Here you will find out how to work with categories in Magento store.
A Category is needed to establish the structure of your store’s Catalog. Before creating categories you need to think about the usability of your product page, so the user can browse product from one category and easily navigate to different subsections. Try to be consistent and use the same approach for all product types in your catalog.
To create categories, use the admin panel. Below, we will show how to create and add categories, and answer other questions related to working with categories.
How to Create Category in Magento 1
Step 1. On the Admin menu, select Catalog > Manage Categories.
Step 2. Before you begin, set Choose Store View to the store or view. By default, the scope of the category configuration is set to “All Store Views.”
Step 3. In the category tree, click the category that is to be the parent of the new category. The parent is the level just above the new category.
If you’re starting from the beginning without any data, there might be only two categories in the list: “Default Category,” which is the root, and an “Example Category.”
Step 4. Click the Add Subcategory button.
After creating the category, you need to add them to create the catalog structure. Learn how to do it from the below guide.
How to Add Category in Magento 2
Step 1. Login in Magento Admin.
Step 2. Select Products -> Categories.
Step 3. Select Parent or Root Category in which you need to insert your new category and click “Add Subcategory” or you can create Root Category.
Step 4. Enter Category data. Category Name is required entry. Click the Save button.
Why Is Drupal Website Beneficial for Your Business?
With technology developing so quickly, the most important decision when you make eCommerce website is which content management system to use. The CMS handles the functionality of the site. Select the right CMS, and your site will be scalable and easily accessible across a wide range of devices. To keep up with the times, online stores also need to offer simple navigation and a personalized experience rich with interactive elements.
Drupal is a cutting edge CMS that offers top of the line digital solutions for all of your eCommerce needs. You might ask, “What is the use of Drupal? Why should I decide to make a Drupal 8 store when there are so many other choices out there?”
The answer is simple. Drupal offers customizability, flexibility, and security. It’s a modular, open source CMS that lets you tailor your site to your brand, functionality, and approach. It’s perfect for all businesses, from the largest to the smallest. Plus, its solid, versatile design lets you modify the site and develop it with a minimum of a hassle.
Let’s take a look at some of Drupal’s benefits and how some major companies have used Drupal sites to improve their business and reach new heights of success.
Benefits of Drupal Web Platform
When you create a website using Drupal, you tap into a wide range of benefits that are hard to find in any other CMS. First and foremost, customers want security. They want to be confident when entering their information to make a purchase.
Drupal Commerce offers the highest rated security currently available. It has never yet been subject to a widely exploited vulnerability, and regular patches and safeguard measures are issued to improve its safety continually.
Another great feature is that it is open source and has the backing of a strong Drupal community that exchanges ideas and innovations. Its unique design lets you add as many new web pages as you want without having to adjust the infrastructure.
Let’s have a look at the main benefits of Drupal:
Flexibility
Drupal 8 websites are modular, so they can be easily customized with thousands of plug-ins and modules to give you exactly the functionality you want.
It comes packed with custom features that can be modified, adjusted, and implemented as needed. These include features for social media, SEO, CRM, and security. Drupal also lets you manage and create many different types of content.
A site built with Drupal is designed to handle blogs, articles, polls, statistics, videos, and other content types. It lets you create content-rich sites for any niche, from media to marketing. Also, since it’s easy to edit design elements, the web page configurations can be made as simple or as complex as needed.
Personalization and Great UX
Your website is your storefront. It carries the theme and message of your brand. So, it needs to be personalized to reflect what you have to offer. Personalization is what makes the difference between a conversion and a bounce.
Drupal provides a broad range of themes and color pallets suitable for any purpose. Its advanced system is simple to build and maintain. Drupal comes stocked with built-in tools for user interface (UI) and user experience (UX).
The result is that you can offer the customer a targeted, interactive experience with intuitive navigation and a user-friendly interface. Plus, Drupal customer support is second to none. Whatever the needs of your site and your customer, they can be met with a minimum of hassle.
Mobile-first Architecture
There are more mobile devices in existence now than ever before, and they are more accessible to the global population. So, one of the most important things to keep your site competitive is to make it not only mobile-friendly but mobile first.
When sites are designed around desktop architecture, it can be challenging to optimize the mobile experience fully. Drupal 8 is designed with this trend in mind, suitable for desktop but designed mobile-first. This means that the Drupal mobile site comes fully optimized for mobile devices. This saves time and effort, as well as making sure that your site is accessible to anyone, anywhere.
All-In-One: CMS for Different Business Needs
Whatever you need for your eCommerce store, Drupal brings it within reach. Successful sites are based on customer needs. They guide them through discovery and purchase of products or services, making it a breeze for them to find any information they want along the way.
Drupal 8 eCommerce modules let you tailor site functionality to the user experience you’d like to provide. They let you connect with and engage the audience through Google Analytics modules, robust APIs, and a versatile system interface that can fit any system architecture you need.
Also, your Drupal store incorporates a wide range of features and tools that improve the experience for both developers and users. It is easy to develop a store in a short period, plus optimization and security is a strong side of Drupal CMS.
The current trend is for static sites to dwindle and make room for dynamic content. The content management system needs to be robust, accessible through a range of digital contact points, and abreast of current trends in customer engagement. Drupal excels at eCommerce. This is reflected by the many high-profile companies that have used it for their eCommerce websites.
To give you the overall vision of the best Drupal eCommerce sites, we’ve prepared a list of them based on the most successful companies:
Box is a company that specializes in collaboration software and simple file sharing. All of their services are online, unlike Tesla. They’ve used Drupal to create a website that showcases their online solutions clearly and easily. It’s user-friendly and efficient, with a crisp professional feel.
The site gives direct access to their proprietary software and code, which can be integrated with other digital solutions, like Google Apps, IBM, Slack, and Office 365. Box currently services many high profile clients, including Pandora, Boston Scientific, and P&G.
LUSH is a site that offers premium handmade soaps and body care supplies. Their site uses Drupal Commerce features to combine commerce and content, providing inspiring stories that reach users across the globe. Users can reach the site easily through any device.
The site is clean and streamlined. It engages the customer with an introduction page featuring the newest line and clear call to action buttons. The setup practically guarantees click-throughs.
Pinterest is a great place to share images, quotes, recipes, and other forms of online content. It’s image-rich and has a reach of over 175 million users. Pinterest Business was created as a branch of the parent site, designed for presented services and products to this Pinterest audience.
Once again, this is a Drupal store. It integrates seamlessly with the main website, which was built with Python. And easy is the keyword here. It’s simple to add subpages, implement additional functionalities, and integrate with external systems. Drupal has allowed Pinterest to link their existing audience with a new service in a fraction of the time required for making an entirely new website.
Royal Mail is a UK based site that offers a wide range of solutions for delivering, receiving, and redirecting mail. It also allows customers to track items, buy and print postage, and pay fees online.
Drupal Commerce has allowed them to develop a simple REST API that serves and seamlessly integrates multiple sites. The result is a content data server that combines all of their many services into one easily accessible contact point.
Savant is a service-oriented industry that offers home automation systems. Their goal was to craft an immersive experience with a modular CMS that is simple to maintain and update.
Drupal was the perfect solution. It offers strong performance, versatility, and a modular architecture that can be adjusted or scaled as necessary without a major overhaul to the whole site.
Platform longevity is key, as digital developments are moving so quickly that a poorly planned CMS can make the site obsolete in no time. This is especially important for Savant, as it is a technological service that is constantly expanding into new markets. The website reflects this, emphasizing imagery and animation and reflecting the feeling of the brand.
Hermes offers a wide range of products including women’s clothing, menswear, perfume, and fashion accessories. Their site makes use of video plugins to feature fashion shows that present their clothing lines in all their glory. It is based on Drupal Commerce and we see that it works great for the business benefits.
It also has branded preloader, perfect site colors, and fonts that represent a brand and strengthen its positions in customers’ mind. Besides smart design with various useful blocks to showcase products perfectly, it has high-quality images, and let customer complete the purchase. They offer a wide range of shipping and payment options and integrate their physical store with their online market with tools to find the brick and mortar shop nearest you.
Manhattan Associates is a company based in connecting suppliers with buyers to build an entire supply chain. To broaden the client base and meet digital strategy goals, they decided to have a premium site built with Drupal 8.
With a global client base, Manhattan required marketing automation, integration with third-party services and tech, and translation services. Given that their operations work on a massive scope and have many moving parts, Manhattan also needed a site that could fully integrate the CRM and powerful editorial tools to educate customers and users in the best use of the services.
Their website is fast, responsive, and clean. The homepage offers testimonials, demos, and CTAs. This site is an example of the power of Drupal to coordinate a host of complex functions and different services.
As you can see, Drupal is being used by some of the biggest names in commerce by niches ranging from online services to physical products. With a CMS this robust and versatile, the sky’s the limit!
Magento One Step Checkout: How to Choose and Work with It
Using a simplified checkout is an optimal way to make your store run more smoothly and quickly. That said, how are you supposed to choose between the various one-step checkouts and how can you work with one of them for your business benefits?
Below, we’re going to tell you what are the main benefits of one step checkout that are already proved by merchants. Also, the most important that you will find here list of the best one step checkout extensions for your Magento store.
Benefits of Magento One Page Checkout
To get started, let’s talk about why you should use Magento’s One-Page Checkout.
It’s easy to use. Your customers can check out and view their shopping cart from a single page to ensure their patients and satisfaction. For merchants, this is easy to use because it provides you with a way to customize your site without coding.
It’s user-friendly. Since the entire process becomes simpler for your customers, you can make user-friendly checkout page and attract customers with easy checkout steps.
It quickens the checkout time. When you aren’t being redirected to a multitude of different pages, you can complete your checkout faster. By filling out a simple form, you will save clients’ time and reduce the abandoned carts rate.
It’ll improve sales results. By using Magento One Page Checkout, you’re reducing the number of steps your customers need to make to complete their purchase. By limiting the chances for your customers to be overwhelmed, they’ll be loyal to the brand or store and complete their purchases more often.
The great thing about this checkout process is that customers don’t need to sign up for accounts if they don’t want to and if they do, they can wait until they check out. If you’re on the fence about whether you should ask your customers to sign up, there are some benefits to doing so. The major benefit of having customers sign up is that when they need to check out, their billing information will be filled in immediately.
Magento 2’s checkout process also ensures that when someone is checking out, the system filters through existing user emails to find out if the customer has an account. This is beneficial to you because customers are less likely to abandon their accounts if you make it easy for them to check out.
Magento has integrated the one-step process with an address suggestion space. When someone goes to check out, then, a number of different addresses are suggested to quicken the entire process.
One Step Checkout Extensions for Magento 2
Now you can learn more about which extensions will work for you. Here are some features you might come across with these extensions:
A major benefit of using One Step Checkout by Mageplaza is that it helps you to increase the conversion rate of your eCommerce store and it makes checkouts more direct. When you use this tool, nearly all payment methods are accepted; therefore, none of your customers will be left out during the checkout process. If you suspect that some of your clients or customers will be buying gifts, you can ask them if they want to have their products gift wrapped.
Price: $89 for a single license 12 months of support.
According to the website, this extension is best for those who are looking for a clean interface, who want to provide their customers with coupons, and for those who want to provide their customers with the option for the desired delivery date.
The Magento 3 checkout template for this one step checkout is user-friendly and provides you with an easy way to edit your overall store.
With Aheadworks’ extension, you can track conversions through checkout phases. By determining how efficient each field is, you’ll be able to adjust your checkout process to tailor to your individual clientele.
Your checkout page directly affects your sales. It’s the last point of sale and as such, it’s the last chance for you to make a good impression. If your customers aren’t sure about certain products, your checkout page is the last chance for them to make a decision. That’s why it’s so important for you to have a checkout page that assesses and adapts to your needs.
Magestore is known for being host to a number of different Magento extensions. Their One Step Checkout extension has similar features to the aforementioned extensions and overall, it’s a good balance between price and quality.
Price: $249 for the Open Source and for the Commerce edition is $549.
From a single checkout page, your customers will be able to add addresses efficiently with Google suggestions and they’ll be able to edit them on the same page. If you’re not sure whether you want to use this extension, Amasty does have extension demos for you to try out. With their easy-to-use Magento checkout page customization, you shouldn’t have a problem of using this extension to make your site checkout simple and accessible!
In a classic checkout system, your customers may experience between 5 to 10 steps. With Aheadworks’ one step checkout, you can reduce these to a single step. For $159 you can do the following:
Provide them with upfront information
Provide an estimate of how long the process will be
Price: $159 for the Open Source and $359 for the Commerce edition.
With Amasty, your eCommerce store’s shopping cart will be on the same page as the checkout page. Not only this, but you can have complete control over the fields your customers need to hand in.
Price: Free version or 25$ monthly for the advanced features list.
With Iwdagency, you have the option of using the free or the professional version of the extension. Like you might guess, the professional version of the extension will provide you with more features. This one step checkout supports a number of different payment options for both the free and professional version. The version you have to pay for, however, will provide you with the following features:
Support and installation at no extra cost.
Your customers will have the opportunity to buy or receive gift cards.
Your customers can have subscription services.
One Step Checkout for M1 by Mageplug
Price: $159 plus 90 days of free support.
According to MageCheckout, carts are abandoned, on average, over 60% of the time. At the end of the day, online shopping can be long and complicated. For impulsive shoppers, this process provides them with enough time to think and close the page completely. When you have one step checkout, your customers can shop more quickly, and as such, they’ll spend more money.
Here’s a short summary of this extension’s features:
Reduction of abandoned carts
Increased conversions
Increased sales
Tips on How to Start an eCommerce Business
Starting an eCommerce business is becoming a daily dream for lots of visionary business people. Business merchants wrestle with the question; when and how should one start an eCommerce business. It is a hard nut to crack. With the internet, there are lots of tips and strategies out there that needs careful consideration before taking an action plan.
The Internet has made many business people successful, and it has equally misled several businesses. It’s upon business merchants to carefully sift through what they read. This guide provides an original approach on how to start an eCommerce business.
Create Your Own Company Name
Ideally, a good business name for eCommerce website should relay the skills, services offered, and uniqueness. There is so much than meets the eye in your business name, and therefore it’s better to take sufficient time creating business name before you back it up with the right marketing strategy. Be unique- instead of trying to capture all brands in the company name focus on a single essential element.
You can either use phrases, Compound nouns or transmutations to give your company a good name. Choosing the right business name requires creativity, evade power words. A short name has a powerful gesture than a long one. Remember, your business name shouldn’t capture everything leave something for the imagination. If you follow the outlined process, you will discover an outstanding trademark.
Register Your Own Brand Name
Registering a business brand name is a straightforward process. It only takes less than 90 minutes when the application is made online. The shortest way to register is on the U.S Trademark Office’s Website.
Before you acquire the brand name pause enough to check the Trademark Electronic Search System to be certain that no other company that bears such a brand name.
You must have the Employer Identification Number (EIN) to actualize the process. It’s a requirement to be able to open a bank account for the payment of the taxes. Remember the process will stall if you don’t get valid business licenses and permits.
Before you begin operating consult with your state to ascertain the sales tax permits you need. In the end, you should have all the business permits and licenses to comply with the law.
Secure Your eCommerce Domain Name and Website
Creating your website entails choosing your domain name. Web hosting providers provide domain names, and you can choose to buy from either of them. You will then be required to enter the domain name into a text box.
Keyword optimization determines the domain name. You require a great keyword to invent a domain name that will increase traffic in of your site. Remember webmasters don’t use pompous words for URL.
To see how it works open Godaddy.com and enter the chosen keyword. GoDaddy.com scans the names under the submitted keyword. It extracts all the taken names, and then it provides you with suggestions for the appropriate possible names.
Select the Best eCommerce Business Structure
Many business owners wrestle with the question: What is the best eCommerce business structure? We are pleased to tackle this issue in depth. There are three business structures.
Sole Proprietorship
In this structure, you and your business are intertwined. You own all business assets and loses. This structure requires no long-term tax planning. A sole proprietorship is the highly recommended business structure since you don’t need a business license to run sole proprietorship under your name.
Partnership
In partnership, any profit or loss is shared equally to all members according to the percentage of their contribution, and the government doesn’t tax individuals. A partnership is known for its lower compliance cost. If several members are in a connection, the cost of tax work becomes less.
If the partnership is not a general one, then it is a limited partnership. In a general partnership, all members are bound to damages of the business with impeachable liability, but in a limited partnership, the non-active members are only obliged to the amount they have invested in the business.
Corporation
A corporation is an independent legal unity with its mechanisms, constitution, and management officers. The bearers of the corporation run it as a separate entity, and a member can sue it if need be. Therefore you don’t require this type of structure for online eCommerce platform because of its technicalities.
You can either start trading as a partnership or a sole proprietor. However, we normally advise our clients to consider the repercussion when incorporating their eCommerce business. A partnership is the best structure for any online store since with it you avoid major conflicts in the future.
Find the Right eCommerce Vendor
To find eCommerce vendors write down how you want to acquire your orders. Some eCommerce businesses prefer drop shipping while others choose to store their products in a warehouse set for shipping when an order is placed.
To get the best price link with the supplier and shun the middlemen. You connect with them through a phone call; you need to link someone (supplier) who can make a decision. If you connect with the supplier, you cut down cost hence making bigger profits. You also can negotiate for a better price.
In as much as you need to reduce the cost, you don’t need to interfere with the quality of the product. For the best quality, you ought to ask for samples from your vendors. Through this tactic, you will ascertain what your customers prefer. Since there are many vendors out there, don’t deal with the ones who don’t avail samples to you.
Many business merchants get too busy with their companies to spend time when selling online.
Marketing is the backbone of business success; actually, you should start with marketing your new business online before you open it. We present to you simple and effective ways on how to market your online store by yourself.
Discover the structure that best suits you. To understand eCommerce marketing for small businesses, you should know that trending online is an investment. Each different business structure works differently for each category of customers. Acquaint yourself with varying models of business before you choose what to sell online.
Design excellent social media profiles. Become a staunch member of business groups-in that offer advice on social media. If you take the provided information, you become a guru in your field which ultimately improves your reputation hence boosting your sales. Use Facebook and Twitter, for instance, to give discounts to promote your products. Get gifted writers who can do quality content for your blog. Get blogs to do a search for your niche and install a free social sharing plugin. Make sure that the readers can share the content for your blog.
Manage Work Processes with the Right eCommerce Software
When marketing your online store, you need the best eCommerce software that can efficiently manage the online store and aid in processing payment. You can either create your software or purchase.
To attract more customers to your website there must be clear-cut strategies that aid in managing your store online. Also, one of the most important decisions you take is choosing the right platform for your future store. If you just start, you can either sell on the marketplace or create a store. There are some free options as Wix and Etsy, but to grow you need something more scalable to have a room for upgrades.
We’ve written a lot o the articles covering platforms’ comparison for the past year. In short, the strongest competitors on the market are WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, PrestaShop, OpenCart and BigCommerce.
According to BuiltWith, all of these platforms shared eCommerce software market with each other.
Another source, SimilarTech, shows that among the most popular platforms are WooCommerce, Shopify, Squarespace Commerce and Magento (all versions). Each platform has its benefits and pitfalls, but we found out that Magento is the most flexible and scalable solution.
Magento is the best eCommerce software that does well with any type of business. It has unique features compared to other software. With Magento, you go live quickly. It has a Cloud hosting and deployment feature to accelerate your sales hence connecting you with certified partners. Cloud hosting helps reduce the cost by enabling you to monitor and host eCommerce solutions by yourself.
Not only this, you can add as much functionality as you want. Different extensions from the marketplace and custom solutions will serve for your business benefits. To go deeper through this topic, you can check our research on the top eCommerce platforms and their features comparison on the Clutch blog.
After creating a name for your brand and store, and choosing the platform to start, you need to think about unique web design. If you have an online clothing store, ensure that your site has high-quality photos. Fill your store with colorful patterns of shirts, trousers, shorts, and jackets. Customers buy what appeases their eyes; therefore, feed their eyes with what they wish to see, and they will purchase something good.
After you’ve made all the important steps with documents, you’ve chosen the product that you’ll sell, you have the store, and it’s already working. However, you want to grow, and increase your sales. That’s where you can consider of improving your business strategy, and develop your brand. We recommend you to look at 9 practical tips that are adopted by successful companies, and try them for your business growth.
In Magento, an attribute means any property of a product and you can add as many attributes as you need. They can be grouped into attribute sets, so similar products can be created with the same attributes. In this section, you will learn how to work with attributes, create, add, and change them from the admin store view or programmatically.
Let’s say we want to create an attribute called “Material”.
Step 1. Log into the Magento admin panel. Go to Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attributes
There you will see all the attributes used in your system.
Step 2. In the top right, click on “Add New Attribute”
Step 3. In the Properties tab you will need to configure the Attribute Properties:
Attribute Identifier: the name of the attribute used by the system. E.g. material.
Scope: allows you to declare the attribute value saving scope like Global ( the value of this attribute for a given product must be the same for all websites and stores on this Magento installation), Store View (the value of this attribute for a given product can differ in all Websites and all Store Views), Website (the value of this attribute for a given product can differ in different Websites, however, it cannot differ between Store Views contained under the same Website).
Catalog Input Type for Store Owner: describes what kind of data the attribute will store. For instance, if you want to manually enter the value for each product into a text field, select Text Field etc. In our case, we want to use Dropdown.
Unique Value: select “yes” if you want the data saved in this attribute to be unique for each product. But we rather use “no”, because different product types may be made of the same material.
Values Required: we are using “yes” since all our products are made of some material.
Input Validation for Store Owner: decides whether the data entered by the store owner is validated when the product is saved. In our particular case, we don’t need validation on this field, so we’ll choose “None”.
Apply To: determines for which Product Types this attribute will display. If you chose “Select product types” in the drop-down menu, you can set “material” to not apply to grouped/simple/configurable etc product or just use “All Product Types.
Step 4. And the settings for Frontend Properties:
Use in quick/advanced search: If “yes”, the data saved in this attribute will be searchable in the front-end in the quick search and advanced search.
Comparable on Front-end: If “yes”, this attribute will be displayed in a product comparison, if as at least one product in the Compare List contains a value for this attribute.
Use in Layered Navigation (can be used only with catalog input type Dropdown, Multiple Select and Price). Since we selected “Dropdown”, this option is active and we can select e.g. Filterable (with results).
Position: determines the position of this attribute in the Layered Nav menu.
Visible on Catalog Pages on Front-end: If “no”, this attribute will not be displayed in the product info page. The “visibility” only controls whether or not the attribute displays in the front-end. Keep in mind – if you set an attribute to “Visible: No”, and leave it as “Comparable: Yes”, this attribute will still show up in comparison charts.
Step 5. Click on the Manage Label/Options tab. Under this tab, you can name the attribute on the front-end by the attribute label. You can enter different labels for different. If a store’s label is blank, this store will look to the default label and use this one. Here we’ll enter “Material” under “Admin” and under “English”. Then, under the Manage Options (values of your attribute) we’ll enter lycra, nylon, polyester, satin, lace, silk and sheer fabric. Click Add Option each time you need a new line of fields for the attribute values. In the Position row you can enter 1,2,3 enter to position them.
Step 6. When you are ready, click Save Attribute in the top right corner.
Step 7. To apply this selectable attribute to a product, first, add it to an attribute set. Go back to the Catalog tab and select Manage Attribute Sets.
Step 8. There you will see all the attribute sets created in your system. Click Add New Set.
Step 9. Give your new attribute set a name by entering the Name filed. E.g. material. Let it be Based On -> Default. Click Save Attribute Set.
Step 10. On the next page, you will see the attribute set you’ve just created in the third column labeled Unassigned Attributes. You will drag and drop it to one of the groups in the second column. For instance, to General.
Step 11. Click Save Attribute Set in the top right.
Step 12. Now you can create a new product under Catalog -> Manage Products -> Add Product and in the Attribute Set drop-down select the attribute setyou’ve created. Then click Continue.
Step 13. Now you can proceed and create a new product based on the new product attribute group you created (“material”). Since you have added the new attribute to the General section, you will find it there in there under the General tab in the same order it was added. Once your new product is created, you can open it on the frontend to see the new attribute you have added among its details.
Next, we move on to creating an attribute in Magento 2 step-by-step.
How to Create Attribute in Magento 2
Step 1. Complete Basic and Advanced Properties information
On the Admin panel, click Stores. In the Attributes section, select Product
Click Add New Attribute button
In the Attribute Properties section, do the following
In the Default Label, enter a default label to identify the attribute
In the Catalog Input Type for Store Owner field, select the type in input control to be used for data entry
Text Field
Text Area
Date
Yes/No
Multiple Select
Dropdown
Price
Media Image
Fix Product Tax
Visual Swatch
Text Swatch
Note: If you use Dropdown and Multiple Select input types, do the following
Under the Manage Options section, click Add Option button
Select Default if you use the option as the default value
If you have only one store view, let enter only the Admin value and it will be used for the storefront as well
If you have multi-store views, let enter one value for the Admin and a translation of the value for each store view
Click on Add Option to create multi options that you want to include in the list
In the Values Required field, select Yes if you want to require the customers to choose an option before they can purchase products
In the Advanced Attribute Properties section, complete the following (If needed)
In the Attribute Code field, enter a unique Attribute Code in lowercase characters, and without space
In the Scope field, select one of the following to indicate where in your store hierarchy the attribute can be used
* Website * Store view * Global
* In the `Unique Value` field, set to `Yes` if you want to prevent duplicate values from being entered * In the `Add to Column Options` field, set to `Yes` to add this attribute to the list of column options in the product grid. * In the `Use in Filter Options` field, set to "Yes" to add this attribute to the list of filter options in the product grid.
Step 2. Manage Labels
Open the Manage Labels section, do the following
Enter a title to be used as a label for the field. If your store is available in different languages, you can enter a translated title for each view.
Step 3. Describe the Storefront Properties
Open the Storefront Properties section, do the following
In the Use in Search field, set to Yes if the attribute is to be available for search
In the Comparable on Storefront field, set to Yes to include the attribute in Product Compare
In the Use in Layered navigation field, set to Yes if you want to use the attribute as a filter in layered navigation
In the Use in Search Results Layered Navigation field, set to Yes if you want to use the attribute in layered navigation on search results pages
In the Position field, enter a number to indicate the relative position of the attribute in the layered navigation block
In the Use for Promo Rule Conditions field, set to Yesto use the attribute in price rules
In the Allow HTML Tags on Frontend field, set to Yes allow the text to be formatted with HTML
In the Visible on Catalog Pages on Storefront field, set toYesto include the attribute in log page listings
In the Used in Product Listing field, set toYes include the attribute in product listings
In the Used for Sorting in Product Listing field, set to Yesto use the attribute as a sort parameter for product listings
When complete, click Save Attribute button.
What Do You Need to Know About Magento 2 Live Chat?
eCommerce is booming around the world. According to eCommerce News Europe, in Sweden users spent 6.7 billion euros while shopping online in 2017. eCommerce also makes up 10% of retail sales in the United States. The United Kingdom isn’t far behind. As a result, online storefronts must evolve. Magento® 2 encourages this growth with its integration of live chat extensions. Live chat through Magento makes real-time communication between yourself and your clients more straightforward.
What Problems Magento Support Chat Solves for eCommerce?
Integrating a live chat feature into your Magento storefront isn’t difficult, and it comes with many benefits.
Solving a Communication Barrier
There’s no more need to guess at what your customers need or exchange emails throughout several days. Live chat with Magento is instantaneous. It allows for stellar customer service, which promotes sales without delay.
Collecting Data and Analyzing Users Behaviour
A live chat Magento 2 extension also enables you to collect customer data more easily. Track behavioral trends on a moment-to-moment basis. These extensions record chat transcripts for later access. They protect and store customer information. This means that live chats are more than communication tools. They are also by-the-minute surveys of your consumer base.
Increasing Customers’ Engagement and Satisfaction
Live chat extensions also encourage marketplace empathy between merchants and consumer audience. This empathy, in turn, leads to improved customer satisfaction. The more customers are impressed by your willingness to work with them, the more business your storefront is likely to see. That’s the power of a Magento live chat extension. These extensions enable your customers to get to know you as a relatable businessperson. That relatability then translates into sales.
General consensus names LiveChat as one of the most commonly used live chat extensions compatible with Magento 2. This online chat module is easy to integrate into your storefront. Its widget stays out of users’ way and is readily accessible. LiveChat’s security features also come in handy. You can protect your clients’ private information and immediately address their concerns in real time.
LiveChat’s many features include:
30-day trial free of credit card
Multi-page compatibility
View customer’s cart
View reports and analytics for the individual, active customers
Crisp also serves as a responsive live chat integration for merchants on Magento 2. Including this extension as part of your storefront is cost-friendly. Crisp limits its licensor payments and ensures free trials to potential users. This Magento 2 live chat extension also prides itself on its multi-site operations.
You may be looking for a more versatile live chat for Magento 2. Consider, then, Landofcoder’s updated extension. Landofcoder’s live chat extension does need you to sign up with their service. The extension is straightforward to use. It automatically records your customers’ data. The basic extension is also free. However, Landofcoder does not provide support service to their free extension. You’ll have to buy a support package if you find you need assistance.
Landofcoder’s live chat extension includes the following features:
Direct chatting with customers
Chat notifications and reminders
Customer outreach
Accessible chat interface for merchants and customers
You may be more inclined, though, towards open source extensions. Luckily, Belvg’s Magento 2 live chat shares its inner workings with the whole of the Internet. Its Pure Chat module integrates a live chat window into your Magento-base store. There’s no more need to wait on emails when you have this extension working for you.
Belvg Magento 2 Livechat includes such features:
A fully customizable chat window
Easy-to-collect customer data
Multi-chat support
Chat transcripts for all conversations
Live Chat Integrations for Magento 1.x Sites
Magento 1.x continues to serve as a reputable site of eCommerce. There are a number of live chat options available for integration on Magento’s previous hub.
Growing customer trust is easy with Zendesk Magento live chat extension. Diglin makes its live chat easy to embed. Storefront technicians will also be able to manage any customer difficulties with ease.
Many of the Zendesk extension’s other captivating features include:
Free installation
A fully customizable chat window
The ability to include images, such as screenshots, in the chat
Olark, too, offers you the opportunity, as a merchant, to respond to customer needs as soon as they arise. As a Magento live chat, it is straightforward to install and can immediately boost your sales.
When you’re looking for extension support for Magento 1.x, though, you’ll want to look to Vnecoms. This is the only extension on this list that isn’t free. The $159 price tag is well worth the service you’ll receive, though.
Features of Vnecoms live chat include:
A fully customizable chat window
User-accessible chat views
Multi-chat support
Customer-targeted chat conversations
WEB4PRO Became Envato Elite Author
We want to share our new exciting achievement with you – we’ve got an Elite Author Status on Envato. We couldn’t do it without you, our clients, who evaluate our work by using our email templates for business.
What Elite Author Program Means
In short, this is just the beginning of a new journey in Elite Author Program. This program highlights your sales achievements along with some other rewards and lets you use more of Envato community benefits.
Elite Author badge is showing that a company provides top quality products and has a trust of its clients. Now, we feel more dedicated and inspired to create new and improve existing products for our clients.
WEB4PRO Path on Envato
Our team is creating email templates since 2012. Handy and stylish designs are giving companies the ability to tell about their brand, deals and attract customers to their store and blog. We decided that client-oriented emails are the topmost in email marketing. With this in mind, we help our clients and other businesses to give a clear message, spending on email creation less time and put more efforts to their sales strategies.
Presenta Email Template
Our first marketing email pack Presenta was great to showcase the product from the presentation and pre-order to its selling. It was the first email template that was supported by our Emailbuilder. With it, you can edit each module (text, links, buttons, colors) and change their queue as you need.
From that time, we are grateful to all our clients that use our email templates – you inspire us to move on and create new, even better products and increase opportunities.
Magma Email Template
The most popular email template of all the time is Magma. It is a fully responsive email template with 35 modules that you can combine and edit from our Emailbuilder. It was featured by Themeforest among the best Mailchimp templates and we were very happy to deliver this module-rich template for businesses.
After all, we want to highlight some of our popular email and theme-based templates for holiday deals.
Store-e and Skipper Email Templates
Among others, similar email templates packs are Store-e and Skipper. They are made for eCommerce businesses and business pitches to help you conquer new heights.
Special Email Templates for Holidays
As for the special holiday deals, we have Back2Black, BlackFriday, that help you to show all the products and discounts. Also, we have a real-time clock counter that you can set to notify your clients about the limited time of the sale. This will increase the overall demand for products/services.
Santa, XMas and other Christmas email templates help to make your email look festive and create the right message to customers showing all the best deals at your store. Theme-based emails also increase the overall conversion, as customers always look at some Christmas products as well as presents at a great price.
In total, we sold more than 3,800 items on Envato marketplace and gloriously happy to continue creating more innovative, client-oriented and creative email templates.
How to Operate Your Store With Magento Store Manager Effectively?
Every business owner knows that having a successful business is achieved by having a company that is managed properly. That’s why you might be thinking of using the Magento® Store Manager to help you with your daily needs. Below, you can learn more about Magento 2 Store Manager; for example, what it is, the benefits of the tool, and more!
What is Magento Store Manager?
Store Manager for Magento 2 is a tool that allows you to keep track of your inventory, your customers, your orders, and other necessary tasks.
One of the best features of the Magento Store Manager Extension is that you can work offline to edit your inventory. With it, you can experience better functionality.
Overview of the Features
If you want to know how you can manage your store with this addon, you need to know about which features you have at your disposal.
Product and Category Management
Magento Store Manager allows you to organize your inventory. You can also create different categories to ensure that you never lose track of the products you have.
Beyond this, you’ll also be able to import all information regarding your inventory to make sure that you always control all the stocks at your store.
Order Management
When you use Magento Store Manager, you can work with an unlimited number of customers and orders. Among many features, you’ll experience the following:
You can edit products that were ordered.
You can send invoices.
You’ll always have real-time data regarding imports and exports.
You can sync your eCommerce store with both eBay and Amazon
Customers’ Management
This allows you to manage as many clients or customers as you need. You’ll also be able to collect data on your various customers so that you can analyze this information for your marketing purposes.
Advanced Management
You can take advantage of its management features and advanced reporting. With the last one, you can prepare charts on your mobile device. In this way, you can manage your business when you’re on the, go, and you can always be up-to-date with your reports. You will have access to your sales and view them in the formats by country or in multiple languages. Advanced features will allow you to manage complicated tasks.
You can keep track of your inventory at all times and have it synced so that you always have a real-time version of your stocks. This is beneficial for people who have a large number of orders or who change inventory often.
Technical Details
While the many benefits of Magento Store Manager are appealing, you’ll also need to know about the tool’s technical details. To operate the store, use these browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Edge, and IE.
Which Problems Will Store Manager Solve?
In order to know whether you should be using this tool, you should also know which problems you’ll be able to solve by using it. You might also find it useful to use Store Manager for Magento reviews.
Speed Up the Performance and Order Fulfillment
Because of Magento Store Manager’s high efficiency, your store’s online performance will be improved. As your inventory and orders are synced in real-time, the entire process occurs more quickly.
Regulated Workflow
Because you won’t have to spend as much time organizing your inventory, orders, and customers, you’ll be able to work more efficiently in general. Your workflow will be regulated because you can focus on other aspects of your business.
Advanced Analytics and Reporting
There are a number of benefits to using advanced analytics and reporting. Among them, you can understand your customers or visitors better and you can tailor your content to accommodate their needs. In this way, you can attract more people to your website, and increase the chance of them buying more products.
Store Diagnostics
Store diagnostics are some of the best ways for you to gain an understanding of your business. Depending on your edition, you can have between one and eleven different reports. From best sellers to latency matrix, you’ll have an idea of which products are best. This will provide you with an idea of which products you should put up for sale or which you should take off the market completely.
How Much Does Store Manager for Magento Cost?
If you’ve gotten this far, you probably want to know the total cost of using Store Manager.
The Standard package costs $249. You can have a total of one seat with this package, along with one connection. It’s compatible with Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce. You’ll have a number of support questions and you’ll be able to buy a separate training session to ensure you know how to run this feature. With the standard package, you’ll be slightly limited in what you can do; for example, you won’t be able to import orders or provide gift cards.
The Professional edition will cost $499 and will provide all of the features we presented before. You’ll also have access to a number of other features. You’ll have an extra seat and an unlimited number of stores/connections. While you still won’t have gift cards, you’ll be able to import orders and limited tier price multi-editor.
At $1499, you can have an Enterprise edition. This will provide you with every feature you could want for your store. You’ll have a free, 2-hour training session, 2 hours of technical remote desktop assistance, access to gift cards, and more! One of the most desired features of the enterprise edition is their store diagnostics. You can have access to 11 different reports. This will provide you with information like frequency, best sellers, order total, best viewed, etc.
With this extension, you have the opportunity to connect your Store Manager with Magento 2. As such, you’ll always have an idea of what your inventory is and you’ll be able to see your business’s data in real-time.
Having a single interface to run your entire store is essential. This way, you can see all of your store’s data on a single screen, and you don’t need to worry about having anything updated because your updates are performed in real-time. As such, you always know what’s happening in your Magento eCommerce store.
Package and Versions: By request; including the latest 2.3 version.
Price: $299 for the basic solution. Other 2 packages’ price information is available upon request.
How to Work with Magento Extensions/ Magento 2 Database
Magento extensions are the combination of functions that can be added to any Magento store to enhance its functionality. If you are looking for the general setup and the initial steps on how to create Magento extension – this section is formed for your help. Also, we’ve covered the question of how to work with databases and set up the cron job.
Below you can find frequently asked questions and solutions for each of them.
What is Magento 2 Marketplace?
Magento Marketplace, the official Magento extension store, is the global eCommerce resource for applications and services that expand Magento solutions with powerful new features and functionality. Now global retailers can do even more with their digital stores.
This source is designed for easy discovery of relevant Magento extensions. It provides a curated user experience with offerings from top brands and new innovators. Discover new and customized functionality, in key business categories, to help your business thrive.
Customers can trust that all extensions and providers with offerings in Magento Marketplace are reviewed and checked for quality. In addition, Magento Technology Partners participate in a manual code and documentation review…for an even higher level of quality assurance.
So, how to install, create and uninstall any extension from your Magento store, you can find below.
How to Install Extension for Magento 2 in Localhost?
Step 1: Download/Purchase the extension.
Step 2: Unzip the file in a temporary directory.
For example, on Linux you can use next command:
unzip exten_file.zip -d somedir
Step 3: Upload it to your Magento installation root directory.
Step 4: Disable the cache.
Go to System >> Cache Management or use the command:
sudo bin/magento cache:flush
Step 5: Run the command.
Enter the following at the command line:
sudo bin/magento setup:upgrade
Step 6: Find your extension installed.
After opening Stores >>Configuration >>Advanced >> Admin, the module will be shown in the admin panel or, you can find your extension on list modules that are displayed in command line after step 5.
How to Create Custom Extension in Magento?
Step 1. Disable Magento cache (recommended).
Disabling Magento cache during development will save you some time because you won’t need to manually flush the cache every time you make changes to your code.
The easiest way to disable cache is to go to Admin >> System >> Cache Management >> select all cache types and disable them.
Step 2. Put Magento into a developer mode (recommended).
You should put Magento into a developer mode to ensure that you see all the errors Magento is throwing at you.
In order to do this, open your terminal and go to the Magento 2 root. From there you should run the following command:
php bin/magento deploy:mode:set developer
Step 3. Create the folder of Hello World module.
Name of the module is defined as “VendorName_ModuleName”. The first part is the name of the vendor and the last part is the name of the module: For example Magento_HelloWorld.
Focus on the following guide to create the folders:
app/code/NS/Firstmodule
Step 4. Create etc/module.xml file.
Then, it is necessary to create an etc folder and add the module.xml file:
<?php
namespace NS\Firstmodule\Controller\Index;
class HelloWorld extends \Magento\Framework\App\Action\Action{
public function execute()
{
echo "Hello! It’s my first module of Magento 2!";
exit;
}
After completed, please run sudo bin/magento cache:flush to check result.
In Magento 1.0, the configuration file that contains database settings and other information is located here:/app/etc/local.xml
In Magento 2.0, the configuration is in the same directory (/app/etc/) but has been renamed to env.php. The file path is: /<Magento Install Dir>/app/etc/env.php
Navigate to your Magento 2 installation directory and edit app/etc/env.php configuration file in your favorite editor
Where: host – is your MySQL server hostname dbname –MySQL database name of Magento username – MySQL user to connect database server password – MySQL user password
After changes in this file you need to run the command: sudo bin/magento setup:di:compile
That’s how you change Magento database name.
How to Setup Cron Job in Magento 2?
Magento 2 Cron job may be set up by module file etc/crontab.xml, that will have such content.
Class Web4pro\Download\Model\Cron should exist and implement method execute, that will run when cron job starts.
The Overview of the eCommerce in Sweden: Stats and Trends
Online shopping is on the rise internationally, and this trend shows no signs of slowing. It’s picking up more speed and generating larger revenues each year.
Sweden is a business-friendly, modern country, and currently has one of the most successful and stable economies in Europe. Though not at the top of these trends, eCommerce in Sweden has increased significantly over the last decade.
With this in mind, we’ll look at some of the key trends for online shopping in Sweden. We’ll explore the behavior and preferences of Swedish shoppers, as well as some of the most important features needed to make your Swedish online store successful.
In addition to market trends and hot product categories, we’ll have a look at preferred payment types and overall shopper activity. This will give you all the information you need to create a profitable eCommerce website in Sweden, or to refine your existing site to get the most of it.
Online Shopping Statistics by Country
Before we will be looking into the specifics of online shopping in Sweden, let’s go into some of the stats. According to Statista research, China stands at the top of the list with $740 million. The US is a relatively close second at $560 billion. Sweden is significantly lower on the scale, with nearly $12 billion spent on eCommerce purchases per year projected for 2019.
Besides, this annual revenue for eCommerce shopping in Sweden is growing at a rate of 6.3% per year.
By 2023, this is projected to amount to over $15 billion for online purchases alone. When breaking this down by the user, we look at the ARPU, or average revenue per user. This presently stands at $1355.70 per year for Swedish buyers. The fashion industry is strongest for online purchases. Below you can see the number of dollars spent on the most popular goods in Sweden.
Economic Trends
To make the most out of your Scandinavian online store, you’ll need to understand the economic trends of the Scandinavian countries and Sweden in particular. In addition to having some of the strongest economies in Europe, the distinction between physical sales and online purchases is rapidly disappearing. Nordic shoppers are more receptive than most to expansion in the online market.
In 2016, online purchases in the Nordic countries amounted to nearly 22 billion Euros.
Finland accounted for the lowest proportion of these sales. 49% of the population, about 1.9 million people, purchased on average of 135 Euros per person per month.
Norway has the highest per capita sales on average at 173 Euros per month. 65% of the population reported that they had purchased online, about 2.4 million people.
Denmark has 2.6 million people made online purchases in 2016. It is about 63% of the population and at an average of 162 Euros per person per month?
Sweden is the 14th wealthiest country in the world with currently $51,209 dollar per capita. Estimates for 2021 increase the numbers to 7.2 million online shoppers, an additional 900,000 in two years alone.
One important trend to take note of is the fact that the percentage of purchases from abroad has dropped. The most popular nations to buy from are Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and China. As of 2012, 40% of eCommerce purchases were made from countries abroad. By 2016, this had dropped to 25%, even though overall revenues from online purchases had risen steadily over the period. This suggests that Swedish eCommerce is trending in favor of local sites.
The Most Popular Product Categories
It’s important to remember that the Swedish online market is steadily becoming stronger. One of the best questions to ask when planning your Swedish eCommerce site is, “what is famous in Sweden for shopping?” Online purchases in Sweden and internationally are weighed most heavily towards fashion. Swedish online clothing stores will account for $2.6 billion in 2019.
Purchases are divided equally amongst men and women. The most popular product categories for online purchases are divided by age group. The younger age groups will tend to buy health and beauty products and clothing. The older age groups primarily buy books. Those in the middle age groups will tend to purchase products intended for children.
Preferred Payment Types
As of 2016, the preferred method of payment for Swedish online shoppers was by invoice. Nearly 37% of sales were made via invoice, reflecting the appeal of this method in traditional purchasing. It’s projected that in 2019, 49% of online payments will be made with credit and debit cards. 20% of sales were made through PayPal and other online wallets. However, the landscape changed significantly over the next few years.
Current projections show that this percentage will increase over the coming years as well. This means that purely online methods of payment will increase significantly, while invoices are almost a thing of the past. Another surprising shift over the next few years is an increasing reliance upon payment on delivery. While this is expected to rise only to 1% by 2021, it suggests an increased trust in online purchase methods.
One of the benefits of establishing a Swedish online store is that the Swedes tend to be confident in online purchases. Nearly three-quarters of the population are reported to have purchased online at least once during the year, and 30% have ordered online at least once a month.
As indicated above, fashion purchases are the most popular.
As of 2017, the greatest bulk of online Swedish purchases – 57% – were done through a laptop. Smartphone and desktop purchases were close behind, with 34% of purchases made with desktops and 37% made via smartphone. Tablets were the devices least used, accounting for only 19% of online purchases. The use of smartphones and laptops for online purchasing has been steadily increasing since 2016.
Features of the Successful Swedish Online Store
One of the most important features for successful Swedish eCommerce sites is delivery.
Delivery satisfaction is key to retain customers and encourage future purchases. Clear delivery information is absolutely essential. 89% of Swedish online shoppers require this before they feel confident making a purchase.
Choices in delivery are important as well. About 67% of shoppers report that they prefer to have a choice in the delivery day, and 55% would feel more comfortable purchasing if they have the opportunity to choose same day delivery. Furthermore, 60% of online shoppers prefer home delivery over other options. Finally, it’s crucial to use delivery services that your customers know and have confidence in.
Other ways to increase customer trust include free refunds, and, if possible, free delivery.
Tracking options are expected by 78% of Swedish shoppers, so this is a key feature for the successful Swedish online store.
This goes for all online stores, but it’s a major selling point. If a customer goes through the process of browsing and selection, only to find that they can’t purchase with their preferred method, you’ll have abandoned carts, and worse, they’ll not be likely to visit your site again. So, make sure to include payment by card, e-invoice, e-wallet, and bank transfer.
Another important feature is to provide a means for your customers to contact you.
Old methods include feedback and testimonials. However, one of the best methods is to use live chats. Customers will be able to reach you live and at the moment, and this increases customer trust.
