Introduction to setting up an online shop using the Magento eCommerce platform. Contains some quotes from "Mastering Magento", available at http://goo.gl/dsdEE .

1. eCommerce with Magento
Practical introduction to setting up a professional
webshop using open source solutions
Presented by Polle van Elsacker

2. What’s the plan
Introduction to platform from a conceptual
and practical perspective with regards to
planning, developing and managing a
Magento eCommerce installation.

3. Content
• Introduction
• Project planning
• Installing Magento
• Managing products
• Design and themes
• Sale processes
• Marketing tools
• Extensions

4. My background

5. Let’s get started with project scope
• Project
requirements
• Users
• Technical
resources

6. Basic eCommerce configuration
Domain Web Back-end Front-end Product Online
Security
name hosting software design catalog payment

7. Traditional models still apply
This is the value chain,
introduced by Porter in 1985.
The value chain categorizes
the generic value-adding
activities of an organization.
The ultimate goal of the value chain is to maximize
value creation while minimizing costs.

8. Project requirements
• More then one store, how many?
• Multiple languages and currencies?
• Types of products offered, how many?
• Number of customers expected, growth?
• Any must-have features required?
• Integration with existing system?

9. Users
• Staff
– Different user levels
– Separate email accounts
• Customers
– Retail or wholesale
– Members, distributors, manufacturers etc.
– Different pricing and catalog rules
• Development
– User Interface Design, PHP, Server Admin

10. Technical considerations
• Hosting provider
– Specific Magento support, Magento partner?
– PCI compliant? SSL?
– Showcase?
• In-house hosting
– Linux x86
– Apache 1.3 web server
– 5.2.13 PHP
• Local installation

11. Introduction to Magento
• Open source
• Fast growing
• Well documented
• Owned by eBay
• Very scalable

12. Three versions of Magento
• Community Edition (CE)
– Free version, self-hosted, basic features
• Enterprise
– Paid version, self-hosted, premium features
• Go
– Paid version, hosted, basic features

13. Killer Features
• Multi store
• SEO friendly
• Marketing tools
• Theme management
• Available extensions
• Community

14. Downsides of Magento
• High server
requirements
• Relatively steep
learning curve
• Custom development
• Poor content
management

15. Global, Website, Store structure
Global
Website Website
Store Store Store
Store Store Store Store Store
View View View View View

16. Global
• Will customers be shared among sites?
• Do admin levels need to be separated?
• Will all stores use same inventory rules?
Use a single installation only for multiple websites
and stores that are similar in concept. EG. same
product category sold by same business entity
through different branded websites.

17. Website
• Controls certain configurations for
children Stores and Store Views
• Websites can share customer data
among each other, this is set in Global
• Want to share customer data with one
Website but not with another? Then
multiple installations are needed.

18. Store
• Store is used to associate different
product catalogs to different stores under
a single Website
• Store Views can be created to display a
Store in multiple languages or styles
• Store used in the back-end means the
Store View, so setting influences all Store
Views under Store edited. It’s tricky.
Data is Store, Design is Store View

19. Global, Website, Store structure
Global
Shoe Ltd. Fashion Ltd.
Sneakerparadise.com Snowbootheaven.com Hotfashionshop.com
English German Men Women Shoes Clothes

20. Summary
• What you need to consider when planning
your Magento installation
• Understand the powerful Global-Website-
Store methodology when setting up
• Look at different options for segmentation
at language, business, domains, currency

21. Requirements for Magento install
• High level
necessities for
ecommerce:
– Server
– Web server
– Middleware, PHP
– Database, MySQL

22. Understanding hosting types
• Shared server
• Virtual Private Server (VPS)
• Dedicated server
Tips:
• When new to hosting, take shared hosting
• With cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin
• Check price/availability of SSL

23. Hosting security requirements
• SSL
– Is an inexpensive way to increase trust and
improve overall security
– Works with matching security keys when
transmitting sensitive information
• PCI (Payment Card Industry) Compliance
– Needed when you want to take credit card
info with own merchant account
– To avoid failing scans, choose truly compliant
host or don’t take card info. PCI = headache.

24. What about cloud servers?

25. Manual download and installation

26. Direct online installation at host

27. Free Magento Go trial installation

28. Local installation with XAMPP

29. Achtung: Install sample data!
Magento provides a configuration file that preloads products,
websites, and stores to use with a new installation.
Use it and learn relationships from examples.

30. Strategies for backups and security
• Magento is pretty robust, no hacks yet
• Backups through Magento backend:
– Simple and quick way to backup data
– These are not automated on default
– SQL statement file, bit hard to restore
• File Structure backups
– Make them easily with (S)FTP
• Manage Users and User Levels carefully

31. Managing products in Magento
• Creating catalogs and categories
• Adding products manually or en masse
• Setting up reviews, tags and feeds

32. Product catalogs and categories
• Consider a root category a Catalog
– Electronics is Catalog/Root Category for
category LCD TVs, DVD Players, HiFi etc.
• Categories contain similar products
– Products can be assigned to multiple
categories or special categories
• Special categories group products
– Examples are New Products, Sale etc.

33. Many different kinds of products
• Types of products:
– Simple products
– Complex products
• Grouped products
• Configurable products
– Virtual products
– Bundle products
– Downloads

34. Attributes and attribute sets
• Every product contains number of fields
• Each can be considered an attribute
• Attributes, in essence, serve to describe
the different features of a product
• Use attributes to compose layered
navigation to facilitate comparison
• Well thought-out attribute sets facilitate
quick and easy shopping for customer

35. Attribute sets
• Groups of attributes assigned to a product
• Use separate sets for different products
– Size for shoes, voltage for computers
• When importing large quantities of
products, maybe decide on general set
• Only 1 attribute set per product
• Try out and test on front-end

36. Example of front-end attributes

37. Related products, up-sell, cross-sell
• Related products
– Carrying case for phone
or extended warranty
• Up-sells
– Push more expensive or
high margin product
• Cross-sells
– Appear on shopping car
as an introduction to
other product lines

38. Branding with design and themes
• Does this shop offer
what I want to buy?
• Do I trust this unknown
seller?
• Is the check-out
process easy?
• Is the store owner
interested in making
me buy something?

39. Magento theme structure
• Themes can be set at GWS level
• Theme packages are made up of 2
groups of files: templating and skin
– Templating contains HTML, PHP, PHTML
– Skins contains CSS, images and Javascript
• Files are stored in separate directories
• When you have no knowledge of these
languages, stay away from editing any

40. This is the basic Magento theme

41. Using third-party themes
• Review themes carefully on compatibility
• Demo themes on designers website
• Check for documentation availability
• Send email to designer to test support
• Check for translations/translation files
Go for the bigger theme designers,
generally better support and updates.

42. Some popular theme designers

43. Magento Connect is best resource

44. Magento sales process
• Figure illustrates
front- and back-end
sales process
• Black boxes
indicate email send
• Very easily
adjustable to
accommodate
different products

45. Off-site payment systems
– Advantages
• Extra layer of protection
• Quick merchant approval, no credit check
• No PCI compliance, easy integration in system
– Disadvantages
• Takes buyers off your ecommerce site
• May require enrollment in 3rd party system
• Limited access to buyer information
• Possibly high transaction rates

46. On-site payment systems
– Advantages
• Keeps the buyer on the ecommerce website
• Eliminates buyers need to register elsewhere
• Gives merchant access to all buyer information
– Disadvantages
• Requires a merchant banking account
• Site may be subject to PCI compliance
• Integration ecommerce platforms complex

47. Implementing PayPal in Magento
• PayPal Express
– Simple button that will link to PayPal
• PayPal Standard
– Using Magento Cart, no sign-up required
• PayPal Pro
– Buyers stay on-site, merchant check, PCI

48. Easy default integration
• Standard button in
Magento config
• Can be setup in about 5
minutes
• High transaction rates

49. Outgoing e-mails
• Use different email
addresses:
– info@
– order@
– payment@
– newsletter@
• Different templates for
different stores
• Top email-marketing
extensions available

50. Marketing tools
• Customer groups
• Promotions
• Newsletters
• Sitemaps
• SEO

51. Customer Groups
• Distributors who resell products
• Tax-exempt organisations
• Groups or teams like athletic leagues
• Professionals as opposed to amateurs
• Certified or approved/licensed buyers
Groups should be segments of customers
with different pricing, benefits, tax, products.

52. Promotions
• Rule-based pricing
rules, two types:
– Catalog pricing rules
• Applies to any product rule
is assigned to
– Shopping cart rules
• Applied when valid coupon
is used at checkout

53. Newsletters
• Least expensive cost-
per-sale method
• Plenty smart email
opportunities to choose
• Basic options in
Magento covered
• Great (free) mailing
extensions available
• Check sending with
hosting provider

54. Sitemaps
• Generated
automatically
• Submit to
Google
• Boosts SEO

55. SEO
• Optimize URLs easily
http://www.domain.com/index.php/furniture/living-room/ottoman.html
http://www.domain.com/furniture/living-room/ottoman.html
• Automated or Manual Meta Information
– Little value anymore for page ranking
– Optimize click-through from SERP
• Default Robots set to INDEX, FOLLOW

56. Extra marketing: Loyalty program

57. Extra marketing: Web analytics

58. Magento Extensions

59. Searching and reviewing extensions
• Trusted extensions are officially approved
• Evaluating extensions yourself:
– Is the extension popular?
– What do others think of extension?
– Does the developer provide support?
– Is a free, trial or lite version available?
Test extensions in a beta installation. From
1.5, you should not modify core files when
requested by developer to make things work.

60. Resources
• Magento Answers
• Knowledge Base
• User Guide
• Design Guide
• Discussion Forums
• Screencasts
• Ebooks
http://www.magentocommerce.com/support/ce/

61. Polle van Elsacker
pvelsacker@gmail.com