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Top 15 Magento eCommerce Plugins

Updated on by in Web Tools

Magento has grown rapidly since its launch less than five years ago. For anybody working in ecommerce, Magento is an excellent way to increase their business’ image and revenue online. To really get the most out of Magento, though, you need to make sure you have the best plugins installed. With so many plugins to choose from, however, the choice can be daunting. Below we will list the 15 best Magento plugins for your business.

magento_ecommerce

Shipworks
As a business owner, your main objective is likely to keep your business growing. While a growing business is always a good thing, it does come with a few unexpected headaches. Shipping is definitely one the bigger pains growing businesses experience. Shipworks makes shipping a breeze, allowing you to create labels, update orders, and email customers. Furthermore, it comes integrated with FedEx, UPS, DHL, and all the other major carriers.

Price Slider Dafodil
If you’ve ever done any online shopping, you know how frustrating it can be to find a number of items come up in your search result that are completely outside of your price range. With the Price Slider Dafodil, your customers can specify what price range they’re looking for, thus making it easier to find the item they want to buy.
price_slider_daffodil_plugin

Shop by Brands
If you’re selling a number of different brands on your website, you will want the Shop by Brands plugin. Shop by Brands allows customers to choose which brands to display during a search. Even better, the plugin allows customers to narrow their search by collection, color, and more.

Zopim Live Chat
Customers nowadays live fast-paced lives, and if you’re not able to address their needs immediately, it is likely they will look elsewhere to do business. Having a chat plugin, like Zopim Live Chat, is essential to making sure you are always available to answer a customer’s question right away.

Nchannel
Being in ecommerce often means having to rely on a variety of different software platforms in order to conduct business. This situation can cause a logistical nightmare as different business functions are performed across different platforms. Nchannel will integrate these platforms and connect them with your Magento account, thus saving you time and unwanted hassles.

Fontis SecurePay
Online security is a major concern for customers shopping online. Unless you can assure your customers that their payment is being processed in a secure way, you won’t likely see them willing to spend money on your products. Fontis SecurePay processes payments via the SecureXML gateway, thus giving customers piece of mind knowing their payment details are kept safe.

IW PayPal Standard Currencies
There are nearly three billion internet users around the globe, and each of them is a potential customer. But if you are only allowing customers to make payments in US dollars, then you are missing out on a potentially vast source of revenue. With IW PayPal Standard Currencies, you can make transactions in any PayPal supported currency, thus giving your business global reach.
iw_paypal_standard_currencies

Fooman Google Analytics +
Knowing how your customers behave is the key to knowing how to get them through to the checkout more often. Google Analytics allows you to track many of the basic statistics pertaining to customers (and potential customers) on your website, but with Fooman Google Analytics + you can take your data collection to a whole new level.

Checkout Newsletter
Keeping past customers interested in your latest offerings is vital in order to keep those customers coming back for more. Sending out newsletters and email campaigns is a great way to keep those customers interested. Checkout Newsletter will add a “Sign up for newsletter” option on your checkout page, allowing you to keep customers interested in your store well into the future.

Lazzymonks Twitter
While email newsletters go a long way in maintaining a customer base, we all know that online businesses need to integrate a variety of social media outlets to remain relevant. Lazzymonks Twitter will integrate your Twitter account into your menu, allowing customers to keep track of your updates while they shop.

Blog from aheadWorks
Likewise, maintaining a blog is vital to maintaining your online relevance and keeping customers abreast of your latest offers and happenings. The Blog extension from aheadWorks will integrate your blog with your Magento platform, which not only keeps customers better informed, but also allows your business to reap all the SEO benefits that come with owning a blog.

Events Calendar
While hosting events are a great way to keep people interested in your business and to show that you care about maintaining your customer base, if your customers have no way of knowing what events you are hosting, it is unlikely they will ever show up. Having the Events Calendar allows you to display all your upcoming events on your webpage, and thus maintain excitement around your business.
event_calender_plugin

Magento Easy Lightbox
A lightbox image (allowing customers to view a larger image without leaving their current page) is a great way to give your site that professional and convenient edge in the online marketplace. The Magento Easy Lightbox plugin will integrate lightbox with Magento, allowing images on your site to appear as lightboxes.

Teaserbox
A teaser is a great way to get customers interested in a particular product. Rather than getting lost in a vast catalogue, teasers will display only a few particular products that you want to draw a customers’ attention towards. Teaserbox will allow you to display these teasers in order to draw the interest of potential customers.
teaserbox_plugin

Magic Zoom
Finally, online shoppers want to know as much about a product as possible before they buy it. Magic Zoom allows customers to zoom in on a product, thus giving them a stunning amount of detail. Even better, the plugin works great on mobile devices, where it is particularly useful given the small screen sizes.

If you’ve chosen Magento for your ecommerce needs, you are already aware of how important plugins are to keeping your business growing. The 15 plugins listed above will not only simplify your business and make it more exciting to customers, but will make sure those customers keep returning to your site again and again.

Author: Lorraine Gray

Lorraine Gray is a longtime user of Magento. She assists small businesses in Magento installations and enjoys passing on her insights through blogging. Learn about high speed Internet, visit Satelliteinternetbroadband.com.

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