Running an Online Store is turning into a great point of money generation with less efforts. You just have to setup an ecommerce Website and promote it thoroughly to reach the masses. However, you need a shopping cart to create an online store. Before making any selection, remember that online store is easy to open but it’s not so easy to maintain it and customize it for visitors. The selected cart should support the essential options like Administration Panel, options to add Plugins and Themes, and easy integration with third-party facilities. Magento, an open source, ecommerce system is famous shopping cart based on PHP and Zend Framework. In this write up, we’ll discuss why to prefer Magento system over other cart systems available in the market.
You can setup and manage multiple Websites through single installation of Magento. It also allows you to administer the users’ roles, rights and authorizations. In addition, it is 100% customizable using existing free and paid design templates. You are also free to install a Blog section inside the Magento using a free Blog extension.
Magento Connect offers countless number of extensions and themes. Most of these items are free and others are paid at reasonable rates. You can use these themes and extensions to customize your online store easily.
You can allow users to provide User Generated Content (UGC) such as write reviews, feedback, complaints (if any), and rate the products. The UGC helps you to get better search engine rankings and more visitors’ traffic.
Magento is an open-source cart and available for free. However, Magento Enterprise is paid software.
It is quite easy to setup the Magento and publish the Website with it. Even a non-programmer can do this work. Magento release continuous updates and you can install them on no extra cost. You do not need to hire a developer only to maintain the store. You can do its maintenance on your own with the available documentation and guidelines.
The online shopping cart generated through Magento and its extensions support international currencies. You can integrate the PayPal supported currencies in your store as well. In addition, you can integrate varied payment options using default module or free PAYONE Extension. Premium payment extensions are also available in Magento Connect, but they are priced.
The search engine optimization is turning into a necessity for each Website either it is a blog or an online store. If search engine does not recognize your online store then who’ll visit it. There are numerous free and paid SEO extensions available for Magento-powered Website. You can use them to perform an effective SEO of your online store.
You will always need a Content Management System (CMS) to create a Blog and other content for promoting your online store and establish direct communication with your visitors. The Magento Connect provide extensions to create Blog, testimonials, news, press release, press articles, FAQ, and other content.
Magento has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times till today. The Magento community is seamlessly increasing. You can take benefits for such a large community to get support and documentations in setting up your store and in its maintenance.
Magento is not a new word on the World Wide Web. Yes, its Enterprise edition is paid but still you can go for its free edition if you’re just starting up your business. You can upgrade to Enterprise edition later on.