Not long ago, the idea of online shopping was virtually non-existent. Today, we’re experiencing what could be aptly put as ‘the Golden Age of Shopping’. No more restricting yourself to local stores or bother about pushy sales staff, lack of parking space and other problems that accompany a shopping trip. Online shopping has enabled shopaholics to go on a shopping spree right from the comfort of their homes. At the same time, it has also opened up a world of opportunity for retailers who can generate revenue with a robust eCommerce setup.

Want to know how to build a successful online store? Features like a well-stocked product inventory, excellent delivery options, and customer service are a given. But did you know that your website layout is also crucial? Here we’ve listed the six building blocks of a successful eCommerce site’s layout:

1. Your ID is your logo

People need something to identify your brand with and the logo is the best way to convey what you stand for, representing your business as a whole. A well-thought out and highly recognizable logo is a must if you want to establish your online presence.

2. Content is king

The key to a successful site and a good rank in the SERP is content. Your web store doesn’t have to restrict itself to selling products. Provide juicy tidbits of relevant information, promos and freebies, helpful FAQ’s and more to make shopping on your store a pleasant experience.

3. Keep it well-structured

Your eCommerce store might have zillion pages, but it all comes down to the way you’ve structured them and connected them with one another. Lay out a clear plan and discuss your options with a competent web designer.

4. The X-factor

Does your eCommerce website have the looks? Or does it merely resemble other template-based online stores? Add a touch of creativity to your store to make your store stand out. However, overdoing it by compromising on simplicity and readability is a strict no-no

5. Navigation

As stated earlier, a structured site is important, but navigation gain’s even more prominence. A user that finds it difficult to sift through the various pages may eventually leave the store out of frustration.

6. Build trust

Every cautious shopper will think twice before buying from an unknown online retailer. In such a case, faith-building measures are crucial to establishing your business’ credibility. For instance, you can provide full contact details to let them know that they can reach out to you at any time.

The aim of this software is to provide new ways of selling products online. It also helps in the promotion and functionality of online stores.

There are many other platforms used for selling products online like WooCommerce, PrestaShop, big commerce but Magento is very popular among all. It is highly recommended because of its flexible features and extraordinary functions which this platform is offering.

Following are some reasons which will force every business to switch their business to Magento.

1. SEO Supportive:

It is one the most imperative feature of Magento Development that it is SEO friendly. SEO which makes any website more available online will definitely increase your customer for buying any digital or physical product. Magento provides the latest SEO ranking factors. It also includes analytics for tracking web visitors.

2. Advance Features:

Magento is enough for dealing your e-commerce business more effectively as it provides up to date features which give customers so many ease and it becomes a popular store among consumers. It provides advanced solutions in much simpler forms. It is a fully functional platform used by many successful businessmen.

3. Prop Up Varies Currency and Language:

Many e-commerce platforms are not friendly with all types of currency and languages. Magento supports this rich feature of supporting varies currencies and languages. This makes Magento dynamic for any national and international business.

4. Effortless Maintenance and Availability:

Magento development services ensure you provision of maintenance. They will handle all issues related to server or be maintaining website or maybe your development problems. This feature makes Magento easy to use the software. As it is open source software you can copy it to your own servers and can edit its code. It is available for the installation on one go.

5. Versatile CMS and Hosting Options:

Magento supports multiple websites and over 50 payment gateways. It is a perfect choice for product editing and proficient in handling large database smartly. Magento Development allows online stores to choose liberally any hosting company of their choice.

Ratio of Different E-commerce Platforms Usage:

Magento Development is using worldwide for any kind of business either small or large scale many industries like ford, Vizio, Christian Louboutin, Nike and nestle are some top brands which are using Magento.

Obviously, there are many reasons to use Magento for online business. Every business should use Magento as it gives best marketing strategies and easy to handle.

In addition to being the most popular server-side programming language, PHP has been evolving consistently to simplify development of websites and web application. The latest version of PHP also comes with several new language features, enhanced speed and reduced resource consumption. Here, you can always consider developing your ecommerce application with PHP 7 to make the website load faster. The enhanced loading speed will boost the search engine ranking of the website and keep the visitors engaged.

You can even avail the resources provided by various PHP-based ecommerce platforms to build a custom web store without putting extra time and effort. Also, you can take advantage of these ecommerce platforms without increasing project overheads as most of them are open source and free. Also, you have an option to choose from a number of PHP-based ecommerce platforms according to your business model and needs. However, it is also important to compare the features and tools provided by various PHP-based ecommerce platforms according to your specific needs.

Brief Overview of 7 Widely Used PHP eCommerce Platforms

1) Magento

You have option to choose from various editions – enterprise, enterprise cloud and community – of Magento. The community edition of Magento is open source and free, whereas other are commercial and paid. But the community edition of the ecommerce platform lacks technical support. The themes and modules provided by Magento will help you to customize the look, feel, and functionality of the web store without writing additional code. You can further download a variety of themes and extensions from online marketplace. However, you have to incur additional expenses to avail the additional features provided by commercial editions of the ecommerce platform.

2) WooCommerce

The PHP ecommerce platform is supported by WordPress. You can even use WooCommerce as a plug-in to integrate ecommerce functionality into an existing website developed with WordPress. The themes and plug-ins provided by WooCommerce will make it easier for you to customize the store and shopping cart according to your business model. Despite being highly customizable, WooCommerce also allows you to choose from a variety of extensions. However, some of these themes, extensions and plug-ins are paid. But you can always take advantage of the resources provided by WooCommerce to simplify custom ecommerce application development.

3) OpenCart

The open source ecommerce platform was initially rewritten in Perl. But the developers subsequently rewrote OpenCart in PHP. In addition to providing an out of box shopping cart, OpenCart also provides a variety of themes and plug-ins to simplify ecommerce website development. Also, it supports multiple languages, currencies, tax rates, and payment gateway. The built-in SEO feature of the platform further enables you to increase the ecommerce website's search engine visibility and ranking without deploying skilled digital marketers.

4) ZenCart

ZenCart is originally designed as an ecommerce shopping cart program. But the features provided by ZenCart enable you to set up and run a custom web store within a short amount of time. You can take advantage of the themes and plug-ins provided by the shopping cart program to customize the ecommerce website according to your business needs. At the same time, ZenCart supports multiple languages, currencies, payment options, shipping options, and discount coupons. Also, it boost customer buying experience by keeping the checkout flow and process simple and fast.

5) PrestaShop

Unlike other PHP-based ecommerce platforms, PrestaShop supports over 60 languages. You can take advantage of the multiple language support provided by PrestaShop to promote and sell your products to customers residing in various regions and speaking different languages. At the same time, the modules and layouts templates provided by PrestaShop make it easier for you to customize the web store without putting extra time and effort. Also, you can avail an array of useful features provided by PrestaShop like customizable themes, mobile-friendly design, and professional ecommerce website templates. However, you have to incur additional expenses to avail the paid modules and layouts templates for PrestaShop.

6) VirtueMart

The open source ecommerce platform is designed with features to complement Joomla CMS. VirtueMart scores over other ecommerce platforms due to its enterprise grade security features and performance. But many developers use VirtueMart for developing small to medium web stores. You can always opt for VirtueMart to avail a number of robust features like varying product edit options, creating and managing shopper groups, generate invoice, and a unified calculator. Also, VirtueMart supports multiple treaties, shipping options, payment options, and payment gateways.

7) OSCommerce

In addition to being a mature ecommerce platform for PHP, OSCommerce is also supported by a large and active community. OSCommerce developers can take advantage of the free add-ons uploaded by members of the community to add functionality to the web store without writing longer lines of code. OSCommerce further provides a shopping cart which is developed with PHP and MySQL, and can be integrated seamlessly into an existing website. Also, the ecommerce platform supports multiple treaties, unlimited products and categories, payment process systems, and tax rate. Further, it simplifies the billing and invoice generation process by updating currency exchange rates automatically.

On the whole, you have to choose from several ecommerce platforms written in PHP. But you must remember that these ecommerce solutions differ from each other in the category of learning curve, technical support, maturity, and compatibility. That is why; you must evaluate the pros and cons of each PHP-based ecommerce platform, and choose the one that meets your precise business needs and objectives.

PHP is considered one of the most popular programming languages of the day, empowering millions of websites and web applications. The server-side scripting language has consistently been used for complex and demanding tasks, including the development of eCommerce platforms. PHP-based platforms are better than their counterparts because they allow the creation of customized stores with minimal time and effort.

With a host of options available, it might be daunting to select the best of the lot. To make things easier for you, we’ve compared some of the most popular PHP-based eCommerce platforms and selected the best ones for you. Here’s our pick:

1) Magento

In all obviousness, Magento tops our list, owing to its immense functionality, versatility, and scalability. The platform powers some of the world’s leading stores and is easily the best choice when it comes to store development for mid-to-large sized retailers. Retailers have the option of choosing community, enterprise or enterprise cloud editions depending upon their requirement.

2) WooCommmerce

Supported by WordPress, this PHP powered platform is the best choice if you’re looking for a store that’s quick to set up and easy to customize. Available as a plugin, it can be used to convert your existing WordPress site into an online shopping portal. With several themes, plugins and extension available, WooCommerce simplifies custom store development.

3) ZenCart

It provides a number of features that allow you set up a custom store within a minimal amount of time. With support for multiple languages, currencies, checkouts and shipping options, ZenCart is the perfect development platform for retailers looking to cater on a global scale. There are also a variety of themes and plug-ins that can alter the look as per requirements.

4) PrestaShop

PrestaShop is out-of-the-box mobile friendly, comes with support for over 60 languages, professional grade eCommerce templates and modules that make it a highly versatile platform for the development of large-scale stores. However, a few modules and templates are paid, so users will have to spend an additional sum to improve the store’s look and functionality.

5) OSCommerce

OSCommerce stands out amongst other eCommerce platforms owing to the support it receives from a huge developer community. From free add-ons to themes, users of this platform can benefit from the vast amount of resources available to add functionality to their site. It also provides a shopping cart built with PHP and MySQL and supports unlimited expansion, multiple currencies, among others.

Selling through marketplaces might be more beneficial to your business than you can imagine. If you are armed with the drive to make your marketplace thrive, it’s time to lure vendors to sell their goods from your marketplace. Online marketplaces are a great way to get started. It allows vendors to sell goods without setting up their own online store, and many traditional businesses are now looking at marketplaces to expand their venture. Selling through online marketplaces provides a flexible business opportunity with relatively low start-up costs. eBay and Amazon are prime examples of well-established marketplaces.

Many of today’s most prominent and successful online retailers began humbly as a small set up or at home, and grew organically within an online marketplace before branching out into their own website. One of the challenges of starting any business is attracting customers. Larger online marketplaces offer merchants and retailers access to a massive pool of existing and potential customers.

However, managing a marketplace with numerous vendors is not as easy as it sounds. This is where the newly launched PrestaShop MarketPlace module comes in handy. This module effectively enables business owners to set up and run their business across a marketplace platform, as well as enables the amazing feature of dropshipping. This module combines the benefits of marketplace and dropshipper module into one package to ably track and manage several vendors and their products from one place. This module absolutely simplifies multi-vendor management to another level. It enables easy management of the product catalog, orders, invoices, manifests, payments etc effortlessly.

The extremely user friendly interface of the Marketplace Extension is easily navigable and used by store owners to manage the varied vendors, vendor products, orders, commissions, payouts etc. Other rich features include fast shipping process, secure payment services, website visibility increment, social media interactions, multiple language support, multiple currency format support etc.

The dropshipper feature integrated into this module is incredibly functional with amazing in-built features that are easy to configure, it smoothly takes total control of your entire multi shipping management. Automating the shipping process saves you considerable, valuable time, reduces the risk of manual data entry errors and enables the shipments to be dispatched quickly! Further, the module adeptly facilitates and optimizes the way orders are managed and coordinated with the vendors. This notable PrestaShop module ably controls all the transactions that does it rounds amongst business owners, vendors and customers in an efficient manner, thus attracting more vendors to be a part of your online business.

Marketplaces offer a unique channel to the owners & retailers and also access to new sources of supply & demand. This exemplar extension is highly beneficial, and easily allows even non-tech-savvy business owners to manage their marketplace from the easy-to-use admin panel. Third party retailers and vendors, along with their products, can be easily and completely managed and coordinated from this richly featured platform. It’s a one stop shop for starting a marketplace!

Since its introduction in August 2007, PrestaShop has become a popular aid for e-Commerce practitioners to market their products and services. Developed in France, PrestaShop is an open-source software which allows you to manage the content of your online shop’s shopping cart and can be downloaded and used for free. It is equipped with a collection of PrestaShop themes and templates that you can use to customize the look of your online shop. The software is used internationally and all versions fully support English, French and Spanish. However, there are over 40 languages available and you can download your desired language pack in *.gzip format from its official website and then integrate it to your PrestaShop.

PrestaShop supports many methods of payments for your online shop’s convenience. It can work with payment managers such as PayPal, Google checkout, or Payment Pro via APIs. As mentioned previously, besides using the software to manage the gateway of your online store’s payments, you can also use it to customize the appearance of your site. You can choose one of the PrestaShop templates or themes provided to spruce up your online shop. Unfortunately, the software is only equipped with a limited amount of templates and themes. To get more themes for PrestaShop, you can create one yourself, get one from other websites, or get someone to make a custom theme for you.

For those who understand PHP, creating new templates and themes should be fairly easy. It doesn’t take much time and effort to make one according to your taste. On the other hand, if you are not familiar with PHP, you can always find thousands of PrestaShop templates and themes from other websites. A lot of these websites offer free themes and templates with excellent designs, while some other offer paid premium themes. Alternatively, if you want to have unique website but do not know how PHP works, you can hire a website designer to create custom themes and templates for your shopping cart.

Before you can use any of the PrestaShop templates and themes or the other features provided, you need to make sure that your PC has all the system requirements needed for the installation of the software. PrestaShop is compatible with Linux, Unix and Windows operating systems. Your computer should be equipped with Apache web server 1.3 or later, IIS 6 or later, PHP 5 or later, and MySQL 5 or later. Last but not least, you should have your own domain name.