After being able to set up a new store front in only a day, I was impressed with how easy to use Shopify was. Since I had never used the platform before I assumed there would be a learning curve. To my surprise I found that Shopify was very intuitive and user friendly. The instructions that Shopify provides its customers are clear and much easier to follow than Magento’s. That being said, it also made me realize how Shopify wouldn’t work for the majority of my clients. I hope this article allows you to make the choice between Magento or Shopify for your business. 

Shopify is a software as a service platform. This means that a great deal of the functionality you get with Shopify cannot be customized. This means Shopify is really only an eCommerce platform for extremely small businesses. If your online store does less than $50k/year (and you have little intent to grow that) then Shopify is probably a good option for your business.

While the functionality you get with Shopify is pretty minimal, its super easy to set up and run in comparison to Magento. If you have used WordPress in the past then you can probably set up your store all by yourself. Shopify might not give its users much functionality, but it does give them high quality themes at a cheap price! Checkout the Themeforest directory for some great examples.

Another plus side of Shopify is that its very easy to purchase a domain and get your store up and running quickly through their services. They take care of all the domain registration and DNS set up. So if you have never set up a website before Shopify might be a good way to start.

Plus, unlike some SaaS platforms Shopify does allow its users to export their data. So if you decide to move off Shopify in the future it should be relatively easy. This is a big bonus for business owners who don’t know where their business might be in the next year or two.

If you are really want to do more than $50k/year in eCommerce business, then I highly recommend Magento. While it’s more complicated to set up and get started with, in the end you’re going to be a lot happier that your website can be customized. To get your site set up, its probably best to contact a professional but once you’re launched you’ll be able to run the site solo.

Magento can offer you a lot services and functionality that Shopify can’t. This includes integrating with ERPs, CRMs and warehouses of your choice so that Order Management  is a breeze. You can create dynamic offers, wholesale sites, complex products and really manage your SEO! It might mean a lot more money on the table up front, but in the end Magento gives your business a robust website that can grow to accommodate an expanding business.

If you consider just straight functionality alone, Magento has Shopify beat. Anything you can do on Shopify can be done on Magento as well. Really, your choice comes down to how much you are able to spend. Magento will always be a more expensive solution for your business but it will allow you to move to the next level and really be competitive online.

The best place to start (even before you begin designing a new store) is to check out are the Trusted Extensions. These have been reviewed and tested by Magento and are the best place to start for a new store owner to guarantee that you won’t run into tons of issues.

Not all the extensions I have listed here are trusted, but the ones that are are labeled.

1. One Step Checkout

Shortening the checkout process in Magento is an absolute MUST! Magento’s One Step Checkout is bothersome to use as a customer and takes way to longer to fill out and load. Using One Step Checkout or another extension that presents everything on one page (and not in tabs) is an easy way to increase your conversion rate. Plus One Step Checkout offers a lot of additional options for store owners who want to collect more information or offer up-sells right on the checkout page.

2. WebShopApps – MatrixRates TRUSTED

The best and easiest way to customize your shipping rates in Magento. This extension allows you to make a CSV which charges your customers based on destination, shipping method and the weight, price or quantity of an item. If you need to override rates from FedEx, USPS or UPS I’d recommend checking out their other extension – Shipping Override. WebShopApps is a fantastic company and really provides top level service and support.

3. Follow Up Email

This extension lets you set up customized abandoned cart emails and other great email notifications to increase sales. Besides abandoned carts you can also send out emails on a customer’s birthday, when a particular trigger happens or for a promotion based around items in a customer’s wishlist. This is a must have for anyone who wants to get the best ROI.

4. Zizio Social Power Share FREE

Let your customers do your marketing for you and make it easy for them to share your products on social media! Zizio is easy to configure and looks great. Plus you can set up deals for your customers who share on facebook. Unfortunately, this company has gone under… I’m currently looking for a new Social Media extension for Magento.

5. Custom Bulk Product Import

Honestly there is no good, easy or fast way to get your products into Magento (unless you’re coming from another MySQL database). Plus if you want to have configurable products or if you have thousands of products it can be a serious nightmare to import everything. So far this importer is the best I have worked with and is user friendly enough that most people can figure it out without help. The creator is also pretty quick about answering questions.

6. Ajax Cart Preview

Ajax add to cart is another necessity for most eCommerce stores since using a page reload to add products to your cart takes forever! I honestly don’t understand why this extension isn’t more popular. All of the other Ajax add to cart extensions have popups that ask you what you want to do next. Skip that and make your store easier to get through for your customers with this great extension!

7. Store Locator

If you have an eCommerce store chances are that you also have real brick and mortar stores. This is a great and easy to use extension to show your customers where those are at.

8. Blast Lucene Search

Magento’s search is terrible out of box. Even with adjustments, if your have tons of similar products, your customer’s won’t be able to find what they need. This is the only search result extension I would recommend. For an example on how it helps, check out these links: Magento Default Search vs Blast Lucene Search

9. Advanced Reports TRUSTED

Magento has reasonably good reports, especially if your running most of your reports through another system (like a CRM or ERP). If all you have is your Magento store, then you definitely need this extension so you can run some critical reports for your business.

10. Extended Product Grid w/ Editor

As a shop manager or owner this extension will save you TONS of time. It lets you edit products in bulk, directly on the grid and identify products that are missing images, categories, ect. Absolutely a must if you manage all your products directly in Magento.

Finally, what is the only extension company I recommend you NEVER buy from? Aitoc, they are terrible and literally every store I work on that has an extension from them has issues because of it. Stay away!

First take you video file and open it up in Adobe Premiere. From here go to File -> Export -> Media.

Under Export Settings select -

Format: H.264

Preset: You can select a specific one for instance if you know most people will be watching this on an iPad, ect. Otherwise I would just leave it as NTSC DV High Quality.

Make sure your output name has .mp4 as your file type and that the Export Video and Export Audio buttons are checked.

Next go down to the Video tab, here you can adjust the size (width and height) of your video as well as optimize other parts of the video such as frame rate, ect. Once all these are adjusted to your needs you are ready to export your mp4.

Once you have the mp4 you’ll need to convert it to .ogv since Adobe Premiere doesn’t do this we’ll need to use another program. I used this website - http://video.online-convert.com/convert-to-ogg - but if it doesn’t work for you a quick Google search should give you some other options.

Now you just need to upload your video files to the server. You’ll want to leave you existing flash video up since this will be necessary for some browsers. Once all the files are up you just need to implement the following code and replace my file names/paths with your own. I’ve highlighted anything you might need to change in BOLD. You’ll see I have set my video to automatically play (this works only for browsers) as well as loop continuously.

Code:

<video width=”441” height=”237” autoplay=”autoplay” controls=”controls”  loop=”loop“>

<source src=”/video.mp4” type=’video/mp4; codecs=”avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2″‘>

<source src=”/video.ogv” type=’video/ogg; codecs=”theora, vorbis”‘>
<object width=”441” height=”237” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”
5
data=”path/to/swf/player.swf?image=placeholder.jpg&file=/video.mp4“>
6
<param name=”movie” value=”path/to/swf/player.swf?image=placeholder.jpg&file=/video.mp4” />
7
</object>
</video>

Good luck!

The first thing I ALWAYS do is to check and see if the extension or plugin has been approved by the platform’s creators. In some cases this is easy, for example on Magento you can check Magento Connect to see if your extension is available there. If it’s not Magento likely hasn’t approved the extension so it might be best to steer clear of that extension.

Next you’ll want to read reviews on the extension or plugin. If these are on the extension or plugin’s creator’s website then read them with a grain of salt. The same thing goes if there is only one review for an extension or plugin on another site. In all likelihood the creators made up that review themselves, so be sure and look for an extension or plugin that has lots of reviews! What is enough? That really depends, on some platforms even the very best extensions or plugins might only receive one or two review. On other platforms like Magento you should see at least a dozen or so reviews for any decent extension.

Wait, what if it’s brand new?!

If the extension or plugin has just been released you should always check the reviews on the other products this company has released. If they all look good then you should be fine but if there aren’t any or if all the other products appear to suck then steer clear!

Now that you’ve done a little basic research in the obvious places your next place to check is Google. Just search the product name or creator and see what you get back. If sites come up with warnings about the product being malicious, poorly developed or error prone you should absolutely avoid it. I trust Google a lot more then anything else, so if the first two pages look good it’s safe to assume you’ve picked a good extension or plugin.

Now your ready to install! But before you install this on your live website you should always make a backup and if possible install first on a development site. Doing these two simple steps can save you tons of money and frustration in the long run.

So why not just turn some of your Product Pages into Content Pages! This way it’s just as easy as adding products to your categories and you can have info pages mixed right into your categories.

Step one -
Open up your web editor and go to – /app/design/frontend/default/(YOURTHEME)/template/catalog/product/view.phtml and open it up. Now in the same directory create a new file named “content.phtml”, copy and paste over everything from the view.phtml template file into the new content.phtml file.

Step two -
Comment out any of the “product” stuff you do not want to display on your content page. My client really liked the “More Views” for his images so this was a great way of keeping that functionality without having to make a new module. Save it when your done.

Step three -
Now go to the Magento Admin, find the product you want to turn into your new content page. Under Design and in the Custom Layout Update box you’ll want to add this:

<reference name=”product.info”>
<action method=”setTemplate”> <template>catalog/product/content.phtml</template></action>
</reference>

And your finished! You can make all kinds of layout updates to specific products this way. I’ve used this method in the past for clients who needed to have a different layout for a couple specific products.

This project only cost me about $20 but you could certainly do it for cheaper if you buy a cheap frame (mine was about $15). Also you could use wire rather than lace, but for that I recommend using a nail gun and not a glue gun. Finally, make sure the lace you purchase is sturdy enough to hold large earrings. I brought some big ones with me when I went shopping just to test.

To start you’ll need the following materials:

Materials

• Frame
• Lace
• Hot Glue Gun
• Scissors
• Fray Check (optional)

Finished

The site runs for only about $25 bucks a month and a once a year fee for the $50 SSL certificate. Since the site runs on Magento it is capable of handing a large variety of eCommerse tasks including:

• Product Management
• with options for Inventory Management
• Order Management
• Customer Management
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Promotional & Marketing Campaigns
• Sales Reports
• Checkout & Payment Processing

Argyle is one of my favorite patterns, so when I saw an open design contest for Skullcandy I was certain I wanted to use that pattern. I incorporated the argyle pattern with the skullcandy logo to flesh out a creative yet simple headphone design.

The site is still under a little construction by the owners… I’ll update when it’s complete.

This recipe is gluten and onion free. 

Ingredients

Marinade

• 1-2lb flank steak (depending on your carnivorousness)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 garlic clove (minced)
• 1 large Serrano pepper (sliced diagonally & de-seeded)
• Onion poweder
• Northwoods Fire from Penzeys Spices (or your favorite spice)
• Salt & Pepper
• 1-2oz of Rum

Put the blocks in a bowl and mix with chopped bell peppers, 2 minced Serrano peppers, 1 tbs lime juice, cilantro and 2 chopped celery sticks. Mix and then add pepper to taste. Cover the bowl and save in the fridge til your ready to eat.

Cook the steaks with enough oil to cover your pan. I recommend using olive oil with medium heat. Turn your steaks after 5 minutes (it should be sizzling) and then check the pinkness of your steaks after another 5 minutes. Cook as you desire and let sit for at least 10 minutes after they are done cooking.

You should serve with rice, chopped romaine lettuce, chopped tomatoes,  shredded cheese and sour cream. I usually let people choose between hard to soft corn tacos as well.