Magento is the most used Ecommerce platform in the world, it is hugely popular with web designers and for good reason. Magento has many different install options, one of the most popular being the open source Community edition. This is a big favorite among web designers and developers and when you look at the huge amount of open source modules and coding communities online dedicated to Magento CE, you will see why.
The open source platform of Magento Community edition allows web designers to easily design their own skin and use a vast array of modules to improve the look and functionality of your online store. Here at Digital Zoo, we have been using Magento for years and have watched it go from strength to strength with ever improving code and security. The biggest aspect for us has to be the number of add on modules that are available for Magento. Some of these modules are free, some have a small cost attached but come with support packages. The greatest element for us is, no matter what you need to implement on your website, you will be able to find a module for it online.
To find the latest modules you can use Magento’s “Magento Connect” website, this gives you an easy to use search tool and gives you the ability to get the install code straight from the website ready to paste into your admin panel. Alternatively, if you search for a specific tool that you require on Google I am sure you will find a large amount of these which can be downloaded for free or purchased and installed via FTP.
After years of experience designing Ecommerce websites with Magento, we have tried and tested loads of different modules. Some of the modules have been great, some have crashed our entire systems but they have all helped us learn more about this amazing platform.
To help with your Ecommerce projects we have written a quick chart of our top 4 Magento Ecommerce modules to help you guide you in the right direction. We have seen a few charts with the top 3 or top 5 so we thought we’d go the middle and be different with ours, so here is our top 4…
1. MATRIXRATES
This is without a doubt our most used module here at My Ecommerce. Matrix rates is all you need for setting up complex shipping on your website. This easy to manage module has a host of different options and is so easy to use even a beginner Magento user should be able to manage this system with little training. Matrixrates comes with two different options, the free version and the professional version. Depending on the complexity of your shipping requirements you could use the free version on your website. The pro version however is very, very good. It allows you to create complex shipping with the use of individual postcode areas as well as pricing by weight or price. All in all this is a great module and comes with great support, her highly recommend it.
We used this module on our Morsepoint Designer Clothing project and Womens Christmas Jumpers. They ship their products worldwide so you can see how handy this module has been for them.
2. ADVANCED SEARCH
As standard, the Magento search tool isn’t great. Once you build up a large amount of products in your store the search tool really struggles to display the best answers for your potential customer. This is where the advanced search module from Aheadworks comes into play. This module is great, it adds a nice drop down area from the search box which automatically displays the best search results as the user starts to type their search term. On top of this the final results page is much improved and given the time you can even set your own search results for individual terms. This is a great solution to help your clients find exactly what they are looking for and at just $199 with 90 days support, it is a great value addition to your online store.
3. ONE PAGE CHECKOUT
We have this request a lot from customers. Although we think the standard Magento checkout process is fine in how it works, many people do prefer the one page checkout module which includes all of the different information required in one well laid out page. This module is so easy to install and set-up and best of all – It’s FREE! Get over to the iwdExtenstions website now and give the one page checkout module a try for your next ecommerce project.
We hope this article helps you improve your website. There are so many different Magento modules on the market and these are just a few of our favourites. Be sure to try them out and let us know what your favourite Magento modules are too.
4. ADVANCED PRODUCT OPTIONS
This module is our most expensive featured Magento module but it is easily worth the money. This put’s the days of creating thousands of simple products and grouping them together as configurable products behind us. This awesome module allows you to create custom options for your products and run this out over a large amount of your products saving you loads of time and effort. What’s more it has a huge list of additional features, one of my favorites being the easy to use image upload for every custom option. This is the perfect way to show your customers exactly what they are buying and makes it really easy to add this feature to all of your products in little time at all.
The features list for this one is too long to include here so please check out the Mageworx website for all the information.
So that just about wraps up our top 4 Magento modules list. Web designers, let us know what your favorite Magento modules are and why below.