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Sylius Vs Magento: Intelligently Choosing The Right Platform

Ecommerce is becoming an indispensable component in our lives. The busier people get, the more important eCommerce is. When people tend not to have much time to visit brick-and-mortar stores, eCommerce is the perfect option.

Hence, an increasing number of businesses have expanded and developed their online stores. If you are only running a physical shop, you are so outdated and your shop cannot compete with others. So the advice is to establish an online store right now.

And without a doubt, the most important, most challenging, and the first step is probably choosing the right platform.

To help you with this first step, we want to compare different platforms, mainly Magento versus others. Today’s topic is the Sylius vs Magento competition. Let’s find out what their strengths and weaknesses are!

Check more competitions of:

osCommerce vs Magento

Magento vs Demandware (Salesforce Commerce Cloud)

Magento vs Laravel

Odoo vs Magento

Sylius Vs Magento – Who Are They?

About Magento

Magento might be familiar with eCommerce businesses. It is considered one of the most popular platforms recently. Magento is an open-source platform written in PHP, published in 2008, then acquired by Adobe Inc. 10 years later.

Since it was first developed, Magento has powered around 740.000 websites; of which there are more than 200.000 live websites at present. This figure is still at the top in terms of the number of eCommerce platform users.

Many businesses have chosen the platform because of its out-of-the-box features. Moreover, with professional developer teams, a large community, a considerable number of partners worldwide, it is understandable that Magento is well-known in the market.

At present, Magento offers 2 editions with 3 pricing plans:

Magento Community Edition (CE): FREE

Magento Enterprise Edition (EE)

Magento Commerce Cloud

About Sylius

Sylius is a Symfony-based open-source headless eCommerce platform. It is relatively suited for all types of business. This solution is also part of the BDD (Behavior-Driven Development: Behavioral Development) through Behat – a reliable PHP framework that makes it easy to automate reading your wishes.

Recently, Sylius has just released the new version, Sylius v1.9. It is the first eCommerce platform to fully support Symfony 5, the latest, fastest and most powerful PHP framework today. Since the last release of Sylius 1.8, Sylius v1.9 has been updated to reach several sprint goals.

While Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, and some others are leading the eCommerce game, Sylius is still an uncommon name with only 1.616 live websites, according to BuiltWith.

However, Sylius comes into play as a framework, making it easier for developers to create more organized eCommerce solutions. Therefore, it is a potential name to take the lead in the future.

Sylius Vs Magento – What Are The Differences?

Features

Magento’s features are so typical for businesses of all types, both B2B and B2C. It contains a large number of optimal features that help to build a perfect website. Not to mention a vast marketplace of plugins and integrations, Magento itself has all essential functionalities.

Magento’s feature list:

Page builder & content staging

Customer segmentation and personalization

Dynamic rule-based product relations

Instant purchase

Visual merchandising

Powerful business intelligence capabilities

Responsive design templates

Progressive Web Application (PWA) studio

Integrated B2B functionality

Inventory management

Powerful admin experience

Technical and account support

Cloud infrastructure

Notably, Magento has B2B functionalities at default. This is convenient for those businesses that want to target different customers on a single interface.

Sylius is an API-first solution. Sylius’s team decided to create Sylius APIs with an API platform, a system for developing modern API-driven projects beloved by all Symfony developers to stay on top of the backend eCommerce technology race.

Sylius’s feature list:

Cross-border commerce

Multi-currencies, departments, countries

Multi-everything commerce

Flexible checkout and order management flow

Flexible promotions and discounts

Modern and scalable infrastructure

Adaptable administration panel

Advanced multi-store

Advanced user-permissions

Returns management

Multi-source inventory

Partial order fulfillment

Admins per channel

Loyalty system

Performance (Loading Speed)

Website loading speed is the key factor to retain customers. A survey by Kissmetrics has shown that nearly 50% of customers expect one website to load within 2 seconds. Moreover, about 40% of visitors want to abandon the website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. 

For that reason, if you don’t want to lose any of your potential customers, enhancing the loading speed is essential.

For a long time, Magento has been highly appreciated in terms of site performance. Magento continuously updates and corrects its performance to improve the page loading speed and minimize losses caused by slow speed.

Magento 2 is more updated than Magento 1, with a lot more optimal features, which means that it has a more demanding engine. Recently, some Magento users have complained about their site performance. But it is not something you cannot fix. Magento and the community have suggested some solutions:

Updating to the latest version

Enabling the Flat catalog

Enabling the log cleaning in the admin panel

Merging Javascript and CSS Files

Reindexing data (price, carts, amount, discounts, etc.)

Enabling caching

Choosing a better web hosting

Optimizing images

Sylius is a little better than Magento in terms of performance. It is a Symfony-based framework, an exceptional PHP framework. When it comes to web performance, Sylius users don’t need to do many actions to configure. This makes Sylius page load much faster compared to Magento, the page load without caching mechanisms in dev mode.

Although Sylius is relatively faster than Magento 2, you still need to enhance its performance as much as possible to get the best results. To do that, there are some suggestions:

Prioritizing assets loading: At the beginning, loading only necessary assets.

Using ElasticSearch for product search

Keeping frequently used data in the cache

Reducing the assets’ weight

Using Varnish to cache static pages

Hosting

Both Sylius and Magento are self-hosted platforms. This means that users can customize the platform based on their demands without depending on the provider.

This will create pros and cons for businesses. Although users can freely customize, they have to take full responsibility for the result, with no guarantee from the provider of, for example, security. So if businesses do not have enough skill to configure the store, it will be a big disadvantage.

SEO

>>> OPTIMIZE SEO Performance with: How To Enable Canonical URLs Magento SEO Guide!

Magento is relatively famous for its SEO features at default. Using Magento means that you are building an SEO-friendly website. According to Ecommerce Platform, Magento’s SEO score is quite high, 95/100. This has proved the increased SEO capabilities of Magento.

Magento contains various optimal SEO features to help your website rank higher on search engines; hence, you can drive more traffic to your page. Magento SEO settings enable users to set URL key, metadata, meta titles, keywords, meta tags for products, reports and analytics to follow customer behaviors.

Sylius also supports SEO management. However, it is not highlighted in the feature list. If you need to optimize SEO on your Sylius website, downloading plugins is necessary.

Therefore, we can say that Magento is a winner in terms of SEO performance.

Customizability

>>> CANNOT MISS: Magento Frontend Developer Guide – The Key To Business Success!

Both platforms make it easy for users to customize their demands. However, we guess that Sylius is a little more customizable than Magento.

Magento contains many default features that users can easily customize in their store, some of which might not appear in other eCommerce systems. Although several features cannot be accessed for free, you can get them by using paid versions. But still, users consider Magento is more complicated and time-consuming due to the code complexity.

For Sylius, users can effortlessly customize anything because of the organized development. Also, Sylius has set a standard for coding that users can follow with minimal effort.

Time to Market

It requires a long time to marketing using Magento. Typically, it takes about 3 to 9 months for a Magento website to be ready to run.

On the other hand, Sylius is easily customizable; hence, its time to market is usually a few times faster than Magento. A comparable B2C architecture could be built on top of Sylius three times faster than Magento 2.

Marketplace

  Magento’s Marketplace

>>> Still A Newcomer? CHECK: How to Install Extensions to Magento 2 via Marketplace?

We supposed that no platform could beat Magento’s marketplace. Magento has the world’s biggest extension marketplace with nearly 4.000 plugins and integrations developed by its partners. Not only that, there are thousands of other add-ons by the best Magento service providers in various price ranges, including free of charge.

Those extensions are the best options for users to perfectly complete their online stores. Besides default features, which are probably not enough for a website, purchasing some extensions is needed.

Sylius’s Marketplace

Sylius also owns a marketplace; however, it is smaller compared to Magento’s. There are more than 250 plugins developed by Sylius partners, both free and paid. Such extensions support the website in a wide range of categories, including accounting & finance, content, marketing, etc.

Community Support

The Magento community is extremely well-known among developers and businesses. Magento has over 300.000 developers worldwide. For that reason, you can find professionals to help to build your eCommerce site with little effort wherever your business is located.

Furthermore, its vast global network with approximately 1.300 solution and technology partners makes it a world-leading platform for service and support. Also, there are many forums that enable businesses to discuss with experienced developers.

In contrast, Sylius is not such a common name in the market; consequently, its community support is limited in comparison with Magento’s. It is pretty tricky for Sylius users to seek support in some countries. However, Sylius is developed based on Symfony, which is more convenient for users to get help from Symfony developers.

Like Magento, Sylius offers support through well-written documentation, which is relatively easy to understand as well as tutorial Youtube videos and forums with many blog posts.

Pricing

Pricing plan is another crucial factor that helps enterprises make a decision. Small to medium enterprises with limited budgets prefer to choose an affordable pricing plan with essential features. But it is not the same with large enterprises.

Magento offers users 2 editions with 3 pricing plans, one free of charge (Magento Community Edition), quite suitable for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). The other 2 require users to make a one-time payment and are calculated based on the gross sales revenue of the business.

Gross Sales RevenueMagento Commerce (Enterprise Edition)Magento Commerce Cloud Less than $1 million$22.000$40.000 $1 million - $5 million$32.000$55.000 $5 million - $10 million$49.000$80.000 $10 million - $25 million$75.000$120.000 $25 million - $50 million$125.000$190.000

Similar to Magento, Sylius also offers a free edition. However, it only contains standard features to run a website, which is not enough to optimize the site. Hence, if you want to own advanced features such as advanced multi-store, advanced user permissions, SLA-backed technical support, it is necessary to buy Sylius Plus.

The Sylius Plus pricing is calculated based on the Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) model, usually from 1-2% of GMV. Ask for a quote now to get precise pricing.

Sylius Vs Magento – Who Is The Winner?

It is hard to decide who is the winner as it depends much on your business demands of business types, technology, inventory size, budget, etc.

However, we still recommend using Magento for several reasons:

It suits any type of business, from small to large enterprises, both B2B and B2C businesses.

It contains various optimal features, including B2B functionalities.

Magento is an SEO-friendly platform.

It has a massive marketplace with thousands of excellent extensions that provide optimal additional features.

There is a large community with many partners and developers worldwide.

To help you quickly make a decision, we will summarize our post in the table below.

 MagentoSylius Business typeSmall to large enterprises in any typeMid-market & enterprises Features

Essential built-in features

Support both B2B, B2C, B2B2C features

Basic features

Advanced features when using the paid edition

Performance (Loading speed)Slower due to the platform complexityFaster HostingSelf-hostedSelf-hosted SEOSEO optimization featuresLimited features Customizability

Highly customizable

More difficult and time-consuming because of the code complexity

More customizable Time to market3-9 monthsFaster time to market MarketplaceMassive (over 3.800 extensions)Small (over 250 extensions) Community SupportLarge community (1.300 partners, 300.000 developers)Small community PricingStarting from $22.000Calculated based on GMV model

Conclusion

>>> CHECK RIGHT NOW More Magento Tutorial Blogs on Mageguides!

We have compared the 2 platforms, Sylius vs Magento, in detail. We hope that this blog post will help you easily choose the right platform for your business.

If you want us to deliver other comparisons of other platforms, please comment in the section below. We will give a response as soon as possible.

Thanks a lot for reading.

The post Sylius Vs Magento: Intelligently Choosing The Right Platform appeared first on Mageguides.

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OsCommerce Vs Magento – A Battle Between 2 Leading Platforms

Today, we bring you another interesting competition between osCommerce vs Magento – 2 big names in the eCommerce market.

In the world of technology, eCommerce becomes an indispensable component in our daily lives. According to Nasdaq, it is estimated that 95% of all purchases will be through online channels by the year 2040. This has proved the significant growth of eCommerce worldwide.

Besides, approximately 76% of shoppers prefer to go shopping online rather than directly go to physical stores (GeoMarketing). For that reason, almost all businesses are finding ways to expand to online channels.

And the first and vital thing to do on the list is finding the most suitable eCommerce platform. Among some big names in the market, we cannot forget Magento and osCommerce. This blog post will continue the series of eCommerce competitions – osCommerce vs Magento.

Other competitions you may feel interested in:

Odoo vs Magento

Magento vs Laravel

Magento vs PrestaShop

osCommerce vs Magento – Who Are They?

These are 2 familiar names among eCommerce businesses. Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses that you can consider carefully to make a decision.

About Magento

Without a doubt, Magento is popular when it comes to eCommerce platforms. Magento is an open-source platform written by PHP, helping to create an eCommerce website with all necessary functions quickly.

This platform was first developed by Varien in 2007. And this platform is one of the most popular source codes on Zend Framework today. For over a decade, Magento has grown and become a common name, a heavyweight competitor in the eCommerce field.

Magento is arguably the best e-commerce framework currently, with nearly 200.000 currently live websites created, more than 750.000 websites totally, and about 2.5 million downloads.

At present, Magento offers 2 editions with 3 pricing plans, one of which is free of charge, the other 2 are charged plans based on annual gross sales revenue, which we will mention later in this blog:

Magento Community Edition (Magento Open Source)

Magento Enterprise Edition (Magento Commerce)

Magento Commerce Cloud

About osCommerce

OsCommerce is one of the long-lasting eCommerce platforms. It was started in March 2000 in Germany by project founder and leader Harald Ponce de Leon. OsCommerce stands for open-source commerce, written in PHP, like Magento.

OsCommerce is more familiar with the US and European businesses. According to Built With, nearly 50.000 live websites are developing based on osCommerce, and around 235.000 websites in total, including sites that used the platform historically.

For 21 years of development, osCommerce has proved itself fierce and has become a popular name for businesses. Currently, osCommerce has more than 9.000 free add-ons uploaded by the community; hence, businesses can easily customize their store.

Currently, osCommerce is under new management with significant adjustments to perform better in the future. You can look forward to this new development in 2021.

osCommerce Vs Magento – Detailed Comparison

In this section, we will compare osCommerce vs Magento in various aspects for your better understanding of these 2 platforms’ functionalities, performances, pricing, etc. Thenceforth, you can easily choose the most suitable one for your business.

Features

Magento is famous for containing robust features to build an eCommerce website. It includes both B2B and B2C features in a single installation. Hence, users can develop both kinds of business on one interface.

Top Magento’s features list:

High scalability

Reliable security

Support multi-store in one installation

Effective content management

Multiple gateways support

Excellent search engine optimization abilities

Fully responsive, mobile-friendly

Analytics and reporting

Customer segment

B2B functionalities: company account, quote, quick order, shared catalog, requisition list, purchase order (only available for Magento Enterprise Edition)

osCommerce only has basic features, enough to develop an eCommerce site. To optimize the online store, users need to download add-ons, which will support additional features. Moreover, osCommerce is disadvantageous compared to Magento as its B2B features are not so powerful.

Top osCommerce’s features list:

Tax handling

Customer management

Smooth payment processing

Multi-currency and multi-language support

Orders processing

Catalog management

Categories-to-categories and products-to-categories structure

Design

>>> Curious about Magento 2 Design? CHECK: How to Configure Magento 2 Design?

In terms of appearance and design, Magento might be the winner. Both platforms are developed with excellent designs that might catch customer attention at first sight. However, the problem lies in the ease of modification.

Magento is designed with a beautiful appearance. Notably, it is also effortless to customize the design with professional assistance. Therefore, users can quickly transform the default design in their favor, expressing their uniqueness of the store, not to mention there are thousands of ready-made Magento themes developed by third parties.

On the other hand, it is quite a difficult task to customize osCommerce’s design. Although it still has a great default appearance; however, users don’t like the difficulty when they want to change the design based on their demands.

Hosting

There is an advantage of both platforms in hosting, which is the freedom to host your online store. Unlike some other platforms that require complete management from the provider, like Salesforce, Magento and osCommerce are self-hosted. This means that users will get complete control over their online store.

Although this will bring a minor drawback that users won’t have a guarantee from the developer, especially a security guarantee, users can hire a professional to develop the platform and customize the store based on their requirement. This can outweigh the disadvantage.

Nevertheless, there is a difference between these 2 platforms. For the website to operate smoothly, it is required to have Dedicated Server or Virtual Private Server for Magento. Meanwhile, with good hosting and reliable functionality, osCommerce doesn’t need such a server as long as it supports quality PHP and an exceptional MySQL database.

Ease of Use

In terms of ease of use, osCommerce is better than Magento, we suppose. Magento is told to be complicated to develop. Especially for newcomers that haven’t gained or gained a little experience, Magento is quite challenging to deal with. It requires practical knowledge and a deep understanding of documents.

Recently, Magento has developed the platform to become simpler to use. The latest edition is the simplest, with significant modifications, useful toolkits and features to support the store building. If you still run into difficulties when developing, there is massive community support that can assist you. This will be mentioned later in this blog post.

On the contrary, osCommerce is relatively user-friendly. It makes it much simpler to build a website and maintain it with essential tools. You just have to integrate the osCommerce software into any web server with PHP and MySQL.

SEO

>>> CANNOT MISS THIS: How To Enable Canonical URLs Magento SEO Guide!

Magento SEO performance is more outstanding compared to osCommerce. The platform is highly search-engine optimizable. At default, Magento contains various SEO features that will be helpful for your marketing strategies.

Magento SEO features list:

Meta tags for homepage, product and catalog pages

Images optimization

SEO-friendly URLs

HTML & XML sitemap

Canonical tags

Robots.txt & meta robots

Advanced layered navigation optimization

Google Analytics & Google Adwords integration

Meanwhile, such SEO features are not supported by osCommerce default. To optimize search engines while using osCommerce, users need to install add-ons and extensions. This is less convenient than using Magento, which enables users to integrate SEO techniques into their storefronts.

Customizability

Both platforms enable users to easily customize their online store as they are all open-source and self-hosted platforms. Hence, users can freely develop and customize their store in their favor, not limited to the provider’s management. In other words, 100% control will be on store owners.

However, we guess that Magento is a little more customizable than osCommerce. Magento contains a large number of features that might not be available in other eCommerce systems. These features might not be supported in the free version, but they can be accessed through the paid version.

And for osCommerce, it is not as customizable as Magento due to the small number of default features. If users need to optimize their online stores, plugins are required.

Mobile Capabilities

Magento, at default, is mobile-friendly and responsive. This means that it can be displayed on multiple devices without any integrations, and of course, no additional fees are required. For that reason, the mobile experience of users will be enhanced.

In terms of osCommerce, it is also mobile-friendly for users. However, it is required to download and integrate an application on the marketplace into an already responsive store. Despite the free-of-charged application, it is pretty time-consuming to install and continuously upgrade the store.

Extensions & Integrations

Magento’s Marketplace

>>> CANNOT OVERLOOK: Here Is Magento 2 Extension Tutorial to Customize Your Site!

Magento is still the winner in terms of extensions and integrations. There are nearly 4.000 extensions in the marketplace and hundreds of thousands of plugins developed by a large number of Magento service providers. Such plugins are available in both free and paid versions.

For that reason, Magento users can freely choose the best extensions, customize and optimize their online store perfectly.

OsCommerce’s Marketplace

But osCommerce is also no joke in this aspect. osCommerce has more than 9.000 free add-ons, a huge number of extensions compared to other platforms, we suppose. Besides, osCommerce has developed many applications to support various features in terms of, to name but a few:

Payment

Shipping

Order processing

Templates

Features

Languages

When using the osCommerce platform, extensions and integrations are essential. Because osCommerce has limited default features; thus, it depends much on the add-ons for website optimization.

Support

There is one main reason why Magento is so popular in the eCommerce market. It’s because of the huge and highly active global community size. Magento’s “army” has more than 300.000 developers worldwide with many years of experience and knowledge.

Not only that, Magento has a massive global network of 1.300 partners, both technology and solution partners, always available wherever your business is operating. Also, Magento Commerce supports its customers 24/7 through live chat, phone support, email, and vast community forum.

Therefore, Magento users don’t have to worry as there are professionals who support them anytime at any place if they demand.

OsCommerce’s Support

Different from Magento, osCommerce supports its users through an inquiry system on the forum, which only requires them to register for a free account. This method is quite convenient for users, but it takes time. Customers will have to wait for responses from the provider.

But suppose osCommerce users need direct and immediate supports. In that case, osCommerce also has a Live Chat room that enables users to directly connect to the community, which has over 350.000 members, 1.7 million postings.

Although osCommerce’s community size is not as large as Magento, osCommerce tries to provide the best platform and excellent support to satisfy customers.

Pricing

Gross Sales RevenueMagento Commerce (Enterprise Edition)Magento Commerce Cloud Less than $1 million$22.000$40.000 $1 million - $5 million$32.000$55.000 $5 million - $10 million$49.000$80.000 $10 million - $25 million$75.000$120.000 $25 million - $50 million$125.000$190.000

Magento offers 2 editions and 3 pricing plans for its users. The Magento Community Edition (CE), free of charge, is quite suitable for SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprises) that demand a low budget and less inventory.

On the other hand, Magento Commerce, including Magento Enterprise Edition (EE) and Magento Commerce Cloud, charges its users based on the annual average gross sales revenue. Both plans contain premium features that are perfect options for large enterprises for large inventory, complicated sales processes.

osCommerce platform is initially free, which is open for every business. But due to a small number of default features and a self-hosting platform, as we have mentioned, users have to pay for additional solutions and hosting services.

In general, Magento is more costly than osCommerce. Therefore, osCommerce is more suitable for SMEs.

osCommerce Vs Magento – Why You Should Consider Magento over osCommerce?

Both platforms have their pros and cons. The answer of which one is suitable for your business depends primarily on various aspects, namely, business size, business field, function, size of inventory, budget, etc.

But there are several reasons why you should consider using Magento rather than osCommerce to build your eCommerce store:

Powerful Functionalities

Magento, without a doubt, contains robust functionalities. It is definitely the winner in comparison with osCommerce on the same aspect. It supports built-in features for both B2C and B2B online stores. Users can manage both business fields on the same server.

Notably, with Page Builder, Magento allows admins to develop outstanding and logically structured content to catch customer attention. Other tools such as analytics, reporting, SEO, multi-store management are also the strength of Magento, a weakness for osCommerce.

Various Payment Methods

Magento allows its users to offer many payment methods, which is quite convenient for their customers to make a payment. Also, it is easy for store owners to offer discounts through coupons, loyalty and rewards programs, etc. On the other hand, osCommerce does not have such things.

Community Size

Magento’s community size is much larger than osCommerce. It has a massive global network that enables users to seek help at any place. While osCommerce offers support via an inquiry system, Magento supports its users on various methods and a full-time basis.

No-limit customization capabilities

Magento is more customizable than osCommerce, with a large number of built-in features and a massive marketplace of extensions and integrations to help enhance the shopping experience.

Conclusion

>>> CHECK NOW More Magento Tutorial Blogs on Mageguides to Better Your Website!

Above is our comparison between Magento and os Commerce in detail. We also recommend you using Magento for several reasons to make your eCommerce business succeed.

For the best outcomes, Magento is highly recommended for all types of business, regardless of small-medium enterprises or large enterprises, B2B or B2C business. And osCommerce is commonly used for SMEs.

We hope that you will find this blog post helpful for your success. If you want us to develop other competitions regarding the topic, please comment in the section below. We will respond as soon as possible.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post OsCommerce Vs Magento – A Battle Between 2 Leading Platforms appeared first on Mageguides.

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Magento Vs Demandware (Salesforce Commerce Cloud): Which Is Better?

Magento vs Demandware is the next competition that we want to analyze in detail.

In the development of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, the world of technology has changed so quickly. For that reason, businesses are seeking chances to move from offline to online, creating the highest convenience for customers.

Thenceforth, there are so many platforms in the market, making it difficult for businesses to decide which one is their perfect option. Among those options, Magento and Demandware are 2 names that we cannot overlook.

In this blog post, we want to compare Magento vs Demandware to help you choose the most suitable platform.

We also have delivered other competitions that you may feel interested in:

Odoo vs Magento

Magento vs Laravel

Magento vs PrestaShop

Magento Vs Demandware – Have You Known Them?

About Magento

Magento might be more familiar among online businesses. Initially published in 2008, Magento has been developed for over a decade. It is an open-source platform written in PHP. So far, Magento has powered more than 250.000 websites worldwide, with over 2.5 million times of download.

Magento is an e-commerce platform that includes features built on open source technology to provide online sellers with flexibility and control through interfaces, content and functions of an e-commerce store.

Magento intuitively administers powerful marketing features, search engine optimization, and catalog-management tools that help salespeople create their sites according to unique business needs. Designed to be scalable, the Magento CE version provides businesses with a customized, secure and stable e-commerce solution.

Currently, Magento offers 2 editions: Magento Community Edition (FREE) and Magento Commerce. Besides, Magento Commerce has 2 pricing plans, based on the sales revenue, which we will mention in detail later.

About Demandware (Salesforce Commerce Cloud)

Founded in 2004, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, Demandware originally is a software technology company that delivers a cloud-based centralized eCommerce platform. It contains mobile, AI personalization, order management functionalities, and related services for B2C, B2B merchants, and brand manufacturers worldwide.

In 2016, Salesforce acquired Demandware for $2.8 billion and subsequently renamed the company Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Now, Demandware (Salesforce Commerce Cloud) is a part of Salesforce’s Intelligent Customer Success Platform.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) eCommerce technology that helps businesses develop and optimize their online stores by providing high scalability, out-of-the-box features and accessibility.

With built-in B2C functionalities, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is one of the best options for retailers. Notably, it has recently launched the B2B Commerce Cloud. Hence, Salesforce Commerce Cloud can target both retail and wholesale businesses, and it can be a redoubtable opponent for Magento.

Magento Vs Demandware – Detailed Comparison

Between 2 leading platforms Magento and Demandware, you may wonder which one you should choose to accelerate your business. Then, this section will give you further information about these 2 rivals in various aspects: Functionality, hosting, customization, support, pricing, etc.

Functionality

Both platforms provide robust functionalities for eCommerce websites to perform outstandingly. However, there are some critical differences in terms of their key features. Let’s find out!

Merchandising Capabilities

Magento is relatively strong in merchandising. It supports multiple product types, configuration and many other aspects, such as:

Supporting a lot of product types: simple, grouped, bundles, configurable, virtual, downloadable, gift card).

Easily customizing product types

Assigning multiple levels for different customer groups

Adapting different parts in the front-end to many customer segments

Ability to create gift registries

Content presentation and preview

Promotions, private sales and events

Product recommendations: cross-sells, up-sells, related products

In merchandising, both platforms have similarities. Like Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud also supports complicated product types. Some of Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s key features in merchandising:

Supporting multiple complex product types

Visual merchandising: Sorting with drag-n-drop positioning

Scheduling tasks (new products launching)

Advanced promotions

Creating multiple catalogs

Multiple layers of personalization

One of the weaknesses of Salesforce Commerce Cloud is B2B features. Although it has launched B2B Commerce Cloud, its core competency is mainly B2C retailers. Therefore, Magento might be the winner in this aspect.

Content Management

In terms of content management, we guess that Magento is the winner over Demandware. With the recent publication of Page Builder 2.3, Magento is really strong in this area. Based on available templates and blocks, Page Builder enables admins to create content effectively. In this way, merchants can utilize pre-built components to customize their content.

On the contrary, Salesforce Commerce Cloud used to be weak in the area. Previously, this was not an effective platform to develop and manage content. However, there will be an improvement when new features (a new drag-n-drop page builder solution) will be added.

Loyalty & Rewards

Businesses when using Magento will be provided with optimal features to boost customer experience and retain customers through loyalty and rewards programs. Magento supports developing such programs with reward points, private and flash sales, and other modules like store credits, multiple wish lists, gifting options, etc.

Unlike Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud does not support similar features to build loyalty and reward programs. Instead, you need to purchase tools developed by its partners in the marketplace.

Return Management Authorization (RMA)

Both Magento and Demandware can support online businesses in terms of return management. If Salesforce Commerce Cloud has native capabilities, Magento offers a module to smoothen the return process.

With Magento’s RMA module, you can have a basic workflow to manage the process effectively. Also, you can create and assign specific roles for multiple admins. Thenceforth, you can restrict access to the function based on the assigned roles.

Omni-channel Capabilities

Omni-channel is a multi-channel approach to marketing, selling and serving customers in a way that creates an integrated experience, no matter where the customer is, when and which channel is used. Omni-channel is a prominent trend in marketing that many businesses are researching and implementing.

The Magento Commerce Order Management solution has recently been developed to help merchants manage their multiple channels efficiently, combining brick-and-mortar and click-to-mortar stores; hence, customers can buy anywhere they want. Magento’s solution has received lots of positive comments from actual users, despite the high charges.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud also combines eCommerce and offline store in one SaaS solution. This means that store owners can implement services such as pick up from the store, ship from the store, making customers more flexible in shopping.

Commerce Insights

>>> CANNOT MISS 5 Minutes to Master in Using Magento 2 Business Intelligence Tools!

How can Magento and Demandware investigate customer insights?

While Demandware uses Einstein to go into customer behaviors, Magento gets customer insights via Adobe Sensei. Utilizing Adobe Sensei’s strengths, Magento can develop personalized product recommendations, deliver and enhance customers’ relevant experiences.

For Salesforce Commerce Cloud, it tries to understand customer demands via Einstein, which provides machine learning, detailed reporting and personalization to gather insights.

B2B Features

The last aspect that we cannot overlook is the B2B features. Magento Enterprise Edition supports built-in B2B features, namely, company account, quote, shared catalog, quick order, requisition list, purchase order.

Note: Only the Magento Enterprise Edition supports B2B features at default. If you are using the Community versions, purchasing additional B2B extensions is needed.

Meanwhile, B2B is not a strength for Salesforce Commerce Cloud. B2B features supported by the default are limited. Some features we can mention are, for instance, a custom catalog, quote, purchase orders. For that reason, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is more common for B2C.

Hosting

Magento is a self-hosted platform or an on-premise, which means that store owners have complete control over the website. If they are not skillful enough to develop the website, they need to hire professionals. It seems complicated and costly to maintain; nevertheless, store owners can freely manage their stores and add more functions to the site.

Recently, Magento has tried to develop the platform as a cloud-based solution to solve some drawbacks. But it is still on the way to be completely reliable.

Unlike Magento, Demandware is a cloud-hosted platform that is developed and managed by the Salesforce team. This is also an advantage for Salesforce Commerce Cloud and its users as they are provided with a guarantee over the web’s performance, even a security guarantee.

But it is not always beneficial for users. Compared to Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s users’ flexibility might be limited due to the access restriction and the source code. Consequently, it’s hard for users to customize their site to specific demands flexibly.

Integrations & Extensions

Without a doubt, Magento is famous for its integrations and extensions. In addition to its own marketplace with nearly 4.000 extensions, there are thousands of integrations, extensions and themes developed by countless Magento service providers.

In terms of integrations and extensions, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is in a more disadvantageous position. Similar to Magento, it is extensible; but for all that, it supports fewer integrations, which are pretty expensive in general.

Community Support

Magento indeed takes the lead when it comes to community support. All over the world, there is a considerable number of highly experienced and certified Magento developers as well as Magento agencies.

To be exact, Magento is supported by a massive global network with over 1.150 solution and technology partners, 3.000 developers, not to mention many Magento forums that Magento users can search for to timely solve issues.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s community is smaller than Magento. Also, there are not as many skillful developers as Magento’s. Although Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s agencies might be more prominent in size; nevertheless, this can be a con depending on customers’ demands.

Pricing

Gross Sales RevenueMagento Commerce (Enterprise Edition)Magento Commerce Cloud Less than $1 million$22.000$40.000 $1 million - $5 million$32.000$55.000 $5 million - $10 million$49.000$80.000 $10 million - $25 million$75.000$120.000 $25 million - $50 million$125.000$190.000

Magento offers 2 editions and 3 pricing plans for all types of business, from SMEs to large-sized enterprises. Magento Community Edition is the only version that is FREE of charge with free program codes, which is quite suitable and affordable for SMEs.

Magento Commerce charges users based on their annual gross revenue, inversely proportional. Details are presented in the table above, starting at about $22.000 per year, a one-time payment. If you are a newcomer, you can make a payment monthly during the first year of usage.

For that reason, we suppose that these 2 editions are more suitable for large enterprises due to the high cost with more premium features to meet the requirement of more enormous inventory, more complicated sales process, and others.

Recently, Salesforce Commerce Cloud has changed its pricing policy, including 3 core packages: Starter, Growth and Unlimited or Plus for both B2B and B2C Commerce. This enables Salesforce Commerce Cloud to compete with its rivals like Magento, Shopify, etc.

Salesforce pricing is developed following the GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) model. To get the ownership, users have to pay an amount of cost that accounts for 2-3% of GMV, depending on which price tier they chose.

 B2C Commerce - StarterB2C Commerce - GrowthB2C Commerce - Plus Number of sites15Unlimited Number of price books210Unlimited On-demand Sandbox750K credits1.2M credits2.0M credits Fee1% GMV2% GMV>2% GMV

In general, Magento charges lower fees for its plans. Meanwhile, Salesforce’s pricing is much higher and more complicated. The cost of using Salesforce Commerce Cloud might be five times higher than Magento.

Magento Vs Demandware (Salesforce Commerce Cloud) – Who Wins?

Back to the main question: “Magento vs Demandware – Who is the winner?” We cannot have a fixed answer as the winner depends on the users’ demands and requests for business type, business field, function, size, and many others.

For example, if you want to run a B2B2C business, accessing both B2B and B2C on the same site, Magento should be your top option with robust built-in B2B features. But if you only want to target B2C retailers, either of the 2 platforms is fine.

The table below summarizes all pros and cons of both Magento and Demandware (Salesforce Commerce Cloud).

 MagentoDemandware (Salesforce Commerce Cloud) Pros

Support multi-stores with only one installation

Built-in B2B and B2B2C functionalities

Unlimited customization capabilities

Effective content management with Page Builder

Lower cost of ownership

Massive community support with a large number of partners and developers

SaaS-based platform with the guarantee policy from Salesforce

Powerful merchandising functionality

Effective catalog management

Personalization and machine learning

Effective omnichannel solution

Cons

Complicated and time-consuming to develop

Technical skills and experiences required

Limited B2B functionalities

Small community support

Fewer integrations

Limited customization due to complete management of Salesforce

Final Thoughts

>>> CHECK FOR MORE Magento Tutorials on Mage Guides to Better Magento Websites!

Above is our detailed comparison between Magento vs Demandware. Both platforms have their advantages and drawbacks. Therefore, we suggest analyzing and considering your online business demands and choosing the most suitable platform to power your business successfully.

If you want us to deliver other competitions, please comment in the section below. We will respond as soon as possible.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post Magento Vs Demandware (Salesforce Commerce Cloud): Which Is Better? appeared first on Mageguides.

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A Fierce Ecommerce Race Between Magento Vs Laravel – Who Wins?

Magento Vs Laravel? Anyone who is considering these 2 platforms need to read this blog right now.

When building an eCommerce website, first thing first, choosing the most suitable platform is the top of mind. It will affect your later business performance. For that reason, businesses usually spend lots of their time find the right platform.

Continue with our blog series. Today, we want to give you a detailed comparison between Magento Vs Laravel.

Now, let’s begin!

Magento Vs Laravel – A Brief Introduction

About Magento

Magento is considered the leading eCommerce platform, with more than 250,000 websites worldwide, approximately 2.5 million downloads. Initially released in 2008, Magento is an open-source platform written in PHP. Magento is familiar among eCommerce businesses, favored by most programmers.

Over a decade, Magento has proved itself in the market, providing enormous businesses with the best and modern method to succeed in the field and generate more revenue.

Magento offers 3 editions: Magento 2 Community Edition (CE), Magento 2 Enterprise Edition (EE), Magento Commerce Cloud. Among which, the first edition is FREE of charge; the other 2 are charged editions. If you want an edition with a full list of premium features, please consider Magento 2 Enterprise Edition or Magento Commerce Cloud.

>>> CHECK 6 Differences Between Magento 2 Enterprise Edition and Community Edition!

About Laravel

Published a little later than Magento, but Laravel also gained its place in the market. Like Magento, it is also an open-source PHP web framework, focusing on developing web applications following the model-view-controller (MVC).

For a better understanding, a framework acts quite similar to a platform. However, a small difference is that a framework contains pre-built components that when building a website, a framework enables developers to complete a project more quickly, without redeveloping functions.

According to research, there are nearly 680.000 live websites that are using Laravel. Notably, Laravel has received prizes being one of the most popular frameworks in various countries, namely, Palestine, Mongolia, Georgia, Nepal, etc.

For that reason, Laravel is developing strongly, proving that it is a formidable competitor of Magento.

So, between these 2 robust and common platforms, which one should you choose? Scroll down to our detailed comparison for a better understanding.

Magento Vs Laravel – What Are The Differences?

This section will compare Magento vs Laravel from various perspectives, including usability, complexity, performance and scalability, pricing, community support, and many more.

Usability (Features)

Both Magento and Laravel contain a considerable number of powerful features to create an eCommerce website in any business field.

Magento and Laravel feature list:

MagentoLaravel Catalog managementProduct Filters Content managementOnline payment gateways Marketing supportResponsive website Cart & checkoutSingle-page checkout Order managementCoupons & discounts Customer managementRatings & Reviews Store managementSEO-friendly System managementAndroid mobile app Analytics & reportingMulti-level categories Bulk email/newsletter Product comparison

For Magento, those above are only basic features. Besides, there are many supporting features and additional features provided by enormous extensions, which we will mention later.

And for Laravel PHP Framework, Laravel also offers a massive ecosystem with Laravel products and integrations to add more optimal features.

Therefore, in this perspective, this is an equally competitive race.

Code Complexity

Magento has been developed for over a decade; hence, it has gone through updating, modification, and correction several times. Because of this, the code has become more and more complex. Consequently, developers find it challenging to read, decode, and fault investigation or troubleshooting of the code, especially code written by someone else.

At first, Magento is quite an easy-to-use platform. But due to the code complexity, it has overshadowed such an advantage, making Magento slow and redundant.

In contrast, Laravel, with its MVC architecture, seems to be easier for developers in terms of code structure and management. Laravel uses PHP-based syntax and ORM (Object Relational Mapping)-based coding, making the database operations much more manageable. Furthermore, developers can quickly read codes written by others and timely fix issues.

All in all, in terms of code complexity, Laravel outperforms Magento.

Extensions & Integrations

Magento’s Marketplace

>>> FOR MORE DETAIL: Here Is Magento 2 Extension Tutorial to Customize Your Site!

We suppose that Magento is the winner in terms of extensions and integrations. Perhaps no one can beat Magento in this aspect. Magento marketplace is so huge, containing nearly 3.800 extensions and integrations developed by Magento’s partners.

Each extension and integration will offer an additional feature to the Magento default. When searching on the internet for the Magento extension with the wanted feature, countless results will appear. Besides extensions in the marketplace, there are a lot more modules provided by third parties.

Laravel’s Ecosystem

Compared to Magento, Laravel’s extensions are quite limited. There are several extensions from some third parties available. But instead, Laravel has an ecosystem with various products, integrations.

Some outstanding products or integrations can be mentioned:

Vapor: Serverless platform

Forge: Server management

Envoyer: Zero downtime deployment

Horizon: Queue monitoring

Nova: Administration panel

Echo: Realtime events

Lumen: Micro-framework

Cashier: Subscription billing integration

Dusk: Browser testing and automation

Telescope: Debug assistant

Security

Security is considered one of the essential factors when choosing a platform. No one wants their website to easily get hacked, which is extremely dangerous for both businesses and customers.

Though Magento had to deal with security breaches in the past, after several updates, it becomes robust in terms of security. One of its core updates is releasing independent security patches, making it a perfect option for eCommerce security.

But Laravel also guarantees to secure its users. When using Laravel, the store owner can be sure about the PHP framework’s web application security. Besides, the use of hashtags, Bcrypt Hashtag Algorithm and passwords work to prevent eCommerce sites from being hacked.

Pricing

Gross Sales RevenueMagento Commerce (Enterprise Edition)Magento Commerce Cloud Less than $1 million$22.000$40.000 $1 million - $5 million$32.000$55.000 $5 million - $10 million$49.000$80.000 $10 million - $25 million$75.000$120.000 $25 million - $50 million$125.000$190.000

Magento Commerce provides users with three different pricing plans for different needs. If your business is small to medium-sized, then the Magento Community Edition is for you. You are provided with the most basic functions to set up the online shop at this price plan, both for website and mobile. 

When your business wants to further customize the shop and add scalability for the long term, Magento Enterprise Edition and Magento Commerce Cloud should be ideal. Based on the revenue of your store, the detailed pricing plan is stated in the table above.

Laravel Ecommerce, on the other hand, is a one-time purchase plan, so you can comfortably develop your shop without having to worry about monthly recurring payments.

Laravel pricing plan starts at $499 for Laravel Lite, and Laravel Smart price is available based on each enterprise’s needs. Laravel Lite is perfect for anyone looking to integrate essential functions to their web store, such as product filters, payment gateways, etc. And this pricing plan also gives you access to three months of technical support for free.

Moving up the ladder, Laravel Smart includes all of the Laravel Lite features. It provides you with additional payment gateways, a front-end store available, custom design, an independent admin panel, and iOS Mobile Applications. And for the Laravel Smart plan, you would need to contact the vendor to customize your specific needs and custom quote.

Support

When it comes to choosing the best Ecommerce solutions, developers’ availability is a critical factor to consider. With ready-made ecommerce solutions, many people realized that their choice does not fit their needs and requirements when it’s too late.

Therefore, developing your application with the features you want is the ideal approach, but not everyone can code and customize, so they need to ask for help from developers. And some platforms have different developers’ availability and can significantly affect how you can set up your shop.

Magento is one of the longest-standing PHP development platforms. Therefore, the support and availability of developers are undeniably higher than that of Laravel. With large communities and forums being actively contributed by senior developers, Magento community supports can help you through any issues and problems you may have during development.

Furthermore, the number of Magento developers for hire is also higher than Laravel due to its popularity (300.000 developers and 258 partners). Therefore, the pay grade of these developers is also much more reasonable.

However, Laravel is still a viable option for you if you can allocate the budget to hire PHP experts with experience and knowledge in MVC platforms to provide them with training on Laravel and learn the technology.

Magento Vs Laravel – Which One Is Better?

>>> DISCOVER Another eCommerce Competition Between Odoo Vs Magento!

So the question is, which one is better? We guess that it depends on specific demands, business size, type, and field.

With a vast supporting community and developers’ availability, robust and premium features, Magento might be more suitable for medium to large-size enterprises. Such enterprises have a huge inventory, high budget and advanced technical skills to deal with complicated coding.

Because of its advantages, such as ORM-based data, simple coding style, MVC architecture, and Laravel, Laravel is also the best-preferred open-source platform. Laravel is well-known mostly among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with low budgets but still want to find a good enough framework to build an eCommerce site.

Final Thoughts

>>> CHECK More Magento Tutorial Blogs on Mageguides to Configure Your Store!

Above is our comparison between Magento vs Laravel in detail. Through this blog post,  we hope that you can choose the most suitable platform for your business.

If you want us to compare Magento with any other platform, please comment in the section below. We will provide as soon as possible.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post A Fierce Ecommerce Race Between Magento Vs Laravel – Who Wins? appeared first on Mageguides.

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Odoo vs Magento: Which One Is Better to Build An Ecommerce Site?

Odoo vs Magento: Which one is better? This is a hard question for those who are finding the right platform to build an eCommerce website.

As the eCommerce industry is so developing that so many platforms are available in the market, it is difficult for newcomers to choose their “Mr.Right”. But don’t worry!

From now on, we want to develop blog series comparing platforms with each other. We have talked much about Magento. But is it really useful in comparison with others? Let’s find out in this series, starting with a comparison between Odoo vs Magento.

Let’s begin!

About Magento & Odoo

>>> Read Later: Magento vs. PrestaShop – Which One Is Your Right?

Magento eCommerce platform might be familiar among online businesses. It is an open-source platform written in PHP. Published in 2008, for over a decade of development, Magento has offered a modern and effective method for businesses to adapt to the industry’s continuous changes and generate more revenue.

At present, with over 250,000 users worldwide, Magento has earned its place in the sun and is considered one of the leading platforms.

As eCommerce is developing rapidly, many other platforms have entered the fierce competition face with Magento. Released in 2005, Odoo is formerly known as an OpenERP with a focus on ERP solutions. However, to expand the business, in 2014, the company changed its name to Odoo as a business application suite.

And currently, along with other platforms, especially Magento, Odoo is a powerful rival. It has gained an army of supporters with its integrated business management software, including so many tools such as CRM, eCommerce, billing, accounting, inventory management, to name but a few.  Now, there are more than 7.300 Odoo apps available.

Both Magento and Odoo have their strengths and weaknesses. Let’s clarify those in different categories to make a decision.

Comparison Between Odoo vs Magento

Features (Usability)

In terms of features and functionalities, both are powerful to help create an eCommerce store.

Magento is well known for its wide range of top-notch features. Each feature serves the specific demands of the eCommerce industry in all aspects:

Customer segmentation

Persistent shopping

Private sales

Dynamic rule-based product relations

Automatic email reminder

But features available in Magento default are not enough to optimize the website. That’s why, along with setting up the platform, businesses also buy and download extensions to obtain additional functionalities, especially for the backend. But there’s no need to worry as Magento has thousands of premade solutions with various features in the market.

At first, Odoo introduced itself as an all-in-one solution. The software is fully integrated to solve problems related to CRM, accounting, analytics, inventory, and many more, and users don’t have to download any additional module. Hence, it might overcome Magento’s limitations.

However, Magento can still be the winner in terms of features as it is entirely designed for eCommerce purposes. Online retailers should consider Magento as the top priority.

Ease of Use

>>> Check It Out: Magento Frontend Developer Guide – The Key To Business Success!

Ease of use is what we want to mention first. An easy-to-use platform is a top of mind of many businesses that are seeking an optimal platform.

In this perspective, Odoo is more advantageous than Magento. Beginners usually struggle when using Magento. Magento requires developers to look up related documents and deeply understand how it works. Not only that, developers should have experience and technical skills to deal with this platform.

Unlike Magento, Odoo apps are relatively easy to set up. Businesses can effortlessly create an eCommerce website by taking advantage of Odoo apps. Also, Odoo has designed simple drag and drop building blocks that enable businesses to build up their own eCommerce website even with no experts.

SEO

>>> Cannot Miss: How To Enable Canonical URLs Magento SEO Guide?

Magento is famous as an SEO-friendly platform. According to research from the Ecommerce Platform, Magento has received a relatively high SEO score, 95/100. This means that Magento’s SEO capabilities are highly appreciated.

Using Magento, users are provided with various tools to drive more traffic to their sites, making their websites rank higher on the search engines. Besides, the platform has a wide range of SEO settings like image optimization, meta tags for products, analytics to keep track of visitors, etc.

Odoo is also an excellent platform when it comes to SEO. It’s even better than the default Magento by supporting inline SEO suggestions and including an in-built link tracker feature.

Pricing

Magento Community Edition (CE) is FREE of charge. This version is fairly suitable for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with free program codes. In addition, Magento offers 2 charged versions: Magento Enterprise Edition (EE) and Magento Commerce Cloud (CC), with more premium features.

We suggest medium to large enterprises use one of the 2 charged versions. Despite the high pricing, businesses are provided with more advanced functionalities, added customization options, and support to a broader extent. But of course, it costs more if businesses buy additional extensions for their websites.

Odoo also offers 2 versions: open-source and paid version. The Paid version’s price varies as it is based on the number of users and which features they use. Each feature starts from $4/user/month. But before that, you will have a free trial in 15 days.

Community Support

Despite the difficulties, Magento has an extensive global network with a vast community of support. There are around 300.000 Magento developers and 258 partners worldwide available to help develop the platform and timely resolve issues.

The community support of Odoo is a little narrower. With just approximately 20.000 developers and still counting, it’s relatively challenging for Odoo compared with Magento. Nevertheless, Odoo is developing day by day. With around 5 million users globally, we have the basis to believe that Odoo will be more accessible in the near future.

Integrations & Extensions

As we have mentioned, Magento has a wide range of extensions (around 3.700 modules) developed by various technology partners worldwide. If you search Magento extension for a specific feature on Google, countless results will appear with both free and paid options.

Different from Magento, Odoo offers all available features for users to choose from freely. But it is also possible for store owners to use additional systems from other providers. But due to the complication, they might need professionals when integrating third-party solutions into the store.

Odoo vs Magento – Which One is Better?

There is no fixed answer. The answer to such a question depends on your demands and expectations. Both platforms are undeniably robust and effective to build an eCommerce website.

Odoo’s powerful functionalities might be more suitable for SMEs rather than large enterprises. However, it supports businesses in different business fields, including eCommerce. But please remember that Odoo is strong at ERP, so you can consider utilizing its strength as much as possible in your business.

On the other hand, Magento is an eCommerce-focused platform. Therefore, Magento will enable eCommerce businesses to grow and expand thanks to its flexibility, scalability, various customization options, and a massive plugins marketplace. Overall, Magento is best suitable for medium to large-scale businesses with a huge inventory, large categories, high traffic, etc.

Undoubtedly, if you want to expand your online businesses, no matter which size it is, Magento should be at the top of your list.

Final Thoughts

>>> Click for more Magento tutorial blogs to optimize your site!

All in all, above is our detailed comparison between Odoo vs Magento platform. We hope that this blog post is helpful enough for you to easily choose the right one for your business.

If you need further information about these 2 platforms, or other platforms as well, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re glad to answer at any time.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post Odoo vs Magento: Which One Is Better to Build An Ecommerce Site? appeared first on Mageguides.

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How to Use Magento Fastly to Boost Your Magento 2 Performance?

Fastly in Magento (Magento Fastly, in other words) enables online businesses that use Magento to enhance customer experience and increase conversion rates by providing an edge cloud platform that offers security and delivery service at the network edge, which is closer to your customers.

But what exactly does Magento Fastly bring about? How is it beneficial for your business? This article provides all information to answer these questions. Later on, we will provide a detailed tutorial of how to set up Fastly for Magento stores.

Now, let’s get started!

About Fastly

>>> Cannot Miss: Magento vs. PrestaShop – Which One Is Your Right? Check Now!

Fastly, founded in 2011, is a cloud computing service provider. The core product of Fastly is the edge cloud platform designed for developers to expand their main cloud infrastructure to the network edge, making it as close to the users as possible, creating memorable experiences at a global scale.

Besides, Fastly also provides other excellent services: Content Delivery Network (CDN), image optimization, video & streaming, cloud security, to name but a few. All of which has satisfied businesses worldwide, which is proved by the following numbers:

More than 800 billion requests per day

Over 420 billion images optimized and delivered per month

More than 15 trillion log lines delivered per month

Over 70 million lines of edge code deployed

Over 95% customer satisfaction score

Fastly is what developers need to change the way the world experiences online websites to transform human lives in this 4.0 world.

Magento Fastly – What Does It Bring About?

Want to optimize your Magento storefront? No problem at all. Magento and Fastly have a longstanding relationship that brings about a powerful set of available features for you. Fastly edge cloud platform is a part of Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition technology stack, which will contribute to improving customer experience on an online website.

More specifically, Magento Fastly will be extremely advantageous for many reasons.

Improvement of Website & Mobile Performance

>>> Don’t Overlook This: Top 6 Killer Performance Tips For Magento 2 Developers!

Enhancing performance is extremely important in terms of the online sector. According to Google, 53% of customers will immediately leave a web page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. If that is the case, you will lose a large number of potential customers and consequently lose sales.

With Fastly, that will not happen. Fastly helps to fasten your Magento storefront’s web and mobile performance by doing full page caching at the edge. 

Better Inventory Management

>>> Read Later: How to Display Magento 2 Out Of Stock & Enable Stock Alert?

Out-of-stock items are what businesses want and don’t want. If an item is sold out, it means that their products are popular with their customers. But on the other hand, UPS research has shown that nearly 28% of customers will abandon their whole carts at checkout if they find out one of their target items is out of stock.

This situation is unavoidable but can be managed effectively. Fastly’s Instant Purge helps to manage inventory better. You can update content within 150 milliseconds globally. As a result, if there is any modification on your website, the Fastly Magento extension will instantly invalidate.

Storefront Management Simplification

You can simplify storefront management with a two-tier cache with Fastly, instead of having to manage multiple layers as previously. The dynamically positioned points of presence (POPs) network of Fastly serves content closer to your customers, while Fastly’s Origin Shield simplifies your origin requests.

Fastly’s UI for Magento also contains much more functionality, including end-user blocking, CORS header control, and integration with other content management systems such as WordPress to optimize your storefront.

High Conversion Rates

We have mentioned that Fastly also provides image optimization service, which contributes to improving conversion rates. Mainly due to the images, the website’s weight will be so large that it takes a lot of time to load. Sometimes, it will collapse and negatively affect engagement.

According to Splashlight, nearly 50% of U.S consumers consider high-quality product image one of the most influential factors in their decisions.

Fastly’s Image Optimizer helps to optimize the image on your site. It allows you to serve images more fastly and cost-effectively. You can also edit images, from cropping, resizing to adjusting quality, change orientations, and convert format on demand.

Always Available Storefront

Availability at any time is essential. Customers might feel frustrated if they cannot get access to your website when they want. And even worse, you will create an opportunity for your competitors to take your customers away.

You have to minimize downtime because of the enormous traffic as much as possible. And Fastly can help. Fastly’s high-performance network is developed to absorb traffic spikes but still protect your site from disruptive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks with unique Origin Shield features.

How to Set Up Fastly for Magento 2?

Magento Commerce Cloud requires Fastly, which is used in Staging and Production environments. It works with Varnish to provide rapid caching capabilities and a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for static assets.

To set up Magento 2 Fastly, please complete the following steps.

Get Fastly Credentials

Magento adds your project to the Fastly service account for Magento Commerce Cloud during project provisioning and creates Fastly account credentials for the Starter master and Pro Staging and Production environments. Each environment has different credentials.

Follow the following steps to view your Fastly credentials of each environment:

IaaS-mounted shared directory: On Pro projects, use SSH to connect to your server and get the Fastly credentials from the /mnt/shared/fastly_tokens.txt file. 

Local workspace: From the command line, use the Magento Cloud CLI to list and review Fastly environment variables.

magento-cloud variable:get -e <environment ID>

Project Web UI: Check the environment variables below in the Environment configuration variables section.

CONFIG__DEFAULT__SYSTEM__FULL_PAGE_CACHE__FASTLY__FASTLY_API_KEY CONFIG__DEFAULT__SYSTEM__FULL_PAGE_CACHE__FASTLY__FASTLY_SERVICE_ID

Upgrade Fastly Module

The Fastly CDN version for Magento 2 module needs to be the latest to enable Fastly caching at the next stage.

Change to the root directory of your Cloud environment.

Use Composer as follow to check the current module version:

composer show *fastly*

If the installed version is not the latest, upgrade the module.

In your local integration environment, use the information below to update the module:

module name: fastly/magento2 repository: https://github.com/fastly/fastly-magento2.git

Push your updates to the Staging environment.

Enable Fastly Caching

Prerequisites

Whether your Fastly CDN for Magento 2 module is the latest version or not. If not, please upgrade it.

Fastly credentials for Staging and Production environments.

Enable Fastly Caching

Log in to the Magento Admin UI

Go to Stores > Settings > Configuration > Advanced > System and expand Full Page Cache

In the Caching Application, untick the Use system value, then select Fastly CDN on the dropdown list like the image below.

Expand Fastly Configuration and select caching options.

After configuring, click on Save Config.

Clear the cache according to the notification.

Repeat the whole process if you want to continue configuring on-demand.

Test The Fastly Credentials

On the Magento Admin UI, go to Stores > Settings > Configuration > Advanced > System > Fastly Configuration.

Enter the Fastly service ID and API token values for your project environment.

Click on Test Credentials to start testing.

When the test succeeds, click on Save Config, then clear the cache.

Note:

If the test fails, please go back to Fastly Configuration and check whether the ID and API token values match the current environment’s credentials.

If the test fails again, please turn in a support ticket or contact your Customer Technical Advisor (CTA).

Go to Change Fastly credentials if you want to change the API token credential.

Upload VCL to Fastly

After enabling Fastly for Magento 2 module, you need to upload the default VCL code to the Fastly servers. This code offers a collection of VCL snippets that define configuration settings for your Magento Commerce Cloud to allow caching and other Fastly CDN services.

Go to Fastly Configuration.

Click Upload VCL to Fastly as following

When the upload is completed, refresh the cache according to the notification.

Provision SSL/TLS Certificates

Magento provides a Domain-Validated Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate for each Pro Production, Staging, and Starter Production environment to serve secure HTTPS traffic from Fastly.

To enable certificates for your environments, Magento automation completes the following:

Domain ownership validation.

A certificate protecting specified top-level and subdomains provision for your Magento stores.

Certificate uploading to the Cloud environment when the site is live.

Update DNS Configuration with Development Settings

However, DNS configuration needs to be updated for the automation above. When you update the configuration, Magento automatically provides the required certificates and uploads them to your Cloud environments. The process can last up to 12 hours.

Therefore, you need to update the DNS configuration several days beforehand to prevent delays.

Prerequisites

Fastly caching is enabled.

The VCL code has been uploaded.

Provision a list of top-level and subdomains for each environment to your CTA.

Receive confirmation that the specified domains have been added.

On Starter projects, add the domains to your Fastly service configuration.

Update DNS Configuration

Add CNAME records to point pre-production URLs to the Fastly service: prod.magentocloud.map.fastly.net.

Add ACME challenge CNAME records for domain validation and pre-provisioning of Production SSL/TLS certificates.

Update the Magento base URL:

Use SSH to sign in to the Production environment.

magento-cloud ssh

Use the Magento CLI to change the Magento base URL of your store.

php bin/magento setup:store-config:set --base-url="https://mcstaging.your-domain.com/"

Restart the web browser.

Test the website.

Test Fastly Caching

After updating the DNS configuration, you need to verify whether the Fastly cache works or not. To do this, we use the cURL command.

In a terminal, apply the following cURL command code line to test your live site:

curl -vo /dev/null -H Fastly-Debug:1 https://<live-URL>

In the response, please verify the headers. The following headers should appear in the response:

< Fastly-Magento-VCL-Uploaded: yes < X-Cache: HIT, MISS

Final Thoughts

>>> Check It Out: More Magento tutorial blogs to build up your Magento site!

That’s all we want to provide about Magento Fastly (Magento 2 Fastly) in this article. We hope that this tutorial blog will help you optimize your online store, improve customer experience, and gain more sales. If you want us to deliver more articles about related topics, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post How to Use Magento Fastly to Boost Your Magento 2 Performance? appeared first on Mageguides.

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Magento vs. PrestaShop – Which One Is Your Right? Check Now!

Magento and PrestaShop are 2 popular eCommerce platforms worldwide, along with Shopify, WooCommerce, etc. Therefore, when starting an online business, the question of which platform store owners should choose is quite tricky. Which one will suit your demands and needs to be the right platform for your eCommerce business?

To help you make a decision better, we will compare these 2 platforms, Magento vs. PrestaShop, in terms of various aspects, for example, designs, features, functionalities, pricing, etc.

Let’s get started!

About Magento & PrestaShop

>>> Cannot Miss This: Magento Vs Shopify – 2 Giants on the Ecommerce Platform Battle!

Both Magento PrestaShop are open-source eCommerce platforms that enable businesses to start and manage their websites effectively. These 2 platforms are the most commonly used in the world.

Magento, initially released in 2008, has empowered about 250,000 websites, accounting for approximately 12% of all online stores worldwide.

In terms of PrestaShop, it was first released in the same year as Magento. The platform has developed so far, and at present, is powering nearly 300,000 live sites.

All in all, Magento and PrestaShop are well-known platforms with similar popularity. Whether you want to build up an online store or migrate from another solution, these 2 platforms provide excellent solutions.

However, these 2 platforms have many differences in various factors, which we will clarify in the next sections:

Ease of use

Performance

Features

Support

Extensions

Security

Pricing

Magento vs. PrestaShop – What Are The Differences?

Ease of Use

Magento is not an easy game for beginners. To create a website on Magento platforms, you should read the official documents carefully and fully understand how Magento works, not to mention that you need some experiences and technical skills to use Magento without any trouble.

Even after installation, Magento is still complicated to operate. Therefore, if you are still new, hiring professional Magento developers or using PrestaShop is highly recommended.

Unlike Magento, PrestaShop is an easy-to-use platform. It is relatively easy to install even if you don’t have expert knowledge or experience at all.

Designs & Templates

>>> Have A Look: The Comparison Between Magento and WooCommerce!

Both Magento and PrestaShop themes are elegant, modern, well-organized, and feature-rich. In terms of design, you don’t have to worry as these 2 platforms have a massive number of templates and at least one of which will match your needs.

However, while PrestaShop’s team design templates by themselves (PrestaShop themes), Magento has many third parties developing themes. Several websites contain a lot of Magento themes from various providers like, for example, Magento Marketplace, ThemeForest, TemplateMonster, etc.

For that reason, Magento themes might be more diverse. And all you need to do is digging on the Internet to find the right one for your business. And notably, if you have some design skills, you can design the Magento theme on your own.

Performance

>>> Read Later: Magento vs Opencart – What to Choose for Your Online Store?

In terms of performance, PrestaShop is better than Magento. Because PrestaShop does not suffer from a heavy-duty CMS; hence, it will not slow down your website’s performance.

Meanwhile, Magento was reviewed as suffering from issues frequently. When coding on the Magento platform, developers often get into trouble as the website backend was getting slow, which results in slow websites that annoy users. This might happen due to the complication of the platform.

However, Magento has been trying to fix this problem to bring the best experience to users.

Features

Both platforms have basic functionalities for an eCommerce business. But notably, when it comes to features, Magento is the winner. There are virtually no platforms that can compete with Magento in terms of features. Magento provides businesses with countless powerful features to build successful online stores.

All the features included in Magento are top-notch that can help you create an excellent website, in all aspects, from sales to after services, to attract and satisfy customers. Some outstanding features are:

Customer segmentation

Persistent shopping

Private sales

Dynamic rule-based product relations

Automatic email reminder

Check right to see many more powerful features of Magento.

But we have to note that PrestaShop is still an effective solution for eCommerce. PrestaShop shopping cart contains more than 500 already-built-in features. Using PrestaShop, you will have essential functionalities to run a website.

Specifically, PrestaShop has an intelligent Merchant KPI and Forecasting, an Analytics tool to enhance its statistical facilities. It also includes integrations to allow store owners to export product data to marketplaces directly.

All in all, if you want to build a website with the best features that empower you the most, Magento is a perfect choice. Otherwise, if you only want to create a basic online store without any complication, please select PrestaShop.

Extensions

Both platforms have their marketplaces that include many extensions, plugins, modules provided by third parties, and both free and paid options. Therefore, you can freely choose the most suitable ones to add more features and possibilities to optimize your website.

Security

Security is one of the essential factors when building a website. For an eCommerce site, hacking is the worst-case scenario. As your store contains countless accounts (admins and customers); consequently, your business secrets and customers’ data will be stolen. Therefore, security should be taken into careful consideration.

In this case, when it comes to security, both platforms are excellent. They provide robust protection despite several security breaches and vulnerabilities in the past. But we have to note that they are not 100% secure; however, how they respond to such insecure events is more important.

Moreover, when creating an eCommerce website, you should not entirely rely on the platform but spend considerable time to tighten your security. And Magento is a perfect platform that allows you to install powerful modules to do so.

Support

Magento’s team provides FREE 24/7 support for customers. A support ticket can be opened once you have logged in to your Magento account. A group of certified solution partners is always available for any of your assistance demands with Magento Open Source.

The massive Magento Forums is always active, with over 420,000 members and nearly 130,000 posts available for your convenience.

Different from Magento, PrestaShop charges businesses for assistance packs if you want help from experts. If you’re going to deal with everything by yourself, you have to search for its documentation, webinars, tutorials videos, which are always available.

Pricing

One advantage for store owners is that PrestaShop is free of charge when creating a basic store. But we should know that free things are not the best options. So if you want to take full advantage of the platform, you still have to incur costs for modules, themes, and hosting.

Similarly, Magento Community Edition (CE) is also an open-source platform with zero charges. Everyone can get a program code for free, which is suitable for small to medium-size businesses.

In addition, there is Magento Enterprise Edition (EE), a paid version that includes premium features. It seems costly at first sight; yet, it is a perfect solution for medium to large businesses that require advanced features, added customization options, and a wider scale of support.

SEO

For SEO optimization, PrestaShop has enough features. Some benefits in terms of SEO you will get using PrestaShop are, for instance, automated URL rewriting, dedicated SEO content sections, CMS pages for quality content creation, etc.

Also, Magento SEO capabilities are broad. It has a wide range of SEO settings such as meta tags for products, image optimization, edits of robot.txt files, etc. Notably, research from the Ecommerce Platform has shown that Magento’s SEO score is 95/100, a relatively high result.

Magento vs. PrestaShop – How to Choose The Right Platform?

Source: ITX Design

Now, you have a general overview of Magento vs. PrestaShop and its key differences. The question is which one is suitable for your business.

Both platforms are robust and stable software. But each of which serves different business types with different budgets, tech skills level, demands, and business goals.

We suggest choosing PrestaShop if your business is mid-size or small with a mid-range budget and mid-level technical skills. On the contrary, Magento is a perfect and ultimate solution for entrepreneurs who own medium to big-size businesses, high budget, and developed technical skills.

That’s just our recommendation in general. More importantly, please define and understand your business demands and choose the right one for you. The decision is all yours!

Final Thoughts

>>> Check Now: More Magento tutorials for eCommerce sites!

Above is our comparison between Magento vs. PrestaShop, including several similarities and main differences in various aspects. We hope this blog will help you choose the best platform and create the most successful eCommerce website.

If you need further information about Magento PrestaShop, please don’t hesitate to ask us! We’re willing to answer anytime.

Thanks a lot for reading.

The post Magento vs. PrestaShop – Which One Is Your Right? Check Now! appeared first on Mageguides.

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All About Magento 2 One Page Checkout & One Step Checkout

Optimizing & fastening the checkout process is a must with eCommerce businesses to satisfy customers at the very last step. In Magento, we have tools called Magento 2 One Page Checkout and One Step Checkout.

Those two are frequently misunderstood by each other. Therefore, this article will help you to differentiate between One Page Checkout and One Step Checkout in Magento.

Also, please stay tuned with us as we will recommend some useful Magento One Step Checkout extensions as a bonus part.

Let’s get started!

Magento 2 One Page Checkout

Overview

>>> Read Later: How to Enable or Disable Magento 2 Guest Checkout?

One Page Checkout, just by its name, can be understood that all required information for checkout will be put on a single page. Accordingly, shoppers won’t be directed to another page to complete their checkout process, which is much more time-saving than the normal checkout.

In terms of Magento, compared to Magento 1, One Page Checkout in Magento 2 is more developed, not including so many steps as the previous version. In Magento 2, it is the 2-step checkout within one page.

One Page Checkout is an innovation that makes customers more willing to complete. As a result, the rate of abandoned carts will decrease, and the conversion rate will rise.

How to Disable One Page Checkout?

Magento 2 One Page Checkout is enabled by default. Therefore, if you want to implement some integrations or Magento checkout extensions, disabling default One Page Checkout is necessary.

You just have to follow these simple steps to disable Magento One Page Checkout:

On the Admin Sidebar, go to Store > Settings > Configuration.

On the left panel, click on the arrow to expand Sales and select Checkout.

Expand the Checkout options section

In case you want to disable checkout for a specific store view, select the store view that you want to configure, then click OK to continue.

Set Enable Onepage Checkout to No. Then, clear the Use system value checkbox to change this setting (If necessary).

Click Save Config to complete

Pros & Cons

>>> Check Now! Optimize Payment Method with eCommerce PayPal!

One Page Checkout brings about enormous benefits for online shoppers:

Time-saving: Previously, Magento checkout includes 4 separate steps. Meanwhile, Magento 2 One Page Checkout contains only 2 steps: Shipping, Review & Payment, which also operate more smoothly.

Check out without logging in: It allows guests to checkout without having a registered account. They can choose to register or not at the end of the purchase.

Decrease cart abandonment: A simple checkout process will please customers; hence, they are willing to make payments without abandoning their carts because of the annoying process.

However, there are still some drawbacks remaining:

Not yet optimized: Compared to Magento 1, Magento 2 One Page Checkout has decreased many steps to 2 steps only. However, although these 2 steps are included in one page only, they are not fully displayed at once, and you still need to click on each section to display all boxes.

Slow loading speed: One Page Checkout can be enabled at Magento default; consequently, it is not an optimal solution. It takes time to load a long checkout page, and customers cannot be patient to wait.

Disappointing display: The checkout process is not organized as neatly and smartly as you have thought. The 2 steps required are conditionally connected, which means that you can only see the Review & Payment page once you completed the Shipping step, although the name is “one page”.

Lack of optimal features: In the checkout process, customers require more useful features, such as order modifications, comments, custom delivery dates, etc. These features are not supported in Magento 2 default, and that’s why you need extensions.

Magento 2 One Step Checkout

Overview

>>> Cannot Miss: Magento 2 Layout Tutorial To Customize Frontend Store!

One Page Checkout and One Step Checkout sometimes confuse users whether they are the same or not. Please remember that these two are different. Actually, One Step Checkout is an advanced version of the default Magento One Page Checkout. 

Magento 2 One Step Checkout is not available at default that you need extensions for this functionality.

Unlike One Page Checkout, all steps (billing, shipping, payment, review) in Magento 2 One Step Checkout are fully displayed at once on a single page. Therefore, you don’t have to click on each section to show all boxes. After filling in all information, in any order, customers only need to click on the place-an-order button, and the process is completed.

Benefits Compared to Magento 2 One Page Checkout

In comparison with One Page Checkout, it is advantageous to use One Step Checkout because of some standard features that an extension usually has:

Less time-consuming: 2 steps versus 1 step, customers will definitely choose the option that will save their time. With just one click, customers can quickly complete their process.

No order requirement: While One Page Checkout requires shoppers to fill in the shipping information first, and payment & review later, there’s no such requirement in One Step Checkout. Shoppers can freely provide information at any box in any order.

Other optimal features: The default lacks many extra features; however, this case doesn’t happen when using One Step Checkout modules. As you pay for those extensions, providers will offer the best solutions that can help your business.

Top 5 Best Magento 2 One Step Checkout Extensions

#1. Magento 2 One Step Checkout by BSSCommerce – $99

DEMO

Compatible with: Magento 2.2.x – 2.3.x – 2.4

Key features:

Faster checkout in one page

Autocomplete shipping address

Delivery time and date on the checkout

Order comment on order reviews

Edit product quantity

Product page redirection by clicking on its name

Gift message, newsletter subscription, discount box

Responsive on all devices

Overview:

Magento 2 One Step Checkout by BSSCommerce is one of the best checkout extensions in the market. It brings about enormous benefits beyond the price that the provider offers.

Also, it applies the most advanced technology that can optimize the checkout process for all business sizes, for example, Google Suggest for autocomplete shipping address, pre-select shipping, payment methods; hence, saving time for customers when checkout.

The extension has satisfied thousands of customers, rated as 4.9/5 stars. It is highly recommended for all businesses.

Support policies:

FREE 1-year support

FREE lifetime update

FREE installation

#2. Magento 2 One Step Checkout by Mageplaza – $199

DEMO

Compatible with: Magento 2.2.x – 2.3.x

Key features:

Checkout page optimization

Nearly 100% shipping & payment methods support

Allows gift wrap, gift message

Fluid layout

Autocomplete address using Google Suggestion

Enables to leave comments & delivery time

Compatible with third party’s modules

Overview:

Mageplaza’s One Step Checkout is an easy-to-customize extension with an unmistakable interface. The module helps to reduce the abandonment rate and raise the conversion rates significantly.

Like BSS’s module, Mageplaza also uses Google Suggestion to autocomplete shipping addresses, helping customers fill in information more quickly. Besides, it supports almost all payment methods and shipping methods that are much more convenient for customers.

However, Mageplaza offers 3 pricing levels: Standard ($199), Professional ($229), and Ultimate ($299, all of which are quite expensive.

Support policies:

60-day money back

FREE 1-year support

One-time payment

FREE lifetime updates

#3. One Step Checkout for Magento by Amasty – $319

DEMO

Compatible with: Magento 2.2 – 2.3 – 2.4

Key features:

UX-friendly setup

Arrange checkout with drag-n-drop

Easy customization

Support popular payment methods

Save data for faster checkout

Google Suggestion

Abandoned cart recovery report

Overview:

Amasty offers the best features by far in One Step Checkout. Amasty has designed the interface, both frontend, and backend, with the highest optimized UX. You can choose the most suitable one out of 5 layouts, 2 themes (Classic or Modern), all of which are mobile-optimized.

Moreover, Amasty says that the module helps fasten the checkout process for businesses, about 36%. Although there’s no specific calculation in reality to support this description, Amasty’s extension is still one of the most optimal solutions.

In terms of the price, Amasty offers $319 for the module, which is relatively expensive compared to other competitors’. Additionally, unlike previous providers, Amasty support businesses for free within only 90 days.

Support policies:

60-day money back

FREE lifetime updates

90-day free support

#4. Smart One Step Checkout by Aheadworks – $279

DEMO

Compatible with: Magento 2.3.x – 2.4.x

Key features:

2-column design

Form autocomplete to fasten the process

Strong performance report

Smart configuration tool & data collection

Supports multiple payment gateways

Advanced built-in analytics

Overview:

Aheadworks’s module is our next recommendation on the list. Aheadworks combines 3 essentials: best checkout practices, advanced analytics, flexible checkout settings to raise the checkout conversion rates dramatically.

Overall, the module is highly recommended because it is easy to configure, adjust to custom themes, suitable for any device. Therefore, store admins can render a responsive layout quicker than ever.

Support policies:

45-day money back

FREE installation

90-day free support

FREE lifetime updates

#5. Magento 2 One Step Checkout by Landofcoder – $89

DEMO

Compatible with: Magento 2.0.x – 2.1.x – 2.2.x – 2.3.x – 2.4.x

Key features:

Mobile optimization

Geo IP detects customer account

Auto-fill suggesting shipping address

Easy setup

Supports diverse payment and shipping methods

Support social login

1-click to edit product options

1-click backend settings

Overview:

Our last suggestion in this blog is developed by Landofcoder, one of the most well-known eCommerce solution providers worldwide. First of all, the module helps fasten the default checkout process by 75% using a lot of optimal features.

With just $89, you can own a powerful extension that includes almost all functionalities you need to boost customer experience and satisfy them.

On the other hand, there are also some cons; for example, it doesn’t support the checkout page’s metadata or doesn’t allow multi-address checkout.

Support policies:

30-day money back

FREE 6-month support

FREE lifetime update

Conclusion

>>> Check It Out for more Magento tutorial blogs for better eCommerce sites!

Above is all we want to discuss about Magento 2 One Page Checkout and One Step Checkout. We hope that you can easily understand deeply and differentiate these 2 types of checkout.

If you want more information about the topic, please feel free to contact us. We’re glad to answer anytime.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post All About Magento 2 One Page Checkout & One Step Checkout appeared first on Mageguides.

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How to Migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2? – Tutorial Part 2

Previously, we have provided an article comparing Magento 1 and Magento 2 in terms of many categories. And we also recommend upgrading Magento 1 to Magento 2. So today, we will help you to do so.

This tutorial blog will guide you on how to migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2 by yourself (manual migration and after migration). Moreover, we will also suggest some migration services from various reliable eCommerce solutions providers worldwide.

Let’s get started!

What Are Main Differences Between Magento 1 & Magento 2?

>>> Cannot Miss: A Detailed Comparison of Magento 1 vs Magento 2!

In comparison with Magento 1, Magento 2 has some developments in terms of architecture, performance, supporting extensions, front-end, back-end, and SEO features.

You can look at the brief comparison table below to understand some main differences between the 2 versions. If you want to view it in more detail, please click on the link above and read our previous blog.

Magento 1Magento 2 PHP 5.2.x - 5.5.xPHP 5.6.x - 7.0.2 - 7.0.6 (Latest versions) Not supportPSR 0 to 4 HTMLHTML5 JS-PrototypeJS-Jquery MySQLMySQL 5.6.x or higher Apache 2.xApache 2.2 - 2.4 Not supportNginx 1.7 or higher Solr (EE)Solr 4.x Not supportSymfony Not supportComposer Zend Framework 1Zend Framework 1 - 2 Speed: Slower than Magento 2Speed: 30% - 50% faster Extensions: time-consuming, manually resolving conflicts, etc.Extensions: Simpler installation, code overlap code Front-end: not as developed, includes fewer featuresFront-end: Ajax add to cart, one-page checkout, responsiveness, rapid loading time Back-end: complicated to understandBack-end: user-friendly, responsive, simple design SEO features: not yet developedSEO features: Meta title, Meta description, Meta keywords, mobile optimization

As you can see, Magento 2 contains more useful features, compared to the first version. Therefore, upgrading the platform is what you should do, if you are still using Magento 1. So, please come to the next section to find out how to upgrade Magento 1 to Magento 2.

How to Migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2?

>>> Read Later: Magento 2 Migration Guide – What Is Migration & How to Perform? (Part 1)

On Mageguides, we have delivered a tutorial blog on how to migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2, specifically, data migration. You can click on the link above to find out.

Therefore, this blog will introduce you:

Data that can only be migrated manually

What to do after the migration process?

How to Manually Migrate Data?

This section will refer to data types that can only be migrated manually, which are media, storefront design, and admin user accounts & Access Control List (ACLs).

Media Migration

To migrate media files stored in the database, you should follow these steps:

Log in to Magento 1 admin account

Select System > Configuration > ADVANCED > System

Scroll to Storage Configuration for Media in the right panel

In the Select Media Database list, choose the media storage name that you want to migrate

Click Synchronize

Subsequently, you can repeat all these steps for the Magento 2 Admin panel.

If the media files are stored in the file system, you should copy all the files from <your Magento 1 install dir>/media to <your Magento 2 install dir>/pub/media. However, you shouldn’t copy the .htaccess files as Magento 2 has its own .htaccess files.

Storefront Design Migration

To migrate storefront design, you can change the location and format of design in files (CSS, JS, templates, XML layouts). The layout updates will be stored in the database, which is placed through the Magento 1 Admin in CMS Pages, CMS Widgets, Category Pages, and Product Pages.

Admin User Accounts & Access Control Lists (ACLs)

This type of data requires you to:

Recreate credentials for web service APIs

Create new admin user accounts and associate them with access privileges

What to Do after The Migration Process?

>>> Have A Look: All about Magento 2 Functional Testing (MFTF) – What, Why & How?

After the migration process, there are some manipulations that you need to perform to upgrade to Magento 2 successfully:

Put Magento 1 in maintenance mode and stop admin activities in this version for good

Start Magento 2 Cron Jobs

Delete all Magento 2 cache types

Reindex all Magento 2 indexers

Change DNS, load balancers, etc. to point to Magento 2 production hardware

For more details, please click HERE to find out.

Magento 2 Migration Services

Migration is a complicated task as it requires to move an enormous amount of data to the new version. Therefore, it is easy to come across errors, which have a huge effect on your business performance, even if you can lose all your data.

If you want to resolve troubles by yourself, you can click HERE to look for some common mistakes that people usually run into. However, sometimes, errors are too complex that you need professionals to solve them.

In such cases, there’s no need to worry as there are many migration services providers in the market. In this section, we want to suggest 3 reliable businesses that can help you to migrate your platform.

#1. BSSCommerce

BSSCommerce is our first recommendation. Not only does the company provide Magento extensions to optimize eCommerce sites, but BSS also offers some services to help businesses smoothly operate their online store, including Magento 2 Migration.

Using BSS’s service, you can have a professional team that helps you migrate data from the current Magento 1 website to Magento 2, rebuild new themes or redesign, rebuild custom code or extensions. Full testing, performance optimization, and SEO checking are also included in the service.

Established in 2012, BSSCommerce has developed and become a reliable partner of many eCommerce businesses worldwide. The company guarantees to bring you the best solutions, the best services to help you succeed.

#2. Amasty

Amasty is another popular eCommerce solutions provider. Amasty’s extensions are relatively familiar to online stores. Its modules bring about great features to build the most optimal site. Not only that, but Amasty also provides eCommerce services.

In terms of migration, Amasty will remove unused Magento 1 extensions, migrate data to Magento 2, migrate extensions, themes, and also optimize them. Choosing Amasty is the right decision as they have the over-11-year experience that will help you solve the most difficult tasks.

Just give it a try, and you’ll see!

#3. Meetanshi

Our last suggestion is Meetanshi, another familiar company in terms of eCommerce solutions providing. Meetanshi has gained trust in customers worldwide through its excellent extensions and services.

Migration is one of the services that has satisfied many enterprises. Meetanshi’s service contains all types of data migration, including after migration service. Therefore, you don’t have to do anything, Meetanshi will take care of it from A to Z.

Conclusion

>>> Check It Out: More Magento tutorial blogs to run your business smoothly!

All in all, Magento 1 is now not supported and becoming outdated. Hence, migrating to Magento 2 is necessary to run your online business without interruptions.

Above is an explicit instruction on how to migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2, and some migration services developed by reliable providers. We hope that this article is helpful enough to help you understand how to migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2.

If you are still unclear about how to upgrade Magento 1 to Magento 2, or if you have any troubles in the process, please feel free to ask!

Thanks a lot for reading.

The post How to Migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2? – Tutorial Part 2 appeared first on Mageguides.

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Magento 1 vs Magento 2: Can You Differentiate These Two?

You may have known that Magento has 2 versions: Magento 1 vs Magento 2. Magento 2.0 was first released on November 17th, 2015, after 8 years of development of the Magento platform. And more and more businesses have used Magento 2 ever since.

This is because Magento 2.0 has not only inherited optimal features from the first version but also contains more advantages. What exactly are the differences between these 2 versions? And should you switch to the second version?

Let’s find out in this blog. This article will provide some main differences between Magento 1 vs 2 in terms of:

Architecture

Performance

Supporting extensions

Front-end

Back-end

SEO features

Magento 1 vs Magento 2 – What Are The Differences?

Architecture

>>> Read Later: How to Merging CSS Files and Javascript files in Magento 2 Themes Settings?

In terms of the architecture, there are some notable changes in Magento 1 vs Magento 2:

PHP: Magento 2 is built by using the latest PHP versions, which contain some development to improve security and speed performance.

PSR: While Magento 1 didn’t support PSR (PHP Standard Recommendations), Magento 2 technology stack contains PSR 0 to PSR 4, each of which supports different standards of code for greater convenience when coding.

HTML5: HTML5, which is the latest HTML version that brings about many benefits for developers, is applied to Magento 2. Several advantages are: Easily handling errors, easily making the mobile web, customizing data attributes effortlessly, etc.

JS-Jquery: Magento 2 uses JS-Jquery instead of Prototype. JS-query is smaller in library size, faster, has more plugins available, and contains more features than Prototype.

Nginx 1.7 or greater: In Magento 2, Nginx is a reverse proxy server for protocols like HTTPS, HTTP,  POP3, SMTP, and IMAP. Besides, Ngnix also acts as a load balancer, an HTTP cache, and an origin web server.

Compared to Magento 1, we can reduce unnecessary browser’s operations in Magento 2 on the client’s side because of bundled and minimized JavaScript.

Some other technology stack changes include Apache, Composer, Symfony, CSS3, LESS pre-processor, Solr.

To sum up those significant updates, please take a look at the comparison table below:

Magento 1Magento 2 PHP 5.2.x - 5.5.xPHP 5.6.x - 7.0.2 - 7.0.6 (Latest versions) Not supportPSR 0 to 4 HTMLHTML5 JS-PrototypeJS-Jquery MySQLMySQL 5.6.x or higher Apache 2.xApache 2.2 - 2.4 Not supportNgnix 1.7 or higher Solr (EE)Solr 4.x Not supportSymfony Not supportComposer Zend Framework 1Zend Framework 1 - 2

Speed Performance

Speed is essential in eCommerce. It is one of the main reasons for customers to decide whether or not to purchase at your store.

And Magento 1 vs 2’s speed performance is quite different. In comparison with Magento 1, Magento 2’s loading time is 30% – 50% faster. And compared to the standard of 2-3 seconds, Magento 2’s front-end speed performance is even more rapid.

Besides, Magento 2 can:

Deal with 39% more orders in an hour

Respond to the server instantly to browse the catalogue

Handle up to 10 million page views per hour

Enable 38% faster checkout time

Without a doubt, Magento 2 is the winner in this category.

Supporting Extensions

>>> Have A Look: How to Install Extensions to Magento 2 via Marketplace?

In the market, there are many extensions available that are developed by many eCommerce solutions providers. However, Magento 1 extensions have run into many difficulties, for example, time-consuming when installing or manually resolving conflicts, etc.

On the other hand, Magento 2 plugins allow code to overlap core code rather than override it. Moreover, because of HTML5, CSS3, LESS pre-processor, and Require JS supported, the process of installation or customization is much simpler.

Front-end

>>> Check Now: Magento Frontend Developer Guide – The Key To Business Success!

In terms of front-end design, there are several apparent changes, in which Magento 2 includes more useful features than the first version:

Ajax cart, one-page checkout: Magento 2 default add ajax cart and one-page checkout, which brings about much greater convenience for customers when shopping online.

Responsiveness: Magento 2 web design is responsive, which means that you can display your site on multiple devices.

Rapid loading time: Magento 2 front-end takes much less time to load pages in full.

Back-end (Dashboard)

Not only the front-end, but the Magento 2 back-end also has significant improvements.

Different from Magento 1, the dashboard in Magento 2 is much more user-friendly, responsive with a simple design. All functions are clearly divided into primary categories, which is more convenient for admins to manage their stores.

Also, the Magento 2 admin panel shows some useful information in the most understandable way such as lifetime sales, average orders, last orders, top search terms, and many others.

Below is the Magento 1 admin panel. You can see a big difference between 2 versions.

SEO Features

Magento 2 has not yet been perfect in SEO, but compared to the first version, there are some improvements. For example, Magento 2 includes Meta Title, Meta Description, Meta Keywords for individual pages; or it is optimized for mobile, which is good for ranking.

Magento 1 vs Magento 2 – Should You Migrate to Magento 2?

So, Magento 1 vs Magento 2 – Which one is better?

Recently, businesses tend to migrate to Magento 2. However, there are many others not doing so because of many reasons: fear of change, expensive migration services, satisfied customers with Magento 1, etc.

But Magento 1 is no longer supported after June 30th, 2020. This means that if you are using Magento 1, you cannot update, resolve bugs, or apply security patches anymore. And it will bring about a big threat for the security to your site and your users.

Besides, Magento 2 contains many advantages: better UI, rapid speed performance, smooth dashboard.

In conclusion, Magento 1 is outdated at present, and we highly recommend migrating your platform to Magento 2. It will bring you a lot of benefits.

Conclusion

>>> Check It Out: More Magento 2 tutorials to effectively run your eCommerce sites!

Above is a brief comparison of Magento 1 vs Magento 2 in terms of many categories. And we have to say that Magento 1 is now outdated. Therefore, you should start using Magento 2 now to guarantee sustainability in the long term.

We hope that this blog of Magento vs Magento 2 is useful for you. If you have any questions about this topic, please feel free to ask.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post Magento 1 vs Magento 2: Can You Differentiate These Two? appeared first on Mageguides.

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How to Display Magento 2 Out Of Stock & Enable Stock Alert?

How to effectively manage stock is always a concern of online store owners. When a product is out of stock, they have to find ways to notify customers, and more importantly, to encourage them to come back when the product is back in stock.

Don’t worry as there are ways to do so.

In this blog, we will provide some information on the Magento 2 out of stock topic, including:

The overview & its effects

How does Inventory Management work in Magento 2?

How to display out of stock products in Magento 2?

BONUS: Magento 2 out of stock notification extension review

Let’s get started!

Out of stock – How Does It Affect Business?

>>> Read Later: Magento Sample Data – Install, Update, Remove Guide [Updated 2020]!

We all know that business cannot avoid out of stock products as they won’t last forever. Sometimes, providers would want their items to be out of stock as soon as possible because it proves that the products are highly demanded.

However, it also brings about adverse effects on business.

Dissatisfaction from Customers

Try to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. You want to find a product and keep searching for it in the online market. However, all you can see is the already-out-of-stock product. At that time, they will feel frustrated, disappointed, and they may leave your store unhappy.

You may have some similar items to offer. Some customers may accept that, but they are not 100% satisfied with such products.

Loss of Customer’s Loyalty & Competitive Advantage

>>> Have A Look: A Complete Guide to Create Magento 2 Bundle Product!

There are 2 sides when being out of stock frequently.

Firstly, it may prove that products at your store are of good quality that customers always look forward to buying at your store. On the other hand, you will lose the majority of customers that cannot buy at your store. They will look for other stores that have the same products. And they may not come back to your store.

And the most severe problem is to lose in the competition. We have mentioned that your products are not available; customers will turn to your competitor.

You might be the winner because of effective marketing campaigns, for example. But who knows, when more and more customers come to your competitors, they might feel that such stores are better and you’ll lose your customers for good.

How Is Inventory Managed & Displayed in Magento 2?

In Magento 2, inventory management is a convenient tool for you to keep track of your inventory quantities. When the Manage Stock option is enabled, the quantity will be updated in real-time.

Also, the information will be updated per stock as available salable quantities when customers add products to the cart, complete purchases, or when you manage orders, create shipments, and issue refunds.

For new arrival or transferred products, you can update them to your sources, and it will be immediately available for sales. It can also complete backorders up to specified thresholds without infinite orders or additional configurations.

There are a few simple steps to enable or disable Inventory Management:

On the Admin sidebar, go to Stores > Settings > Configuration

In the left panel, expand Catalog and select Inventory

Click the arrow to expand Product Stock Options and set Manage Stock to Yes (If enable), or deselect Use system value and set to No (If disable)

Click Save Config

How to Display Out of Stock Products in Magento 2 & Enable Stock Alert Email?

In this section, we will provide you with 2 tutorials: How to enable Magento 2 display out of stock and how to enable stock alert email.

How to Show Out of Stock Products in Magento 2?

Go to Stores > Configuration

Select Catalog > Inventory > Stock Options

At the Display Out of Stock Products option, choose YES

Click Save to complete the configuration

How to Enable Stock Alert Email in Magento 2?

When a product is out of stock, there is a line of “Notify me when this product is in stock” displayed for customers.

If you want to enable this, please follow these steps:

>>> Cannot Miss: How To Customize Magento 2 Email Templates For Your Store?

Go to Stores > Configuration

Select Catalog > Catalog > Product Alerts

Set Allow Alert When Product Comes Back in Stock to YES

In the Stock Alert Email Template option, choose the template to apply for your alert email

In the Alert Email Sender, choose the store contact

Click Save to complete the configuration

But we have to note that the stock alert functionality works only when you choose to show out of stock products in Magento 2.

Magento 2 Out of Stock Notification Extension by BSSCommerce – $99

What if customers don’t have an account? Are they able to receive stock notification from the store?

The answer is YES by using the extension provided by BSS, not at default.

Magento 2 Out of Stock Notification by BSS is an optimal solution for online businesses that enables not only registered customers but also guest users to receive stock alert notification emails.

They can click on the button “Notify me” and register an email. And the notification will be automatically sent to them as soon as the subscribed product is back in stock.

Notably, store owners can now send emails to customers according to the number of items in stock. And the rest can be put on the waiting list for the next “back in stock”.

Also, there are some additional features such as allowing customers to keep track of their subscription on the Customer Account Page, managing and exporting lists of customers signed up, setting up email templates, etc.

Key features:

Stock notification for the account & guest users

Automatically send emails to customers when the product is available again

Send emails based on the quantity in stock

Enable customers to keep track of subscriptions

Support product stock alert on Product Page/Category Page/Search Result Page

Compatibility: Magento 2.2.x – 2.3.x – 2.4.x

Conclusion

>>> Check Now: More Magento 2 instructions for better eCommerce sites!

We have provided information about the Magento 2 out of stock topic, including inventory management, Magento 2 display out of stock, stock alert email, as well as a wonderful extension to optimize the function that the default does not allow.

We hope that this blog is helpful to you. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. We’re glad to answer anytime.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post How to Display Magento 2 Out Of Stock & Enable Stock Alert? appeared first on Mageguides.

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How to Enable or Disable Magento 2 Guest Checkout?

In eCommerce, the required account registration is one of the main reasons that make customers abandon their carts. That’s why you need to enable guest checkout functionality on your website to make it more convenient for them to checkout.

So today, we will deliver a blog about Magento 2 guest checkout with the following information:

What guest checkout is & its benefits

How to enable/disable Magento 2 guest checkout?

Magento 2 Guest to Customer extension review

Let’s get started!

What Is Guest Checkout?

>>> Check Now: How to Optimize Payment Method with eCommerce PayPal!

In a nutshell, guest checkout is a checkout process that customers don’t need an account to purchase in your store. Therefore, no information on customers stored on the system.

In contrast with guest checkout, account checkout enables customers to store their information and reuse when they return to the store without retyping.

Advantages of Magento Guest Checkout

Guest checkout is quite familiar in online stores nowadays as it brings about several benefits.

Time-saving for Customers

Using guest checkout means that customers don’t have to spend time filling in the registration form or logging into the account. As those customers may not have an intention to come back, those requirements might waste their time.

Customers always want to take the quickest path to complete orders when shopping via the Internet. Hence, guest checkout will make it fast and the most simple.

Sales Boosting

>>> Don’t Miss: Check It Out to Learn All About Magento Shopping Cart!

According to Baymard Institute’s survey in 2017, 37% of US adults abandoned their cart when asked to login to an account. In most cases, “sign-in” becomes a barrier that drives customers away from making a purchase.

Customers who already have an account have to remember which email they have used to register. On the other hand, you are asking guests to spend their precious time filling in the form.

Therefore, providing the guest checkout will undoubtedly not interfere with the shopping flow and raise conversion rates.

Disadvantages of Magento Guest Checkout

Despite some apparent benefits, there are still some drawbacks remaining.

Firstly, if guest checkout means that store owners will lose contact with their guests; consequently, they cannot conduct marketing activities such as email campaigns, newsletters, or customer services to those customers.

Moreover, store owners can not keep track of customers’ purchase, which means that they cannot analyze customers’ purchase trends.

However, these drawbacks can be solved by using the Magento extension. In the last section of this blog, we will recommend an excellent extension to help you optimize this functionality.

How to Enable/Disable Magento 2 Guest Checkout?

Enabling/Disabling Magento 2 guest checkout is relatively simple. In terms of allowing Magento 2 guest checkout, the default automatically will enable guests to make purchases.

In that case, at the front-end, 2 options are displayed that guests can choose to create an account or continue checkout as a guest.

>>> Read Later: Learn How to Master in Using Magento 2 Admin Grid In 5 Minutes!

And if you want to disable Magento 2 guest checkout, please follow these simple steps:

Step 1: On the Admin sidebar, select Stores > Settings > Configuration

Step 2: On the left panel, expand Sales and select Checkout

Step 3: Click the arrow to expand the Checkout Options section

Step 4: If necessary, clear the Use system value checkbox

Step 5: If you want to disable guest checkout for particular storeviews, please choose the storeview you want to configure. Then, click OK to continue.

Step 6: Set Allow Guest Checkout to No

Step 7: Click Save Config

Magento 2 Guest to Customer Extension by BSSCommerce – $59

Overview

Magento 2 Guest to Customer by BSS is a fantastic module to help customers check out as guests so that the checkout process won’t be interrupted by the requirement of “sign-in”.

Although store owners can enable Magento 2 guest checkout at default, they cannot keep track of guests. But with this module, it is able to do so.

The module allows merchants to turn guests into registered customers by automatically creating accounts after checkout for users. It is useful for them to get in touch not only with the users but also with guests. Therefore, it is an opportunity for you to approach as many customers as possible.

Besides, if you don’t want to save all guests’ data and make your list endless and impossible to analyze, there is another option. You can pick several potential guests and turn them into registered customers manually in Magento 2 grid.

Such a feature allows store owners to preview guest accounts and manage them. For example, you can choose several guests and divide them into specific groups in a few seconds. In this way, the management process will be much more simple.

Key Features

Along with the 2 options mentioned above, there are many more optimal features included in the module:

Ability to immediately inform guests about creating accounts:

After customers make purchases, a confirmation email will be sent directly to the guest users. You can choose available pre-made templates for your email or design a new one.

Ability to save previous orders:

Typically, guest users cannot save previous orders. Consequently, it is exceptionally convenient if they want to re-purchase. But this module will solve it. The previous orders will be saved under the newly created account.

1-click Import previous guest to customers:

You can also turn previous guests into customers; even at that time, you didn’t use the module. You can import them into the grid and convert them into registered customers.

Support Policies

FREE 1-year support

FREE lifetime update

FREE Installation

30-day refund policy

Conclusion

>>> Check It Out: More Magento tutorial blogs to optimize your website!

Enabling guest checkout in your online store will bring you great benefits, help boost sales, and generate profit. And to utilize the functionality most effectively, we highly recommend using Magento 2 Guest to Customer developed by BSS Commerce.

We hope that this blog is useful for you so that you can gain as much profit as possible. If you need further information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post How to Enable or Disable Magento 2 Guest Checkout? appeared first on Mageguides.

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Check Now! Optimize Payment Method with eCommerce PayPal

We’re sure that you are familiar with PayPal, one of the most common payment systems. Because of its popularity, many global eCommerce businesses enable PayPal as a payment method.

If you don’t want customers to run into difficulties when checkout and making payment, adding popular payment methods is necessary. And in this article, we will help you to do so.

This tutorial blog will give you some information about:

Brief introduction of PayPal

Reasons why eCommerce PayPal integration is necessary

Best practices of eCommerce PayPal checkout

Magento PayPal integration guide

Let’s get started!

About PayPal

PayPal Holdings, Inc. is a US-based company specialized in generating worldwide online payment systems. PayPal makes it easier for customers to make payments using online money transfer and alternative electronic to traditional paper methods.

Founded in 1998 with the name Confinity, the company is one of the first companies focusing on digital payments. Later on, PayPal was acquired by eBay with a value of $1.5 billion but separated in 2015. At present, PayPal operates in about 200 markets.

In terms of services, PayPal provides online payment services for both individuals and businesses, including eCommerce businesses. Nowadays, when visiting global eCommerce sites, for example, Amazon, Airbnb, eBay, etc. we will see the existence of PayPal.

Why Is eCommerce PayPal Integration Beneficial?

>>> Read Later: Clear Instruction of Magento 2 Testing Framework to Cover All Parts of Your Websites!

Firstly, these figures below will help you have an awareness of PayPal’s popularity:

$712 billion of annual payment volume in 2019 (Statista, 2019)

346 million active users in Q2/2020, 21% year-on-year growth (Statista, 2020)

22 million merchant accounts (DMR Business Statistics, 2020)

$17.77 billion of revenue in 2019 (Statista, 2019)

Those numbers have said everything. Although digital payment service is a fierce competition with many competitors such as Google Pay, Venmo, WePay, Amazon Pay, 2CheckOut, etc., PayPal is still recognized to be at the top for several reasons.

High Checkout Conversion Rate

The study by PayPal has found out that PayPal transactions had a checkout conversion rate at 88.7% on average, 70% higher than non-PayPal transactions (other digital methods and cards).

It means that the process starting from clicking on the payment method to completing the transaction is rapid with PayPal. For that reason, you will create the best purchasing experience for customers, even at the final step.

Marketing Solutions Offer

>>> Don’t Miss: 5 Minutes to Master Magento 2 Business Intelligence Tools!

Not only providing online payment services (PayPal Checkout, Payments Standard, Payments Pro), PayPal also offers solutions to help eCommerce businesses optimize their marketing.

You can boost sales by customers’ insights provided. Specifically, PayPal helps display the average size of orders; hence, you can decide whether to deliver other campaigns. Moreover, you can show PayPal incentives (PayPal Credit) and analyze how many people use it.

Payment Security

>>> Check It Out: How to Improve Magento 2 Security to Protect Your Site!

It is one of the essential elements when making payments. When using a digital wallet, such a wallet acts as a bank to keep your money. If the security is not guaranteed, the risk of losing money will happen at any time.

But with PayPal, security is at the top priority with 24/7 anti-fraud monitoring and world-class safety.

eCommerce Integration

To use PayPal for your eCommerce business, you can create a merchant account. However, it is easier to manage it by integrating PayPal into your own business.

At present, PayPal can be integrated with many eCommerce platforms: Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, XCart, 3dCart, Volusion, and BigCartel.

Among these platforms, we would like to provide the Magento PayPal Integration tutorial in the last section. This is because Magento is one of the most popular platforms with its fantastic features that can help optimize eCommerce sites. So, please stay tuned with us!

Best Practices of eCommerce PayPal Checkout

These practices below are available for web and mobile integration to create the best customers’ experience when checkout and raise conversion rates.

Integrate Smart Payment Button

When visiting an eCommerce site integrating PayPal, you will see something called PayPal Smart Payment Button, similar to the image above. It has just been valid since February of 2019.

Integrating the Smart Payment Button will make it much more convenient for customers when shopping online. You can also keep track of customers’ insights, like how many people use each payment method.

Implement “Pay Now” Experience to Shorten Process

A simple checkout process is what customers expect. By implementing the “Pay Now” button, you don’t have to worry about a thing. Accordingly, the checkout completion process will be done with only a few steps.

Display Error Messages & Ways to Solve Issues

It is necessary for customers and merchants as it is a sensitive issue when it comes to money. If customers are provided with a clear error message to explain the reasons for the transaction failure, you can help them feel more secure and have a chance to capture more sales.

Accept PayPal in All Purchase Flows

When shopping online, not only do customers want to deliver at the place, but there are also some cases like Buy Online, Pickup in-store (BOPIS), or Buy Online, Return in-store (BORIS). For this purpose, PayPal can be enabled in all situations to meet customers’ demands.

Pass Accurate Detailed Information

When the payment process is completed, customers are sent back to your site. At that time, they might want to recheck their information in case there might have some mistakes. Hence, all the details provided by customers will be populated and displayed accurately.

Magento PayPal Integration Instruction

This section will focus on PayPal integration for Magento, which is recognized as the best eCommerce platform in 2020.

Before anything, you need to start the process by setting up a PayPal account.

Creating A PayPal Account

There are 2 ways to create a PayPal account for your business:

Signing up for a merchant account on PayPal’s website

Create an account through the admin panel

In terms of using the admin panel, you can create a wholly new PayPal Business account or upgrade a PayPal personal account to a PayPal Business account.

However, we have to note that PayPal supports PayPal Express Checkout for almost all countries across the globe except for India, Israel, and Japan. And notably, in Brazil, you cannot convert a personal account, and that you must have a business account beforehand.

Configure PayPal Express Checkout

There are 6 steps in total to configure PayPal Express Checkout.

Step 1: Access the Admin console for the environment that is needed to configure

Step 2: On the left-hand side, click on Store > Configure, then choose Sales > Payment methods

Step 3: For PayPal, select Configure.

Then, expand the section, and it will display all configuration fields: Express Checkout, Basic & Advanced Settings, and Advertise PayPal Credit.

Step 4: Link with your PayPal account, which has been created previously:

Connect your PayPal live account: Click on Connect with PayPal and follow the instructions displayed.

Connect your sandbox account for testing: Click on Sandbox Credentials and follow the instructions displayed.

Step 5: Configure the Express Checkout settings:

Email Associated with PayPal Merchant Account: Enter the email address you used to register for the PayPal merchant account. This aspect is optional.

API Authentication Methods: Set the API signature or API Certificate.

Set your API username, password, signature used for your PayPal account.

Sandbox Mode: Set Yes (if you entered credentials for sandbox), or No (if you entered production credentials).

API Uses Proxy: Select Yes (if a proxy server is used to create a link between Magento and PayPal payment method). Then, please fill in the proxy host and port.

Step 6: After having configured and authenticated, you can enable or disable the PayPal payment method under required PayPal settings as above:

Enable this Solution: Customers can see the PayPal payment method appearing on the website

Enable In-Context Checkout Experience: The login box will be displayed on the checkout page

Enable PayPal Credit: Customers are enabled to PayPal credit financing with no additional fees.

PayPal Variables

To use the PayPal onboarding tool with Magento Commerce Cloud 2.2, it is necessary to add the following variable to magento.app.yaml in the environment variables section. Even if you upgraded your Magento version to 2.2 or later, this variable is still needed.

# Environment variables variables:   env:     CONFIG__DEFAULT__PAYPAL_ONBOARDING__MIDDLEMAN_DOMAIN: 'payment-broker.magento.com'

Conclusion

>>> Click For More: Magento tutorial blogs for better eCommerce sites!

In conclusion, enabling a reliable payment method for your eCommerce site is a must to gain more customers and satisfy them. As making payments is a sensitive case, you will lose your customers for good if you ignore this aspect.

In this blog, we have talked about PayPal and some best practices to utilize PayPal in eCommerce. Besides, we hope that the eCommerce PayPal integration tutorial is advantageous enough for you, especially for Magento users.

As there are many more tutorials related to optimizing eCommerce PayPal, we promise to deliver more blogs in the future. If you need further information, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post Check Now! Optimize Payment Method with eCommerce PayPal appeared first on Mageguides.

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All Things You Should Know about Magento 2 Media Folder

Magento 2 media folder (also called Magento 2 media storage) is a useful tool that helps you arrange and approach media files stored on the server. However, some people are still unfamiliar with this term. That’s why we’re here to help you.

This article will give you all the things related to the main topic, including:

An overview of Magento 2 media folder

An easy guide to upload image in Magento 2 from media storage

How to upload file in Magento 2

How to configure static Magento media URL

A Clear Overview of Magento 2 Media Folder

>>> Check It Out: Magento PWA Studio Tutorial – Step by Step to Get Maximum Customers!

Magento 2 media folder or media storage is regularly placed in the file system on the same server as the Magento program files. The base URL configuration elects the link to the location of media files, and the editor can gain access to data when working on pages or immobile blocks.

In addition, media files can be controlled in a dataset, set on a divided server or content delivery network. We can adjust the editor to utilize either static or dynamic media URLs for the content of the catalog in a category or product description.

So, what can we do with the Magento 2 media folder?

In media storage, you can upload images from the storage and upload files to it, which we will give a clear guide in the next sections. And also, we will provide step-by-step instructions to configure static media URLs as well. So, let’s stay tuned with us!

How to Upload Image in Magento 2 from Media Folder?

There are several simple steps to add an image, which will be presented as follows:

First of all, you need to open the page or block to be edited by choosing Content from Admin Sidebar then tapping Pages or Blocks under Elements.

Then, please select one of the following methods to add an image:

Method #1: Using WYSIWYG Mode

>>> Have A Look Here: Magento Frontend Developer Guide – The Key to Business Success!

STEP 1: Click on the Insert Image tab on the toolbar of the WYSIWYG editor

STEP 2: Choose Browse after the Image URL section

STEP 3: In the bibliography on the left, select the Magento media folder storing the image

STEP 4: Click on Insert File after determining the title of the image

Method #2: Using HTML Mode

Using HTML mode is not as complicated as the previous method.

STEP 1: Place the cursor in the code containing the <img> tag

STEP 2: Click on Insert Image

How to Upload Files in Magento 2?

The initial two steps are equivalent to the way that you add an image:

STEP 1: On the toolbar of the WYSIWYG editor, tap Insert Image

STEP 2: Select Browse after the Image URL part.

STEP 3: Do one of the following in the left directory:

Go to the Magento media folder that you choose to keep the uploaded image.

Go to the location where you want to add a new folder > Click on Create Folder > Type the folder name > Choose OK

STEP 4: Use Choose Files to upload files and do the following:

Move to the place of the images in the index of your local computer

Choose each image that is to be uploaded

Click Open and the images are uploaded to the current media storage file

What Is Magento Media URL & How to Adjust The Static URL?

Introduction to Dynamic Media URL

>>> Read Later: All about URL Rewrites in Magento 2 You Should Know!

A dynamic media URL is defined as a relative reference to an image or other media resource. Dynamic media URLs can be utilized to connect straightforwardly to resources on your server, or files stored on a content delivery network.

Besides, dynamic media URLs can affect catalog performance, and as we have mentioned in the overview, either static or dynamic media URLs can be used to adjust the editor.

Like all markup tags, the command is located in double curly braces. Here below is a specific example of a format of dynamic media URL:

When rendering the page, dynamic URL directives are processed from HTML content. And every time the page is rendered, the content is scanned for and the corresponding media URL will replace each command.

However, we have to note that inserting many directives will have adverse effects when loading the first page, and the page is not cached. Therefore, you should use it with caution or discuss it with professional developers.

Dynamic Media URL vs. Static Media URL

The main difference between static media URL and dynamic media URL is that while static media URL is a fixed URL, the other will change whenever you store content in a database and pull for display on pages.

Besides, 2 types of URL will look like this:

Static URL: http://www.abc.com/xyz/magento.htm

Dynamic URL: http://abc.com/p/magento-php-sample-code/issues/detail?id=31

We can see the difference between those 2 types. Also, a dynamic URL is easily recognized as its link contains some special characters like: “?” “=” “&”.

Additionally, people sometimes prefer a static URL for several reasons. But the main reason is that with the dynamic URL, your page will display the same content but different URLs over time. So that users can hardly find the link they are looking for.

And how to switch to a static URL or dynamic URL? Check it out in the next part.

How to Configure Magento Media URL?

The steps to configure the media URL is relatively simple. You just have to change the configuration setting.

STEP 1: Go to Store > Setting > Configuration on the Admin Sidebar

STEP 2: Click on Content Management in the left panel

STEP 3: Expand the WYSIWYG Options, and it will be displayed as the following image

STEP 4: Set Use Static URLs for Media Content in WYSIWYG to:

Yes: If you want to use static media URL

No: If you want to use dynamic media URL

STEP 5: When everything is all done, click on Save Config to finish

BONUS: How to Create A Magento File System Owner?

Security is one of the most worrying issues in e-commerce. Understanding people’s concerns, we give this as a bonus part that you can set access permission to prevent strangers from editing content on your website.

You can create Magento file system with a strong password with these 3 steps:

STEP 1: Run the command below to create the Magento file system owner:

adduser <username>

STEP 2: Enter the following command to give it a password:

passwd <username>

STEP 3: Follow the notification displayed on your screen to set a password

Conclusion

>>> Cannot Overlook: More Magento tutorial blogs for better e-commerce sites!

In this article, you must have had details about the Magento 2 media folder and some related things. And we hope that you are satisfied with all the information we have given in this tutorial blog. Therefore, you can easily optimize your e-commerce website.

If you need any help, please feel free to contact us. We’re 24/7 available.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post All Things You Should Know about Magento 2 Media Folder appeared first on Mageguides.

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How to Use the WYSIWYG Editor in Magento 2?

Have you ever heard of Magento WYSIWYG Editor? Let’s find out what WYSIWYG Editor is and how can we use it in this post!

Magento 2 provides you with enormous useful tools for setting up and controlling the content of the website.

In this article, you will get a brief introduction of how to utilizing the WYSIWYG Editor in Magento 2 (Magento WYSIWYG editor tutorial).

Let’s get started!

An Overview

When working with the content displayed by the WYSIWYG editor, you can easily open and format it and all you have edited will appear in the final published form.

However, it is possible for you to change modes if you want to work with the HTML code directly. In the product catalog, you can approach the WYSIWYG editor for the purpose of building content for pages, blocks, or product descriptions by a tap on the WYSIWYG Editor button.

How to Utilize Magento WYSIWYG Editor?

>>> Read Later: A Complete Guideline of Magento RSS Feeds!

This main section will suggest several useful tips for Magento WYSIWYG Editor, especially in Magento 2, that you cannot miss.

Editing Devices

>>> Have A Look Here: How to Configure Magento Wish List? – A Comprehensive Guideline!

Besides familiar tools like Cut, Copy and Paste, we can see other devices such as Paste as Plain Text or Paste from Word, Find and Replace, Undo/Redo, Citation, Abbreviation, Acronym, Mark as Insertion and Mark as Deletion.

Styles and Fonts

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The editor also provides Styles, Paragraph, Font Family, and Font Size for constructing the content of websites.

Character Format

Formatting characters in the WYSIWYG editor is quite easy with various choices including Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikeout, Subscript, Superscript.

Special Characters

Some special options can be added like Insert Symbol, Insert Non-Breaking Space and Insert Page Break in the editor.

Color

In terms of Color, the editor can allow you to Select Text Color or Select Background Color.

Paragraph Format

To format content paragraphs, you can choose any among Align Left, Align Center, Align Right, Align Full, Increase Outdent/Indent, or Block Quote options.

Lists

When creating lists in the editor, you can be supported by Inserting and Removing Bulleted (Unordered) List/Numbered (Ordered) List tool.

Rules

In terms of rules, Inserting Simple Horizontal Rule and Inserting Formatted Horizontal Rule can be useful selections for users in the WYSIWYG editor.

Links and Anchors

With the WYSIWYG editor, you can carry out activities involving Inserting or Editing Link/Anchor, Removing Link.

Images and Media

Insert/Edit Image and Insert Media tools help you diversify the content of the website.

Tables

About the table, the editor allows you to use tools including Inserting/Modifying Table, Table Row Properties, Table Cell Properties, Inserting Row Above, Inserting Row Below, Removing Column, Removing Row, Splitting Merged Table Cells, Merging Table Cells.

Layers

In layer field, the editor supports Inserting New Layer, Moving Layer Forward/Backward, Toggling Absolute Positioning.

Coding Tools

Coding tools consisting of Removing Formatting and Cleanup Messy Code make you feel more convenient in building content.

Variables, Attributes & Widgets

In this area, you can easily Insert or Edit Attributes as well as Add Variable/Widget.

Workspace Preferences

Toggling Fullscreen Mode, Displaying Visual Control Characters (On/Off), Toggling Guidelines / Invisible Elements, Setting Typing Direction Left-to-Right or Right-to-Left are tools supported in workspace preferences part.

Conclusion

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We hope that you have had a brief overview of using the WYSIWYG editor in Magento 2. You can search for more detailed Magento WYSIWYG editor tutorial for better content on your pages.

If you need any help, please feel free to contact us. Thanks a lot for reading!

The post How to Use the WYSIWYG Editor in Magento 2? appeared first on Mageguides.

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Magento Framework Tutorial: Initial Step to Be A Magento Master

Today, we are going to give you a Magento framework tutorial.

As you may know, Magento is an e-commerce platform written in PHP, created using the Zend framework. Initially released in 2008, Magento has become a popular platform that owners can experience advanced technology to run their businesses smoothly.

Among Magento’s concepts, the Magento framework may be difficult to understand, even for skillful developers. Therefore, this article provides information about the Magento framework, specially written for beginners who are getting used to Magento.

Don’t overlook this tutorial as you can know about:

An overview of the framework: What it is & its role in a website

Introduction to Magento framework

Magento framework tutorial

Let’s get started!

What Is Framework?

Overview of Framework

>>> Read Later: Magento 2 Testing Framework to Cover All Parts of Your Website!

Simply saying, a framework is a kind of software creating an environment for developers to build applications. Frameworks are evaluated to be flexible, powerful, and effective as they are usually tested, customized, optimized, and built by skilled programmers.

Developing applications via software frameworks enables you to concentrate on advanced functionality rather than low-level ones, which are taken care of by the framework itself.

Why Does Framework Matter?

To build software or a website is extremely complicated because the process includes various challenging tasks that require professional, namely, coding, designing, testing, etc.

Each task contains many smaller skills.

For that reason, the framework makes it easier to manage the whole process. 

There are many benefits when using the framework:

Better programming practices are supported

The framework helps to enhance the level of security while coding

Developers can avoid repetitive and unnecessary codes

Save time developing applications

Reduce bugs happening when coding

Applications are more reliable

More comfortable to test and debug code

Easier to deal with advanced technologies

Types of Framework

There are many types of frameworks. Here below are some trending choices that may meet your demands.

#1. Web Application Framework

Source: ScienceSoft

Web application framework, so-called web framework, is a framework type that is specifically designed to support web applications such as web resources, web services, and web APIs.

You can develop your applications more easily, quickly, and smartly with this type of framework. Some particular examples are Django, Laravel, Angular, to name but a few.

#2. DataScience Framework

>>> Check It Out: Magento Sample Data – Install, Update & Remove Guide!

This kind of framework is for those who need to process large-scale data, especially for online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, etc.

DataScience frameworks usually contain advanced technologies in statistic analytics that store owners can manage their data more effectively. Apache Spark, PyTorch, Tensor Flow are some specific examples.

#3. Mobile Development Framework

In this modern world, where people tend to move from using desktops to using mobile devices for shopping, the mobile development framework has a role to play.

The framework helps to develop mobile applications; hence, online businesses can quickly approach their target customers to boost sales.

Some mobile development frameworks we can mention are Iconic, Xamarin, Flutter, etc.

What to Do Before Using Software Framework?

>>> Have A Look Here: More Magento Tutorials to Optimize Your Website!

First things first, you need to improve your professional skills in website development such as coding, testing as dealing with the framework is a challenging task.

If your ability is not enough, it is necessary to at least have a good understanding of codes that power the framework. Then, you may find it more straightforward when running into difficult tasks.

Magento Framework Tutorial

Now, we’re done with the general understanding of the framework. Let’s continue with our main topic today, Magento framework tutorial.

In this section, we will give you a clear explanation of the Magento Framework and some important factors.

Introduction to Magento Framework

>>> Cannot Overlook: How to Install Magento 2 Via Xampp – 2020 Updated!

In definition, the Magento framework manages the connection between application components, namely, request flow, routing, indexing, caching, and exception handling.

Magento framework provides services to effortlessly create modules that contain business logic to make Magento code more modular and reduce dependencies.

In this concept, you need to pay attention to a term called “libraries”. “Libraries” are logical groups where essentially PHP software components are organized into. The framework does contain libraries, even though there is no resource model included in the framework.

Magento Framework’s Roles

Magento framework has several responsibilities in operations that are effective for all modules:

Handling HTTP protocols

Interacting with the database and filesystem

Rendering content

Structure

This is a basic organization of Magento framework folder:

vendor/     ../magento         ../framework lib/     ../internal         ../LinLibertineFont     ../web

In which:

/vendor/magento/framework: contains only PHP code.

/lib/internal: contains several non-PHP and PHP components.

/lib/web: contains JavaScript and CSS/LESS files.

Essential Functionalities

The Magento framework has a large number of powerful functionalities. In this part, we will give you explanations of the most important ones.

#1. DataObject

DataObject is a standard function of the Magento framework, which provides the ability to store and retrieve data through magic methods, which are functions starting with 2 underscores. For example, __construct(), __set(), __call(), and some similar things are magic methods.

Among Magento classes, DataObject is the base for many others.

#2. Controller

In the Magento framework, the controller contains classes to help return some distinctive outcomes; for instance, JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) or redirection.

There are 2 different types of controller: Front-end controller and back-end controller. The controller, in general, receives requests from users, and then route controllers through execute() method.

#3. App

App includes system code that related to the Magento application. The functionality is used for many purposes in Magento:

Boots the application and reads in the early configuration

Contains entry point to the command line tools, the web application, and cron job

Routes requests while deploying

#4. API

API is another standard functionality in Magento. It is useful for advanced features of extendable objects, objects that can be extended to add new data through Magento extensions.

In other words, API is an effective method for developers to optimize web services to communicate well with the Magento system. Key features of API is support for REST (Representational State Transfer) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).

#5. Other Functionalities

Those 4 above are the most common that we want to explain clearly. However, there are many more, including Model, AbstractModel, Config, Filesystem, etc.

You can click HERE for more information.

Wrapping Up

To summarize, dealing with the Magento framework is not easy at all. It requires many specialized skills.

This article provides the initial step to get to know Magento Framework. If you want more tutorials on the Magento framework, please let us know! We will respond as soon as possible.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post Magento Framework Tutorial: Initial Step to Be A Magento Master appeared first on Mageguides.

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Magento PWA Studio Tutorial: Step by Step to Get Maximum Customers

Are you familiar with Magento PWA Studio Tutorial?

Or do you even know what PWA is?

This article will answer all related questions.

If you are looking for a way to leverage your online store, create a much better mobile experience on your website, you cannot overlook this blog.

In this blog, we will provide:

A clear overview of Progressive Web Application (PWA) in general and its benefits

An introduction to Magento PWA Studio Project

Basic concepts of Magento PWA

Magento PWA Studio Tutorial

Now, let’s get started!

What Is Progressive Web Application?

>>> Read Later: How to Optimize Magento 2 Order Management?

Progressive Web Application (PWA in short) is simply a web application applying modern web technologies to bring about a reliable, fast, and engaging customer experience.

Also, PWA can perform like a native app on smartphones. Therefore, it is extremely useful when customers tend to shop online by using phones, especially using available applications.

PWA’s Benefits

As PWA applies advanced web technologies, many online stores nowadays develop their web applications to attract more engaged customers:

Fast: Various performance optimization techniques are applied to improve the fast-loading functionality.

Mobile-friendly: As PWA is designed for smartphones, it is clear that those applications are fit in any size of any device.

Security & Reliable: PWA sites use HTTPS connections to improve security.

Installable: It is more convenient for customers to install the apps and access an online store with just one click.

Offline usable: As the apps are installed on mobile devices, customers can use it even when it is not connected to the Internet. All the actions will be updated as soon as the Internet is available.

Shareable: In any application, there is a button that enables you to share the content on social media with one click.

Easily keep customers engaged: The comfortability of PWA sites can make customers stay longer in your store. Also, the feature of sending notifications directly to their phones can keep them updated as well.

PWA Basic Concepts

>>> Have A Look Here: Magento Sample Data – Install, Update, Remove Guide (2020 Updated)!

Before going in-depth with the tutorial, let’s look over these following basic concepts and make sure that you understand it well to work with PWA tools.

Application Shell

An application shell provides a fundamental structure of the user interface for a progressive web application. The structure is used in Magento PWA Studio to reduce the time spent loading a branded experience in the UI.

This approach involves heavily caching the minimal amount of HTML, CSS, and JS to load the basic UI of the page before fetching the rest through an API.

Service Worker

A service worker is a script that runs in the background. It is used for caching and resource recovery.

Component Data Binding

Component data binding is the way data move between the source and a UI component. PWA uses component data binding to connect dynamic data with the user interface.

GraphQL

Similar to REST, GraphQL is a query language on a server. It is used in PWA to push data.

In comparison with REST, GraphQL is more powerful, flexible, and effective.

Advantages:

Predictable results from the query

A single request for many results

Organized data with typed schema

Client State, Reducers & Actions

Client State, Reducers & Actions are Redux concepts that are used to manage and update the status of a web application.

Loading & Offline States

Both loading and offline states are concepts that must be dealt with by PWA.

Container Extensibility

A Container is an HTML element that contains 0 or more Containers Child components. It acts as the target for Magento-loader-layout operations.

With container extensibility, you can reuse and modify your container with no adjustment of the source.

CSS Modules

CSS modules are reusable CSS styles that enable you to develop components with styles but still compatible with external styles.

Performance Patterns

This is an essential concept in PWA, which includes many strategies and patterns available to enhance PWA performance.

Root Components & Routing

A root component of an app is the DOM node under which all other nodes are managed by React.

Routing is the ability to arrange a URL pattern to a suitable handler.

Critical Path

To display a website, we need a critical path, which are steps required to process the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. If you want the best performance of your web application, you need to optimize the critical path.

What Is Magento PWA Studio Project?

>>> Don’t Miss This: Magento 2 Testing Framework to Cover All Parts of Your Website!

Magento PWA Studio Project is a set of tools that allows developers to develop, deploy, and maintain the PWA storefront on top of Magento 2.

Advanced tools and libraries are used to create a build system and framework that follow the Magento principles of extensibility.

The Magento PWA Studio Project provides the following tools:

pwa-buildpack CLI tools: Core constructing and development tools.

Peregrine hooks & components: A collection of parts and React hooks.

Venia store & visual components: A proof of concept Magento 2 storefront & visual elements can be used in Magento stores.

UPWARD: A specification of a file that determines the behavior of the server.

pwastudio.io: Magento PWA documentation that guides developers to build Magento 2 storefront.

Shared Magento server: Sample data, make sure that the version of Magento is updated.

Magento PWA Studio Tutorial – Project Setup Guide

>>> Check It Our: More Magento tutorials to optimize e-commerce sites!

This comprehensive tutorial provides several best practices of Magento PWA Studio that help to integrate PWA into Magento.

Besides, in this blog, we just provide tutorials of setting-up step, which is a fundamental step of the whole process.

Getting Started

If you haven’t installed Yarn, Node.js, please install it to setup Magento PWA Storefront.

In case you have it, you need to check the versions by running the 2 following commands:

node -v

yarn -v

STEP 1: Run The Scaffolding Tool

In the terminal, you need to navigate to the directory where you want to install your storefront project and run the scaffolding tool:

yarn create @magento/pwa

Alternative commands:

npx @magento/create-pwa

npm init @magento/pwa

Then, please answer the following questions from the interactive questionnaire:

Run this command to navigate to your project’s root directory:

cd pwa-studio-fundamentals

STEP 2: Start The Storefront Application

In the second step of the Magento PWA tutorial, you need to execute the below command to start the dev server at http://0.0.0.0:10000/:

yarn watch

After that, it will detect whether there is any change or not. If a change is identified, the application running in the browser will update the change.

To stop the dev server, please press the key combination of Ctrl+C in the running terminal window.

STEP 3: Add A Custom Hostname & SSL Certificate

This step is necessary, especially when working on many storefront projects, as each project needs a custom hostname to avoid conflict with service workers or ports.

You can simply create a custom hostname and SSL certificate by using create-custom-origin sub-command as followed:

yarn buildpack create-custom-origin ./

Update Environment Variables (Optional)

You can choose to perform this step or not since the scaffolding command already adds the required environment variables to the environment file.

In case you want to, you can update your project’s .env file and change the property values.

You can find more Magento PWA Studio Tutorials in Magento PWA documentation.

Troubleshooting

Because it is kind of complicated to set up the project, errors can happen anytime. Let’s see some common faults and how to fix it.

Node Version Error

This fault may happen because you are using the wrong node version. Specifically, the node v12 is not compatible with early versions of the PWA studio.

To solve this problem, you should use a node version manager, for example, n or nvm, to switch to different versions.

Caching Problems

In case you face a caching problem, just simply empty the full application storage and start over.

Let us give you a specific example of using Chrome:

Open the Developer Tools

In the Application tab, select Clear Storage

Press the “Clear site data” button to finish

Unable to Get The Data from Magento

If you are running into a problem that your storefront does not get the data from Magento, you should verify the MAGENTO_BACKEND_URL in your .env file, which is accessible from your dev server.

Privacy Error

This issue is quite common while visiting a website.

The reason is that your project has an invalid or expired certificate. As a result, the browser doesn’t trust the generated SSL certificate.

Some users have suggested deleting the devcert folder to trigger certification regeneration.

Such a folder is found at different places in different operating systems.

In MacOS:

~/Library/Application Support/devcert

In Window system:

${User}\AppData\Local\devcert

Conclusion

In conclusion, PWA is so useful that we highly recommend online store owners to set up to gain more customers.

We hope that this Magento PWA Studio Tutorial is helpful to start working on Magento PWA. If you want us to deliver more Magento PWA tutorials, don’t hesitate to comment in the section below.

Thanks a lot for reading!

The post Magento PWA Studio Tutorial: Step by Step to Get Maximum Customers appeared first on Mageguides.

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