Magento – An Easy Step-By-Step Tutorial For Beginners
Magento A Step-By-Step Tutorial For Beginners
What is Magento?
Magento is an open-source store builder platform written in the PHP programming language, which helps developers implement a very complete and flexible store site design. It was published in 2007.
With this store builder, you will be able to easily access everything you need and implement the facilities you need on it. Magento creates the possibility to work for thousands of plugin developers and professional designers to produce templates around the world.
Magento includes all the features you need to create, expand, advertise and manage an attractive and responsive online store. It also supports almost all languages, currency units as well as tax units in the world. Currently, more than 250,000 store site designs have been done and used by Magento.
Why Use Magento?
Magento is very powerful and its high ability and flexibility in building a store and capabilities that can be defined for the features of a product, catalogue and product management, search engine optimization are some of the features that make Magento special.
Different Versions Of Magento
Magento Open Source
Most Magento users use this version of Magento, which is also free. This general version has great settings and is suitable for many business owners. In this article we recommend you to use this version.
Magento Commerce Cloud
The premium version of Magento, which offers more possibilities for capital owners and big businesses. It has a more unique design and higher speed and quality performance. Also, you will have full-time access to backup specialists in this version.
How To Install And Use Magento?
First of all, you need to install Magento on your host. To do so, you will need to go through 5 steps:
1. Check The Installation Prerequisites
The following are the minimum requirements for installing Magento on a host:
- At least 2 GB of free RAM
- Webserver (Apache or Nginx)
- Database (MySQL)
- PHP version 6 or higher
- FTP client
2. Download Magento
To download this program, go to Magento's official website and download it.
3. Unzip The Downloaded File
To upload a Magento installation file, you must first extract it from the zip file which was downloaded. You can extract the files to your desired location. Now upload the files to your host using an FTP client like Filezilla. Upload all files in.
FileZilla is a free software for transferring files via FTP. This software is offered in two versions, Client and Server, and we intend to teach you how to install FileZilla Client and use it. You can download it on the FileZilla website.
After downloading the FileZilla, install this software on your system. The installation process is simple and you won’t need any special settings. After installation, run the software by clicking on the FileZilla icon. After running FileZilla, enter the FTP username and password you created earlier, as shown below.
4. Creating A Database
You need a database to install Magento. Use MySQL software to create a database on your “host” with any name.
5. Installing Magento
Once you have created your database, open the browser and enter the Magento installation address. If you do the above steps correctly, you will see the image below. In this window, click on “Agree and set up Magento” to start installing Magento on the host.
Now we have come to the main part of installing Magento, which consists of 6 steps:
Step One: Readiness Check
In the first step, Magento installing checks the host settings, PHP version, PHP plugins, compatibility and file permissions. Click on “Start Readiness Check” to begin this step.
If there is a problem, an error will be displayed. If the review is successful, the following image appears in the window.
Step Two: Adding A Database
In this step, you must enter the details of the database you created earlier. It is necessary to enter information about the database hosting server, server username and database name. After entering the above information, click on the “NEXT” button.
Step Three: Web Configuration
In this step, you must enter the address of the store and the address of the Magento admin.
The field “Your Store address” should remain in the default state and not to be changed, unless you want to change the store address.
Whenever you want to enter the Magento Admin panel, you must use the field “Magento Admin Address”. This field is very important in terms of security. We recommend for you change this field and use unusual names.
Step Four: Store Settings
In this step, the store settings are applied in which you can select the time range, currency and system language.
Step Five: Creating An Admin Account
In this step, you will create an admin account.
Step Six: Start Installing Magento On The Website
In this step, click on the “Install now” button.
After completing the Magento installation successfully, the following message will be displayed for you.
If you click on “Launch Magento Admin”, you will be redirected to the admin panel. Now enter the username and password you chose and click on “Sign in” and enter the dashboard of Magento admin.
Now that you have installed Magento on the host successfully and entered the dashboard, in several steps we will teach you how to start your online store fast and easily.
1. Choose A Suitable Theme Including Colour And Background For Your Online Store
We know that many of the online stores call their developers, based on their visual identity and marketing strategies that to choose the theme and the colour of the store. But there is the free version in which you can select ready-made themes ready from different websites or you buy the better ones at a low price. Then you can apply arbitrary changes to it. Finally, to apply the theme completely, click on “Save and Apply”.
2. Change The Store Design According To Your Taste
Now that you have made the initial settings and created your store, you should personalize the Magento according to your brand. In the “Quickstart” menu, Keep the mouse on the “Design”. Then click on “Select & Customize your Design” from the submenu.
A small window on the screen will be shown to guide you. Click on the “Continue” option to be redirected to the theme editor section. Here you can design and customize your online store in your arbitrary style.
You can use extensions to add different facilities to your store. Since the community of users is very broad, there is almost every extension you need for your business to respond to your business requirements. Magento also offers a wide range of extensions that are free or for selling in different ranges.
3. Database Settings
After selecting the host, the theme, and desired extensions, you should apply database settings on the admin page and through which the items that are listed below are selected and modified:
- Store's name
- Email address to receive notifications
- Email addresses for admins and customers
- Methods of delivery
- Payment methods
- Marketing services by email
- Products
- Products categorization
- Extensions settings
The exciting part of the story has come. Now prepare to fill your store shelves with your products. Choose the “Create New Products” from the products menu. Then enter some explanations in “Attribute Set”.
You can select this option by default mode and change it later. Another option called “Complex Product Types” is also in this section. This option is related to gift cards, virtual and online products, suggested packages, customizable products, and group products. Now we do not choose these options and add only one product. Once again select the “Continue” option. Types of products in Magento could be:
- Simple Products: Simple and single goods; this option is for products that are not provided in sizes, colours and other types.
- Virtual Products: or the monetary services online. For example, permanent support, or any other service that should be relevant to the seller repeatedly.
- Downloadable Products: These products include e-books, videos, texts and downloadable items. In other words, the type of simple products is downloadable.
- Configurable Products: Adjustable products are presented in colours, sizes, and models.
- Grouped Products: A set of simple products that are sold together and are generally related to each other. For example, a camera, a memory card, and a camera lens can be sold in groups.
- Bundled Products: This option is like group sales through which you can suggest a list of several different products for sale to customers. For example, a complete set of clothes and jewelry that could complement each other. The customer can buy several or all items of this collection.
4. Details And Information
Here you will be asked to write details and information about the product. It can be said that the most important store settings are in this section. You may ask why? We must say: “Because the quality and attractiveness of the descriptions and visuals you enter will make the customer buy and make a direct impact on his or her decision. This information should include:
- A creative name for the products
- Complete and attractive description
- SKU numbers
- Explanation of submission and delivery of goods
- Material and quality
- Product weight
- Size
- Terms of switching or restore goods
Other important options are:
- “Status” through which you can display inventory or non-inventory in the store.
- “Visibility” through which you choose where your products are displayed: search bar, catalogue, both or none.
After you added all these, click on “Save and Continue Edit”.
5. Entering Prices And Images
To enter the price of each product, select “Prices” from the left menu. Then enter the description of taxes and other items. Similarly, click “Images” to add product images in the left menu. Here you should choose the original image, small image, and index image. After changing the price and images, select “Save and Continue Edit”.
6. SEO
The “Meta Information” section is used to optimize the search engine results and is located in the left menu. Here you must enter the title and explanation to display in the search engine. Also, add keywords to SEO the site. This step is very important because it increases website traffic.
7. Categorize Customers
As the name implies, this feature is used to categorize customers. You may want to offer a discount on prices, different promotions, or attractive offers only to a specific group of your customers. The number of people in each group can be from one or two to hundreds or even thousands.
You can also make changes to these groups as time goes by. For this matter, you only need to select the “Customers Groups” option from the Customers menu. Then, click on “New Group”, create your new group with the desired tax rate, type of discount, and so forth. Such strategies will greatly affect the customer's return and repurchase.
8. Payment And Delivery Methods
The type of payment and delivery of goods is very important in your online business. Without these two options, there does not seem to be a store at all. To set these items, click on the “Start My Store” option in the menu. Doing this in Magento is as easy as other online stores’ platforms.
9. Launch Of The Site
You have now made all the important adjustments, completed the design, and are ready to open your store. To open and connect the store to the Internet, click on the “Get Going” menu and select “Launch Your Store”. Congratulations, your store has been launched with Magento.
Conclusion
After working with Magento, you find that it is a bit heavy in processing due to its amazing features. So, we emphasize the choice of first-class hosting, a company that can not only meet the technical needs of the site but also be your support in difficult situations.
You can also increase the site speed up to a high percentage by using the compilation option. To do this, enter the “Tools” section from the system menu and then click on the “Compilation” option. Now you will select “Run Compilation Process”.
A way to increase site traffic is to create a WordPress blog for the store in which you can create engaging and informative content for your potential customers and inform them about your products. Another idea is to create a FAQ page. A page that is full of useful content and has information not only about the store and products but also about the needs of other customers.
I trust you enjoyed this article about Magento – A Step By Step Tutorial For Beginners. Please stay tuned for more blog posts to come. Take care!
JeannetteZ
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I would love to hear from you. Please leave me your questions, experiences, remarks, and/or suggestions about this article on Magento A Step By Step Tutorial For Beginners in the comments section below. You can also reach me by email at Jeannette@WorkFromAnywhereInTheWorld.com.
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