One of the best things about Magento is the wealth of different plugins they have available. This allows users to improve and customize their website extensively. Nonetheless, with so many plugins to choose from it can often be difficult to determine what ones you need and what ones you dont. After all, you dont want to halter efficiency and slow down your website by using extensions that are simply going to remain dormant. Keeping that in mind, read on to discover more about the nine fundamental Magento plugins that will help to guarantee your website is a roaring success
1) Magentix – The Magento Recycle Bin
The Magento Recycle Bin is a lifesaver. One of the biggest mistakes people make is deleting files and alike by accident. When this happens you need to go through the hassle of uploading it all over again. However, with this handy plugin by your side, all you need to do is head to the recycle bin where your file will be waiting for you. You can then simply restore it.
2) Blog by aheadWorks
As you may have gathered, this extension allows you to add a fully featured blog to your Magento website. Blogs are soaring in popularity at the moment, as they offer an incredible marketing tool for businesses. Thus this is definitely a plugin you should consider using.
3) One Step Checkout
Online shopping is all about providing the customer with as much convenience as possible. Shortening the checkout process can reap massive dividends as it allows the customer to buy products in a quick and easy manner. One Step Checkout provides you with this option, and more! You can offer up-sells on the checkout page and gather crucial information.
4) ReCAPTCHA
Unfortunately, spam is rife at the moment, and probably always will be as long as the Internet is around. You need to protect your website from this and ReCAPTCHA presents you with an effective way of doing so. It is built around protecting your forms, such as product review, send to a friend, and of course contact us.
5) Fooman Speedster
This is a highly recommended plugin because it speeds up your Magento store. Lengthy load times are one of the main reasons for a high bounce rate. However, Fooman Speedster works by combining, compressing and caching your CSS files and JavaScript so that your Magento website is a lot quicker.
6) Google Content API for Shopping
The importance of SEO is no longer a secret. This free plugin is a must because it migrates your store to Googles new API. What does this mean? Well, when individuals search a keyword related to your products the item will show up alongside your catalogue information.
7) Blast Lucene Search
Downloading a search plugin, such as Blast Lucene Search, comes highly recommended because it increases the chances that your customers will be able to find exactly what they are looking for.
8) Mouse over Zoom
A lot of users do not like the default zoom that comes with Magento. Mouse over Zoom literally does what it says on the tin; when you place your mouse over the product it zooms in. This is effective, quick and easy, and most importantly it seems to be well liked by the customer as well.
9) Daily Deals
Last but not least we have Daily Deals. Lets face it; who doesnt love a good offer? Daily Deals provides you with an extremely powerful marketing tool. This extension gives you the chance to entice the customer by adding new deals to your website on a daily basis.