How to Work with Magento Admin Panel: Login and Setup
If you just started working with Magento, you might be wondering about how to change the basic functionality of your store right from the admin panel. We’ve got you covered with our simple, but comprehensive guide. Below you can check the most common changes in Magento functionality that you can do manually with simple steps or programmatically by using our guide.
How to Login to Magento Admin Panel
Firstly, you need to login to your Magento store’s admin.
Step 1: Go to your Magento website. Add /admin or custom Magento admin URL to the URL and reload the page.
Step 2: Type in your username and password that you set up during the installation process.
Step 3: You are now logged into your Magento 2 Admin Panel.
Sometimes you need to change your data and reset the password for your Magento admin. We’ll show you 2 ways how to do it for both Magento 1.x and Magento 2.x versions.
How to Change Magento Admin Password
For Magento 1.x
You need to modify the Magento administrator password directly in the database using phpMyAdmin or the MySql client. You can execute the following MySQL query:
UPDATE `admin_user` SET `password` = md5('NEW_PASSWORD') WHERE `username` = 'ADMIN_USERNAME';admin_user – this is a database table from the Magento database;
NEW_PASSWORD – the desired password which you want to be set;
‘ADMIN_USERNAME’ – your Magento administrative username.
For Magento 2.x
The first option is to change the Magento administrator password through e-mail. To do this, follow these steps:
- Go to the Magento Admin Panel Login.
- Click Forgot your password.
- Type the e-mail address associated with the account.
- Click Retrieve Password. Magento sends a message to the e-mail address associated with the administrator account.
- In the message, click the link to reset the administrator password.
To edit an existing administrator, you can use the same command as for creating a new administrator in CLI:
bin/magento admin:user:create [--<parameter_name>=<value>, ...]
Required parameters:
–admin-firstname – Magento administrator user’s first name.
–admin-lastname – Magento administrator user’s last name.
–admin-email – Magento administrator user’s e-mail address.
–admin-user – Magento administrator username.
–admin-password – Magento administrator user password.
If you’re editing an administrator, only the first name, last name, and password can be modified.
Example:
bin/magento admin:user:create –admin-user=admin –admin-password=123123w –[email protected] –admin-firstname=Magento –admin-lastname=User
How to Reset Magento 2 Password via Phpmyadmin
You can reset admin password via phpmyadmin
Step 1. Login to phpmyadmin
Step 2. Choose your database
Step.3 Select ‘SQL’ tab and rub query:
UPDATE admin_user SET `password` = CONCAT(SHA2('xxxxxxxxYOUR_NEW_PASSWORD', 256), ':xxxxxxxx:1') WHERE `username` = 'YOUR_ADMIN_USERNAME';Where admin_user – database table (it can contain table prefix – check it):
YOUR_NEW_PASSWORD – your new password
YOUR_ADMIN_USERNAME – your admin login name
Xxxxxxxx – character sequence is a cryptographic salt. It is saved in an app\etc\env.php file:
<?php return array ( ... 'crypt' => array ( 'key' => '525701df74e6cba74d5e9a1bb3d935ad', //cryptographic salt )
You can also resolve the admin access issue by creating new admin user using Magento console command:
php bin/magento admin:user:create
How to Increase the Time Logged into Magento 2
You can increase Magento 2 session lifetime by changing a value in:
Stores > Settings > Configuration > Advanced > Admin > Security > Admin Session Lifetime (seconds)
Or you can change value ‘admin/security/session_lifetime’ in table core_config_datait in your store Database.
Next, we’ll describe how to create CMS page and change different parts of your Magento store right from the Admin panel.
How to Create CMS Page in Magento
Step 1: Login to your Magento admin panel and navigate to the Content menu.
Step 2: Select the Pages menu.
Step 3: Click on the Add New Page button.
Step 4: Specify your new Page Title and select the desired Store View.
Step 5: Go to the Content tab and write the page content.
Step 6: In the Design tab choose the Layout for this new page.
Step 7: Note your page URL key.
Step 8: Save your changes by clicking on the Save Page button.
How to Add Favicon in Magento 2
Step 1: Go to Content -> Design -> Configuration.
Step 2: Choose Configuration.
Step 3: Click on the HTML Head settings tab.
How to Change Logo in Magento 2
Magento 2 store logo can be changed by admin in Content -> Configuration -> Edit link, that is related to store -> Header -> Logo Image
Step 2: In the Configuration page, you will see a list of default website, then click on Edit under Action column.
When the page is opened, scroll down to the Transaction Emails section and click on it.
Step 3: In Transactional Emails, you will see a list of logo settings for your email including:
Logo Image – different types of file are allowed (jpg, jpeg, png). Here you can upload your desired email logo with a high-resolution display.
How to Change Header in Magento 2
A header can be changed by adding new blocks to the container ‘header.container
’ or its child containers or removing blocks and containers from them. Example for adding block
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/page_configuration.xsd">
<body>
<referenceContainer name="header.container">
<block class="Web4pro\Test\Block\Template" name="header.custom.block" template="Web4pro_Test::header_custom.phtml" before="-"/>
</referenceContainer>
</body>
</page>How to Change Footer in Magento 2
Footer can be changed by adding new blocks to the container ‘footer’ or removing blocks from it. Example for adding block:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/page_configuration.xsd">
<body>
<referenceContainer name="footer">
<block class="Web4pro\Test\Block\Template" name="footer.custom.block" template="Web4pro_Test::footer_custom.phtml" before="-"/>
</referenceContainer>
</body>
</page>Magento Email Templates for Your Email Marketing Campaign
Emails always seem to be a simple thing to create, right? You just need to write a few words, add some link to your site and, send it out. Email services will let you come up with your own email by using their default designs. But, what would you do if you want to improve your emails and make them have some dynamic content that will enable them to remain consistent on other channels?
The answer is to use a template that is specially designed, and this is where the email templates come in. In the world of business, marketing is always an important thing and one of the strategies often used is the sending of customized emails. This can either be from the business to the consumer or from a business to another business entity, commonly known as B2B email marketing.
For that reason, therefore, let us explain more about Magento® email templates.
What is Email Marketing?
From what we’ve talked about above, you can conclude that email marketing is simply the use of emails to promote your business. This is usually done by customizing or personalizing a message and making it available for your potential consumers. This way, you will be increasing the chances of your business being noticed by a large number of people thus increasing the chances of getting more customers too.
Why Do You Need Email Marketing?
Emails always play a huge role in our lives, because they help us to get access to any website or platform and read some specific content.
When it comes to business, email marketing presents an excellent opportunity especially when you are trying to reach your potential consumers regardless of the audience. When you introduce the use of emails as one of your business marketing strategies, you will notice that it improves the visibility and reach of your business, thus giving you the ability to engage with the leads and convert them consistently.
Email marketing can also give you the freedom to customize your messages according to the actions of your customers.
You are able to categorize your target audience and see into it that the messages with the greatest impact reach the right leads in good time. Other advantages of using email marketing include the fact that it is a cost-effective method and is also among the easiest strategies to use when it comes to performance and the results you get.
Do You Need Email Marketing Templates?
An email template is basically an email that has already been written or designed and can be used to send emails for your business to both the potential and retained customers.
When working with an email template, all you need to do is change what is already there with the content of your choice, for instance, the details of your product, the logo of your business and also the signature.
If you use Magento as a platform for your eCommerce store, platform-oriented email templates will give you the following advantages:
Time-Saving
When it comes to promoting your business, it will take you some time to come up with your own design and write the content before you can finalize on it and send it out. Well, this process might take a lot of your time since there is also some testing that needs to be done after editing. But, if you go ahead and use email templates, you perform email preparation faster. This will allow you to think of other ways of improving your business.
Brand Consistency
When you use email templates for your marketing campaigns, people will be able to notice a particular design pattern in your emails. This will make them remember your business each time they see your emails. This helps you in maintaining brand awareness hence the need to always include your websites, channels, and logo in the content.
Enhances Communication
Of course, there will always be some competition when you join the world of business. This is why most people strive to come up with great marketing strategies, one of them being branding and keeping it consistent. This is what the consumers usually depends on regardless of if they are going to respond to the offer or not. They will always look for a trustworthy company. Additionally, you can also add some personal touch to the template you are using when personalizing your messages. This can make the customers understand you better.
Increases Your Revenue
When the communication improves, the relationship between the business and the customers also improves. This increases your chances to acquire more web traffic.
Useful for you:
Common Mistakes in Email Templates
People always make mistakes in almost everything and using email templates is no exception. Below are some common mistakes one can make when using email templates.
Non-Responsiveness
Not everyone will open the emails on the computer, some will use tablets and others will even use their cell phones. This, therefore, means that people should be able to open emails across all the devices regardless of the email template design used. Whether you decide to create an email template from scratch or use something like bootstrap email template, make sure they are able to fit the screens perfectly for easy navigation. Anyway, why waste all that time trying to come up with a new design when you can simply use a responsive email template like bootstrap.
Twisted Logic in Content
Well, you can’t really get your message across when you keep on shifting the logic in your message. Remember to always keep it short and precise. This will give a more clear message then when you start telling a long story and end up confusing everyone.
Too Many Pictures Used
Using too many images in an email will make it quite bulky thus they will take much time to load on various devices. This is why most people usually disable the images option when using their mobile phones.
Unavailability of Unsubscribtion
This is a crucial point to note yet some people still miss it. Without the unsubscribe button, the consumers might go straight ahead and start marking your emails as SPAM. This might affect the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build when it comes to deliverability. Make sure to always include this option in your email template.
No Call-To-Action
Don’t leave your customers hanging. Make sure you clearly indicate why they are receiving your emails. Remember to ensure that you have a call to action statement in your emails. This will also make a lot of people to engage with your business.
No A/B Testing
For you to get more customers, you need to come up with great content that will encourage them to click or open up the messages. The A/B test or email template testing will help to find out which option is the best to use. This way, you are guaranteed to get a good number of clicks.
Useful for you:
Where to Find Great Email Templates
If you’ve already decided that you will be using email templates, you should consider taking a look at the sites below.
ThemeForest
If you are looking to find great creative designs when it comes to templates, consider taking a look at this site. At an affordable price, you can always find nice designs that suit your needs. WEB4PRO has own email templates there, so you can check the portfolio and choose the one for your email marketing campaign.
TemplateMonster
Whether you want WordPress themes or web templates, this place is where you should be looking at. Even from the name itself, you can already tell it is a great place template. They offer nicely designed templates at a competitive price too.
Ivycommerce
This is also among the best places to purchase email templates from. If you are looking to find great Magento email templates, you can start here. They do offer responsive and customizable email templates.
Christmas Marketing Ideas: How to Prepare Your Site This Holiday?
Christmas is the biggest shopping season worldwide. For over a century, companies have been boosting sales by stepping into the festive spirit and offering deals that excite and entice their customers. The holiday is tailor-made for this purpose. We give Christmas gifts to show love to those we care about. This means more purchases and a perfect opportunity to reach interested customers.
On average, Christmas spending is more than all other holidays put together, and it can constitute nearly 20% of annual profits. According to Statista, last year alone, Christmas spending amounted to almost $700 billion. This makes Christmas marketing crucial for a successful year. In this post, we’ll explore Christmas Marketing Ideas and protips for preparing your eCommerce website for the season.
The Essential Features for eCommerce Store This Christmas
This part is the most important for merchants because it is related directly to their store performance. When you get prepared for the holiday sales, you may find your store run slowly while lots of customers browsing and buying products at your store. Below is the list of what can be done to avoid such mistakes:
- Check your store performance and speed. You need to check website speed via Pingdom to make sure that it is running fast and pages’ loading speed is less than 3 seconds; so that customers can interact with your store freely. Also, check whether you have caching configured at the server’s side and on Magento® (or other CMS) side.
- Test the checkout page and shopping cart for speed and performance. You don’t want your website visitors to abandon the cart. Check all the checkout process and the speed of it. It should be fast, and the fields should be understandable for a user to fill them out.
- Create a separate landing page with a counter-timer and Christmas theme. This additional webpage will help you to attract clients during the holiday season and let them learn more about your company and deals.
- Place pop-ups, use promo codes and set up discounts from the admin panel at your store. You can use the full promotion functionality for your Christmas sales campaign and gain both potential and current customers’ attention.
Now let’s move on to the actual Christmas marketing campaign ideas for this year.
Useful for you:
Marketing Campaign Ideas
When setting up any marketing campaign, start by setting goals. The basic goal for any business is to increase profits. To do this, you need to know who to reach and what they’ll want. Then break it down and get more precise. Set clear goals that have a time frame and can be measured. Keep realistic, and focus efforts to support the overall goal within this time frame. Rather saying you want more sales in general, shoot for higher profits over December and November compared to last year.
Next, look into execution. Here’s where the marketing campaign comes into play. You might increase sales by using an influencer or becoming more active on social media. Consider company holiday newsletter ideas to reach more customers and share your great deals and discounts. Plus, since this season has high competition, you’ll want to do something surprising and different.
You can also run mini-campaigns for loads of smaller holidays. Small Business Saturday and Free Shipping Day are also great for deals and discounts. If you sell globally, consider holidays in other selling regions. Niche holidays mean niche customers and increased reach. Plus, by acknowledging other holidays, you keep from alienating those who don’t celebrate Christmas.
Finally, make your campaign unique by adding value in addition to the discounts or deals. You could extend warranties, offer free returns and postage, and provide complimentary stocking fillers or coupons that customers can use year-round. Off the sales for a couple of weeks after Christmas to clear old inventory, make space for the new product range, and reach even more customers.
Useful for you:
Pay Attention to Christmas and Holiday Keywords
Anyone with an eCommerce site understands the importance of keywords. Plus, if you’ve been at this for a while, the top performing terms will be pretty clear. You can boost traffic by adding seasonal terms to the focus keywords. Anything that has Christmas in it is going to peak for a couple of months, so optimize your site for these terms.
Look into Google’s Keyword Planner. It will show how different searches relate to each product and service. It also offers other related terms. This lets you optimize the website around even more buyer intent keywords. Use these terms for advertisement too, orienting Adwords and Pay-Per-Click campaigns around them. Also, consider what problems the product solves, framing ads and communication around how the product improves the life of the buyer.
Match Promotions with Your Content & Social Strategy
When brainstorming marketing promotion ideas, fit to the company. Your brand and business are unique. You have put work into developing a USP and reaching a specific demographic. Tailor the promotions to offer what your demographic wants.
Regarding content, consider what searches your target audience will make as Christmas rolls in and create blog posts around these topics. Christmas is about sharing, so these blogs are an opportunity to share tips and details with your clients. These blogs can be featured on social media as well as the site. Remember to keep them natural and fit them with the company theme.
Play with some Christmas meanings and tradition and create an attractive advertisement as, for example, UPS did. Their hashtag – #WishesDelivered, gained popularity on Twitter, as well as their short, but meaningful promo that pays attention to their great Christmas delivery services.
Update Your Website to Cater to the Holiday Mood
An effective Christmas marketing campaign also means tweaking the site to fit the mood and theme of the season. Use Christmas imagery on the landing page and make the promotions visible and visually appealing. Put your discounts and deals right up front and easy to read, showing visitors how they can save money with great holiday deals. Use the same imagery on social media channels.
You can also feature gift guides and bundled packages on your landing page. Gift guides are simple to create and perform.
They both generate interest and provide suggestions to spark new ideas. Include them on social media sites as well and you’ll boost conversions dramatically.
Run a Holiday-Focused Email Campaign
Email campaigns are awesome for reaching consumers, especially on the holidays. For holiday eCommerce email ideas, consider using Christmas themes emails to expand brand recognition, showcase unique products, and offer holiday deals. Add links that your customers can use to reach the holiday gift guides, and you make conversions even easier.
Personalize the message personalized to speak directly to your customers. A nice touch is to put your own signature on the email. A Christmas banner is another great addition. The personal touch lets customers know they’re valued and boosts engagement.
Here are some platforms to find holiday email templates:
ThemeForest
ThemeForest offers more than 44,000 WordPress themes and Website templates. They are inexpensive, beginning from as low as $2. Plus, they are fit for every type of service or product and every holiday season. It’s a massive library of top-quality themes. ThemeForest is connected with the Envato Market, a community of designers offering thousands of digital assets for all design needs.
WEB4PRO offers many great Christmas email templates to refine your email marketing campaign. Check here all the templates and find the right one for you. Below are the examples of our Christmas email templates:
TemplateMonster
TemplateMonster is another place to find themes for WordPress, Shopify, Magento, and many other eCommerce platforms. It is a user-friendly site with more than 25,000 themes. More than 2 million sites use TemplateMonster themes. They offer a 100% satisfaction policy and 14-day money back guarantee. Plus they offer 24/7 support and a personal consultant to help you find the template that fits your needs perfectly. The themes are a bit pricier than ThemeForest, but they are high-quality digital solutions.
Showcase Your Holiday Offerings on Facebook
Social media is tailor-made for reaching customers and generating interest. Facebook is ideal to get consumers engaging with content. Put great blogs on the business Facebook site and remember to use creative holiday taglines. That way, users are kept in the loop on the best deals. Use photos and seasonal imagery to fit the festive theme, but try not to overdo it and keep the theme compatible with the brand. Remember to focus on unique, emotionally engaging messages.
Create Funny Holiday Video
Videos are a great way to optimize your website and increase rankings. A holiday video reaches more users and helps them to find deals they’ll want. To keep it catchy and unique, consider a touch of comedy in the video. This keeps things light and boosts customer interest. If you do it right, customers will remember it, visiting your site again later and spend longer browsing.
Christmas Sales Ideas
The options for are great Christmas sales are endless. Consider giving percentage discounts, bundled products, or flash sales. VIP discounts for valued consumers, coupon packages that come with seasonal purchases, the options go on. Emphasize creativity and match the deals to your demographic and niche. Here are some ways to boost holiday conversions:
Use Scarcity as a Strategy
Scarcity and urgency are ideal for getting a buyer to bridge the gap between interest and conversion. Use limited time offerings like a two-day or hour-long sale. Advertise the deal ahead of time, and make sure customers know that it’ll end when stock runs out. “Limited time offer! While supplies last!” This may not be a novel approach, but it works as well now as it did when it was first conceived.
Remember that bestsellers will move fast during the season, and stock up on the hottest products before the deal begins. Include an inventory counter on your site, so buyers can watch the inventory dwindle. This encourages customers to buy before the stock runs out. Plus, you can reinforce this by giving a clear cutoff date for the last purchase.
Offer a Gift with Purchase
Free is a word that garners more attention from the customer than any other. Give something away, and you give customers a bargain, adding value, even if it’s only perceived value. When you bundle items, you can offer less popular products for free along with more popular ones. Even if you only add a bit of value, that’s massive in sales terms. You could also offer free coupons that can be redeemed all year long. This takes advantage of the buying frenzy to boost traffic throughout the year.
A great tactic for eCommerce sales is to offer free shipping. If a customer has to pay shipping costs, they are sure to stop and reconsider the purchase. Especially when so many of your competitors are making sure that customers can get their products shipped to them free of cost. This is especially important within the last few days before Christmas. If you offer free worldwide or overnight shipping so the gift arrives before the holiday, customers often overlook a bit of a price hike in the product itself.
What eCommerce Businesses Can Learn from Top Websites’ User Experience
Holidays are a busy time for eCommerce companies. In an increasingly crowded online retail field with consumers spending more of their money online, it’s more important than ever for companies to distinguish themselves as a unique site for their targeted clients.
User experience, or UX, is the overall experience of a person using a product, including ease of navigation, interface, and design. Good UX translates to the difference between an irritating online shopping experience and a smooth, no-hassle one that will bring visitors back for future purchasing needs.
A new consumer survey on website UX of 612 website users in the United States examined website browsing habits and collected user opinions about their experience on top websites.
Among the takeaways are two particularly important lessons:
- UX makes a massive difference in whether users will return to a website and use it again. Nearly a quarter of respondents – 24% point ease of navigation as their main motivation to return to a site and use it again.
- If the website lack of the useful content, forget about lesson one. It doesn’t matter if the user experience is pleasant, if the website is vacuous glitz, browsers will abandon ship and not return. Useful content is the other reason people will return to a website, named by 48% of respondents as their main motivation.
With that in mind, here is a deeper dive into the Clutch data and what it says about what eCommerce businesses can learn from the UX provided by top websites.
Top Websites Establish Usability Patterns
Amazon is the most popular eCommerce website, named by 10% of users who were asked which website they visited most in the past month. While this trails well behind social media giants such as Facebook or Instagram, this reflects the fact that the highest percentage of users – 29% – say that the main reason to use Internet pages is to communicate with other people.
Conversely, making a purchase was named as the main reason people go online by a relatively modest 12% of respondents. But when web browsers do go online to shop, 43% of them visit Amazon.
If you model your site based on Amazon’s usability and basic functions, most users will know from the start how to navigate your site. They will immediately recognize the layout, and intuitively understand how to maneuver through your content.
Amazon topped the survey’s ranking of websites offering the best user experience, named by 21% of respondents. It ranked far above other e-commerce sites, including 4% for eBay and 1% for Craigslist.
According to the survey, 78% of respondents say that among websites they visit monthly, Amazon offers exceptional user experience, providing customers with pages that are easy to use, has a clear interface, and an appealing design. By contrast, 42% of respondents say that about eBay, and 29% say that about Craigslist.
Here are a few ways you can follow Amazon’s lead on your eCommerce website:
Put Content Front and Center
The survey finds that almost half of website users- 48% – say useful content is their main motivation to return to a website. Website design should exist to support text and images representing a company’s offerings.
Businesses should avoid flashy, trendy web design features. They may distract potential customers from products they’re looking to purchase.
Rahul Kondi, a senior UX designer, agrees that user experience design teams at top websites prioritize content now more than ever before.
Smaller eCommerce shops should work with web designers to make sure content is the focus of their site.
Keep Design Simple
The goods for sale on Amazon are generally available on many eCommerce sites. Amazon’s greatest user experience strength is taking a large amount of content and making it simple, while still presenting it in a way that appeals to people browsing the site.
Amazon doesn’t have many trendy design features like chatbots or pop-ups. The design is uncomplicated and keeps the focus on content, so visitors don’t get distracted by challenging navigation.
Craigslist is famously void of design, focusing instead on presenting as many products or services as possible to the people browsing the site.
By keeping it simple, you avoid distracting your audience with design and lead them to the content they’re looking for.
Limit Your Imitations
Modeling your UX on popular eCommerce sites like Amazon should by no means stifle innovation within your own design or development team. Do not be afraid to try out well-reasoned design changes. Just be sure to keep user expectations in mind when testing a new design.
If you are changing your website’s UX, ground your proposed changes in research that shows benefits for users and the business.
A winning plan of action could involve blending the basic elements of Amazon’s functionality with your unique flair and design elements. Presenting the content in a unique and easily usable way is how businesses can stand out.
Work Quickly to Fix UX Mistakes – or Avoid Them Altogether
Bells and whistles may get attention, but it may be negative attention, mainly if they distract users or slow down your site.
Web users have clear dislikes when it comes to browsing, and at the top of the list is unreliability. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (63%) say that unreliability, including broken links, 404 errors and crashes – would make them stop using the site permanently.
Not far behind in causing frustration – and potentially lost sales – is slow page load time. More than half of users – 52% say they would abandon a site permanently if it loads too slowly.
This is particularly important on checkout pages, which are more involved than homepages and are critical for conversion. Losing a transaction at the last minute because of a glitch on the page is more than lost revenue – it is potentially a customer lost for good because of the wasted time and aggravation.
Avoid slow load times by having your designers and developers work together. Keep the web design as simple as possible, and avoid stacking up elements that increase the time it takes to load a page.
Often, a simple fix in the interface can make a big difference in keeping users happy. You don’t need a major redesign to ensure a good experience on your website. Make the small changes you need to keep the site fast and reliable.
Down with Pop-Ups
In the same vein, don’t bombard users with pop-ups. A majority of respondents (51%) say pop-up forms would cause them to stop using a site permanently. Pop-ups are also notably absent on sites like Amazon, eBay, and Craigslist.
A pop-up that smacks users in the face as soon as they land on a page can be particularly off-putting and may lead a new user to make a hasty exit.
Forcing a user to deal with a pop-up as they try to leave a site is not much better. Exit-intent pop-ups create a barrier to peoples’ intent – which leads to frustration.
A more efficient and less irritating way to make use of pop-ups is to offer them as an option to showcase additional information, such as the biography of a staff member or further details and specifications about a product.
Even when pop-ups succeed in gathering customer information, however, they risk alienating a visitor for good. It’s not much of a win to pick up email addresses from customers who already had a frustrating experience with your website.
Avoid causing your visitors to distress. Most of them don’t enjoy pop-ups, and they aren’t worth the risk of damage to your brand.
Making Your Site Fast and Reliable on Mobile
Mobile version needs to be a top priority for eCommerce sites looking to grow their business. According to the survey, almost all website users browse primarily on a mobile device. More stages of the buyer’s journey take place on mobile, so it’s critical for eCommerce businesses to have a high-quality, intuitive version of a site on mobile.
This is particularly true for eCommerce sites hoping to make inroads in emerging markets where reliable internet access is not guaranteed. Because you don’t know if a user will have the connectivity or device to support downloading a mobile app, it’s important to optimize your website for mobile to reach this wider audience.
To gain users’ attention, it is critical to design your site to work simply, intuitively and efficiently on the market. It’s not enough to try to include all of your content in a small space. Start by recognizing the nuances between user intent on mobile and desktop browsers, and you’ll be on your way to a good mobile web UX.
Summary
As the survey results make clear, a good website UX matters to potential customers.
In many cases, significantly improving your UX is not a hard reach. Keep these points in mind both for the holiday season and into the New Year:
- Amazon is the top dog in eCommerce for good reasons. The survey respondents say the two things that keep them coming back to a site are content and good UX, and Amazon offers them both in a symbiotic way, by taking an enormous amount of content and laying it out for customers in a way that is simple, easy to digest and not distracting.
- Following the example of Amazon and other top sites not only allows you to incorporate best practices, but this also provides you with a website where first-time users will feel comfortable and intuitively understand how to navigate.
- Stay away from design features that will slow down your load times without offering much in the way of improved content.
- Test your site regularly to make sure your pages are reliable and don’t lead to broken links, error messages and crashes. If they do, people will leave your site in droves.
- Don’t slap visitors in the face with pop-ups. They slow down the number of time users must spend on your site, inevitably irritating your target customers. It’s usually not worth the benefits, given half your visitors may not come back.
- Don’t be afraid to break out your own ideas on ways to improve your UX in ways your customers will appreciate.
- Make the site your own, with touches that reflect your ethos and target audience – make sure they don’t slow down your visitors or page load times.
- Ignore mobile web at your peril. It’s where you will find new users.
Best eCommerce Tools to Operate Your Business Successfully
It’s vital that you want a successful business, especially if you decided to go online. For this reason, you might be wondering what tools you can use to ensure that your business is operated correctly. Below, we’ve described must-have tools that are useful for marketing, analytics, and other business operations.
Top eCommerce Website Tools
In the beginning, you’re looking for a platform to launch your website. Below, we want to provide you with the list of market leaders as a base for your future store.
Magento®
Magento has been developed to suit any client and any goal. It is fully scalable and customizable, so it suits any business. There are two packages for customers:
The first is the Community package, which is a free alternative for Magento’s services. For smaller companies, this is an opportunity to create your eCommerce website at a lower cost, but with a full functionality list.
The second Magento package is the Commerce edition, which costs significantly more; however, it also grants you access to all of the platform’s extensions and additional B2B services. This package is better for those with larger businesses.
OpenCart
This platform prides itself on being easy to use for clients. It’s another free solution for you to build your eCommerce business with. OpenCart has built-in SEO to help you market your business successfully.
If you’re interested in using OpenCart’s services, you can try out their demo to determine whether the service is for you.
Useful for you:
Shopify
Shopify is known for being an alternative to some other options on the market. Even if you don’t have any experience in design, you can use Shopify’s services. That’s because when you use Shopify, you have access to themes that provide your eCommerce site with a unique look.
You can also expect to have unlimited bandwidth, which is why you won’t have a website that lags. With unlimited room for product inventory, you can also ensure that your store works to its full potential.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms. WooCommerce is free when it comes to startup costs and you can expect to pay under $7 for hosting fees. Throughout your store’s operation, you may have to pay processing fees when credit cards are used.
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Great eCommerce Research Tools
The most important tools ensure that your business operates successfully including research capabilities. eCommerce research tools make it easier for you to collect and analyze data within your store.
Wiser
Customers use Wiser because they appreciate the tool’s omnichannel coverage, efficiency, and customer support. Both online and in-store data can be automated with Wiser to ensure that your eCommerce store can operate as seamlessly as possible.
Wiser can collect and analyze data across your store(s) and in doing so, it can provide you with insights about this data so that you can plan your next strategic steps.
My Best Segments
My Best Segments is known for providing customers with powerful insights based on a number of factors: financial, media, and shopping trends. Because of this, you can have an accurate image of the demographic you’re trying to reach.
Once you have this image, you can target this audience more efficiently.
Think With Google
Think With Google can provide you with anything you need to have a deeper insight of your target audience. Google does this with its value-led approach and by analyzing ads that are seen.
Think With Google is an omnichannel solution; wherein, you can use it for your marketing, data, design, and research needs.
Heatmap.me
The main advantage of using Heatmap is that you don’t have to install an extension or open another tab if you want to look over your analytics. All of your data is analyzed based on your site’s content.
When Heatmap looks over your page, it determines where users hang the hat on the particular part of the page so you can target your audience.
Useful eCommerce Business Tools
Now that you’ve read all about research tools at your disposal, you’re ready to learn about the best eCommerce business tools. Among these tools, you’ll find that they all help you to know how to scale your eCommerce business.
Kin
According to their site, companies that use Kin experience higher efficiency among their workers and, as a result, higher efficiency within their company. Kin focuses on the following four components to ensure that your eCommerce business performs better: time-off, data, onboarding, and reviews.
The accumulation of these components creates an atmosphere; wherein, your employees and customers feel appreciated.
Sellbrite
By using Sellbrite, you have the opportunity to sell your products across multiple platforms. From Amazon to Walmart, you can expand your reach by using Sellbrite’s multi-channel services.
You can also list all of your products more easily to ensure that nothing is left out.
Signifyd
Signifyd is unique because it provides your business with a seamlessness that’s hard to beat. It removes the friction from your eCommerce site. This tool has a Magento integration, which is one of its most appealing features.
By using Signifyd, you can automate your stock and you can handle more orders than you would be able to otherwise.
TaxJar
TaxJar reduces the need for spreadsheets and handles all of your tax needs. You can connect this extension with different platforms to keep up with your sales. Platforms like Amazon and Paypal are examples of places you can connect with this program.
Hiver
This is a useful eCommerce tool because it benefits team collaboration. It does so in a number of ways; including, sharing Gmail inboxes to optimize them for your eCommerce business.
Veeqo
Veeqo allows you to seamlessly control and manage your inventory, deal with orders, organize warehouse workflow, connect stores and integrate POS system to get the most of your business. The admin panel is intuitive and gives you the opportunity to go over the business processes and without complications operate your stores, stocks, orders, and reports.
Most Effective eCommerce Marketing Tools
Marketing is one of the best ways to increase your conversions and to generate more potential leads. To achieve these goals you need to have effective marketing tools for your eCommerce website.
MailChimp
MailChimp improves your site’s overall marketing by providing you with unique campaigns. With it, you create personalized emails to ensure that your customers receive targeted messages. It also helps you to analyze data.
ReferralCandy
ReferralCandy benefits your business and increases your efficiency by creating a referral program. You can use this program to provide customers with rewards if they decide to share their experience with your business. This improves your marketing strategy because when people are rewarding for suggesting your services, they’re more likely to discuss your business with an audience.
Useful for you:
Tools Used for eCommerce Analytics
The best eCommerce analytics tools are essential if you want to understand the data that represents your business. This data can be used to target audiences and, thereby, help you to work with it efficiently providing a personalized experience.
SEMRush
SEMRush has over three million users that take advantage of the tool’s SEO features, strategy analysis, and overall analysis based on the content you publish. Analytics allow you to improve your content for the audience you’re trying to reach, analyze your customers and market, collect keywords and strengthen your brand.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics allows you to learn more about your audience. It has lots of filters which you can use to make a deep analysis of your customers and traffic.
Targeted content and products ensure that your clients feel appreciated and they’re more likely to appreciate your eCommerce business.
How to Check Magento Version and Perform the Update?
If you work in eCommerce and found out that Magento is a great platform for your business, we are glad to hear it. It might happen that you never worked with it before and want to know how to handle your eCommerce store operations. Also, you want to learn how to solve simple issues and check some details about your store. We’ve got you covered with the how-to guides that we’ve collected by each category. Here we will answer the following questions:
- How to Find Magento Version?
- How to Check Magento Version from Admin Panel?
- How to Update Magento to Latest Version?
Let’s move on and find out the answers with our simple step by step guide.
What Is the Latest Version of Magento?
First that you should know is that Magento comes in 3 packages: Magento Open Source (formerly Community), Magento Commerce (formerly Enterprise) and Magento Cloud (PaaS and cloud-based). The most known packages are Magento Community and Magento Commerce.
- Magento Open Source is an open source platform that will be suitable for small and middle-size businesses. As for the 1.x version, the latest is 1.9.4.0. You can find all the supportive information on the Magento devdocs. Take into account that Magento supports all the previous 1.x versions until June 2020. More details you can read in our article.
- As for Magento Commerce (Enterprise), the latest 1.x version is 1.14. You can find out more about its support here.
The latest version of Magento Open Source is 2.2.7. It was added on November 28, 2018. However, the newest 2.3 is available in beta version.
This release includes 30 enhancements to product security, more than 150 core code fixes including all relevant attributes implemented for the Google Tag Manager, support of UPS API endpoints for Magento UPS module, displaying the correct options when clicking on View Details for a product with configurable options, and other fixes in catalog, cart, checkout, bundle products, and additional functionality.
The latest version of Magento Commerce is 2.2.7. It was added on November 28, 2018.
Magento 2.2.7 contains over 30 security enhancements and 150 core code fixes. This release includes improvements for the Google Tag Manager, wishlists, an ability to update product prices and currencies, proper reset of the information, and other important functionality fixes.
If you own Magento store and you want to check its current version, you can follow our simple guide below.
How to Check Your Magento Version
You can get the major version (for example 2.2) by accessing /magento_version on your Magento 2 website.
One more simple method for checking your store version is to use one of these online tools:
- Magento Version
- MageScan
Or you can use Chrome extension that is called Version Check for Magento.
How to Check Magento Version from Admin Panel
This option can be done just in a few steps:
Step 1. First, Log in to the Admin Backend;
Step 2. Scroll up to the Magento Admin Panel’s footer, and at the right corner, there will be your current store version.
The next question that may arise: which Magento package used for my store? We’ve got you covered with the answer.
How to Check Magento Community or Enterprise?
You can get this information for any Magento2 install from Magento’s official endpoint, by opening this URL in your browser: http://www.yoursite.com/magento_version
How to Check Magento Version Command Line?
It’s simple. Go to Magento root folder & run below command: php bin/magento –version
Now you know everything about your current Magento version and edition. Maybe you want to switch to the next Magento version and you don’t know how looks the process of upgrade. We want to provide you with our developer’s guide.
How to Update Magento Versions?
How to Update Magento 2 to Latest Version?
Magento 2 can be simply upgraded if new actual version is specified in composer.json in both fields version and
[‘require’][‘magento/product-community-edition’] or [‘require’][‘magento/product-enterprise-edition’]
and then to execute the command:
composer update.
This command will download new core files, but it will fail if system requirements aren’t satisfied. Composer checks PHP version, that is installed for CLI mode and all required PHP libraries and won’t upgrade Magento if PHP version is incompatible or there is no required PHP library. Also, this command will ask keys, that should be generated on marketplace.magento.com side and it won’t download Magento EE if it hasn’t been purchased by account, that keys assigned to.
After download new version these commands should be executed:
bin/magento setup:upgrade bin/magento setup:di:compile bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy.
Often execute permissions should be set to file bin/magento after upgrade.
Upgrade from Magento 1 to Magento 1
Step 1. You need to go to https://magento.com/tech-resources/download and select the tab “Release Archive” and found the latest version of Magento 1 and download it;
Step 2. Unarchive the files, open in your file manager (Krusader for example) files latest Magento and you exist site.
Step 3. You need to copy folders from Latest Magento version folder to your site, see the image. Red lines its required folder to update, blue lines, you can copy it or not, it is not critical for the update.
How to Upgrade from Magento 1 to Magento 2
Upgrade from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is the complex process. It requires not only the upgrade of some features, but Magento 1 and Magento 2 core is entirely different.
That’s why to perform Magento upgrade; you need data migration tool. We’ve described the whole process from preconditions to the actual migration in our article: How to Migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2 with Data Migration Tool. Read the step by step guide to understand what actions should be done to perform the upgrade.
If you want some practical case about, we suggest you look at how we performed the upgrade of our client’s store: Magento 1.9 to Magento 2 Migration: Our Client’s Experience.
We hope that all the above solutions will help you to work with Magento more effectively and solve all the small issues by yourself. However, if you still need help with the development and support, our team is always ready to give you a hand.
How to Optimize eCommerce Shopping Cart
Although every online business owner will need to have a shopping cart, there are many who enter this field and ask themselves “what is a shopping cart in eCommerce?” and “how does it differ from each other?
In short, an eCommerce shopping cart is one of the most important features of your online store. No customer appreciates spending time on your site, only to have a shopping cart that doesn’t perform well. Below we’re going to discuss everything you need to know about shopping carts in eCommerce to ensure that your store has the best one and that ends up with sales.
Ways to Optimize Your Cart in eCommerce
If you want your customers to have the best experience possible, it’s vital that your cart is optimized. Once you’ve made it, your site will experience an increase in conversations and leads.
A good shopping cart has the following traits:
- Large product image resolution when adding it to cart; product name and availability status;
- An indication of product quantity and colors with the ability of editing and removing them;
- After using a promo code, there should be a pop up with additional sales and promotions;
- Related products should be placed on the same page with eCommerce cart;
- Additional ordering options: contact us and get credit;
- “Place the order” button and total order price;
And last but not least, a perfect eCommerce shopping cart should be responsive and has an auto-recovery feature. That means if a customer returns to the website, the items that were placed before remain there.
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Common Mistakes in Shopping Cart Design and Development
If you follow previous rules this will help you to deliver the best buying experience. However, one the path of creating the best shopping cart some mistakes may occur. Here is the list of the most common ones:
- Unavailability of the alternative ordering options: credit and order in one click;
- Feebly-marked CTA-element of the page over the high common visual noise;
- Lack of recommendations and related products.
How to Design eCommerce Shopping Cart
To have the best shopping cart, you need to have the perfect design for your store’s brand identity and for the convenience of your customers.
Design Product Blocks in Shopping Cart
Product blocks provide your customers with a summary of the products they’re buying. These blocks will detail or describe your products so that when they’re checking out, your customers know exactly what’s in their cart. This gives them an opportunity to double-check their cart. You need to visualize product block to give customer clear understanding of the product.
Optimize Your Product Page
There are a few things that you can do to optimize your product page. For one thing, adding a picture is essential for your product page. When you’re using a picture in your shopping cart, you should try to include a large thumbnail image.
You should also have a product description that’s easy to understand. For each product, you should only have the necessary information so that your descriptions aren’t too complicated. You can include product names, prices, shipping information, and the quantity of the specific product you’re buying.
Every part of your product page should be simple to use. We already spoke a little about your product descriptions, but there’s much more to efficiency than that. Your entire checkout needs to be responsive to ensure that your customers are receiving the fastest service.
One-Click Order Checkout
Using this feature in your online store ensures that your customers are getting the most efficient service possible. When they have the option to order products with one click, their entire shopping experience can be quickened.
The more convenient your store is for customers, the more likely it is that they’ll return to your store.
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Shopping Cart Checklist
- Include an order summary. This will ensure that your customers have a clear picture of what they’re buying.
- Include a simple checkout design. When your checkout design is easy for customers to use, they’ll be more likely to come back to your store.
- Add a live-chat. When you create a website that’s client-oriented, they’ll feel appreciated and they’ll be more likely to tell other people about your business. Adding a live chat ensures that if anyone struggles with your site or check out services, they’ll be able to contact you for help. As such, you won’t have customers who cancel their purchase when they’re struggling with their order. With a live chat, you’ll be able to help them through any problems to ensure that they can continue with their purchase.
- Create a mobile-friendly checkout. More and more people are turning toward their phones and mobile devices because, quite simply, human beings are always on the “go”. Having a checkout that enables people to buy items at any time will increase your chances of having people buy products from you.
- Exclude too many fields. When your clients or customers have too many fields to fill out during their checkout, they’re less likely to come back to your store. This is because we live in an age; wherein, individuals are more concerned with their cybersecurity. If you ask them to provide you with too much information about themselves, they might hesitate or they might turn toward another site entirely. It should also be noted that when people shop online, they’re looking to have the ultimate shopping experience.
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When shopping carts are built properly, business owners are more likely to increase leads and conversions within their sites.
Magento 2.2.6 Bug When Saving Placeholder Image
If a product in Magento® 2 doesn’t have an image, a placeholder is displayed on the front end. The store administrator can set the image for the placeholder on the Product Image Placeholders page: Stores -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Product Image Placeholders Magento. However, a bug was detected in Magento 2.2.6 that doesn’t let administrators upload their own images for placeholders. Below, we’ll examine the reason for this bug and how to fix it.
Working with Placeholders
Placeholders are configuration parameters that are set in adminhtml/system.xml in the Magento_Catalog module. Their description looks like this:
...
<group id="placeholder" translate="label" sortOrder="300" showInDefault="1" showInWebsite="1" showInStore="1">
<label>Product Image Placeholders</label>
<clone_fields>1</clone_fields>
<clone_model>Magento\Catalog\Model\Config\CatalogClone\Media\Image</clone_model>
<field id="placeholder" type="image" sortOrder="1" showInDefault="1" showInWebsite="1" showInStore="1">
<backend_model>Magento\Config\Model\Config\Backend\Image</backend_model>
<upload_dir config="system/filesystem/media" scope_info="1">catalog/product/placeholder</upload_dir>
<base_url type="media" scope_info="1">catalog/product/placeholder</base_url>
</field>
</group>
....This group of parameters is defined as such because a product could have any number of image attributes, including those implemented by different third-party modules.The cloning model Magento\Catalog\Model\Config\CatalogClone\Media\Image will look as follows:
class Image extends \Magento\Framework\App\Config\Value
{
/**
* Eav config
*
* @var \Magento\Eav\Model\Config
*/
protected $_eavConfig;
/**
* Attribute collection factory
*
* @var \Magento\Catalog\Model\ResourceModel\Product\Attribute\CollectionFactory
*/
protected $_attributeCollectionFactory;
/**
* @param \Magento\Framework\Model\Context $context
* @param \Magento\Framework\Registry $registry
* @param \Magento\Framework\App\Config\ScopeConfigInterface $config
* @param \Magento\Framework\App\Cache\TypeListInterface $cacheTypeList
* @param \Magento\Catalog\Model\ResourceModel\Product\Attribute\CollectionFactory $attributeCollectionFactory
* @param \Magento\Eav\Model\Config $eavConfig
* @param \Magento\Framework\Model\ResourceModel\AbstractResource $resource
* @param \Magento\Framework\Data\Collection\AbstractDb $resourceCollection
* @param array $data
*/
public function __construct(
\Magento\Framework\Model\Context $context,
\Magento\Framework\Registry $registry,
\Magento\Framework\App\Config\ScopeConfigInterface $config,
\Magento\Framework\App\Cache\TypeListInterface $cacheTypeList,
\Magento\Catalog\Model\ResourceModel\Product\Attribute\CollectionFactory $attributeCollectionFactory,
\Magento\Eav\Model\Config $eavConfig,
\Magento\Framework\Model\ResourceModel\AbstractResource $resource = null,
\Magento\Framework\Data\Collection\AbstractDb $resourceCollection = null,
array $data = []
) {
$this->_attributeCollectionFactory = $attributeCollectionFactory;
$this->_eavConfig = $eavConfig;
parent::__construct($context, $registry, $config, $cacheTypeList, $resource, $resourceCollection, $data);
}
/**
* Get fields prefixes
*
* @return array
*/
public function getPrefixes()
{
// use cached eav config
$entityTypeId = $this->_eavConfig->getEntityType(\Magento\Catalog\Model\Product::ENTITY)->getId();
/* @var $collection \Magento\Catalog\Model\ResourceModel\Product\Attribute\Collection */
$collection = $this->_attributeCollectionFactory->create();
$collection->setEntityTypeFilter($entityTypeId);
$collection->setFrontendInputTypeFilter('media_image');
$prefixes = [];
foreach ($collection as $attribute) {
/* @var $attribute \Magento\Eav\Model\Entity\Attribute */
$prefixes[] = [
'field' => $attribute->getAttributeCode() . '_',
'label' => $attribute->getFrontend()->getLabel(),
];
}
return $prefixes;
}
}When the administrator uploads an image in the field on the configuration page and the submit form, it will be processed on the server by the Magento\Config\Controller\Adminhtml\System\Config\Save controller and will look as follows:
class Save extends AbstractConfig
{
/**
* Backend Config Model Factory
*
* @var \Magento\Config\Model\Config\Factory
*/
protected $_configFactory;
/**
* @var \Magento\Framework\Cache\FrontendInterface
*/
protected $_cache;
/**
* @var \Magento\Framework\Stdlib\StringUtils
*/
protected $string;
/**
* @param \Magento\Backend\App\Action\Context $context
* @param \Magento\Config\Model\Config\Structure $configStructure
* @param \Magento\Config\Controller\Adminhtml\System\ConfigSectionChecker $sectionChecker
* @param \Magento\Config\Model\Config\Factory $configFactory
* @param \Magento\Framework\Cache\FrontendInterface $cache
* @param \Magento\Framework\Stdlib\StringUtils $string
*/
public function __construct(
\Magento\Backend\App\Action\Context $context,
\Magento\Config\Model\Config\Structure $configStructure,
\Magento\Config\Controller\Adminhtml\System\ConfigSectionChecker $sectionChecker,
\Magento\Config\Model\Config\Factory $configFactory,
\Magento\Framework\Cache\FrontendInterface $cache,
\Magento\Framework\Stdlib\StringUtils $string
) {
parent::__construct($context, $configStructure, $sectionChecker);
$this->_configFactory = $configFactory;
$this->_cache = $cache;
$this->string = $string;
}
/**
* Get groups for save
*
* @return array|null
*/
protected function _getGroupsForSave()
{
$groups = $this->getRequest()->getPost('groups');
$files = $this->getRequest()->getFiles('groups');
if ($files && is_array($files)) {
/**
* Carefully merge $_FILES and $_POST information
* None of ' =' or 'array_merge_recursive' can do this correct
*/
foreach ($files as $groupName => $group) {
$data = $this->_processNestedGroups($group);
if (!empty($data)) {
if (!empty($groups[$groupName])) {
$groups[$groupName] = array_merge_recursive((array)$groups[$groupName], $data);
} else {
$groups[$groupName] = $data;
}
}
}
}
return $groups;
}
/**
* Process nested groups
*
* @param mixed $group
* @return array
*/
protected function _processNestedGroups($group)
{
$data = [];
if (isset($group['fields']) && is_array($group['fields'])) {
foreach ($group['fields'] as $fieldName => $field) {
if (!empty($field['value'])) {
$data['fields'][$fieldName] = ['value' => $field['value']];
}
}
}
if (isset($group['groups']) && is_array($group['groups'])) {
foreach ($group['groups'] as $groupName => $groupData) {
$nestedGroup = $this->_processNestedGroups($groupData);
if (!empty($nestedGroup)) {
$data['groups'][$groupName] = $nestedGroup;
}
}
}
return $data;
}
/**
* Custom save logic for section
*
* @return void
*/
protected function _saveSection()
{
$method = '_save' . $this->string->upperCaseWords($this->getRequest()->getParam('section'), '_', '');
if (method_exists($this, $method)) {
$this->{$method}();
}
}
/**
* Advanced save procedure
*
* @return void
*/
protected function _saveAdvanced()
{
$this->_cache->clean();
}
/**
* Save configuration
*
* @return \Magento\Backend\Model\View\Result\Redirect
*/
public function execute()
{
try {
// custom save logic
$this->_saveSection();
$section = $this->getRequest()->getParam('section');
$website = $this->getRequest()->getParam('website');
$store = $this->getRequest()->getParam('store');
$configData = [
'section' => $section,
'website' => $website,
'store' => $store,
'groups' => $this->_getGroupsForSave(),
];
/** @var \Magento\Config\Model\Config $configModel */
$configModel = $this->_configFactory->create(['data' => $configData]);
$configModel->save();
$this->messageManager->addSuccess(__('You saved the configuration.'));
} catch (\Magento\Framework\Exception\LocalizedException $e) {
$messages = explode("\n", $e->getMessage());
foreach ($messages as $message) {
$this->messageManager->addError($message);
}
} catch (\Exception $e) {
$this->messageManager->addException(
$e,
__('Something went wrong while saving this configuration:') . ' ' . $e->getMessage()
);
}
$this->_saveState($this->getRequest()->getPost('config_state'));
/** @var \Magento\Backend\Model\View\Result\Redirect $resultRedirect */
$resultRedirect = $this->resultRedirectFactory->create();
return $resultRedirect->setPath(
'adminhtml/system_config/edit',
[
'_current' => ['section', 'website', 'store'],
'_nosid' => true
]
);
}
}As you can see, in the execute method the save is carried out in the save() method of the Magento\Config\Model\Config class. Let’s take a look at this class.
class Config extends \Magento\Framework\DataObject
{
/**
* Config data for sections
*
* @var array
*/
protected $_configData;
/**
* Event dispatcher
*
* @var \Magento\Framework\Event\ManagerInterface
*/
protected $_eventManager;
/**
* System configuration structure
*
* @var \Magento\Config\Model\Config\Structure
*/
protected $_configStructure;
/**
* Application config
*
* @var \Magento\Framework\App\Config\ScopeConfigInterface
*/
protected $_appConfig;
/**
* Global factory
*
* @var \Magento\Framework\App\Config\ScopeConfigInterface
*/
protected $_objectFactory;
/**
* TransactionFactory
*
* @var \Magento\Framework\DB\TransactionFactory
*/
protected $_transactionFactory;
/**
* Config data loader
*
* @var \Magento\Config\Model\Config\Loader
*/
protected $_configLoader;
/**
* Config data factory
*
* @var \Magento\Framework\App\Config\ValueFactory
*/
protected $_configValueFactory;
/**
* @var \Magento\Store\Model\StoreManagerInterface
*/
protected $_storeManager;
/**
* @var Config\Reader\Source\Deployed\SettingChecker
*/
private $settingChecker;
/**
* @param \Magento\Framework\App\Config\ReinitableConfigInterface $config
* @param \Magento\Framework\Event\ManagerInterface $eventManager
* @param \Magento\Config\Model\Config\Structure $configStructure
* @param \Magento\Framework\DB\TransactionFactory $transactionFactory
* @param \Magento\Config\Model\Config\Loader $configLoader
* @param \Magento\Framework\App\Config\ValueFactory $configValueFactory
* @param \Magento\Store\Model\StoreManagerInterface $storeManager
* @param Config\Reader\Source\Deployed\SettingChecker|null $settingChecker
* @param array $data
*/
public function __construct(
\Magento\Framework\App\Config\ReinitableConfigInterface $config,
\Magento\Framework\Event\ManagerInterface $eventManager,
\Magento\Config\Model\Config\Structure $configStructure,
\Magento\Framework\DB\TransactionFactory $transactionFactory,
\Magento\Config\Model\Config\Loader $configLoader,
\Magento\Framework\App\Config\ValueFactory $configValueFactory,
\Magento\Store\Model\StoreManagerInterface $storeManager,
SettingChecker $settingChecker = null,
array $data = []
) {
parent::__construct($data);
$this->_eventManager = $eventManager;
$this->_configStructure = $configStructure;
$this->_transactionFactory = $transactionFactory;
$this->_appConfig = $config;
$this->_configLoader = $configLoader;
$this->_configValueFactory = $configValueFactory;
$this->_storeManager = $storeManager;
$this->settingChecker = $settingChecker ?: ObjectManager::getInstance()->get(SettingChecker::class);
}
/**
* Save config section
* Require set: section, website, store and groups
*
* @throws \Exception
* @return $this
*/
public function save()
{
$this->initScope();
$sectionId = $this->getSection();
$groups = $this->getGroups();
if (empty($groups)) {
return $this;
}
$oldConfig = $this->_getConfig(true);
/** @var \Magento\Framework\DB\Transaction $deleteTransaction */
$deleteTransaction = $this->_transactionFactory->create();
/** @var \Magento\Framework\DB\Transaction $saveTransaction */
$saveTransaction = $this->_transactionFactory->create();
$changedPaths = [];
// Extends for old config data
$extraOldGroups = [];
foreach ($groups as $groupId => $groupData) {
$this->_processGroup(
$groupId,
$groupData,
$groups,
$sectionId,
$extraOldGroups,
$oldConfig,
$saveTransaction,
$deleteTransaction
);
$groupChangedPaths = $this->getChangedPaths($sectionId, $groupId, $groupData, $oldConfig, $extraOldGroups);
$changedPaths = \array_merge($changedPaths, $groupChangedPaths);
}
try {
$deleteTransaction->delete();
$saveTransaction->save();
// re-init configuration
$this->_appConfig->reinit();
// website and store codes can be used in event implementation, so set them as well
$this->_eventManager->dispatch(
"admin_system_config_changed_section_{$this->getSection()}",
[
'website' => $this->getWebsite(),
'store' => $this->getStore(),
'changed_paths' => $changedPaths,
]
);
} catch (\Exception $e) {
// re-init configuration
$this->_appConfig->reinit();
throw $e;
}
return $this;
}
/**
* Map field name if they were cloned
*
* @param Group $group
* @param string $fieldId
* @return string
*/
private function getOriginalFieldId(Group $group, string $fieldId): string
{
if ($group->shouldCloneFields()) {
$cloneModel = $group->getCloneModel();
/** @var \Magento\Config\Model\Config\Structure\Element\Field $field */
foreach ($group->getChildren() as $field) {
foreach ($cloneModel->getPrefixes() as $prefix) {
if ($prefix['field'] . $field->getId() === $fieldId) {
$fieldId = $field->getId();
break(2);
}
}
}
}
return $fieldId;
}
/**
* Get field object
*
* @param string $sectionId
* @param string $groupId
* @param string $fieldId
* @return Field
*/
private function getField(string $sectionId, string $groupId, string $fieldId): Field
{
/** @var \Magento\Config\Model\Config\Structure\Element\Group $group */
$group = $this->_configStructure->getElement($sectionId . '/' . $groupId);
$fieldPath = $group->getPath() . '/' . $this->getOriginalFieldId($group, $fieldId);
$field = $this->_configStructure->getElement($fieldPath);
return $field;
}
/**
* Get field path
*
* @param Field $field
* @param array &$oldConfig Need for compatibility with _processGroup()
* @param array &$extraOldGroups Need for compatibility with _processGroup()
* @return string
*/
private function getFieldPath(Field $field, array &$oldConfig, array &$extraOldGroups): string
{
$path = $field->getGroupPath() . '/' . $field->getId();
/**
* Look for custom defined field path
*/
$configPath = $field->getConfigPath();
if ($configPath && strrpos($configPath, '/') > 0) {
// Extend old data with specified section group
$configGroupPath = substr($configPath, 0, strrpos($configPath, '/'));
if (!isset($extraOldGroups[$configGroupPath])) {
$oldConfig = $this->extendConfig($configGroupPath, true, $oldConfig);
$extraOldGroups[$configGroupPath] = true;
}
$path = $configPath;
}
return $path;
}
/**
* Check is config value changed
*
* @param array $oldConfig
* @param string $path
* @param array $fieldData
* @return bool
*/
private function isValueChanged(array $oldConfig, string $path, array $fieldData): bool
{
if (isset($oldConfig[$path]['value'])) {
$result = !isset($fieldData['value']) || $oldConfig[$path]['value'] !== $fieldData['value'];
} else {
$result = empty($fieldData['inherit']);
}
return $result;
}
/**
* Get changed paths
*
* @param string $sectionId
* @param string $groupId
* @param array $groupData
* @param array &$oldConfig
* @param array &$extraOldGroups
* @return array
*/
private function getChangedPaths(
string $sectionId,
string $groupId,
array $groupData,
array &$oldConfig,
array &$extraOldGroups
): array {
$changedPaths = [];
if (isset($groupData['fields'])) {
foreach ($groupData['fields'] as $fieldId => $fieldData) {
$field = $this->getField($sectionId, $groupId, $fieldId);
$path = $this->getFieldPath($field, $oldConfig, $extraOldGroups);
if ($this->isValueChanged($oldConfig, $path, $fieldData)) {
$changedPaths[] = $path;
}
}
}
if (isset($groupData['groups'])) {
$subSectionId = $sectionId . '/' . $groupId;
foreach ($groupData['groups'] as $subGroupId => $subGroupData) {
$subGroupChangedPaths = $this->getChangedPaths(
$subSectionId,
$subGroupId,
$subGroupData,
$oldConfig,
$extraOldGroups
);
$changedPaths = \array_merge($changedPaths, $subGroupChangedPaths);
}
}
return $changedPaths;
}
/**
* Process group data
*
* @param string $groupId
* @param array $groupData
* @param array $groups
* @param string $sectionPath
* @param array &$extraOldGroups
* @param array &$oldConfig
* @param \Magento\Framework\DB\Transaction $saveTransaction
* @param \Magento\Framework\DB\Transaction $deleteTransaction
* @return void
* @SuppressWarnings(PHPMD.CyclomaticComplexity)
* @SuppressWarnings(PHPMD.NPathComplexity)
*/
protected function _processGroup(
$groupId,
array $groupData,
array $groups,
$sectionPath,
array &$extraOldGroups,
array &$oldConfig,
\Magento\Framework\DB\Transaction $saveTransaction,
\Magento\Framework\DB\Transaction $deleteTransaction
) {
$groupPath = $sectionPath . '/' . $groupId;
if (isset($groupData['fields'])) {
/** @var \Magento\Config\Model\Config\Structure\Element\Group $group */
$group = $this->_configStructure->getElement($groupPath);
// set value for group field entry by fieldname
// use extra memory
$fieldsetData = [];
foreach ($groupData['fields'] as $fieldId => $fieldData) {
$fieldsetData[$fieldId] = $fieldData['value'] ?? null;
}
foreach ($groupData['fields'] as $fieldId => $fieldData) {
$isReadOnly = $this->settingChecker->isReadOnly(
$groupPath . '/' . $fieldId,
$this->getScope(),
$this->getScopeCode()
);
if ($isReadOnly) {
continue;
}
$field = $this->getField($sectionPath, $groupId, $fieldId);
/** @var \Magento\Framework\App\Config\ValueInterface $backendModel */
$backendModel = $field->hasBackendModel()
? $field->getBackendModel()
: $this->_configValueFactory->create();
if (!isset($fieldData['value'])) {
$fieldData['value'] = null;
}
$data = [
'field' => $fieldId,
'groups' => $groups,
'group_id' => $group->getId(),
'scope' => $this->getScope(),
'scope_id' => $this->getScopeId(),
'scope_code' => $this->getScopeCode(),
'field_config' => $field->getData(),
'fieldset_data' => $fieldsetData,
];
$backendModel->addData($data);
$this->_checkSingleStoreMode($field, $backendModel);
$path = $this->getFieldPath($field, $extraOldGroups, $oldConfig);
$backendModel->setPath($path)->setValue($fieldData['value']);
$inherit = !empty($fieldData['inherit']);
if (isset($oldConfig[$path])) {
$backendModel->setConfigId($oldConfig[$path]['config_id']);
/**
* Delete config data if inherit
*/
if (!$inherit) {
$saveTransaction->addObject($backendModel);
} else {
$deleteTransaction->addObject($backendModel);
}
} elseif (!$inherit) {
$backendModel->unsConfigId();
$saveTransaction->addObject($backendModel);
}
}
}
if (isset($groupData['groups'])) {
foreach ($groupData['groups'] as $subGroupId => $subGroupData) {
$this->_processGroup(
$subGroupId,
$subGroupData,
$groups,
$groupPath,
$extraOldGroups,
$oldConfig,
$saveTransaction,
$deleteTransaction
);
}
}
}
....
}As you can see, the save() method checks all groups of parameters sent to the server, and for each, it calls the _processGroup() method, while the final one calls the getField() method for each field.
The following happens in this method: the group of placeholders actually clones the same element for different EAV attributes that can implement the image. But at the same time, the getField method calls the getOriginalFieldId method, which returns the path catalog/placeholder/placeholder described in system.xml for any element.
This path will then be used to save the placeholder image in the core_config_data table. But this isn’t exactly what should be happening since the path to the placeholder configuration should be catalog/placeholder/image_placeholder for the default image, catalog/placeholder/small_image_placeholder for the listing image, etc.
Solution Using Plugin
This problem needs to be solved, and the best way to do that is at the backend-model level. The back-end model in our case is implemented by the class Magento\Config\Model\Config\Backend\Image, which is inherited from Magento\Config\Model\Config\Backend\File. This is inherited from \Magento\Framework\App\Config\Value, which in turn is inherited from \Magento\Framework\Model\AbstractModel. But using the model’s event handler beforeSafe won’t work since the beforeSave method is redefined in the Magento\Config\Model\Config\Backend\File class without calling the parent method. So all that’s left is to implement the plugin as follows:
<type name="Magento\Config\Model\Config\Backend\Image">
<plugin name="fix-placeholders" type="Web4pro\Defaultproduct\Model\Plugin" sortOrder="20"/>
</type>Plugin’s class will be the following:
class Plugin
{
public function beforeBeforeSave($subject){
if(($f=$subject->getField())&&($subject->getPath()=='catalog/placeholder/placeholder')){
$subject->setPath(str_replace('placeholder/placeholder','placeholder/'.$f,$subject->getPath()));
}
return array();
}
}With this fix, the path to each placeholder in the core_config_data table will be unique and placeholders will be saved successfully by the site administrator.
How to Start a Business Online for Clothing Store in 7 Steps
Although eCommerce has been around for some time now, we’re now at the exciting point where online sales are becoming just as popular as physical sales. This opens up a world of possibilities for turning our inspirations to profits. One niche that has benefited most from the digital revolution is fashion. According to FashionUnited, the value of the global fashion industry is 3 trillion dollars, and it is 2% of the world’s GDP.
Here, we’ll be going over how to start online clothing store. We’ll be exploring the essential tips for online shop creation, particularly for clothing. This includes business and marketing tips, finding a USP, deciding on a platform, and building your eCommerce site. Use our navigating table below.
Online Clothing Store Business Plan
A business plan is crucial for creating any business. It’s key to know what you offer and who wants to purchase. If starting an online clothing company, this means first selecting your fashion niche.
Before we get into each step, we want to highlight all the process with simple infographics that you can use as a checklist for launching your future store.
Get specific with it and choose the market. Activewear? Women’s apparel? Menswear? Get even deeper. Not just women’s clothing, but dresses, or cocktail dresses. Not just activewear, but men’s basketball attire. This provides a clear notion of customer persona, who’d like to find the desired products any time. It lets you identify your competitors and where they’re weak and strong.
Next, select the best model for your business. You might ask, “How much does it cost to start an eCommerce business for clothing?” Basic options depend on the business size and how much capital and energy you wish to invest in the startup. These options, ranging from highest to lowest in the investment of capital and timeframe, are Custom Cut and Sew Clothing Line, Print-on-Demand, and Private Label Clothing Line.
Simplest and cheapest is Print-on-Demand. Just purchase wholesale garments and print designs or logos. It requires little startup capital, often under $1000. You can also automate this operation easily. Getting going requires some wholesale garments, a digital inkjet garment printer, and a site to showcase design options.
For Whom?
Smaller businesses are best for this model. It can be set up in hours, and even single unit sales will yield a profit. Large volume sales can’t be discounted with this model. Finishing options and print product selection are limited. The finished product is less customizable about stitching, material, and fit. Finally, profits will be lower with this option than with the next two.
The Private Label Clothing Line is mid-range regarding setup and scalability. This yields more profits and allows greater personalization. Just purchase wholesale garments and customize them with tags, labels, printed designs, etc. You will buy wholesale garments in bulk, which requires delivery and inventory. Everything can be arranged in a month and with about $2500.
For Whom?
It is either for small or midsize businesses. With this model, you’ll receive great bulk prices. This gives better profits and lets you give volume discounts, so it’s more scalable than the previous model. Plus, as you will handle the garments, you can do more with the finished product. Boost brand value with custom labels and tags. Printed garments can be sold like this, but when handling a larger volume of garments, it’s best to use screen printing rather than digital printing. It’s a less expensive process once it’s been set up. However, low volume orders aren’t feasible because setup requires labor and time. Designs are limited.
For minimum setup options, utilize ThreadBird and Just Like Hero. Both help with sourcing blank apparel wholesale. Just Like Hero offers higher quality materials without minimum orders, though the range is more limited. Threadbird requires a 25-piece minimum and carries a broader range of choices. Plus, they give printing and finishing selections, including folding, bagging, folding, sewn labels, and hangtags.
The third approach is fully customizable and intensive in both labor and startup capital. A Custom Cut and Sew Clothing Line require designs and patterns. You’ve got to find fabrics, and establish production lines or manufacturers. Plus, consider production price, warehousing, and delivery. This is only the practical stuff that has to be implemented before building the eCommerce site and doing marketing online. Given the details involved before selling, you’ll likely to spend from three months to a year on setup and upwards of $10,000. Therefore, you’ll need to source talent like manufacturers and pattern makers. Prior to coming to a finished product, it might be necessary to go through dozens of samples.
For Whom?
It is definitely for midsize and big businesses who want to expand their product line or go with new niches both for the domestic and foreign markets.
The great thing about this option is, it’s infinitely scalable and completely customizable. It gives more profit and increases brand value. You’ll want a site that perfectly reflects the brand. Magento® is the best platform to use for your website. Top fashion industries use Magento to showcase their products online.
Find Your Niche/Uniqueness
Fashion is one of the fastest growing sales niches in eCommerce. According to Statista, It has shown steady annual growth since 2003. In 2017, online fashion sales accounted for over $356 billion. It is a great eCommerce area to enter. To start online clothing store and succeed, it’s essential to understand the specific sale niche.
A niche is a subset of a larger market. By defining yours, you provide a select range to a select demographic. Plus, it lets you discover a USP and establish a brand identity that stands out amongst other brands. In an industry like fashion, choices abound. An eCommerce site will be successful if it offers something unique and different.
It is ideal if your niche fills a market hole and gets a very specific range of customers interested. It lets consumers know what your brand is all about. This is what gives your product an identity. Working within a given niche is more affordable and marketable. It eliminates a huge amount of competitors and helps to cultivate customer loyalty.
Google trend can help you to find the exact uniqueness for the product. For example, you want to sell dresses and don’t know what will be your unique feature or why customers should buy your products?
You simply go to Google trends and type dress.
You see that the overall trend is stable. But what if you will choose cotton?
As the graph is shown, the demand is growing because people are interested in health and natural materials. The same with a cotton dress, the most need for it is during Summer season.
Cotton is a lightweight material and provides excellent breathing effect that is good for the skin. Besides, you can predict other trends with this useful tool from Google.
When planning the niche, look into the book Blue Ocean Strategy. It offers inspiration and techniques to find a market niche and render the competition irrelevant. Also, remember the brand is an extension of you. With a niche you enjoy, you’ll know how to reach others that enjoy it as well. Sell something you like and can do extremely well. It is a subtle but important key to building the brand successfully.
Create and Develop Your Brand Visuals
After getting clear on your niche, then it’s time to take steps to build your brand clothing. The brand is the face of the company. It differentiates you from all other suppliers out there and presents a clear notion of the offering. It conveys the company’s meaning and ideal. You’ll want to understand who the market is and the branding that lands with them. You may wish to develop the brand yourself or work with a pro brand agent. For larger companies, a branding agent can be essential for getting the product to pop.
In a saturated market like the fashion industry, identifying the market is crucial. When identifying a demographic, consider what apparel you’d like to create. Then figure out who’d like to buy it. Sort out the USP, the unique selling point. Here, you’re niching down to find out exactly who you’re speaking to, getting specific to avoid targeting an excessively broad demographic. Finally, research to understand your competitors.
Then, establish the brand pillars. Brand pillars are words or attributes that embody your brand. They’re the foundation of the company persona. You’ll need three or four words or phrases that communicate what you are about in simplest terms. They serve as a focus, a guideline to ensure everything shared is aligned with the message. Content, ads, design, deals, conversations, everything shared should be oriented around the core message.
Brand visuals are the next step. These are core visual elements to make the website and labeling reflect your clothing brand.
Just consider a logo. It’s a quick, simple visual that immediately lets customers know what product they are looking at. A logo features a color scheme that reflects the company ideals. Use the chosen colors and style for the brand and site. The logo should be both easy and distinctive.
The brand color scheme and logo will be featured on the website and ties all aspects together. Finally, sort out other design elements like fonts, design, and aesthetics.
Visuals begin with the mood board. Find images, colors, designs, and photos that fit the brand ideal. Scout around for bits of multimedia that fit the feel you’re after. This is like arranging a collage of everything that reflects the brand essence. This lets you select from it to establish site aesthetics. Then slim it down and determine the color pallet. Explore the colors on the mood board and select two or three that carry the feel. Go for the most dominant color first to attract the eye. Utilize Adobe Color to view some well-designed color pallets featuring your selection.
We want to share an example of how one agency has created a new logo for Airbnb. DesignStudio has shown the whole process of creation from the idea to the actual implementation started from the vision, message and then connected with logo and other supplies that built a strong brand image.
You can see the strong message that the company who provides great host and booking experience in many countries took place in people’s mind.
A new proposition for all internal and external audiences; runs like ‘Belong Anywhere.’
The symbol Bélo is used as a community symbol that anyone can share and feeling like a part of the community for all the people.
That’s how with the help of brand visuals Airbnb had strengthened its brand online and became memorable for customers around the world.
Useful for you:
Choose Online Store Builder
In establishing the design of your online store for clothing, a key decision is which platform you’d like to utilize. eCommerce platforms offer you direct contact with customers and customize the brand presentation. They let you market through social sites and other channels. eCommerce eliminates the middlemen to give the best value to the clients and highest profits to the company. Store management and customer interactions become accessible.
With so many platform choices, which is best?
Since we are discussing how to begin a clothing line, we’ll focus here on the best for small to mid-sized options. However, many are also scalable, letting you grow the business larger.
Key considerations are:
- price,
- scalability,
- business size,
- ease of navigation.
You need:
- intuitive interface,
- mobile-friendliness,
- cross-browser compatibility.
This makes your online site user-friendly, which lets customers find what they want easily and increases conversions. Plus, it is administratively, allowing simple site management and changes as necessary.
Some great platforms are Shopify, OpenCart, PrestaShop, Magento 2, and WooCommerce.
PrestaShop is an open source, which means that it’s great for customizability if you or your designer know how to code. It offers a starter theme and add-ons that let you dress it up as you like. Also, it allows you to manage several stores at once.
OpenCart is user-friendly and lightweight, a perfect solution for first-time online stores.
Shopify is a great platform and it’s partnered with several other eCommerce services such as Printful. It offers a host of different packages to fit nearly any budget and business need.
WooCommerce is another excellent choice for new business owners and those who are creating their initial eCommerce site. It is lightweight, user-friendly, and features an intuitive interface that lets you set up a site quickly and without knowing the code.
Useful for you:
For endless scalability, complete customizability, and enough robustness for any purpose, Magento 2 is the hands-down best. It’s modular and can be made as simple or complex as you want it. The beauty of working with Magento 2 is that it is partnered with many of the top industry providers, letting you integrate shipping payment options and a host of other services. Most top merchants use Magento 2 because it’s the best platform on the market.
Build an Online Store
When exploring how to start a clothing website, the process is similar to creating other online stores.
- Always begin by considering the goals. Understand your audience and what you’d like to showcase.
- Select the CMS, the eCommerce site platform. Setup template, aesthetics, and functionality. Remember to set up site security so that customers feel comfortable entering their payment details.
- Look at performance and SEO optimization. Make sure that the interface is intuitive, navigation is easy, and the icons are familiar. You need a smooth-working site that shows up when customers search for it. It’s essential to make it cross-browser compatible and mobile-friendly.
- Ensure that the site is GDPR compliant and that you can use analytics to continuously refine site presentation.
Useful for you:
Choose Your Domain Name
Having a domain name is as important as your brand. Clothing store names are essential because they give your brand a handle, a single, clear title that instantly brings your product to mind. This is basically the verbal equivalent of a logo. Unique domain names provide a distinct identity and make the website easy to find. Custom URLs offer a professional feel to the online site.
Two great options for purchasing a custom URL are Namecheap and GoDaddy. Another right option is to select a URL through the eCommerce platform. It’s a cheap approach, but more limited in selection and amateur in appearance. Plus, if you ever have to switch platforms, you may have to leave the URL behind.
Preferably, you’ll have your company name down before selecting a URL.
Brainstorm about good names for a clothing boutique. It’s a helpful starting point and ensures customers can find you.
Make it simple to remember and catchy. Plus, it should reflect your brand, products, and ethos.
Choose and Customize Your Template
After choosing your online platform and developing brand visuals, select the template and customize it. There are many templates available, each with a different feel and look. You’ll probably wish to explore to find one that truly fits your product and brand. Consider what you, as a customer, would like to see when visiting the website to purchase the product. Who’s the demographic? Consider their age, occupations, and earning capacities. Consider their lifestyles. Then choose the template so that it fits your customers’ perspectives and needs while still offering a personal touch.
Most platforms feature many different templates customized for fashion and clothing. Only a few of these will be free, but it’s more than worth it to pay for a template that fits your desires perfectly.
Magento 2 is designed to be customizable, so it has a huge selection of templates. You can choose the default Luma theme or any other from the Marketplace and customize according to your needs.
After a template is selected, it’s time for customization! You can add a blog page and integrate social media feeds. Elements can be moved, added, or removed. The background image and color pallet can be changed as you like. You can also change font, size, and color of any section or add new pages. When you’re finished up, you should have your own online site that perfectly reflects your brand offering.
In addition, we want to share our choice of Magento features for the successful online clothing store:
- Return Manager extension (RMA). This module allows store owner or administrator to deal with requests for any return/refund/replacement request placed by the Registered or Guest customers.
- Autocomplete and autosuggest search. This feature helps customers to search product online quickly by past typing the third symbol in the search field and jump to the relevant product or item.
- Reviews widget. Reviews are essential to gain customers’ trust to the product and loyalty to your brand. Reviews widget allows you to to add product reviews to any page at your store.
- Featured products, You may also like widgets. These widgets allows you to showcase the most popular items or the related items to boost your sales and give customers a plenty of choice.
- Custom product options extensions. It helps you to to easily configure and edit product variations.
- POS integration. Being omnichannel means give the customers seamless shopping experience and control online and offline store operations via one program. POS is made for managing sales and inventory and also give you control over the most important processes and resources at your store.
Look at Famous Clothing Brands
There are loads of popular online clothing sites built with Shopify. Sephora emphasizes education, making sure that customers learn while they shop. Verge Girl is an eCommerce fashion site created with BigCommerce that truly knows how to leverage the visual quality of the site to maximize sales. All communications have an irreverent, sassy attitude. Plus, the blog adds value by educating customers about interesting topics.
Once again, Magento stands out from the crowd with its impressive list of tops brands. Check out BVLGARI, Agent Provocateur, and Kurt Geiger for just a few of the top fashion brands that use Magento to create their eCommerce sites. The list doesn’t stop there. Nike. Hermès. Victoria Beckham. Björn Borg. There are loads of others, each using the Magento platform and templates to create a site that is uniquely tailored to their brand offering.
Useful for you:
Develop a Marketing Strategy
In the end, your online store is only as good as your marketing strategy. People need to know about your product before they can buy it. And by this time, you should already have a handle on what your customers like and what they want to hear. Based on this, you can create a hook, something that really grabs their attention. That’s the first step.
Once you know what to say, then you find out how to make the message reach the customer. In the digital era, social networking is key.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. You’ll want to link social channels to your site, featuring blogs on Twitter and Facebook. Instagram is ideal for fashion sites since it’s photo-based. You can show your trending products and link to the product page. Remember to use hashtags so interested customers can find the products easily. And, though these are some of the top social sites, don’t forget some of the others.
Pinterest, Snapchat, and Tumblr are other great channels for getting the word out.
Vlogging is another great way to showcase products visually. And, since you can include more personalized content, you can create a closer connection with your clients. This is just the beginning.
Consider email marketing and content marketing. Both are great free ways to reach your customers. Content marketing lets you add value to the site by discussing things that your clients will be interested in. And email reminders about abandoned carts can increase customer loyalty and reduce lost sales.
Finally, consider paid advertising like Facebook Advertising and Google Adwords. These are great ways to reach out and connect with new customers.
Useful for you:
Define Your Target Audience
In order to communicate online effectively with your customers, you have to know who your customers are. Think of the ideal customer. And, think of the style that your product represents. Hopefully, you’re selling something that fits your style so you know how to speak to the customer the way you want to be spoken to. Either way, get clear on who your message will land with, who your brand will appeal to, and you’ve got 90% of the game covered.
Choose Additional Marketing and Sales Channels
One thing that we haven’t mentioned so far is SEO. This is absolutely crucial for new customers.
Optimize your meta descriptions and page titles. Make sure that keywords are on point. This will make sure your site shows up when people search for related topics. Think about optimizing each product page with the keywords that people will search for. It’s likely that the homepage won’t pop up for specific product searches, so optimizing product pages will vastly increase your range. It’s also important to structure the site so that all content can be easily found by Google’s search algorithms.
On top of this, look into cross-selling, less-known social platforms, word of mouth marketing, bulk SMS messaging. There are plenty of other sales channels, but if you work with this for the beginning, you’ll be able to reach as many customers as you can handle.
Be Creative
The key to making your online business successful is to get creative. Every company is unique. It’s a reflection of your brand and personal style. So, get creative about it. Maybe your product is best served by creative videos, YouTube ads, influencers. You can look into product or culture fairs to reach more people. Look into studios or other businesses that are related to what you have to offer. There are so many unorthodox methods of getting your product out there that you are limited only by your imagination.
Magento ERP: How to Optimize Important Data and Workflow
Magento® 2 ERP allows merchants to have stores that function as efficiently as possible. Stores that have been fully integrated with different management, analytics, and reporting tools and they are keeping up with the newest technologies. If you want to know about Magento ERP and how to have a stronger foundation with your online store, keep reading!
Briefly About ERP
Magento 2 ERP integration technology allows business owners to collect data that relates to their business. This is needed to have a store that works for business profit. With Magento ERP you will collect the following data:
- Inventory information
- Supplies
- Manufacturing
- Finance
- Invoicing
- Warehousing
- And so on.
When your data is managed efficiently, you can make more informed business decisions. ERP allows you to keep up with everything that’s happening within your eCommerce store.
According to a survey by Boston Retail Partners, while not everyone has been initiated to the world of ERP, 73% of merchants want to have a unified store by the time 2019 ends. If you work in the eCommerce field, you may want to consider unifying your ERP with your eCommerce store.
Why Integrate ERP with Your Online Store?
You may be wondering how ERP can benefit you, especially if you’ve been doing well until this point. Still, you should consider integrating ERP with your online store and below you will find the exact reasons why to use it for your store.
Simplicity of Operations
By integrating ERP, you’ll be able to make the whole process easier on you and your business because you can find all of your data in the same place. Not only this, but you only have to organize your data in your ERP. You don’t have to edit your prices on multiple platforms; you can edit your prices and manage your products in your ERP.
Importance of ERP for Small and Big Businesses
Small businesses may not want to do things outside of Magento. If you have a small business, you’ll be happy to know that Magento has plenty of resources for you to use within the platform. Smaller businesses may want to stick with using easy ERP for order & customer management, and product management.
In comparison, bigger businesses and enterprises will use ERP for more processes; for example, order, product and customer management, procurement, pricing, and invoicing.
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Benefits of Magento ERP Integration
Magento ERP Integration has a number of advantages for any business owner.
Availability of Integration
The good news about Magento ERP Integration is that it has high availability. There’s a countless number of extensions and add-ons that you can use. Since Magento is an open-source platform, you can customize your store any way you want.
API
Magento ERP allows you to use SOAP API v1, v2, XML-RPC, REST, and XMLConnect. Magento API demonstrates one of the platform’s main priorities: connectivity.
Scalability
By using Magento ERP, your store will be able to scale up easily. In doing so, you’ll find that your site can manage traffic better and your customers will have better experiences, overall.
Where is ERP Used?
Now that you know all about the benefits of using ERP, you can learn a little about where ERP is used.
Best Retail ERP System
ERP is essential for retail because it allows merchants to maximize profits. When merchants use ERP for retail, they can maintain updates in real-time regarding product stocks and product demands. Having an ERP system that can do this is essential for anyone who wants to have a business that runs smoothly.
Microsoft provides ERP software that is targeted to midsize and enterprise businesses; however, NetSuite and Epicor also provide efficient ERP systems.
eCommerce Integrations
No matter if you’re using Magento, Shopify, or WooCommerce, it’s important to have a fully-fledged integration between the frontend and the backend of your ERP.
Merchants feel the need to use Magento eCommerce integration with eCommerce because errors can arise when data is being entered into ERP manually. This integration is effective because merchants see an improvement in inventory synchronization and data duplication. While there is speculation as to what the best ERP for eCommerce is, Magento has plenty of suitable options on the market.
Accounting Integrations
The major benefit of using Magento accounting integration is that employees and merchants can view pricing information in real-time. If you’re looking for integration options, Aphix has two software – WebShop and SalesRep.
This software allows your systems to communicate efficiently and seamlessly. You won’t have to manually enter your data to different systems; not only this, but you’ll be saving valuable time that you can dedicate toward other aspects of your business
When customers use ERP software, they can observe the following:
- Less time spent on manual entry
- Synchronized inventories
- Product changes and easier to complete
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Magento ERP Extention: Solutions
The great thing about using Magento ERP is how many solutions there are! Here, we’ve listed some of our favorites.
Magento Oracle ERP Integration
Oracle is better for larger businesses. According to the site, Oracle aims to find a balance between flexibility and IT data. This extension will allow you to manage your business’s expenses and analytics with ease.
SAP Magento Integration
With this extension, SAP allows Magento users to have on-premise ERP software. Not only this, but it provides service in over 35 languages and provides merchants with information about their business in real-time.
Sage Integration
If you have a smaller business, you might consider using Sage Integration. That’s because this extension allows small businesses to edit their merchandise through their ERP in order to keep up with their store.
NetSuite Solution
When you integrate both NetSuite and Magento, you’ll have a more dependable store. You can count on your inventory to have the right numbers and you’ll be able to apply intelligent procurement to your store.
When you use NetSuite and Magento Integration, you’ll spend less time on logistics and you’ll have more time to prioritize your customers. You’ll also be able to import your shipments between NetSuite and Magento.
Epicor ERP Software
Epicor claims to help merchants make better decisions because of their analytics systems. By using this software, merchants can build better relationships with their clients and can manage their projects more efficiently.
Epicor allows merchants to integrate inbound cash receipts, real-time inventory updates, and shipment exports.
Among the many benefits of using Magento ERP integration, you can expect to experience the following:
- Seamless product updates in real-time
- Inventory updates in real-time
- Increase in productivity due to the reduced amount of manual entry needed
- Efficient order management