Just over 2 years have passed since we migrated the Autostyle online store to Magento Community edition. Since then our site has grown tremendously, huge gains in traffic, search rankings and conversions. More importantly we’ve received very positive and constructive feedback from our customers.
magento
Magento default Contact Form vs Web Forms Extension
Magento continues to amaze me every day and our stores are doing phenomenally well since migrating to the platform. This week I’ve begun building a Magento powered online store for a client. Most of the setup is straightforward but Magento fails in one simple and mundane task. The Contact Form. Read More »
My recommended Magento Extensions
In this last part of my little Magento series, I’m going to list extensions that I currently use along with their costs
Minerva Shipping Extension
http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/pickup-at-event-multiple-flatrates.html
– FREE – This extension offers your customers the option to collect their order at your store (or other collection points)
Web Forms
http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/webforms-community-edition.html
– FREE – A nifty form creator complete with Captcha allowing you to build your own contact forms and embed it anywhere on your website.
In my case I had a little Product Enquiry form put into all product pages.
Getting Started with Magento: Store Front Design
Firstly, default Magento skin should only be used as your first time test store, rest assured it’ll look bland downright embarassing using that as your official store front.
I would suggest browsing the Magento Connect repository for hundreds of free and premium themes that you can download or purchase, I decided to go with www.HelloThemes.com
They offer an awesome range of themes, all of which are professionally designed, polished, seo optimized and up to date with current design trends. Undecided on what theme to choose (they all looked so good!) I purchased a 1 year Theme Club license for $99. Essentially giving me access to ALL their past themes and at least 2 new themes a month for the next year. Bargain!
Magento and Hosting
In my last post I explained why i chose Magento Community Edition (see here), in this post I’ll share how i got started.
First things first. Find a Webhost!
There are hundreds of bloggers ranting about how unstable Magento is and how resource heavy it is. Yes Magento is a resource hog, but if your hosting is setup correctly, there is little chance of your store crashing.
Ideally a dedicated server is great, but this comes a price and with a startup store, funds are limited. I’d recommend and am currently using a Shared Hosting platform, however I’ve ensured the webhost is familiar with Magento and the necessary requirements. In fact most, if not all Magento specialist stores off it as a “one click” application. Saving you the trouble of uploading and manually installing it.
Read More »
Adventures with Magento
Over the last few months my recent twitter timeline has been littered with Magento related tweets and after chatting and advising a few I decided to punch out a few Magento blog posts. Over the next few posts I’ll share my adventures with Magento and ecommerce in South Africa.
As it stands right now, 2 of my stores are running on Magento Community Edition (CE for short) – these are,
www.TerrificTrophies.co.za – a niche store specializing in trophies and medals.
www.BLKcherry.co.za – our furniture experimental store retailing outdoor furniture and lounge suites.
Before choosing Magento CE the first decision was “Why Choose Magento?” in other words, what makes Magento better then other open source shopping carts. Read More »
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