3 Different Ways To Leverage Magento Extension For Your Online Store

By Author: Maulik Shah
Total Articles: 88
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Online stores have become the go-to medium for purchasing products. People love the convenience they have while purchasing online. To make this experience smoother and satisfactory, it is essential for businesses to provide better customer services. Because providing better service to your customers is key to getting repeat purchases. Thus it is important to find the right way to add helpful features to your Magento store. Let us understand more about how and what you can do to improve your store to provide better service.

Magento platform comes with a lot of features for online stores. But if you still want more features for your store, you can leverage extensions. They will help to attract and serve more customers, updating and improving the functionalities of the store is the only option. Adding helpful features will definitely improve sales, customer support, etc.

There are extensions that can be purchased or developed for your ecommerce website. Extensions for marketing, orders, checkout, shipping, navigation, etc. can make a vital difference. You can use it to integrate platforms and services with social ...
... media, email service providers, and payment gateways.

You can do this with Magento extensions. Magento extensions are small software modules. They help to add custom functionalities to your Magento store. 

You can have them integrated into your store in three different ways. 

Magento Extensions

You can purchase them from third-party providers or the Magento marketplace. It is a quick and efficient way to get what you are looking for. Before you plan to purchase an extension, consider the features you need for your online store. Then you can choose an extension that checks all your boxes. Here are some pros and cons of purchasing a ready to use magento extension.

Pros: 

Using ready to use Magento extension is cheaper than getting it custom developed. 

You will save the time that is required for getting it developed. 
These extensions come with manuals that explain functionality. 

They also provide customer support at the initial level so that you don’t have to struggle with it.

They are more optimized and stable compared to custom development. 
You get lifetime free upgrades of the extension.   

Cons: 

A ready-to-use extension might not fulfill your requirement. 

Using too many extensions will slow down your website. 

If you have a complex requirement or you are looking for something unique then you might not be able to find extensions with features you are looking for. 

Custom Magento Extensions Development

The other way is to get it developed. If your business requires a unique solution then you should opt for Magento extension development. All your needs will be taken into account. Adding a feature that no one has can make your business stand out from others. It can be time consuming but in the end, you will have what you want.

Pros:

It is perfectly adaptive as it has all the necessary functionalities for your store.
You can get it upgraded if new requirements arise. 

Cons:

It is often expensive compared to buying extensions. 
Additional financing is required for maintaining the service or adapting when new versions of Magento are released. 
It takes more time to get into action when compared to ready-to-use extensions.
Customizing Magento Extensions

What will you do if the existing extension lacks some features and you do not want to get it developed? Customizing the existing extension might fit the bill. This way you can use an already developed Magento extension and then customize it as per your needs.

Pros: 

Customization will take less time and money than developing the whole extension from scratch. 

Cons: 

You have to get it customized every time there is a new version update.
Conclusion

Thus optimizing your online store mainly depends on three factors time, cost, and quality. Consider the needs of your store and choose between ready-to-use Magento extensions, custom Magento 2 extension development, or customization of Magento extension. Choose the best way to increase your online store's efficiency and enhance the customer experience to flourish your business.

Maulik Shah is the Founder and CEO of AppJetty, a fast growing software add-on store selling extensions and plugins for various technologies, including Odoo themes and odoo apps Magento 1 extensions and Magento 2 extensions. Maulik is a tech enthusiast and writes about the various aspects of ecommerce technology.