Editor’s note: Magento allows merchants to set up visually appealing and functionality-rich stores. However, it’s crucial to integrate “additional components” using a set procedure to extend the store’s functionality and maximize its potential. Partnering with a professional Magento Development Company can help you integrate desired functionalities and fulfill the requirements.
Magento is a powerful, open-source platform that stands out with its great functionalities and features. Over the years, this platform has made tremendous growth and established itself as the most reliable platform.
Besides, it offers great flexibility and customization options, allowing businesses of all sizes and types to build a thriving eCommerce business.
However, it’s vital to remember that while Magento offers numerous in-built features to optimize your store, some features are not available by default. This is where Magento extensions come into play.
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What are Magento 2 Extensions and Why Do I Need Them?
A Magento extension is an add-on software module designed using a block of PHP code with functions. This module allows Magento store owners to enhance its functionality and add beneficial features to their business.
Magento extensions are enriching tools that assist businesses in processing orders, managing sales, shipping, reporting, and more. The following part unwraps some of the benefits of Magento 2 extensions.
- Enhanced User Experience
User experience (UX) has an enormous impact on the success of your eCommerce store. A user-friendly store encourages users to interact with the store while assuring data security and privacy.
Magento extensions can enhance UX by offering a convenient, secured shopping experience. Besides, they keep your UX up-to-date by incorporating the latest features, thus boosting customer interactions.
- Improved Site Loading Speed
Approximately 40% of the visitors leave a website if it takes over three seconds to load. Hence, your website speed is another vital aspect impacting the conversion rates.
Extensions help optimize the entire website structure, thus boosting the loading speed. Moreover, reliable Magento extensions ensure a good loading speed on all major platforms.
- Wider Reach
Language barriers are among the biggest challenges for start-ups and SMEs looking to expand globally. Besides, people prefer interacting with websites offering information in their native language.
Magento extensions, such as language translation ones, facilitate customer interactions by converting content into the native language. This enables businesses to expand their reach to the desired target audience, thus boosting sales and revenues.
Top Ten Magento 2 Extensions
Selecting the right Magento extension for your eCommerce store is crucial. However, with numerous Magento extensions available in the market, merchants often face trouble identifying the right ones.
The following part lists the top ten free and paid Magento 2 extensions must-have for a successful eCommerce store.
1. Performance Optimization Tool
This extension by PotatoCommerce speeds up your Magento store by optimizing JavaScript, CSS, and HTML files. Besides, the tool merges CSS and JavaScript content and defers JavaScript parsing, thereby improving Google PageSpeed score and SEO performance.
As mentioned above, a fast-loading website is crucial for business scalability, making Performance Optimization Tool a must-have for Magento eCommerce stores.
Features:
- JavaScript minifying and CSS optimization
- Lazy Load Images
- Merging JavaScript to reduce server requests
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2. Out of Stock Notification
Avoid losing sales from exhausted items using the Out of Stock extension. This tool helps merchants identify the most in-demand products, allowing them to plan a timely restock. It also informs customers and guest visitors about the stock status and price changes.
Features:
- Automated notifications on low stock/out of stock items
- Stock and price alerts to customers and guest visitors
- Seamless user subscription management
3. Shipping Tracker by MageAnts
Enhance customer shopping experience using the Magento 2 Shipping Tracker extension. This tool offers customers an order tracking option, allowing them to check their order status using order ID and email.
Features:
- Send order tracking link via SMS
- Track shipments directly on the shipping partner’s page
- Supports USPS, DHL, Federal Express, and more
4. Magento 2 One Step Checkout by MagePlaza
Improve conversion rates by reducing cart abandonment rate. The One Step Checkout extension simplifies the purchase process and creates a streamlined checkout experience, ensuring customer delight.
Features:
- Optimized checkout page
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Checkout layout customization
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5. Mageplaza Security Extension
On average, there is a hacking attack every 39 seconds. In addition, small businesses are more prone to data breaches and cyberattacks.
Mageplaza’s Security extension is an ideal security solution for Magento store owners. It implements a set number of failed login attempts, preventing break-in attempts and locking out hackers. In addition, the module offers a vital security checklist and login reports.
Features:
- Brute force attack prevention
- File change detection
- Away mode to restrict logins for a specific period
6. Layered Navigation by Aheadworks
Layered Navigation is among the best store usability extensions, improving all navigation aspects. This advanced extension allows customers to select multiple products attributes simultaneously without page reloads.
In addition, Layered Navigation provides customers with three new filter types: items in stock, products on sale, and new arrivals.
Features:
- Set up standalone brand pages
- Structured, SEO-friendly URLs
- Infinite product scrolling
7. Yotpo Reviews
Customer reviews are social proof of your product’s quality for potential buyers. Besides, they are vital for building customer trust and boosting brand reputation.
The Yotpo Reviews extension allows merchants to display user reviews, ratings, photos, and more, thus offering an authentic shopping experience. This tool seamlessly integrates with Magento stores, assisting businesses to validate their product’s value in front of new customers.
Features:
- On-site reviews and photos display
- Flag negative reviews that require attention
- Share reviews on social media
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8. Xtento Two-Factor Authentication
The Two-Factor Authentication extension offers an additional layer of security, ensuring data security and integrity. This tool adds supplementary information when logging into the Magento backend. This includes inserting a security code (one-time password) along with the username and password to gain access.
Features:
- Code valid for only 30 seconds
- Compatible with Android and iOS applications
- Option to disable authentication for trusted IP addresses
9. SEO Suite Ultimate by Mageworx
SEO Suite Ultimate is a powerful extension that merchants can employ to maximize your site’s SEO efficiency. This tool utilizes advanced product templates that automatically optimize infinite product meta titles, descriptions, URL structure, meta keywords, and image alt tags. By altering these vital components, SEO Suite Ultimate allows search engines to crawl and index the website quickly, thus boosting rankings and driving organic traffic.
Features:
- Rapid URL and metadata optimization
- SEO-friendly RSS Feed URLs
- Set redirects and eliminate duplicate content
10. Magic Zoom by Magic Toolbox
Most eCommerce websites fail to provide a natural “feel” of their product. Hence, most people research a product online but visit a brick-and-mortar store for purchasing.
The Magic Zoom extension eliminates this issue by offering an immersive fullscreen view, allowing customers to understand your products better.
Features:
- Responsive design for effortless browsing
- Option to add product video
- Display 360 product spins
Bottom Line
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Extensions have far-reaching impacts on your eCommerce store and the end-user experience. Hence, it’s vital to add the suitable Magento 2 extensions to assist merchants in increasing the store’s visibility, traffic, and security, thereby boosting sales and revenues.