Give a new look to your online store

By Lucid Softech IT Solutions | CMS, magento, Web Development,  28 Oct 2015

Rich with features, Magento is a very dynamic and fastest growing e-commerce script. The software uses the databases like Zend PHP and MySQL and poses itself as an open source platform for websites. It is mostly used by e-commerce and is best known as a complete power packed e-commerce solution. Also named as Magento content management system, this application is used by most web store owners. It is preferred over all other systems due to its great flexibility and full access over the look, content and functionality of the online store.

In the earlier write ups, we learned how to install Magento software in order to run your e-commerce portal. We also learnt how to install the Magento template. Now let us go through the web store customization procedure. Magento design possesses diversity and so it is quite easy to introduce changes as and when required.

Configuration Setting

For this scroll over System -> Configuration. You can configure here the script as per your needs, the tabs explain themselves.

Modifying your portal’s name and the home page text

In order to introduce changes, you need to install first Adobe Photoshop CS+ and also certain mandatory fonts. Now open .psd file in Photoshop and start with required customization. First modify the store name with the help of Horizontal type Tool. In case the title exceeds the slice size, you can go to Slice Select Tool and stretch the slice borders by left clicking on mouse.

Now let’s add logo to the title. Go to File -> Save for Web and Devices while slice work is in progress. Logo image should be saved in .gif format and have name as the default one. An ftp manager or ftp tools can be accessed for copying the image from computer to server. Upload the logo.gif file to server. After this, continue with Home Page banners modification with the help of Horizontal Type Tool.

HTML Title and Meta Data customization

For this, head towards Magento’s admin area. Log in, go to CMS section and click on Manage Pages to introduce pages’ modification. You will find here all the current sub-pages; select Home Page to do editing of any sub page.

Now, scroll to left vertical menu and go to the Meta Data link. You can write keywords and Meta description, which includes keywords and also attract customers to click the link on search engines. Word limit in Meta description should not exceed beyond 160 words. Save the changes.

Managing Polls, Categories and Products

You can manage the Polls with the help of Poll Manager.

For categories and product:

Go to Catalog -> Manage Categories. To create a new category, category status must be “active”.

Click on Add Products in order to add products under the new category you just created. To enter details for the product, few mandatory fields are- product name, product description, short description, a stock keeping unit (or SKU), product weight and product visibility.

To add attributes to the product, click on Create New Attribute button. Now go to Prices page and specify default/special price and validity etc. The product is now added to portal under suitable category. Now go to Meta Information section and enter Meta Data for the product. In addition you can also upload product images, reviews, tags and many other options.

Managing promotions and reports

Promotions are good things to lure in the customers. Go to Promotions section, and set the promotions, outline the rules and the customers’ groups for which promotions are valid.

Magento CMS has one big advantage; you can get multiple comprehensive statistics and reports. Go to Reports section and monitor sales, products, visitors, shopping cart, product reviews, tags and much more.