Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Building a Magento store – how to plan it

Building a Magento store is a complex task, but one worth undertaking if you want to create a solid foundation for your e-commerce business. In this article you will learn how to plan such an undertaking.

1. Determine what makes you different

The e-commerce market is very competitive, so it’s hard to break through if you don’t find something that allows you to stand out. Before you proceed to the various aspects of planning a Magento store builder, therefore, determine exactly what products you would like to sell and what you can do to attract customers’ attention.

Do you intend to provide products that are hard to find in a particular region? You want to gain customers with an attractive price, or perhaps rather stand out with a more expensive premium offering of the highest quality? There are plenty of ways. Determine therefore not only your niche, but also what will allow you to stand out from others.

2. Choose the right edition

Magento 2 has 2 basic editions to offer.

Magento Open Source

It is a free self-hosted platform that gives access to basic and intermediate shopping features. The open source nature gives you ample opportunity to customize your store to suit your needs. A good choice for small and medium-sized businesses. However, this edition does not give you access to official technical support.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce combines the previous advantages of open source Magento, and adds cloud infrastructure and 24/7 customer support. This edition is aimed at large companies that need maximum scalability and integration with external solutions.However, this version is relatively expensive. There is no official information on its cost, but before Adobe Commerce was introduced, there were Magento Commerce Edition and Magento Commerce Cloud versions. The annual license in their case started from $22,000 and $40,000 respectively, so in the context of AC you can expect a similar range.

3. Analyze the requirements of the Magento platform

Before you go on to choose a hosting service, pay attention to Magento requirements. This platform is very powerful and powerful, so it is better to use technology that supports it.

Operating system – Linux x86-64 or Mac and Windows using virtualization applications.
Server type – Apache or nginx, although the former is usually chosen.
Memory – 2GB RAM or more.
Database – Magento is compatible with MySQL 5.6 i 5.7.
PHP – Magento 2 is compatible with PHP 7.3, although it is recommended to use version 7.4.
Security – SSL is now the basis for secure online stores.

4. Choose the right hosting

Good Magento hosting is the foundation of your store. For Magento, you basically have 2 main options to choose from:

Dedicated server

An expensive option that gives you, however, the ownership of the entire server. Thanks to that you have full control over its infrastructure and how you use the resources.Operating a dedicated server requires technical skills, however it gives a lot of advantages.

VPS, or Virtual Private Server is a solution somewhat similar to a dedicated server. Although in its case you share resources with other users, each of them has his or her own area.

VPS is cheaper and simpler to use than a dedicated server, but it doesn’t offer as much.

5. Choose the right template

The template will determine the aesthetics of your store, as well as navigation. In this context you have 3 options to choose from:

Ready-made template

After purchasing such a template, you customize the content and structure of the store with it in mind and possibly make small changes. This solution works well for small stores and is the cheapest.

A ready-made template with many changes

The purchased template in this case serves as a foundation that will be heavily modified for your store. This option requires a longer search for a suitable project, as well as the use of specialists.

A special template created from scratch

This option gives you the greatest possibilities if you want to perfectly customize the template for the unique needs of your store. It is of course the most expensive and requires a lot of time to plan the whole project properly.

Summary

Building a Magento store is not easy. Therefore, it is best to use the services of a professional agency in the case of such a project. It will make sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible and that your investment will bring the highest return.