Often when the owner just starts his e-store he has no full picture on additional functionality he will need to implement for his needs in future.
In this article we will try to systematize the most common issues to extend your e-store functionality. You will be able to estimate your future needs and find the solutions previously to plan the budget accurately.
Navigation and presentation of products
Magento navigation is rather good out of the box, though very often the owners need something very specific to become a favorite place for the customers. It very much depends on the products you sell and the customers you have. You will definitely need tools for creating brand pages, if your customers choose the products by brand, e.g. it makes sense in fashion industry.Advanced search is essential to implement for every e- store.Depending on the product you sell, you will need different settings for filters – make them folded or collapsed, use multiple or single select, etc.
Usability
To bring usability to a new level in your store start with checkout as this is the most important process in your store – literally the moment customers make a decision to change money for a product or not. Let the checkout process be as simple as it can be – combine all the steps into one page.
Shipping
Shipping is traditionally the most difficult as well as the most important part in a store, as it is strongly connected with eligibility and legacy. It may occur you can’t deliver certain products to specific regions by law. Also shipping rates mayvary from one country to another. As far as the store grows practically everybody needs tools to make shipping operations correct. Almost each vendor at Magento Connect offers a shipping extension Magento approves, so you can choose either cheap or expensive, with wide feature range or offering one small feature.
Admin tools
These tools are essential for correct and efficient work of your store managers. Use functionality to control admin managers, highly decrease time on product management, performing mass actions, etc.
This is just a short list of additional features you may need for your store. Make your store successful and benefit from it!
