Currently, owned by Adobe, Magento is the most popular standalone e-commerce platform tailored for large companies.
The feature set of Magento is robust which is ideal for large as well as small companies. Magento offers Community Edition for free, Enterprise Edition is the advanced and paid version of Magento, and the third one is Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition.
How To Start Your Online Store?
Below we have discussed must have things required for a Magento online store –
Server Hosting
It is always advised that Magento should be hosted on a strong and dedicated server. Because running Magento on shared hosting will result in a slow and frustrating user experience. For hosting, there is a variety of cloud options available-
- Amazon AWS Stack
- Google Cloud
- Microsoft Azure Stack and More.
But Amazon AWS is the most suggested one. Also, Magento is a self-hosted solution ie; the store owners need to manage their servers which means they have full control of the server settings. They can even reach out to a third party to manage their servers.
Note: Webkul also offers to host services.
SSL Integration
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. It is a transport layer protocol that is used to establish a secure connection between server and client.
In an SSL integrated website, the connection between your browser and the website is secure. The transmitted data are all in encrypted form. Your website should be integrated with SSL to have secure –
- Online transaction
- Safe logins
- Establish a secure session
- Safe data transfer
- Safe database connection
Note: Webkul also offers SSL integration services.
Theme/Templates
Theme/templates represent your store and mark the first picture of your e-commerce business type to your customer. So, you should choose the theme carefully. There are various solutions you can choose from –
- Default Theme – Magento 2 default theme Luma caters only to the fundamental needs of online shoppers.
- Ready-Made Theme – With growing business needs you need to provide an advanced shopping experience to your customers with ready-to-use themes.
Note – You can refer the Webkul’s ready-made Xtremo theme. - Customized Theme Development – Theme development lets you create a flexible and responsive theme as per your requirement.
Note – We also offer customization services(paid one). So if you need any changes in the theme or new theme development, feel free to contact us.
Products To Sell
The online store is entirely based on different sets of products and services offered to a large number of buyers. For this, Magento offers some by default product types using which you can create and list various types of products on your online store.
But the e-commerce sector is evolving and growing day by day and paving the way to more unique and new product types. So, if you want to sell those new products types then, you can refer to Webkul’s modules for new and advanced product types –
Payment Options
The online payment system in your online store is a must to provide a unified and seamless payment experience for your customers. But Magento offers limited payment methods by default:
- Check/Money Order
- Bank Transfer
- Cash On Delivery
- Zero Subtotal Checkout
- PayPal
- Braintree
- Authorize.net
- Klarna (Introduced in Magento 2.3 version)
- Amazon Pay (Introduced in Magento 2.3 version)
That’s why always select the payment methods that fit your business and audience. It should be simple, fast, and convenient for online shoppers to pay. Webkul offers a wide range of payment gateways you can choose from –
- Stripe Payment Gateway
- Iyzico Payment Gateway
- Mangopay Payment Gateway
- CCAvenue Payment Gateway
- Mercado Pago Payment Gateway
- PayTabs Sadad Payment
- Recurring Payments & Subscription Payment
Shipping Options
Every customer wants to receive the correct products on time. For this particular reason, improving the shipping experience is extremely essential which can be achieved by choosing a logistics provider which provides good services. But Magento offers limited shipping methods by default-
- Free Shipping
- Flat Rate
- Table Rates
- Dimensional Weight
- UPS
- USPS
- FedEx
- DHL
Webkul offers a wide range of advanced shipping gateways you can choose from –
- Aramex Shipping
- Canada Post Shipping
- Fastway Shipping
- Free Freight Gateway
- Endicia Shipping
- Aliexpress Dropship
- Shipping Availability Check
- Delivery Date and Time
- Distance Rate Shipping
Integrate Notification Feature
Notifying the customers about the order invoice, order shipment and other sales events is very important. But Magento 2 send updates to customers via email for very few events like – new order placed, invoice, shipment, and credit memo.
But there are certainly more events for which the customers should be notified like price alerts, out-of-stock notification, back-in-the-stock notification, price drop alerts via emails, and mobile SMS as well. You can refer to Webkul’s Notification modules for the same –
- Out of Stock Notification – Notify users when an out-of-stock product is back in stock and available for purchase.
- Abandoned Cart Email Reminder – Send emails to customers who have failed to complete the checkout process.
- Web Push Notification – Send web push notifications from your store to subscribed users.
- Configure SMTP Server – Setup an SMTP server so that all emails from your Webstore are sent by the selected host making tracking and sending the emails easy.
- Twilio SMS Notification For Booking Reservation Services – Notify customers about the booking events(default booking) via SMS.
- Twilio SMS Notification For Advanced Booking Reservation – Notify customers about the booking events(Default, Appointment, Event, Rental, Hotel, and Table booking) via SMS.
Optimized Checkout
The sale is the backbone of every business. And in online e-commerce business sale is directly dependent on a smooth checkout process. Therefore, your customer should be able to make it through the checkout easily without any glitches.
For convenient checkout, What you need to do is reduce checkout frictions and optimize the checkout process.
You can refer to this article on how you can optimize the checkout process in your web store – Eliminate Checkout Bloopers And Optimize Checkout Process
Want To Add More Features? – Custom Requirements*
Believe it or not, but the success of your online business is also dependent that what all features your website offers to the customer. Therefore, to stay competitive you need to attract and retain the customers in your store by enabling advanced functionalities.
Magento by default provides only basic functionalities for the management of order, sales, product, etc. But with growing business needs you will be needing certain custom modules to fulfill future needs. So, here is the complete guide to know those additional must-have features – Magento 2 | Add Custom Features
Want To Sell On Other Channels?
Selling on a single channel means you are reaching a small percentage of customers. But listing and selling products on various channels will let you reach new audiences and increase sales.
If you want to grow your business and looking for a popular e-commerce platform to sell your products then you should integrate other leading channels with your Magento store. You can refer to Webkul’s third-party connectors for the same –
- Amazon Connector
- eBay Connector
- Multi eBay Account Connector
- Etsy Connector
- Jet Connector
- Walmart Connector
- WooCommerce Connector
- Shopify Connector
Create A Mobile App For Your Web Store
M-commerce has grown increasingly over the last decades because it’s the browsing, buying, and selling of products and services with all the convenience of being on a cellphone or tablet.
Therefore, for a successful e-commerce business, you need to have a mobile app for your web store because you don’t know where your customers are coming in at your store. It may be that the customer is visiting your website on Android / IOS mobile via Facebook or Twitter.
Note: Webkul also offers app development services. And for app development, you need to provide certain details – Mobile App Pre-requisite.
Create Your Online Marketplace
You can also plan to have your marketplace which is entirely based on diversity where different sets of products and services are offered by a wide range of third-party merchants to a large number of buyers – Multi-Vendor Marketplace module.
You can refer to this article to know more about the marketplace – Marketplace Guide
Note: If you are planning to start your Marketplace, then visit this link to know what all basic features you need to consider before starting on – Magento 2 | Add Advance Feature Into Your Marketplace Store
Support
That’s all for Magento 2 | Start Your E-Commerce Store From Scratch still have any issues feel free to add a ticket and let us know your views to make the module better contact us.
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