Our platform of choice for ecommerce websites is the OpenSource software known as OpenCart, this platform is what powers all of our client’s ecommerce websites. As with any piece of software or website it can be expanded and have its functionality improved through the use of plugins and modules.
There are literally thousands of plugins and modules available on the OpenCart marketplace, as well as on the internet designed and developed by various developers. Over the course of the past 12 years of working with OpenCart we have built up quite a list of go-to plugins that we recommend to clients for various functions and improvements to their website.
A plugin or module as its also known, is an addon that can be installed on your website to allow the website to do an additional task, provide additional data or work in such a way that it improves and can potentially increase sales. Think of it like buying a house, then a few years later adding a conservatory, this is adding additional room and space and improving the overall house value.
So, we have come up with our recommended 6 ways to improve your ecommerce website, which wasn’t easy to compile as we could easily double that list:
1. Abandoned Carts module
This is our first major module that we recommend to clients to convert lost sales. Every day customers will quit the checkout process for a variety of reasons, when they do this data can be used to offer them an incentive to return to your store and complete the purchases.
We created our own abandoned cart module for OpenCart in house to our exact specifications and so far, has generated thousands of pounds of revenue for clients that have this installed on their websites. Potential customers are sent an email with the items they had in the shopping basket and an incentive to return to your website to complete the purchase.
2. Google Analytics Ecommerce Tracking
Having an all singing, all dancing website is great, but if you cant track and generate reports on traffic, sources and financial data its very difficult to determine what marketing or areas of the website are working and those which aren’t. With Google Analytics ecommerce tracking information about sales is synced to Google Analytics to show financial information alongside visitor numbers, sessions and bounce rates. There are various other reports and uses for this data which we can advise on.
3. Mailchimp Integration
Keeping in contact with your customer base is also important for repeat business, and to ensure past customers don’t forget about you when making their next purchase. With the Mailchimp Integration module your customer data can be synced to Mailchimp complying with GDPR protocols to allow you to create email campaigns to promote new product ranges, advertise promotions and promote particular products.
With using Mailchimp you can track who has opened the email, track sales conversion data within Mailchimp and tailor emails to be more personal, including what products the customer purchased.
4. SEO Pack Pro
The SEO Pack module is a great enhancement to any ecommerce website, this ensure that your websites search engine optimisation performance is increased by adding modern functions to your website such as schema data to products, adding breadcrumbs, automatically adding titles to images, showing you what products are missing descriptions, titles and tags, and much more.
This module is one of our favourite modules and really does help to improve SEO on OpenCart, which out of the box needs some needed improvement. We have seen a noticeable difference in traffic when using this module on our clients websites.
5. PayPal Express
Online shopping is massive, and growing year on year. Customers want to be able to find what they are looking for and checkout quickly and effortlessly. That’s why we recommend PayPal Express, using this module customers don’t need to register an account, they simply login to their PayPal account and all of their data is synced to your website. With this method checkout is reduced to a few seconds rather than minutes.
6. Reviews.co.uk
We have partnered with customer reviews platform Reviews.co.uk to offer clients an unbeatable customer reviews package. It is well known that customers buy based on reviews, if your website or ecommerce shop doesn’t have genuine customer reviews you could be losing out on sales as customers want to buy with confidence, and may do so with one of your competitors.
The module is automated and will send customers a review request after an agreed timeframe, reviews and badges can then be installed on your website to display customer feedback, this is one of our most recommended modules and will benefit from customers seeing positive reasons to choose you for their next purchase.
As well as the 6 points above you may also want to consider some of our other range of core OpenCart Services which are essential to any business running the ecommerce platform:
- Need to upgrade your version of OpenCart? Take a look at our OpenCart Upgrades
- Looking for a new ecommerce website? Our OpenCart Websites are the answer.
- Need something creating for your OpenCart store? Our OpenCart Developer service may be of use.
- Need some help with an OpenCart issue? Our OpenCart Support is the answer.
- Looking for a new website? Our OpenCart Web Development and OpenCart Web Design is the answer.
