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Top brands like Ford, Samsung, Nike, Nestle, and Men’s Health have Magneto-based eCommerce stores. The Magneto choice is a smart one as the open-source platform gives you absolute control over your website.
For newcomers in the industry, Magneto may not be as simple as solutions like OpenCart, WooCommerce, or Shopify. The easy way out is not always the best. However, complicated it may seem, Magneto gives a lot of room for customization. You have the power over, language options, and SEO optimization.
To formulate a Magneto strategy, you need to ponder about project planning, Design, and the products that you wish to include in your online store.
Creating any website should begin with planning. Take some time to think about what you are about to create. Consider your current goals and your expectation for the future. What goals are you out to achieve, and how do you want to present your store in the online space.
Below are some aspects that you should consider while planning:
Define your target market and audience
Decide on the edition of Magneto that will fit your purpose
Decide on how you want to present your products or services in your site
Decide on a suitable domain name for your store
Create categories and decide on the structure of your site
A professionally designed website can have a positive impact in terms of first impressions. The ideal design should be engaging and attractive. Magneto gives you two options when it comes to design. You can choose between a ready design theme (templates) or creating a custom design.
Popular shops for Magneto themes include:
The official Magneto marketplace
Template Monster
Theme Forest
Mojo Marketplace
Rocket Theme
Within the Magneto context, There are six types of products that you can sell on your site. These categories include:
Simple Products: Include physical commodities that you can ship. The customer doesn’t get variations like size or color.
Configurable Products: Each product comes in different variations like size, color, etc. Each choice variety may or may not have additional cost implications.
Downloadable Products: Include online software like MP3 files, MS Word documents, Magneto plugins, and browser extensions. This product category omits item shipping in the checkout process.
Virtual Products: Includes services like insurance, guarantees, and reservations. Like downloadable products, there is no item shipping.
Bundle Products: Some entrepreneurs allow their customers to dictate certain aspects of the products they want. The bundle option caters to such stores. A bundle product could be a gift basket. What would the customer like to include in the basket?
Grouped Products: A set of simple products make a grouped product. For example, a camera, a memory card, and a camera lens make up a grouped product.
To the newcomer, working with magneto can seem intimidating. I assure you that building a magneto store isn’t as hard when you use a template. Below are the steps that you should take to get your store up and running.
You have made a wise decision; choosing Magneto. What next? First things first, select your Magneto theme. You want your theme to be as modern-day and relatable as possible. You can purchase a present-day template to jumpstart your e-stores’ creation.
Top Magneto templates offer more than ready-made user interfaces. These templates will provide unique user experiences with niche-specific extensions and UX-boosters.
The ideal Magneto theme should check the following boxes:
100% responsiveness
Cross-browser compatibility
Various pre-made layouts for Home Page, Gallery, and Store Pages
Enhanced navigation
Blog Functionality
Parallax, Modern Slider
RTL support (if you need some)
You should consider the features above as your minimum standard. Moreover, several Magneto themes come with fast-loading and revolutionary AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). If you can find a design with this feature that matches your goal, do not hesitate to go for it. AMP can significantly multiply your conversion on mobile phones.
After purchasing an appropriate theme, naturally, the next step would be installation. But before you can proceed, check out if the theme comes with hosting and software specific requirements. You may need a sound hosting plan which includes the latest PHP.
Below are Magneto hosting providers worth checking out:
Bluehost
Inmotion hosting
SiteGround
HostGator
A2 Hosting
Softwares that you may need could include:
Adobe Photoshop: Offers assistance as you work with .psd sources of the templates. Photoshop is also helpful with graphic imagery.
Other software you may need include Adobe Dreamweaver, Sublime Text, Notepad++, etc.
It is time to create your online store. From Magneto Tech Resources, you can find your preferred version of the engine. Go ahead and download it. The process will require registration, but it won’t take a while.
To install the engine, you need to upload its files to the server and create a database. In a browser address bar, enter your future website address. Afterward, the Magneto Installation Assistant will appear.
The Magneto Installation Assistant guides you through installation steps like:
Server Readiness check: Hosting your site on a new server will allow you to skip this step.
Adding a Database
Web Configuration
Store customization
Admin Account Creation
Store Owner Account Details
Installing Magneto
Different templates have different ways of installation. Check your theme documentation to learn the installation process that is specific to your theme.
Your store’s appearance is critical to conversion. Magneto gives you control over website appearance. To configure the store’s appearance, proceed to the content section. The sub-menu contains items like Widgets, Blocks, Posts, Pages, and Comments. These options give you the room to add and edit pages, widgets, etc.
Use the options to adjust the appearance to your satisfaction.
Under the Content Menu tab is the Configure option. This menu item allows you to adjust different factors, including pigmentation display, headers, footers, product watermarks, an others.
Everything in eCommerce revolves around the products. The product is the centerpiece, and the website is the infrastructure. To add a product, follow the steps below:
Open the Product Details tab and fill in the essential product information.
To add multimedia descriptions, open the Images and Videos tab.
To enter metadata and keywords, open the Search Engine Optimization tab.
For a more detailed product setup, open the Advanced Settings tab. Options include Advanced pricing, Advanced Inventory, and Custom.
There are a couple more things that you can do before launching your site. What you need will depend on your niche and the extensions available to you. However, there are store configuration aspects that you cannot ignore.
Make sure that you address the following store configuration aspects:
Providing links to your social media accounts.
Set up your site’s contract forms and update Google Map address.
Add a couple of relevant articles to your store’s blog section.
Use an extension to power a newsletter pop up.
Install other languages and translate your site to broaden the clientele.
Configure the top navigation of the site. Incorporate megamenu panels to enhance usability.
Configure the sit’s payment and shipping methods as well as prices and tax rules.
Building your eCommerce website on the Magneto platform isn’t hard. There is nothing fear. You can start off basic and include advanced features are you develop a need. Are you ready to build your magneto e-store?
Best of luck selling.
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