With the standard architecture of the Magento ecommerce platform there is much functionality that can account for many business’s needs. Have a look at this web page to see what is accounted for in the standard features of a Magento website. http://zesttechsolutions.com/magento-packages

Many companies offer a standard Magento development package that includes the customizations of your product categories and sub categories and the integration of standard secure checkouts, such as PayPal and world Pay. Magento developers will also set up your shopping cart which includes unit price, quantity, weight, tax and more. Another important feature that Magento experts would customizes is the standard promotional functions; these are, up sell, cross promotions, coupon code validations, news letter wish list and more. The best way to get the most out of your Magento developer is to do a detail analysis of your business’s front end functional needs and this way it will make it easier for the Magento development company you choose.

When trying to establish your business’s ecommerce needs for your business analysis you should take into considerations the following aspects to help for your Magento development.

1)      What products are you looking to sell and what units are you looking to sell them in, i.e. quantity, weight and length? Also are there going to be variations in your products, such as size and color?

2)      Defining your categories and sub categories is another important aspect

3)      You need to have a basic idea of the navigation of your website, like what you would want in your navigation bar and what would you like in the left and right panel?

4)      What promotional functions you would need in your website, would you need to have coupon code discounts functions and how would you like to up sell and cross sell?

5)      Would you like integrate your website with third parties websites like price comparisons website, deal websites, social websites as well as market places such as eBay and Amazon?

6)      In regards to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) You need to know what are the keywords people are typing in to search for your products

7)      How do your logistics work? Do you use drop shippers or do you send your own stock? How many shipping locations do you have? What shipping companies would you like to use?

The above are just some of the basic aspects you need to consider when choosing a Magento expert. Magento has an extremely large developer community and you would be sure to find the right extension/add-ons if your requirements cannot be fulfilled in the standard architecture of Magento with in Magento Connect.

Within Magento connect you can find more personalized shopping cart functional add-ons that enhance the user experience. Things like one step check out make it easier and less time consuming for your customer -  http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/quick-one-page-checkout.html. You could also integrate social functions, i.e have a Facebook store page with beetailer http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/beetailer-facebook-integration.html

You can even boost your product display with powerful and easy to use zoom function http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/customer-experience/category-product-page-enhancements/magic-zoom.html

The above are just some of the thousands of exciting functions that you could find on Magento Connect, even for free, that help your website become a superb user interface.

Be sure to check out Magento Connect while doing your analysis for your customer interface. Your detailed analysis would make you look professional and well organized to a Magento developer (which is very important) and with it along with your design analysis (read part 1 in the previous blog) your Magento development would certainly run a lot smoother.

So we have talked about the customer interface and functional needs of a Magento website and we have stressed the importance of doing an analysis of your particular requirements. In the previous article we mentioned the importance of preparing your design requirements. Both parts of Magento development, Magento front end interface design as well as front end user interface functionality are equally important. It is also important to note that the back end of your user interface and functionality is equally as important as the front end.

Next week is the final part of the blog. In the final part we will talk about the importance of organizing your back end requirements. In this we will talk about content management systems (CMS) as well as customer relationship management systems (CRM). We will also mention about web analytic tools and accounting systems. So after reading all three blogs we hope you could put together a detailed document that breaks down your needs and requirements which helps Magento developer and Magento designers to serve you in the most efficient way.