2 Ways Magento eCommerce Saves Small Businesses Money
Aesthetics/branding and SEO -mastery of these two integral regions of eCommerce is considered of the utmost importance to a successful online business, and rightly so – failure to attain a minimum in either of will almost certainly spell missed sales and ultimately a failed business. However, the flip side of the coin, oft ignored, is that too much focus on these areas can lead to budding businesses overextending themselves financially which again often ends in failure. That’s why Hara Partners recommends Magento eCommerce – the feature rich, open source platform contains all the tools you need to create a functional site without breaking the bank.
Magento eCommerce Platform:
The Magento eCommerce platform comes fully loaded with all the tools needed for a successful e-business, like analytics and marketing etc. or, at the very least, basic versions of those tools. Though the stock Magento toolkit may not be as robust or complete as some of the standalone options out there, they are more than sufficient for the new business to get to the point at which the numbers can justify the cost of the upgrade. And once it is time to upgrade having access to the massive library of extensions, themes and add-ons in the MagentoConnect marketplace means more, and usually, thanks to the stiff competition there, cheaperss expensive choices for you.
Aesthetics/Branding:
Let’s talk design. There is no doubt that when it comes to revenue streams for the small business nothing can compare to direct traffic – the kind that comes from word of mouth, or social advertising – for profitability. However, gaining market share through popularity means having strong customer loyalty and that most often comes through crafting a brand identity to which customers relate, ultimately creating a us (you and the customer) vs. them mentality. The problem is custom design work for a simple retail website runs somewhere in the tens of thousands – and that’s without the added costs of resolving any optimization issues the new design heavy site has – and spending that kind of dough just isn’t feasible for most small businesses. Magento eCommerce to the rescue! Creating custom designs is significantly cheaper on Magento that other systems because Magento eCommerce was created with an emphasis on flexibility so there is less shoehorning required than with other platforms. But the real goldmine is in the myriad themes available for free-or-almost-free in the Magento eCommerce marketplace which allow e-tailers to craft a unique image for themselves without breaking the bank.
Search Engine Optimization:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means making your website more “visible” to search engines so that your business is returned when relevant search terms are entered. This is what SEO professionals call “organic search” and, after direct traffic, it’s considered the best source of profitable traffic. SEO services, therefore, are in high demand and thus retaining SEO services can be quite costly, depending on the aggressiveness of the campaign and other variables. Problems can crop up in one or both of two ways. Firstly, finding an SEO professional who can actually achieve all the results they claim is tough, and the good ones are really expensive. And second, the whole industry involves taking advantage of Google (or other search engine) algorithms to raise search standing – what happens when the algorithms change? The answer, again, is Magento, and for the same reasons as above – it just doesn’t make sense to pay for services that you already get for free, and Magento comes loaded with a functional, albeit rudimentary, stock Magento SEO module so take advantage.
Make no mistake, this post in no way intends to diminish the importance of SEO and branding (or any other facet of eCommerce) to new online businesses – because both are absolutely vital to the long term success of any e-tail operation. However, it is my intent to disabuse the eCommerce beginner of the notion that the only way to “get a lot is to pay a lot” and to educate prospective e-tailers about the Magento eCommerce platform as a way to take get ahead of the curve and make educated decisions before committing to expensive and unnecessary solutions.
To find out how Hara Partners can help you create the ultimate Magento eCommerce store.
To read more: Why Magento – Hara Partners Blog
