These Magento Extensions Will Boost Your Sales - Part Two

Our last article discussed some of the critical Magento extensions for marketing and customer experience. This blog post contains valuable insights into other essential Magento plugins that target financial, shipping, and analytics aspects. Keep reading to discover how these extensions can improve your conversion rates.

Magento extensions for payments

Stripe Payments

This Magento extension is used for processing credit and debit cards, as well as mobile wallets. If you want to position yourself as a trustworthy seller and deliver safe and secure payment options, Stripe is a must-have.

Benefits:

Great integration. Stripe recognizes and accepts all major credit and debit cards and a wide range of currencies.
Modern features. With Stripe, you can also use mobile wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Compatible with a multi-store scenario.
Provides secure payment processes by using advanced machine learning algorithms.

OneStepCheckout

This is a very handy extension that simplifies the checkout process of your Magento store. Shopping cart abandonment is a real problem for online retailers nowadays, and the Magento eCommerce platform offers an overwhelmingly complicated checkout process.

By installing OneStepCheckout, you'll make it easier for your customers to complete a purchase and increase your conversions.

Benefits:

Accepts all major payment providers.
Cost-effective checkout solution.
User-friendly and responsive design. This extension looks and works great across various screens and devices.
Highly customizable. Adding and removing fields is easy with OneStepCheckout.

TaxJar Sales Tax Automation

Sales tax can be a burden for many business owners. Fortunately, TaxJar can do it for you. With its automation capabilities, this Magento extension helps you prepare returns and calculate your taxes more efficiently.

Benefits:

Real-time sales tax rates and calculations. Access TaxJar's APIs and real-time sales tax rates at checkout without compromising on the performance of your website.
Seamless and automated filling. With TaxJar's AutoFile feature, you can rest assured that your returns will be submitted correctly, on time.
Global rates. You can also use Tax Jar for taxes across multiple countries with accurate rates.

Magento extensions for shipping

Delivery Date

FIne-tuning the delivery schedule for your customer needs will definitely boost your store's credibility and profitability. With Delivery Date, there will be no more missed packages due to the ultimate shipping customizability feature.

Benefits:

Flexible. Allows the customer to select the date and time of their delivery.
Delivery notes. Customers can leave comments and provide additional instructions for the delivery.
Exclude dates. Delivery Data allows you to exclude any date from your delivery options.

ShipStation

ShipStation powers shipping efficiency of all sizes. Order management is essential for large eCommerce stores, and it can become challenging. This Magento extension supports businesses in managing their shipping without headaches.

Benefits:

Returns are easy. Returns and refunds are streamlined for better customer experiences.
Centralized orders. With ShipStation, you get to keep all your orders and shipment details in one place.
Order confirmation.

Shipping Suite

This complex Magento extension provides customizable shipping and logistics for eCommerce stores. Shipping Suite is a 3 in 1 solution that allows you to take complete control over your delivery process through 3 innovative shipping management tools: shipping table rates, rules, and restrictions.

Benefits:

Shipping approximations. Your customers are well informed about their shipping in advance thus reducing cart abandonment.
Highly customizable. You can choose which delivery providers to use and select the rates based on location.

Magento extensions for analytics

Google Analytics plugin for Magento 2

Easy yet powerful, this extension helps retailers track their web store's traffic more efficiently.

Benefits:

Better customer insights. This extension allows you to track your customer's activity in your store.
Enhanced marketing. With better customer visibility comes better monitoring of your marketing campaigns.
Improved personalization. By understanding your customer's behavior more clearly, you can act upon personalizing their experience on your site.

Advanced Reports

This Magento extension helps marketers with data visualization and management. It includes several reports and monitors different sales performance metrics in your store.

Benefits:

Specific reports. You can analyze your reports based on categories.
Payment and discount tracking. With Advanced Reports, you'll be able to see how your discount codes are performing and which payment methods lead to the most conversions.

Magento extensions for security

As security is getting more and more critical in the digital environment, security extensions are a must to keep your online store secure.

Two Factor Authentication

Through this extension, you can improve your protection against fraud and identity theft. The Two Factor Authentication (TFA) algorithm adds an extra layer of security to your website and reduces the risk of cyber theft.

Benefits:

High compatibility. TFA works with several operating systems.
High security. The secure code sent to your configured smartphone to complete the log-in process is only available for 30 seconds. This prevents someone from hacking your website.
Failsafe. With TFA, your eCommerce site will be secured even if the security of your passwords is jeopardized.

Fraud Prevention

To avoid fraudulent purchases and payments, installing this Magento extension is a must as it helps you track and block suspicious payments.

Benefits:

Automatic fraud detection. The extension automatically blocks purchases that match previous suspect purchases.
Custom blacklisting rules. You can create blacklist rules based on various customer attributions like name, address, ZIP, or IP address.

Conclusion

Magento is a reliable choice for building and managing robust eCommerce stores. However, to make the most out of its capabilities, installing Magento extensions is necessary. You're now familiar with the most popular and useful plugins for enhancing and securing your website.

If you're still unsure which extensions you should select for your site, send Optasy a message. We'll gladly support you in your journey towards building your successful eCommerce business.

Photo credit: geralt on Pixabay.

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How to Create Accessible Content More Easily

Web accessibility heavily relies on developers and designers. They are responsible for building code and specific design patterns to make a website accessible to people with disabilities. Another way to enhance a site's accessibility is through content. Creating accessible content is paramount when it comes to making a website accessible to screen reader users or visitors that use assistive technologies. Content editors can give a piece of writing accessibility by: writing relevant, concise, descriptive text links creating easily scannable headings adding alternative texts to every non-text element of the content writing meaningful copy Regardless of the scope of your website, as a content editor, your mission is to create and optimize every piece of writing on your site with accessibility in mind. This also means putting yourself into the shoes of your audience and thinking from their perspective. You should ask yourself: What do I need in order to have full access to this website? Which features and website tools can help visitors interact with this website more conveniently? If you use empathy to answer these questions, you'll get closer to understanding your audience. Only then will you be on the right path to building accessible content on your website. What Is Accessible Content? Web content accessibility doesn't just include people with disabilities. It also refers to content that can be easily understood and interacted with by smartphone users, older people, persons with low literacy, or those who have low English skills. According to the WCAG 2.0 standards, web content is considered accessible if it's: Perceivable. Website users should easily perceive any piece of content that is presented on the site. Operable. When structured, a site's content should focus on operability. Understandable. Accessible content is comprehensive, concise, and includes meaningful structural elements. Robust. A piece of content is considered robust when it can be easily scanned and interpreted by assistive technologies. How to Create Accessible Content 1. Use specific link texts. And try to avoid link text like "Click here" as they're not suitable in terms of accessibility. Meaningful link texts convey and clearly describe what the URL is about, making it easier for people who use screen readers to interact with the content. When using link texts, try to: Avoid raw URLs Include specific keywords Be short and concise Make sure the link text fits naturally into the content Mention the type and size of files in case of downloadable links 2. Write clear and simple content. Using concise language for your website's content benefits multiple groups of visitors, such as: Users with cognitive disabilities Non-native English speakers Screen reader users Busy people who want to quickly go through your copy Depending on the professional level of your content's target audience, you should either avoid or explain technical terms and acronyms. Also, focus on using an active voice that clearly states your ideas and avoid long sentences and idioms. 3. Provide transcripts and captions. While captions appear on the screen as written text, transcripts are the textual version of the video or audio content provided in a separate document. Transcripts and captions make websites more accessible for users who: Have hearing issues Have low English skills Can't listen to the content due to environmental reasons Transcripts and captions can be provided for all video and audio content, or they can be done by request. Either way, they are great ways to improve a website's accessibility. 4. Add relevant, appropriately formatted headlines. People with disabilities that use assistive software need scannable content that allows them to quickly find relevant information instead of wasting time going through the entire chunk of text. Structuring and styling your content in a scannable manner can also enhance your SEO efforts and improves your SERP visibility. Design your headings with accessibility in mind, and ensure that you use them as structural elements of the content and define its hierarchy. The accessible text needs to provide readers the ability to quickly navigate between the most important sections, and headings are the tool for allowing this. 5. Use ALT text for images. Whether you have complex images or just decorative images on your site, make them accessible by providing precise and concise ALT descriptions. Screen readers can't interpret non-text content elements, so images without ALT text are useless for screen reader users. Like headlines, alternate descriptions highly improve your SEO rankings and visibility. Make sure you use ALT text wisely by: Keeping your description short (under 125 characters) Avoiding images with text like graphs or diagrams 6. Write clear, to-the-point website instructions. Web accessibility is all about easier interactions with digital platforms. People want web experiences that require as few resources as possible on their part. And for online visitors with disabilities, this is more than a demand; it is a necessity. Therefore, web instructions, error messages, or data formats must be easy to understand, so they can be considered accessible. Part of creating accessible web content includes paying attention to how you write basic text like website instructions. Web Accessibility Is Here to Stay Implementing web accessibility into the core of your digital platform is a must. As web accessibility laws are getting more restrictive, brands start to think of making their websites accessible to support the future of their businesses. In an increasingly populated digital landscape, the mindset has to evolve in order to meet the complex needs of a variety of internet users. Companies that don't keep up with these trends will fall behind, and those who take web accessibility seriously will be on the winning side. As we've seen, accessible content creation is not rocket science and will improve your website in multiple ways. Making your content accessible should be a priority and an essential part of your editorial workflow. A few practices to remember for optimizing your content are: Always use ALT text for images Provide captions and transcripts for audio and video content Properly structure and format headings If you need help making your website more accessible, check out Optasy's Drupal Website Accessibility services. We'll offer our best support for helping you adopt an accessibility-first mindset to your website. Photo credit: Nick Morrison on Unsplash. ... Read more

Raluca Olariu / Jun 09'2023

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Why You Need Drupal Maintenance Services in 2023

Entering the world of Drupal web development can feel like diving into the unknown for many business owners. Once they've figured it out with the help of a developer or a Drupal development agency, the business runs smoothly for a little while. However, building and optimizing a website is like buying a new house—it's functional at first, but things break down and need repairing and regular care in time. Since spring is just over the corner, what better moment to start cleaning, improving, optimizing, and refreshing your website? Whether you do it in-house or hire an agency that offers Drupal maintenance services, it will work wonders and could actually double your potential market value. But first, it's essential to understand why a regular maintenance plan is critical, how to tell when you need Drupal Maintenance, and what does Drupal maintenance include. This article will answer these questions. Why you should stick to a regular Drupal maintenance plan If you've already entered the world of digital marketing, you know that the journey towards attracting and retaining customers doesn't end with web development and deployment. Change is a permanent constant in life, and businesses have to adapt to this ever-changing dynamic. Security A few years ago, website maintenance was optional. Building a static website that you could leave unattended for the entire year was perfectly normal. Today, as the digital landscape has expanded and become more prone to security vulnerabilities, Drupal support is imperative for maintaining a healthy security posture. Although Drupal is known for being the most secure CMS, this only applies if your Drupal website is regularly optimized with security updates and patches. The Drupal community and Drupal security team continuously build security patches, fixes, and upgrades, and Drupal users need to be in the loop about these updates. In other words, keeping up with the news and module updates in Drupal security is vital in order to avoid breaches. Constant Drupal core module updates can boost website protection and secure it against cyberattacks and threats. Fixing errors To ensure that your website performs well and meets the needs for speed and agility that the modern digital user demands, fixing bugs and errors is a top priority. These malfunctions may happen for multiple reasons—rushed coding and deployment, inadequate testing, or miscommunication. They may affect your site's performance and loading speed or even alter your Drupal website’s functionality. And since users don't want to spend more than four seconds waiting for websites to load, not paying attention to repairing bugs could cost you customers. This price is too big to pay, and it's worth considering Drupal maintenance services as part of your website strategies. Keep your content fresh with new features Another reason why Drupal maintenance matters is related to scalability. Drupal websites can grow together with your business goals. Constant feature and module updates allow Drupal users a high level of customizing capabilities that helps businesses keep up with the changing needs of the customer. With Drupal 8, integration is much more affordable, so if you haven't migrated yet, you might want to contact a Drupal agency to help you decide whether an upgrade is the right choice for your business. The user behavior has dramatically shifted in the last year, which is why content optimization, new features, and enhancements allow brands to stay fresh and align to this changing environment. SEO optimization Ranking high on Google and other search engines is crucial for your website to stay relevant. An excellent Drupal maintenance team has SEO experts that provide Drupal SEO audits and optimization. “Good SEO work only gets better over time. It’s only search engine tricks that need to keep changing when the ranking algorithms change.” – Jill Whalen How to tell when you need Drupal maintenance If you're not yet convinced that you need Drupal support and maintenance services for your website, here are some indicators that you can't postpone it any longer without hurting your business: Your website is slow, and you have received complaints about its loading speed. Your web traffic has dropped considerably. You experience more security breaches. Your content and design are outdated. Links, buttons, or forms are not working. These are some of the red flags of poorly maintained websites. If you recognize these warning signs as part of your website, it's definitely time to start planning your maintenance strategy. What do Drupal maintenance services and support include? A useful maintenance model covers: Security and module updates Third-party integration support Regression testing Bug diagnosing, fixing, and testing Hosting infrastructure maintenance Hack, malware, down recovery Partner with the right Drupal maintenance and support agency When thinking about hiring a Drupal maintenance team, you need to consider your needs. At Optasy, we cover a wide range of website maintenance requirements and can create a customized maintenance and support plan to support your website's specific needs. How does this sound to you? Have you made up your mind whether it is worth investing in Drupal maintenance services or not? If yes, then contact a reliable, dedicated support partner like Optasy and see how our Drupal maintenance services and Magento development maintenance support services can keep your website up and running. Photo credit: geralt on Pixabay. ... Read more

Raluca Olariu / Jun 07'2023

Tips

Staff Augmentation or Managed Services? How to Choose Wisely

As digital transformation has forever changed the world of business, more and more companies are interested in IT outsourcing. In fact, the global staffing industry, one of the primary suppliers of staff augmentation talent, is estimated to support $490 billion in annual spending. While this trend is growing fast, there is still some uncertainty regarding the healthiest and most convenient way for a business to use outside personnel. This article discusses two of the most popular contingent working models—staff augmentation and managed services—and how to choose the best option for your business needs. What Is Staff Augmentation? Staff augmentation allows companies to expand their in-house team with additional skilled resources to join a particular project. This type of outsourcing model chases once the project is over, and it's suitable for companies that don't need to hire someone permanently. Staff augmentation is best used for short-term projects and can also be used as a "trial run" for potential full-time employees. With this type of outsourcing, organizations can leverage specific skills on a per-project basis without going through costly and time-consuming hiring processes. What Is Managed Services? Unlike the staff augmentation model, which enables companies to expand their team with additional skilled professionals, managed services outsourcing practices imply hiring a fully-equipped team of professionals to take care of your specific project. With the managed services model, you save many resources—time, costs, and effort—as you hire an entire team of skilled professionals who have the right tools and tech to complete your project. While a service provider will handle your project on its entire length, from beginning to end, your job is to ensure that you select a reliable company that you can trust will deliver positive business outcomes. The managed services model is the best fit for companies looking for stable and reliable long-term business cooperation. Staff Augmentation or Managed Services? To help you figure out which one of these outsourcing models is the one you should choose for your organization, let's have a look at the pros and cons of staff augmentation and managed services. Pros of staff augmentation Specialized expertise. Staff augmentation allows access to a wide range of professionals with specialized skills and knowledge that may not be available in-house. This can be particularly beneficial for projects that require niche expertise or cutting-edge technologies. Flexibility and scalability. With staff augmentation, businesses can quickly adapt to changing demands and scale their workforce up or down as needed. This flexibility helps optimize resource allocation and reduces costs during slower periods. Cost efficiency. Compared to hiring full-time employees, staff augmentation can be a cost-effective solution as it eliminates recruitment and onboarding expenses. Businesses only pay for the services rendered during the contracted period. Retaining control. By leveraging staff augmentation, organizations retain direct control over project management and decision-making. External professionals work alongside the existing team, ensuring seamless collaboration. Cons of staff augmentation Not suitable for long-term projects. Staff augmentation is practical only as long as you look for short-term business engagements as projects come and go. Increased dependence on third-party talent organizations. This can put your sustainability plans more at risk. Lengthy staff integration. New professionals that join specific, complex projects may require some time to get familiar with your products and expectations. Pros of managed services Access to expertise. Managed service providers (MSPs) have extensive experience and expertise in their respective domains. By engaging their services, businesses can leverage the knowledge and capabilities of industry experts. Operational efficiency. MSPs follow standardized processes and best practices to deliver efficient and high-quality services. This helps organizations improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and achieve better outcomes. Scalability and flexibility. Managed services can easily scale up or down to match the evolving needs of the business. The service provider can quickly allocate additional resources or adjust service levels as required. Reduced risk and responsibility. By outsourcing specific functions to a managed service provider, organizations can mitigate risks associated with those tasks. The responsibility for managing and delivering results lies with the service provider. Cons of managed services Hard to ensure security. When opting for the services of a provider, you provide access to sensitive data and assets. Therefore, companies that require high levels of data and information security might want to think twice before choose a managed services outsourcing model. Higher costs. Although hiring a managed services company might be cost-effective in the long run, it's not always possible to get the complete services package at a low price. The costs of handing over your project to an IT firm might be higher than when opting for staff augmentation since managed IT services cover both IT functions and project management. Less control and autonomy. If you are looking to internalize your project management process and supervise outsourced staff, a managed services model might not be a suitable option for you. Wrapping up Although outsourcing is becoming more popular, finding an external reliable development team can be a struggle. There is a plethora of options available on the market, making it challenging to make a choice. A wise choice. At Optasy, we understand how important it is to have a dedicated team of professionals that can handle a wide range of projects. So have a look at your services and contact us to learn more about how we can collaborate for success. Image credit: Annie Spratt on Unsplash. ... Read more

Raluca Olariu / May 31'2023

These Magento Extensions Will Boost Your Sales - Part Two

Magento extensions for payments

Magento extensions for shipping

Magento extensions for analytics

Magento extensions for security

Conclusion

Recommended Stories

How to Create Accessible Content More Easily

Why You Need Drupal Maintenance Services in 2023

Staff Augmentation or Managed Services? How to Choose Wisely

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These Magento Extensions Will Boost Your Sales - Part Two

Magento extensions for payments

Magento extensions for shipping

Magento extensions for analytics

Magento extensions for security

Conclusion

Recommended Stories

How to Create Accessible Content More Easily

Why You Need Drupal Maintenance Services in 2023

Staff Augmentation or Managed Services? How to Choose Wisely

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