Highlighting the Advantages of Having an E-Commerce Business
There is no doubting the fact that having an online business is highly advantageous not only to the customers, but to the owner as well. This is mostly due to the fact that it can be made available 24/7/365. Another excellent reason for shops and stores to go online is extensive reach, as businesses can choose to target local, regional, or global consumers anytime they want, regardless of where they are based.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of an e-commerce businesses is that, through custom websites, shoppers are able to explore hundreds, if not thousands, of products in the inventory. Not only that, regular customers and potential clients can read about these products in great detail, where they can determine the prices and compare accordingly without having to visit a physical store.
This is why more and more people are preferring to shop online. With a few mouse clicks, they can get favorite items in a few days’ time. It has definitely changed the face and pace of shopping. E-commerce continues to be a burgeoning trade because of the steadily increasing use of mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
E-Commerce Platforms that Make Online Shopping Possible
In order to conduct transactions over the internet, businesses need to create e-commerce websites. The platforms on which these sites are built are fundamental to the success of the online transactions. While there are quite a number of open source e-commerce platforms available in the market today, it is Magento that is among the most popular and most widely used by online retail companies worldwide. Many business owners are choosing Magento over other platforms due to its array of rich features and exceptional built-in functionalities.
What is Magento?
Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform. It is available for download without any charge. Since it is an open-source software, website developers are free to modify its source code whenever it is necessary. They can add more features and functions either by installing or creating their own add-ons and plug-ins, depending on the specifications of a particular business.
Why People Choose Magento
- Managing E-Commerce Websites is Made Easier – One of Magento’s best features is that it allows business owners to handle multiple online stores. Users can operate different stores on several websites manage them from a single administrative panel. Sales transactions and customer interaction can be managed from a single database, which efficiently saves time spent into taking orders and managing sales. Magento also has several features that further make business transactions a breeze to manage, such as:
- multi-language
- multi-currency support
- international support
- product browsing
- shipping
- order management and more
- Magento is a Scalable Platform – Developers can mold it into anything they desire. Their only limitation is their visions. It can be developed in a way that suits the a specific business. It can adapt to even the most sophisticated business requirements. It is highly flexible, enabling it to serve any business model. Business owners can enhance the platform as they make their way up the ladder, although they have to work with a Magento expert from time to time.
- Easy to Use – When you use Magento, the products of your store can be displayed easily. That gives the people a great buying experience. Effective layout help people in site navigation, hence helps to find out the things they are looking for quickly. Zoom-in capability, product reviews, multiple images of a product are some of the features that make Magento user friendly and inspires the visitors to make a buy and revisit the website.
- It has Search Engine Optimization – If your website does not get traffic visits through search engines then you are not going to achieve a return on your investment. Search engines love Magento because it creates very clean URLs, tags and descriptions with keywords. This directly helps in sales and revenue generation. It also has powerful tools such as Up-Sells and Cross-Sells that encourage the users to order for more products.
- Magento Supports Mobile E-Commerce – HTML5 capabilities are now being integrated into Magento Community and Enterprise editions. With this, Magento store owners can offer better mobile shopping experiences across multiple web browsers and devices, especially those millions of mobile devices that don’t have support for Flash. An online store which has been developed using the Magento platform can include features like gesture-based controls, image scaling, use of both inbuilt audio and video capabilities drag and drop facilities for shopping carts etc.
- Analytics and Reporting – With Magento your online store is already associated with Google Analytics, Google Base and Google Checkout. This helps you to keep track of your site visitors. These tools give you reports on shopping cart abandonment, search terms used within your store, most viewed products, etc.
- Security and Payment Option – Magento is a secure platform, the implementation of SSL security and dedicated IP is easy. Customers will buy from your Magento stores with a feel of security. This is definitely helpful to increase the conversion rate. Magento provides different payment methods, this allow you to accept payments using different payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Google etc. Customers can also pay through check/money order, credit cards, purchase order and many more.