Jennie and Jack, a married couple from Vancouver, are enjoying home-roasted coffee on a Sunday morning.
After getting a notification on the phone, Jennie overcomes with joy. A Daniel from Toronto saw one of her handmade art paintings on Instagram and sent her a message wanting to know if the painting she posted is for sale. Daniel informed Jennie that he is willing to purchase the painting for C$ 3,800, on the spot.
When Jennie tells Jack, her husband, about Daniel in Toronto, who is interested in her handmade art painting, he gets excited.
Jack is a business-minded person, while Jennie is more artistic. Jack’s brain is business-centric and starts racing a million miles per hour. He says to Jennie, “We should take the money we make off Daniel and invest in an eCommerce store for your beautiful handmade artwork.”
Jennie agrees with Jack as they both do the quick calculations and realize that if they sell 100 paintings a year, they could bring in C$380,000! That’s big!
The thought for Jennie of quitting her job and doing handmade artwork full time gets her adrenaline racing.
And so, the entrepreneurial journey begins! The next question that comes up for Jennie and Jack, and any entrepreneur looking to start an eCommerce store is how to take the first step. How in the world do you go about building an eCommerce site?
The first step is quite obvious – Setting up an eCommerce website!
When we are talking about eCommerce, Magento has to be spoken in the same breath as that’s how popular this combo has become. What Ford has done for cars is what Magento has done for eCommerce!
What is Magento?
It is an eCommerce platform built on open source technology that provides entrepreneurs with a flexible shopping cart system, as well as control over the design, content, and functionality of the eCommerce stores.
Is Magento Beneficial?
Magento is an uncrowded king who is steadily delivering amidst the rut of half-baked software and solutions for eCommerce. We can measure the success of Magento by these facts:
- In 2013, Magento was awarded as the most popular eCommerce platform in the world.
- In 2014, Magento increased its share in the eCommerce market and reached a level of 30 percent, and battled it out with 30 more players.
- In 2016, more than 200,000 eCommerce retailers chosen Magento as their business partner, and this number is still counting.
It is now quite clear that If you are working with Magento, then you are working with a trusted name that delivered the best in the past and poised to write a new future for eCommerce.
How Did it All Begin?
Magento isn’t a buzz anymore; it is now a commonality in the digital world and everyday phrase in the eCommerce world. It is the fact that Magento has been chosen by more than 200,000 businesses worldwide to run seamless operations.
And if you feel that only small and nascent brands in the world are using Magento, you’re wrong. It is being used by bigshot names like Ford, Nike, Nestle, Coca Cola, Samsung, and Olympus, to name a few.
Because of its widespread popularity and investment potential, Magento was acquired by eBay at the ‘Imagine’ conference back in 2014 for a price of over $180 million.
Afterward, Magento generated 500,000+ downloads within a month, which was an astonishing feat.
What are the Benefits Of Magento?
Magento is the most well-touted and widely used eCommerce platform. There’s a lot to know about Magento, but the best way to get the big picture, in a nutshell, is by delivering it into its most significant advantages. Here are few:
- Content Management
Magento provides shop owners with an option to toggle a user-friendly content management interface. It is perfect for those code deficient who want to manipulate the basic functioning within the shopping cart.
- Mobile-Friendly Configuration
Magento websites are designed responsively, making them seamlessly viewable on mobile devices. This accommodates a shopping trend that continues to move toward mobile usage.
- Advanced SEO
Magento ensures the flow of improved organic traffic. The platform was built after keeping SEO efficiency in mind, giving your products a better chance to appear on search engines. It offers plenty of room for custom store SEO services, especially for those who have the knowledge and skills to do so.
But, to stay ahead in the race, we suggest you consult the Magento SEO agency once.
- Spacious
The Magento platform supports up to 500,000 products on one site and handles more than 80,000 orders per hour. The platform provides lots of space to online merchants for future growth between one or more shopping carts on the same site.
- Ease in Third-party integration
Connecting with other eCommerce experiences like eBay, Paypal, Mailchimps, Quickbook, and Google shopping is possible with Magento. Also, it allows entrepreneurs to add Google analytics or third-party integration to their websites to aid in data analysis.
- Customize Security Permission
Magento allows keeping your site safe and managing internal access by providing customized multiple levels of security permission.
- Save Time & Money
Magento is an expansive library of custom extensions developed by the aforementioned worldwide community. With this, you can use and share tools with other Magento users to save yourself from the hassle of starting from scratch in many cases.
- Huge Community
More than 2,40,000 businesses use Magento for their eCommerce needs. According to statistics: In 2012, Magento developers were in several hundred with official certifications from 35 different countries around the globe, and over 800,000 estimated developers in calculations. That number has since grown, giving new entrepreneurs a solid backbone of support and a fair chance for business connections.
How to Build a Magento Website Step-by-Step?
After understanding the definition and knowing the benefits of Magento, it is time to start a successful online store. In this tech-savvy world, making a website is no longer difficult for online sellers anymore.
So, how to build a Magento website step-by-step? Follow 6 simple steps below, and you will have your site as expected.
STEP 1: Choose A Great Domain Name
Want to establish a brand? Picking a proper domain name is crucial. It is your website address, as well as your brand name and an essential marketing tool.
In the first place, choose a name that is short, catchy, and easy to remember. It should be unique and not among the already taken.
A relevant domain name will give your eCommerce store:
- An easily Identifiable brand name
- An email address associated with the domain
- SEO tools support marketing
STEP 2: Get Magento Installation And Host Magento On Your Server
The next step in establishing an eCommerce store is to implement the Magento installation from the supplier and host Magento files on your server.
STEP 3: Pick a Template
Next, perfect the site by performing your brand and products with Magento templates that suit your brand.
STEP 4: Customize Your Design
In the fourth step, it’s time to design your e-store.
Because your website is an online platform, you ought to make it as simple as possible. It will be better if merchants provide the best experience to the customers.
Create a design in a way to save customers’ shopping time. It is a great trick to sell more. Another tip is that the details such as font size, color, and layout should be simple yet attractive.
Also, make sure that product information should be accurate, precise, and detailed throughout the website to stimulate users to purchase.
For this purpose, we recommend you use the Magento Product Upload services to be ahead in the race.
STEP 5: Migrate Your Store & Import Products
This one is usually considered a simple step. However, to manage the warehouse effectively, you should be careful in this one. The name, characteristics, type, quantity, quality, and price of the product must be accurate and detailed. This will help you in the sales process and helps buyers find and purchase quickly.
STEP 6: Fill Out Your Store Settings
In the last step, set up the installation mode that is relevant for your website, and start to convert your online store into an operation.
Wrapping It Up
Well, this is what Magento is all about. It gives entrepreneurs to serve customers in the best possible manner. No doubt, it provides nothing but the best in terms of functionalities, features, plug-ins, and support. Magento and eCommerce seem like a couple made in heaven.
