The decision to use Magento is a great first step towards putting your ecommerce site on the path to success. But those who do are quickly confronted with the dilemma of which plugins to use in order to maximize their site’s potential. While it would be impossible to devise a list of Magento plugins that appeal to all audiences, Brainstorm would like to mention a few that we employ regularly and which bring tremendous power and functionality to a wide range of ecommerce websites.
One Step Checkout
One Step Checkout dramatically simplifies the checkout process for your customers. It reduces the process from six steps to one, speeding up transaction times and reducing customer drop-offs. Customers fill in their address and chooses delivery/payment methods all on the same page – a dramatic improvement over the standard, multi-page checkout process. If you aren’t using One Step Checkout or a plugin like it, you’re at a serious disadvantage relative to your competitors who are.
Developer: OneStepCheckout
Cost: $375 approx. (Magenta Community edition). Price varies based on exchange rate.Follow Up Email
Email marketing remains an irreplaceable tool for customer acquisition. Follow Up Email allows web-store owners to create custom emails that target store visitors based on past activity and behavior. Your follow up emails will be fresh, timely and highly relevant to the needs of your prospects and customers. In short, Follow Up Email allows you to upsell, cross-sell and maximize ROI with unparalleled efficiency.
Developer: AheadWorks
Cost: $199Advanced SEO Suite
A quality SEO plugin is a must for your Magento site, and Misravit’s Advanced SEO Suite is as powerful as they come. It allows you to optimize specific categories and product groups for select search terms on a template, greatly improving your store’s search engine performance. It also streamlines the URL optimization process, works wonders with canonical links, allows for easy site map optimization and automates the creation of internal crosslinks. If SEO is a concern (and it usually is) consider adding Advanced SEO Suite to your Magento website.
Developer: Misravit
Cost: $149 (Magento Community edition)Special Promotions Pro
The Special Promotions Pro plugin creates special offers based on customers’ account information. Use it to set up compelling promotions such as:
- Buy 2 items, get 1 free
- Buy 2 items, get a different item for free
- Buy 3 items, get the least expensive one for free
- Buy 1 item, get a second at 20% off
- 10% discount for customers with text "gmail" (or other value) in their email address
Special promotions Pro facilitates easy implementation of these other promotions, increasing sales and building customer loyalty in the process.
Developer: Amasty
Cost: $129 (Magento Community edition)Auto Add Promo Items
Auto Add Promo Items – an amazing plugin with an unwieldy name – adds free promos to customers’ shopping carts based on select criteria. Zero price is displayed for the items along with a customizable text label informing customers that they are receiving a gift. LikeSpecial Promotions Pro, Auto Add Promo Items does wonders to increase sales and to build customer loyalty.
Developer: Amasty
Cost: $119 (Magento Community edition)Shop By Brand
The Shop by Brand plugin is ideal for online retailers selling popular brands online. The plugin allows users to easily create branded shopping pages and to incorporate brand feeds. The resulting pages contain up to date product information and a wealth of key phrases that can send a site’s search rankings through the roof.
Developer: Aitoc
Cost: $99 (Magento Community edition)
There you have it, six Magento plugins that are reasonably priced, well-tested and tremendously powerful. When deployed correctly, they can improve your site’s user experience, SERP rankings, transaction speeds and overall profitability.
Are these plugins right for your site? To find out, contact Brainstorm for a free Magento website review. We look forward to hearing from you.
By Bryan Lesseraux