes.
As you performed the actions described above, the platform will now automatically generate SEO-friendly links that adhere to xyz.com/category-sub-cateogry/product-name standards.
Innovation #3. Third-party modules
Magento allows developers to extend the functionality of the store with third-party modules. While extensions are a solid way to improve the productivity of the website, keep in mind that some might do the webpage more harm than good.
A poorly-developed module can turn into a security exploit and put a store at the risk of attacks. Make sure to install extensions from a certified Magento developer, with positive reviews and a stellar reputation.
Innovation #4. Server sharing
Magento provides developers with a possibility to share website assets with other store managers via the server.
Despite the fact that server sharing improves collaborative management, security-wise, it’s not the practice a remote development team would want to follow as it compromises the website’s protection. Instead, use PHP5 or MySQL servers to configure your store.
Innovation #5. Checkout extensions
A complicated check-out process is a turn-off for many online shoppers – in fact, one in five abandon the cart because of it. The good news is, Magento offers tools that make this experience a breeze. By using one of the following extensions, developers can implement a fast check-out:
Conclusion
Magento is a versatile e-commerce development platform that caters successfully to SMEs and large-scale businesses alike. Use the latest version of the environment to make the most out of it. Also, take your time to explore all features Magento has to offer – the platform has a way of automating or improving any store-management-related activity.
The platform is highly complex and challenging for beginners to master. Consider onboarding a team of professional developers to leverage Magento’s potential to the fullest extent.