Solving the problem of cart abandonment in Magento stores

Cart abandonment is a major problem for online stores. A customer browses through the store, picks up products but finally abandons the cart and leaves the site. This means loss of revenue. As the sale is virtual; there is little scope for personal intervention here. However, it is important to come up with ways to stop this tendency. Magento store development has to take a good look at this problem.

Reasons for shopping cart abandonment and solutions

• One of the major reasons for cart abandonment by browsers is the complicated and tedious multi-step check out process. Most users are looking for a quick why to buy products. So the moment customers find they have to spend time on confirming and paying for their order, they grow impatient and abandon the cart. Introduce a one stop check out process and see cart abandonment rates drop as more customers complete their orders. The one page check out extension of Magento is useful too. It removes unnecessary steps from the checkout process and is five times faster than the standard Magento checkout.
• Among the reasons cited by customers for abandoning their cart, the majority of them responded with unexpected costs included in the final bill before the payment is made. This could be due to shipping charges or delivery time charges. Providing a transparent cost structure at the time of browsing could be a possible solution to meet this response.
• Another response refers to the complicated website navigation that leads to potential customers losing interest or simply growing tired of moving from one page to another to find what they want. Providing practical filters to narrow down the product range helps in encouraging visitors to make their choice and place orders online.
• Abandoned cart alerts sent for both abandoned cart and abandoned orders where payment did not go through could be used too. Customers browsing the site or those who forgot to finalize their purchase or kept the cart on hold can be brought back with these alerts, particularly when they are registered members. Another idea is to let customers recover their abandoned arts with a single click.
• A different strategy is needed for new visitors. Using personalized shopping offers and giving coupons are behavioral tactics that treat each as a unique customer. A good idea is to get emails early so that offers can be mailed before they discard their carts. Loyal customers would be excited to get coupons for further purchases.
• Follow up emails are a great way to stay connected with customers and a good relationship building tool. These mails help to improve conversion rates. Remember and remind customers of the products they browsed and selected the next time they visit your site.

Magento abandoned cart extension is an important part of Magento store development process. It has a fix it yourself solution that e-commerce sites can use to decrease cart abandonment and increase sales significantly.

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Magento – SEO Tips and default settings

The success of online stores depends on how well they are optimized for search engines.  There are a number of things you can change on your Magento site in order to appropriately optimize it for search rankings.

Here are a few settings you can easily change in the Magento Admin pane:

Meta Tag for products

Your site is designed to sell products. Therefore the importance of Meta tags can hardly be over emphasized.  The fieldsauto generation feature of Magento 2 sets templates for Meta data of products. These templates are applied globally and it saves search time particularly when the product list on offer is long. However, remember that these are global templates and can’t be changed for particular categories. Once global settings are in place the changes you make will apply only to future lists.

SEO friendly URLs

Your specified SKU decides the URL of your product in Magento.

Meta tags for categories

Magento 2 allows you to set up meta tags at the store view level. You can overwrite the meta tag on a category level and also decide upon a URL of your choice for that category.

Meta Tags for Homepage

The new Magento sets the default page as homepage as in earlier versions. So when you change or upgrade to the latest version of Magento remember to customize this important tag in content. You Meta descriptions and keywords can be changed on the Meta Data tab.

Prefixes and suffixes for title tags

Magento allows you to add information before and after your title tag. This change will be applied across all your site pages. To do this you need to go to Stores, then configure the general design and apply it to the HTML Head.

Images optimization

This is vital for the speed of sites and directly affects ranking. A fast site has a better ranking ability compared to a slower site. Although Magento does not offer image compression, it can add alt attributes for images of products.  You need to change the alt text for your logo to avail this feature.

Unique content

Magento offers tools to reduce duplicate content on your website. This includes canonical Tags for various categories of products, Canonical tags for products, and category path in products URL. These help in store navigation.

Site indexing control

ROBOTS.TXT is an improved feature that edits robots.txt files easily from the admin panel.

Meta Robotis a default Meta robot set to INDEX, FOLLOW that is difficult to customize for any page except Google

XML Site Map site maps in Magento are found in Stores. Images are added here automatically, you can submit URL for site map to Robots.txt, and control the file size.

The new Magento does not offer HTML Sitemap. Using suffix and prefix for you URL may lead to 404 errors. Meta data is added to all pages by default and Google analytics tracking code can also be added.

It is easier to implement Google AdWords in Magento web development services by Elite Magento Development.

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Top Magento Extensions

Courtesy of: Elite Magento Development

Magento is a powerful platform for ecommerce development. But what makes it so?

Today Magento powers a number of ecommerce websites and is the reason for the success of many online stores. It has a number of built in features that make it ideal for building a basic store. Moreover, it has a number of extensions that can be easily integrated to add new features on the go. The best part is that it has the ability to integrate with third party extensions too. This is what makes it very appealing for ecommerce businesses. In short Magento is a highly customizable platform that is suitable for businesses of all sizes.

So, what exactly can you customize with Magento and how can you leverage from its flexibility and scalability for the benefit of your business?

Let’s find out some more about custom Magento development:

Debugging Magento store layout

Magento provides powerful logging methods in the controller. Enabling the debug mode is very easy and all you need to do is to follow the code.

Contact form on a CMS page

The contact form is the primary means by which your customers will get in touch with you. Hence it is of utmost importance that you plan it carefully. Decide whether you want customers to ‘Request a Quote’ there, or to call you directly. Customizing the contact page could drive a lot of potential customers to your business.

Displaying category names on product pages

It’s a good idea to mention the product category names on the product pages of an ecommerce store. This greatly helps users easily navigate through your website and many a times convert to actual customers. It’s always a good idea to provide your customers a hierarchy so that they can browse through your website – hassle free.

Add a language pack

Magento is generally used as a multilingual store by global businesses. If you are a business with a global presence or a business that intends to scale globally, a language pack could be a great option for tapping maximum customers.

Find the right extension

Finding the right extension for customization is the key. Whether you wish to support your marketing experiences or you wish to ease administration or you want to add social features for brand building, finding the right extension matters. There are a number of Magento extensions that are provided by Magento and a number of third party extensions that can be easily integrated into Magento to create a very appealing ecommerce store – fully customized to suit your business requirements.

Magento offers you with just the right features for customization. It helps developers innovate and provide businesses with just the right features that are required for setting up a successful online shop.  All this can be done without tweaking the original code. Extensions are added and removed as and when businesses wish to add or remove certain features.

Above all, Magento has the ability to scale as your business grows and hence has become the most popular ecommerce platform for businesses large and small.

Elite Magento Development is a leading Magento web development company in India offering custom Magento web development, Magento Store & Module development Services. Feel free to call us at +91 79 40050401

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Hire the right Magento Developers for your online store!

E-commerce dominates the retail space today. Running highly successful ecommerce stores requires platforms for open commerce innovation, user interface and content management systems such as Magento, the leading internet platform of top internet retailers. It works in tandem with retailers, brands, branded manufacturers across B2B and B2C industrieshelping to integrate physical and online experiences. That is why E-commerce owners eagerly look for Magento developers to get a superior edge over competitor. This is not a simple task for most. Here are some considerations to keep in mind while you a hire Magento Developer.

 

Understand the developer needed

Depending on your e-commerce portal there are broadly two types of developers to consider: developer you need for a one time job or one for long term work. The decision for this rests on the type of project you have in mind. The other consideration that can influence your decision of the type of developer you need is the time the developer has to devote to your project. Whatever your choice, it would be a good idea to test out the developer’s capabilities with a small project. Remember to search for a developer with a learning curve for long term projects

Agency or Freelance

So where do you get the type of Magento Developer you decide to get? There are agencies that supply developers and there are freelancers working independently. Magento runs courses to train developers in  various skills. Agencies have a team of developers with the various certifications while freelancers would probably have a single skill. So if you need a single skill for ashort term project, explore the freelancer list. For a sustained and long term project an agency could supply you with developers with the various skills needed as the search for different freelancers could prove tedious. To find developers you would be interested in explore your network both personal and professional. You could also consider consulting your colleagues from the same industry.

Price considerations

Pricing will ever remain a consideration when you hire any developer. Agencies naturally charge higher fees for their developers. In comparison freelancers would be a better choice. However, there is another point to be kept in mind, particularly when you need multiple skills for your work. You can engage a number of freelancers to serve you and the price could be competitive enough to entice you. There is the matter of man management that could eat into your time and put stress on your other resources. It is good to keep in mind that price gets you quality and ease of operation, whereas compromise on price might result in less rigorous quality standards and complications in operations. Before you make your final choice, remember to ask for customer reviews and portfolios to get firsthand information about the work your short listed developers are capable of.

With careful planning and good research you are sure to hire Magento developer you need.

If you are looking to hire Magento Developers, you are at the right place!

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Tips to hire a Magento Web Developer

Let’s face it – you cannot build an awesome online store without an excellent Magento developer to support you. If you need the best, you will need to hire the best! It’s as simple as that!

Well, Magento has grown in popularity in such a short time, and has completely revolutionized the ecommerce market. Magento developers are plenty and easy to find too. But how will you know which one is good for your kind of project? The idea is to first understand and clearly define the scope of your project and then match the developer’s skill set.

Well, here are a few things to consider before you hire Magento web developers:

One time vs ongoing project

Decide whether the project at hand is a onetime project or an ongoing one. Decide whether you want to hire for minor fixes on your existing site or develop a site from scratch and hire for continuous maintenance. When hiring for long term projects, make sure that you ask for the availability of the developer for long term projects.

Define your project and its scope

Before you begin, make sure that you define the scope of your project. Define the features you wish to include in your online store. The features you finalize upon will decide the scope of your project. Think about your target market before you begin. Also think about your marketing strategies. You will need to build your website based on all these factors. Once you have a fair idea of what your website should include, you will understand what you need to ask the Magento developer before you hire!

Check out the developer’s portfolio

It is important that you check out the developer’s portfolio as it gives you a good idea about the type of work that developer can do. Check out the features and the types of industries that the developer has worked with. This will give you good insights into the skill levels of the developer and you will be able to decide whether he is right for your work.

Experience

The years of experience matter for some and do not matter for some others. Developers with many years of experience will be able to expertly put together an online store for you. But a newbie might just conjure up a trendy new online store to give it a unique look! That’s why checking out the portfolio as mentioned in the previous point makes sense!

Price

It is always recommended to request quotations from a few developers or a few Magento development companies, so that you get a fair idea of the market rate. After matching the skills, experience and portfolio, make sure that the price you are paying for the project matches your expectations too.

Magento has a lot of built in features to make your store look great! But to create a custom Magento store with unique features, you will need to hire Magento developers so that your store gets an edge over the competition!

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Ecommerce Tips and Tricks To Influence Customer Buying Decisions

Creating shopping experiences online is truly a work of art. Ecommerce web developers need to create online stores with great planning and strategic thinking. After all, the website is a lone ‘sales rep’ that influences the decisions of your potential customers and efficiently converts them!

If you really want to influence the buying decisions of your customers online, make sure that you include the following features:

Limited stock option

Displaying on your website that your products are available in abundance, the customer is not motivated enough to buy. Well, change the sign to ‘Limited Stock’ and you will see a rise in your sales instantly. Well, creating a sense of urgency has been a successful marketing technique for a long time. Making something limited in availability automatically increases its perceived value and the demand for it increases too.

Limited time option

Another powerful tool that influences a buyer’s decision is when a product is available at the said price for a limited time. A countdown timer alongside your products with limited time offers creates just the right amount of urgency to urge a customer to buy your product. Customers feel the need to make up their minds quickly before the price they are seeing expires and the cost of the product increases.

Loss Aversion

The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) works well in ecommerce too. So, when you place discounts on your products place the original price, the discounted price and point out the savings clearly. ‘You save 34%!’ speaks directly to a customer than any other means of promoting a discount. This conveys to the customer that the cost of missing out on this deal is greater than anything! So, display savings prominently relative to the original price so that customers can compare at a glance.

Offer free shipping

The idea is to offer free shipping above a certain order amount – for example – “Spend 100$ and get free shipping!”. This strategy is generally used to increase the average order values for the company that indirectly covers the shipping costs too.

Express checkouts

The strategy here should be to check out the customer in the simplest and quickest possible manner. There should be no interruptions in the checkout process – no pop ups, no extra recommendations and no upsells. 1 – Click checkouts are becoming more and more popular for this very reason. After a customer has made a buying decision, and has added products to the shopping cart, make sure that he is conveniently directed to payments and final checkout without too many hassles – and you’ve got your sale!

Order follow- up and abandoned cart mails

These are two very important mails in ecommerce. Well, you will need to follow up with your customers if they have selected products and added them to their shopping carts. It could be your chance to bring them back! It is a known fact that around 35% of these customers actually visit your site again and make that purchase that they abandoned.

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10 Ways to Speed Up Your Magento eCommerce Site

 

10 Ways to Speed Up Your Magento eCommerce Site

Courtesy of: Elite Magento Development

Magento 2.1 Released With Excellent Features to Empower Ecommerce Businesses

Awesome shopping experiences are not easy to create. There is a team of smart marketers and business heads working towards creating these experiences. They work hard to optimize the web content, merchandize the products and create great promotional campaigns.

With Magento store development you can empower businesses to create new and innovative shopping experiences for your customers.

Here’s what the latest Magento Enterprise Edition 2.1 has to offer:

Drive sales and improve productivity

Magento 2.1 introduces a new feature for content staging and Preview. You can stage, preview and schedule a wide range of new content that includes various updates to the products, categories and promotions. The process is simple, fast and efficient due to the use of user-friendly tools that are used for usability testing. A new timeline dashboard also provides all the data you need to view at a glance. You team can then coordinate campaigns to maximize the impact on your sales.

Boost Conversion rates

This new version of Magento includes features for PayPal enhancements that allow you to streamline your checkout and in turn boost sales. This new feature enables customers to pay using PayPal without ever leaving your website. This helps improve your conversion rates too. There will be fewer security issues and higher amount of purchases. Easy checkouts definitely mean easy sales.

Scale for growth

The new edition of Magento 2.1 comes with Elastic search which is a cutting edge site search technology. Easy and accurate searches enable customers to look for their products more efficiently and in turn your sales figures rise! 33 languages are supported by this feature and businesses are allowed to include their own stop words, search synonyms and deliver highly relevant searches to their customers.

Improved management experience

The Magento Administration panel has also been updated and businesses are empowered to work more efficiently. There is a search feature that can enable you to quickly find the customer information or the order information quickly. The forms are redesigned so that the process of creating new products, categories and content is greatly simplified.

Deploy in the Magento Cloud

The Magento 2.1 Enterprise edition is now available in the Magento Cloud and with this new edition you can focus on creating exemplary brand experiences without worrying about whether the underlying platform will support it. Businesses get a fully customizable, secure and scalable storefront that is built on AWS. This store is developed for rapid deployments and high performance.

Overall, Magento empowers businesses to deploy their websites in an environment that suits your goals and business requirements.

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Tips for building a better product page in Magento

Building exemplary shopping experiences requires careful designing of the product pages of an ecommerce store. Designing your product pages with all the essential elements and not overcrowding it with unnecessary information will ensure that your sales see an upward trend!

Keep it simple

The most important part of any web design, whether ecommerce or not is to keep it simple. Pages that are stuffed with all sorts of information annoy the customers. Make sure that you include only the most essential information for your customers to read. Understand when it is time to stop!

High resolution product images

Online shoppers are unable to touch the products they purchase. This is exactly why the images for these products are so important. These images should accurately display the product and should be of high resolutions so that shoppers can envision them before they make a purchase decision.

Videos

Adding product videos or how to videos for a product is a great idea. Although this feature is not available out of the box for Magento, you can easily implement it with the help of extensions.

Pricing information

Providing great shopping experiences for your customers include maintaining transparency on your website. Some customers buy based on the pricing information of the product. So make sure that the pricing information is not hidden anywhere in some corner of the page. Make it prominent and display it alongside the product. If possible use a different color and font size. Make sure that you include shipping costs on the page too.

Product availability

Clearly displaying product availability will help you manage customer expectations. If some product is not in stock don’t wait until the customer reached the checkout page to inform him. Display non availability of the product on the product page itself. Well, also offer customers the option to subscribe to updates for when the product will become available.

Product descriptions

Compelling product descriptions is the key to ecommerce success. Make sure that you thoroughly understand the products and the target customers. Match their expectations and then create product descriptions that will compel them to buy. A funny, ironic or some other gripping line is all that you might need to grab a customer’s attention.

Product variations

Make sure that you display all the variation of the product. The different sizes, colours brand options etc.

Product reviews and ratings

Including product reviews and ratings can easily attract a customer’s attention. If there are many people talking well about a product the customer will be encouraged to buy that product from you rather than your competitor.

Payments and returns policy

Payment options and return policies should be clearly mentioned for any ecommerce website. A simple way to implement this is to place the logos of the payment providers on the product pages.

Overall, ecommerce success depends on how well you design the pages and how well you display your products and product information! Design your product pages well o see a rise in your sales!

Elite Magento Development is a leading Magento web development company in India offering custom Magento web development, Magento Store & Module development Services. Feel free to call us at +91 79 40050401

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