If you are a small business owner who is looking to get started with e-commerce development, one of the biggest decisions you have to make is which online platform to get on. From Shopify to Magento, there can seem to be an endless range of choices out there. Magento is the platform of choice for many small business owners because of its scalability and international outreach. Although it can be hard for those without background in web development to start it up, that is an easily surmountable problem and has not put business owners off from using Magento.
The benefits of getting onboard with e-commerce are multifold, especially in light of the ongoing pandemic. If your small business is thinking of getting online, you should consider using Magento. In this article, we share with you why small business owners should use Magento.
Benefits of E-Commerce
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown businesses worldwide how important it is to have an online presence. Undoubtedly, businesses with only a brick-and-mortar presence suffered the most when the pandemic hit. Below are some great reasons to get onboard with e-commerce:
- Keep your shop open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Even if you may not be available to ship out products within the fastest turnaround time, customers can still browse your shop and place orders.
- Reach out to a wider geographical net of customers, particularly if your products can easily be shipped across states and borders.
- Tune into an omnichannel approach, where your physical and online shops complement each other to provide customers with a complete shopping experience.
- Ride out national and global crises such as the ongoing pandemic – if, for some reason, your brick-and-mortar store is unable to receive customers, your e-commerce store is still open for business.
Why Magento?
Now that you have decided going online is the best choice for your small business, you may be wondering, why Magento? The answer is simple:
- Magento is easily scalable and mobile-friendly. You can easily add PayPal, Google Pay and more as checkout options.
- Multi-address shipping is available for your customers’ convenience.
- With a flexible shopping cart system, small businesses can easily start out with a few products, gradually adding more as they expand.
- Magento boasts a large and effective community support system in its online forum. If there’s anything you are unsure of, simply search for your question in the large database and receive user-generated answers immediately.
- As many businesses are already on Magento, you will find a wealth of user resources online. Unsure about how to remove products or add a promotion code? Chances are, there’s a tutorial out there showing you how to!
Useful Extensions
Besides the numerous benefits listed above, business owners who require more can download Magento extensions to get the most out of their e-commerce experience. Below are some of the most useful extensions for Magento:
- The Magento Order Archive Extension allows you to easily delete unwanted orders and archive old ones so that you do not clog up your dashboard. This can be especially helpful if your business deals with a large volume of orders.
- All businesses know the importance of product reviews in attracting new customers and future sales. With the Product Review Extension for Magento 2, you can easily send out productive review incentives to customers after they have made a purchase, encouraging them to leave one.
- Even brick-and-mortar shops run into this problem where customers ask the same few queries time and again. Instead of replying to them individually when only a generic answer is required, download the Fancy FAQ Extension for Magento 2 and create a dedicated page for all FAQs, saving your customer service team time.
- With the Special Promotions Extension, you can easily add up to 20 different promotion codes, set fixed and percentage discounts and many more to boost sales and drive customer engagement.
Magento is Perfect for Small Businesses
If you are planning to set up an e-commerce shop for your small business, Magento is the perfect choice. With a series of features and extensions to suit your unique needs, it is easily scalable as your business expands and you can transact in numerous countries, currencies, and languages.