Magento: Your Online Store Solution for Business
Magento provides a practical solution to design, create, and manage your online business with ease.
E-commerce is a popular buzz these days. It refers to a business strategy that allows business owners to do their business online. Having an ecommerce website is advantageous because it connects the company with their clients and customers 24/7, global links, and efficient delivery of customer services.
Websites provide businesses boundless options for products and services, giving people adequate information and details, and prices. Consumers prefer online shopping because it is simple and easy to use and perform. Now, websites are also connected to mobile phones and tablets where consumers can link to websites and shop.
What is Magento?
Magento is an open source platform ideal for e-commerce purposes for businesses, including small businesses. It allows you to design and create an online shop that promotes and sells your products or services. It helps you create your online shop without worrying about any software, website codes, or servers.
Magento has four models for business needs:
- Magento Community which is ideal for developers and hobbyists
- Magento Enterprise is good for medium to big businesses
- Magento Enterprise is designed for big businesses
- Magento Go is a hosted solution for small entrepreneurs and business owners that do not have to worry about software and servers. (Magento is shutting down on February 2015; but websites using Magento Go will still be performing smoothly)
What are the best features of Magento?
Magento is an open source platform and it is free to use. Being an open source platform, it allows web developers to change the source code and add some features through installation of add-ons and plugins as per requirements of the business.
Magento has scalable platform. This feature allows web developers or business owners to customise their website. Whether it is a small or large business, it can be built depending on the requirements of the business. Business owners may also expand the platform, if they want, depending on the expertise of their Magento web developers.
Magento is easy to manage and operate. With Magento, web owners are allowed to create and run multiple stores and manage them from a single panel. This means that customers and sales are handled from one database. This will save business owners’ time of accepting orders and managing their sales. Magento has additional important features for business, like use of multi-language, international support, product-browsing, order and shipping, multi-currency support, and other features.
Magento is guaranteed user-friendly. With Magento, products are shown easily which provides pleasant shopping experience to customers. Its layout allows users easy navigation. This means that customers can find easily what they are looking for. It has zoom-in features, product reviews, and allows multiple images of the products. These features will inspire visitors and customers to make purchases and come back.
Magento has security and payment options features. Magento is created as a safe and secured platform. This means that SSL security and dedicated IP are easy. Customers know that your shop is secured and buy from you. When customers and users feel secure, they come back and this will help in increasing conversion rates. Magento has various payment options for accepting payments with the use of various payment processors such as PayPal. Shoppers may also pay via money order, check, credit cards, and more.
Magento is Mobile-friendly. With HTML5 being incorporated with Magento Community and Enterprise versions, business owners can provide better shopping experience through mobile phones and other web browsers and gadgets, even if these devices do not have Flash. Web owners may include features such as photo scaling, gesture-based controls, drag & drop features for shopping cart, built-in audio and video systems, and many more. Magento web developers can help you identify the features important for your online shop.
Magento is integrated with Google Analytics for website analysis and report. Since Magento is linked with Google Analytics, Google Checkout, and Google Base, they can help you monitor your visitors. They have tools that provide you with comprehensive reports on most viewed products, shopping cart abandonment, searches and actions, and many more.
In industry, business and websites are inseparable. While business provides what people need, websites reach out to these consumers and display what they need. Business owners and web developers are partners in delivering better shopping experience to these consumers. Hence, Magento is your instrument in making sure that business owners and shoppers’ goals are met with ease and simplicity. Business prospers when everybody’s goals are met.
image from innerus.org
Have a great Magento experience!