We’ve designed and built a number of Magento e-commerce shops and have built up a wealth of extensions along the way that we suggest that our clients include in their projects. Here are 10 of our favourites:
1. EM Delete Order
The ability to delete orders is a feature missing from the vanilla installation of Magento, we generally wouldn’t recommend deleting orders on a live website, but more often than not the need does arise – particularly if you need to remove those pesky pre-live test orders. Remember to backup your site & database if you do decide to use this extension. http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/delete-orders-6.html
2. Magestore – Product Instant Search
This free extension by popular magento developers Magestore is a great enhancement to Magento’s default ajax search. By showing actual products as you type it can help direct users to the product more efficiently and improve conversion rates as a result. http://www.magestore.com/product-instant-search.html
3. Postcode Anywhere – Postcode Lookup
Any feature that can speed up the checkout process is a good thing. Postcode Anywhere offer comprehensive postcode lookup in the UK and Worldwide, their integration seamlessly links with your checkout and empowers users to quickly find their address. Some couriers charge extra for incorrect address information received, so this extension also helps to reduce the possibility of this occuring. It’s worth noting that we are a postcode anywhere reseller so have the access and experience to get you up and running quickly. http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/address-validation-with-capture-from-postcode-anywhere-official.html
4. Sage Pay Suite (Free or Pro)
Sage pay is a popular payment gateway enabling your users to checkout with their credit/depit cards. We’ve been using the official ebizmarts integration for a number of years and it offers some of the most comphrehensive and robust payment experiences we’ve seen. Free Version | Pro Version
5. Apptrain Minify JS / HTML
Magento comes with the option to combine javascript and css files, but what it doesn’t do is provide any minification on these files – something which is considered important for website performance and is touted as a ranking factor on popular search engines. Apptrain have this nailed, with a simple to use extension that handles the whole process for you. http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/minify-html-css-js.html
6. Easytabs
It’s fairly standard on e-commerce websites to move product specifications, downloads and other less frequently accessed information into tabs on the product view page. We’ve used Templatemaster’s extension for a while now and the latest version puts it leaps and bounds beyond it’s competition. With this extension you can setup tabs for both default attributes / sections and also set up blocks for your own attributes and custom functionality. http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/free-products-tabs-extension-for-magento.html
7. Star Plugins – CloudZoom
As featured on some of the UK’s most popular e-commerce websites, CloudZoom enhances the default product image functionality to add fly out or in situ zoom capability.
8. ES Active Review Stars
Reviews are an important part of the reputation building process for your e-commerce store. Magento’s default review functionality feels a little cumbersome so changing it’s radio input fields to an easier star based selection makes the process much quicker for users to fill out. http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/active-review-stars-by-elevensoft.html
9. Webshopapps Matrix Rate
Setting up a complex shipping matrix can be achieved with Magento’s default shipping extension. This free addon from Web Shop Apps makes the process a whole lot more flexible and really empowers you to get creative with your shipping matrix. This module has stood the test of time and enabled some of the most convoluted shipping setup’s we’ve experienced! http://webshopapps.com/uk/magento-1-extensions/wsa-standalone/matrixrate-shipping-extension.html
10. M2E Pro – Amazon / Ebay / Rakuten integrations
There are plenty of companies can hook Magento up to their marketplace integration. Most, if not all of the ones we have experienced are third party and work as an intermediary – sitting somewhere between magento and your marketplace. M2E work’s a little differently and is fully managed via your Magento dashboard, setup is a little complex for first-timers, but after you are setup it’s quick and easy to push your products into Ebay, Amazon or Rakuten. At the time of writing the extension is free (The developers have an official agreement with Ebay that will keep it free for the time-being), although it is noted that the developers do plan to charge a competitive rate for other marketplaces once the extension comes out of Beta. http://m2epro.com/
