Magento as an e-commerce solution?

If you’re looking to start a web shop or ecommerce site, you’ll be in the market for website software that can help you get started and get online as easy and cheap as possible, I reckon. One way of doing so, is by going the Magento route.

Magento is open source based web software with around 4 years on the market by now, so it’s not just a new kid on the block. It has a well established community already and several busineses, such as Commerce-Lab.com, are also providing individual solutions for your needs, e.g. if you need a custom Magento extension that will suit your specific needs.

Magento is written in PHP, so basically all you need is a web server that’s able to execute PHP, for the best experience, you should aim to get a Linux server running Apache 2.2.x or newer with support for PHP 5.2.13 or newer, this will ensure that your Magento module will run smooth and safe.

One other thing you might want to look at, is the Magento Ajax Cart Extension which is a €69 investment, allowing your customers to add items to the shopping cart without having to wait for the page to reload. Think of when you add status updates on Facebook, your update is added and shown without your browser having to reload the entire page – that’s pretty clever, and cool. Of course the Ajax extension is not essential but it does add that extra little thing, doesn’t it?

Obviously Magento is not the only solution for ecommerce, but with over 100,000 merchants worldwide, some of them being big names like Olympus, The North Face, Samsung and Lacrosse, I’m sure Magento is able to power most of your ecommerce needs, so take it for a spin if you’re in that market.