E-Commerce Archives | Marslab Solution

What is Magento 2 ?

December 9, 2020

by admin with No Comment E-Commerce Website Design

Magento is the leading eCommerce platform used for online businesses. It is a high-performing, scalable solution with strong out-of-box capabilities and a wide community developed around it that continues to bring new features.

Magento 2 was released in 2015 and is a re-engineering of the platform bringing it up to date with the new programming trends as a foundation for future functionality and progress.

Features

Magento is trusted by major brands for several reasons. Here are just some of the features that Magento puts out to firms.

Store Management

Catalog Management

Flexibility of product management makes it easy to customize any catalog out of the box.

Promotions

Use Magento’s advanced promotion rule builder to provide customers with specific discounts around the site or at the basket.

Multi-website, multi-store, multi-currency

Using a subset of the catalogue and a variant of the architecture, Magento offers an easy ability to set up additional websites to help minimize the operating costs of several websites.

Performance

Full Page Cache

Use the built-in full page cache powered by Varnish to scale to new heights to boost site performance.

Built on Modern Technologies

Magento 2 is compatible with latest tech such as PHP 7, meaning quicker load times with less server resources and lower hosting costs.

Platform for Growth

Marketplace

There’s a wealth of extensions from the community to add new features to your store. This can enable achieving ecommerce functionality that was previously unreacheable.

Extensibility

Magento’s real power comes from it’s ability to be extended with new features. Your agency can tailor and build on the platform to integrate into your back-office processes as well as add new abilities to the platform!

Customer Experience

Smooth Checkout

The checkout design has been reviewed in Magento 2 and it now provides a much sleeker experience.

Engage with Loyal Customers*

With reward points, store credit, gift cards and private sales, the number of ways to reward and engage with customers has never been better.

Personalised experience*

Pairing customer segmentation based on customer behaviour and promoting product lines based on these segments you can provide more targeted, more effective promotions.

Super-fast Search*

The latest version of Magento provides an improved search technology called Elasticsearch that will help customers find the right product quickly.

Get in Touch with us to know what we can do for you with Magento 2.

Ecommerce mobile website vs app

November 24, 2020

by admin with No Comment E-Commerce Mobile Application

Today, the Internet is a stack of multiple levels, tools, and games.

For ease of usage, every person has moved from a website to a smartphone application as it is easy and simple to use. Every person nowadays has a smartphones, which they carry anywhere and can use at any time.

It was revealed in a study that 70% of individuals use mobile devices for online transactions.

That’s why most retailers have invested in E-Commerce app development to attract more customers to their E-Commerce business.

But several retailers have concerns about the need for a mobile app when they already have a mobile website. So we should now look at the benefits of the mobile app over the mobile website for e-commerce.

Mobile Application

Advantage of Mobile Applications

1. Faster than Mobile Websites

Have you ever encountered that your browser is already loading? Getting such a sluggish access to the internet is annoying. But don’t judge it too easily. Perhaps the guilty party is the mobile website itself. People prefer to use smartphone apps because they are faster and more efficient. They are specifically designed to execute specific tasks, unlike mobile websites that can serve as a browser to access various websites.

2. Provides Better User Experience

Mobile applications have higher accessibility and user-friendly features relative to mobile websites. App developers are constantly working to better their app implementations, which is why smartphone apps are getting more intuitive and complicated. The primary aim of creating mobile applications is not just to create apps that can function efficiently. Successful mobile applications are designed with an impressive user interface.

3. Specialized Features for Devices

More and more apps are being integrated with high-tech devices. The internet of things, for example, connect smart devices to streamline complicated tasks.

Tech-companies are working with app developers to maximize the capabilities of their devices and increase their sales. Point of sale systems, trackers, camera devices, and radio frequency identifications are used to help the e-commerce business flourish.

4. More Time Spent in Mobile Apps

Mobile apps are taking over the world. Users are spending more hours on mobile apps rather than browsing the internet through mobile websites. This is a good indicator that creating a mobile app is the best option when creating an e-commerce website.

A report from reputable sources shows that the number of people using mobile applications has been exponentially increasing by 6% every year, especially in fields of business such as e-commerce and retail.

5. Offers Accessibility Without Internet

The internet will not always be there to help you. But your mobile app will. Most mobile apps can still be operated without an internet connection because they are installed in your devices. This feature allows you to continue working and accomplish minor tasks until the internet comes back.

Disadvantage of Mobile Applications

1. Requires More Time and Expenses

Apps could be hard to develop for your e-commerce business – and more expensive too! The most complicated part is the process. It means building apps compatible with both Android and IOS, which could mean hiring two separate developer teams for each platform. More cost and more time!

2. Comes with a Complicated Process

It is more complicated than you think. It doesn’t stop with hiring talented developers. There are also lots of things to consider more than just a well-planned development. You have to make many crucial decisions which can affect the entire operation of your business in the long run. Without technical expertise, you would have to rely on your team and hope that it will turn out just okay.

3. Problems in the Maintenance Process

You have to consider the future problems that may arise due to the changing needs of the people. Don’t forget about the trends and issues that may come along as you go forth with your business. App support is also essential. Daily maintenance should be considered to avoid losing customers. Otherwise, your client may look for better platforms.

Mobile Website

Advantage of Mobile Website

1. Accessible to All Devices

Mobile websites accessed through any device as long as there is an internet browser. Compatibility will not be a problem, giving your business a broader grasp among your customers. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Android or Apple. They don’t even need to download anything, just a good Wi-Fi connection, and they’re good to go.

2. Search Engine Optimization

If you want to make a big boost to your company, Google ranking is your best bet. Creating a website platform for your e-commerce business would help you to build SEO strategies that will greatly boost your traffic, which is currently considered to be the fastest way to market a brand.

3. Cost-Effectiveness

Unlike app development, it’s relatively easier and faster to create websites. It requires less work and complicated technical stuff. In short, mobile web development requires fewer expenses and less effort, giving you more time to focus on other important matters in your e-commerce business.

Disadvantage of Mobile Website

1. Without Offline Accessibility

You probably already know this already, but it’s still worth mentioning. What if your customers want to browse their cart or wish list? They can’t do that in a mobile web version of your site, and that’s an automatic turn off for your customers.

2. Turtle-Like Loading Speed

This is arguably the weakest part of mobile web solutions, especially for online shops. It hampers the performance and potential of the business just because the interface is inconvenient to use. Those pesky little buttons, zooming in and zooming out, tiny texts, and almost everything about it makes customers press the exit button with relief.

3. Maintenance and Maintenance

Websites still ought to be updated on a regular basis. Many website owners employ professional and experienced programmers who can do the job. In addition, content on the website can also cost a lot, particularly if you are trying to improve your SEO.

4. Not-Too-Friendly Interface

We all know this. That’s why most users choose to use mobile apps instead of browsing the web to use their preferred platforms. Typically, a mobile website does not change its device-based interface, contributing to poor user experience.

Conclusion

There you go! The answer should be evident by now. There are a lot of opportunities in the e-commerce business, considering the pace of technological advancement nowadays.

You can quickly gain momentum once you launch a successful marketing strategy for your business. It’s easy to increase your traffic when you use the power of the internet. There are many marketing options available in the market

But no matter what option you might choose, the key factor will remain. You have to plan carefully and consider your situation. Gather as much information as possible to formulate the right strategy on how you can increase your sales without spending too much time, money, and effort.

Five Important Elements of a Successful eCommerce Site

November 24, 2020

by admin with 2 Comments E-Commerce

It is the synergy of efforts and initiatives that attract customers searching the goods and services; the ease with which they can find & what they come up with the content that compels them to purchase, and the point of the sale process that they can rely on to complete a financial transaction safely and efficiently.

With an eCommerce website, potential and loyal customers will reach you from anywhere. But if your eCommerce platform is not well set up, it won’t attract visitors or engage those visitors enough to increase brand awareness and keep them coming back. Consider these important elements, which are key to the growth and sustained viability of every eCommerce site.

1. Include Detailed, Yet Concise Product Information

Visitors need to know the facts about what they are buying from you. If your product information is vague or confusing, they won’t buy from you. Examine the product pages on your site. Are all the important features listed? Imagine that you are a visitor to the site who knows nothing about the product. Does every product provide sufficient information for visitors to make an informed decision to buy?

2. Use An Accurate Search Function

Nothing is more frustrating than using the search feature on an eCommerce site and receiving dozens of results that don’t match what you were looking for. Make sure your eCommerce site uses competent, reliable search engine software. And allow filtering for more refined search options if you maintain a large inventory of products.

3. Give User An Easy Checkout Process

Consider your shopping experience in a brick and mortar store. You select a product, wait in line at the cashier, pay, and leave. Simple, right? So why shouldn’t it be just as simple on an eCommerce site? Of course, there may be a few more necessary steps to take when shopping online, such as selecting a shipping method, but the overall process should be quick and trouble-free. Remember the axiom, K.I.S.S.? Keep It Simple, Stupid. If possible, keep the checkout process contained to one page. The most functional eCommerce sites avoid frustrating customers. They will either leave your site or make their purchase but choose not to return.

4. User Friendly Navigation

E-Commerce sites must be easy to navigate. A rewarding user experience retains site visitors and keeps them coming back. Then, put menus or links to product categories in a prominent place and make sure categories and the products that are in each category are properly named.

Additionally, make sure each page provides users with an easy way to get back to the home page, find contact information, select another category, or go directly to the shopping cart.

5. Shopping Cart Design & Features

Your shopping cart design is just as important as the rest of your eCommerce site. Aside from displaying information clearly, a shopping cart layout should be simple, effectively display company branding (colors, company logo), and include prominent checkout buttons.

A shopping cart page should also include all the important elements your customers need, such as the ability to change quantities, select shipping options (shipping prices should be displayed), enter promo codes, select a payment option, or continue shopping and/or adding more products to the cart. Also important: don’t limit customers to only one or two payment options, such as PayPal only, or only Visa and Mastercard but not additional credit card options. The more payment options available to shoppers, more will convert for a greater ROI.

Magento 2 Vs Woo Commerce Vs Shopify

November 24, 2020

by admin with No Comment E-Commerce

Today, we’ve decided to bring to you the ultimate showdown: Magento vs Shopify vs WooCommerce.

Magento, Shopify, and WooCommerce are the three biggest names in the eCommerce industry in the world. They have outdone their competitors by a large margin.

These platforms are structured differently and cater to different types of eCommerce needs. One needs to take different key aspects into account before making a choice. We’re going to compare these eCommerce giants on the basis of different criteria and give suggestions on which platform you should use in which situation.

MAGENTO

Magento is by far the most customizable eCommerce platform one can find. It was started in 2007 and soon went on to have 500,000 users. Magento has two services: One is Open Source, which means anyone can sign up and make a website for free, and the other is Magento Commerce, which is a paid plan that provides all hosting services.

Currently, Magento has around 250,000 eCommerce websites, with a 10% share in the top 1 million eCommerce websites in the world.

WOOCOMMERCE

As of now, WooCommerce runs 29.1% of all eCommerce stores, which amounts to around 3 million stores. WooCommerce is essentially a WordPress plugin that one has to install after they’ve bought a domain for a WordPress website. The reason why WooCommerce currently holds the largest market share is that it’s easy to build an online store on this platform if you’re already a WordPress user.

The user interface is pretty easy, but one does need some basic HTML or CSS knowledge to maintain their online store on WooCommerce.

SHOPIFY

Shopify had initially started as an online store called Snowdevil in 2004. It went on to become an eCommerce platform in 2007, its retailers acquiring a net sales of $100 million in 2009. Presently, Shopify has 820,000 merchants using its platform.

Shopify is such a big hit among users today because it’s more like a software-as-a-service where non-technical folks can easily sign up and get their online store running in no time. There’s no learning curve involved and the interface is pretty intuitive.

MAGENTO VS WOOCOMMERCE VS SHOPIFY: WHICH IS BETTER?

1. SEO EFFECTIVENESS

MAGENTO

It provides advanced SEO features along with inbuilt analytics. It generates SEO friendly URLs and meta descriptions, integrates Google site maps that are auto-generated in websites, automates watermarking and image resizing, etc.

Along with these features, SEO can be easily customized suiting your website needs if you have the required skill set. A study in 2017 revealed that Magento had an SEO score of 100 out of 100.

Use this Magento SEO guide to improve your store’s organic ranking.

SHOPIFY

Being an eCommerce first store Shopify is definitely optimized for SEO. The only problem is that it doesn’t give much room for customizations. There might be some SEO practices that are specific for your business, but you won’t be able to carry them out if Shopify doesn’t allow you to.

WOOCOMMERCE

Thanks to the abundance of plugins and extensions available in WooCommerce, it offers a good degree of SEO. Users can also tweak the settings as they like to suit their website better.

WINNER: TIE BETWEEN MAGENTO & WOOCOMMERCE

2.PERFORMANCE & SCALABILITY

performance and scalability of ecommerce platforms

MAGENTO

Magento is extremely powerful and can easily accommodate thousands and thousands of products along with high website traffic.

If you have a big business or have big plans for future expansion then Magento’s robust content management system will definitely complement those plans and you won’t have to migrate to more powerful software.

Magento is also easily scalable, so you can easily increase or decrease the resources your server requires depending on website traffic. This means you won’t have to experience any slowdown in speed or website crashes during sudden traffic surges.

SHOPIFY

When it comes to site speed and performance, Shopify fares well. In fact, site speed is one of its main advantages.

When it comes to scalability it doesn’t do well compared to the other two, which can prove to be a hindrance if your business grows. If you want smooth scalability for when your business grows, then you’ll have to use Shopify Plus, which can increase your costs dramatically.

WOOCOMMERCE

WooCommerce allows for scalability, but individuals inexperienced with code might find it difficult to scale their websites according to needs. If you don’t have any coding background then you can say that WooCommerce isn’t scalable for you at all.

WINNER: MAGENTO

3. SUPPORT

MAGENTO

Magento has a strong community of around 300,000 members. With amateurs and certified members alike contributing to these communities, it’s not hard to find help if you’re having any issues. However, their direct customer support might not be as prompt as one would want.

SHOPIFY

Shopify prides itself in its 24×7 customer support. The response time is good and they’re usually prompt with their replies and solutions. You can reach their customer service through live chat, email or phone.

WOOCOMMERCE:

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, and the WordPress community is huge. You can easily take help and benefit from codes or plugins created by others in the community to enhance your website’s functionality.

WINNER: SHOPIFY

4. EASE OF USE

MAGENTO

Magento has a high learning curve. One cannot maintain a website on this platform without getting a developing expert’s help or hosting service. You need to have a working knowledge of PHP, cloud hosting, HTML, etc, otherwise, it’s impossible to run a website on Magento.

SHOPIFY

Like we’ve said before, Shopify requires no prior knowledge of coding or website development. The platform provides software and hosting itself, which means the users only have to worry about setting up and designing their store (for which plugins and themes are available).

WOOCOMMERCE

If you’re okay with running your WooCommerce websites on its free themes and plugins, then it’s very easy to use. But, in most cases, you will require some customizations, which is when WooCommerce will get tricky, especially if you have no coding literacy.

WINNER: SHOPIFY

5.SECURITY

MAGENTO

Security will not be a problem in Magento if you have efficient developers and hosting services at your disposal. Magento being an eCommerce first platform is made keeping security in mind. It keeps releasing security patches and there are a lot of security extensions and plugins offered for a higher level of security.

SHOPIFY

Since everything on Shopify is globally hosted, the platform is quite secure and reliable. Shopify takes care of your server-side maintenance and regulates it. It also provides you a free SSL certificate and takes care of PCI compliance for you.

WOOCOMMERCE

WordPress keeps updating for bug fixing and security. The users don’t have to worry about any security as WooCommerce team constantly monitors and changes the code to minimize such threats. Apart from that, there are a lot of security plugins too that protect your website from hackers and virus attacks.

WINNER: MAGENTO

6.CUSTOMIZABILITY

MAGENTO

Out of the three, Magento offers the most room for customizations. There’s no limit to how you can change theme features, SEO settings, layouts and more. Since there’s developing required, your website can be as unique as you want it to be.

SHOPIFY

Shopify is not very customizable, so users are stuck with the core features of whatever themes they choose. There’s an extra fee charged if you use payment gateways that are not installed in Shopify.

WOOCOMMERCE

WooCommerce gives more air for customizations so that you can give your website a unique look. You are free to add or change the core features of your themes, create your own extensions or plugins, tweak your website layout as you want. There is access to CSS, PHP, HTML type code and if you know how to code, then customizing your website should be a piece of cake!

CONCLUSION

THE WINNER: MAGENTO

Phew! We’ve really tried to encompass all that is required for a Magento Vs Shopify Vs WooCoomerce comparison.

If you still find it difficult to make a decision, just consider the broad criteria: Cost, technical support, themes, customizability, & performance. Once you have a brief idea of your requirement levels, look at your future plans of expansion and make a decision!