Redstage Magento Blog

When you first dive into Twitter, it can be daunting to say the least. It's tough to figure out where to begin, and it really doesn't do much until you
configure everything (by following, being followed and interacting.). Here’s a list we put together of some of the top Magento Authorities on Twitter, so you can stay in touch with the community and know all the news about the system.

Also, you can follow this list here http://twitter.com/RedstageMagento/magento-authority!

If you have any others to add to the list, leave them in the comments below!

	royrubin05 Roy Rubin
	inchoo Magento Developers | Osijek, Croatia
	YoavMagento Yoav Kutner Magento
	magento_connect Magento Connect
	magentofeeds MagentoFeeds
	magentopodcast MG-Podcast-Team | Aachen, Bayreuth
	hashMagento #magento Following
	ask_magento Reported to be inactive. Follow with Caution! Thanks Jeff!
	magento_uk Magento UK | London, UK

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on ecommerce
• 5 Reasons Why Retailers Should Add Ecommerce to Facebook | Kyle …

• Related Blogs on Magento

Magento Mobile looks amazing! Take a look at the demo below.

The real question is, will people impulse-buy products on their phones? Having a great interface for mobile e-commerce is awesome but will smartphone users buy clothing or books on their phone, rather than wait until they get to work or home and use a regular computer?

Maybe the real opportunity is to sell other types of products via mobile or have additional incentives to use the mobile site instead of the regular site.

What do you think? How will e-commerce website utilize this technology?

Leave a comment below!

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on Magento Mobile Demo

Recently, Magento released a new version of their powerful e-commerce system called Magento Professional. This version has few extra features including, Gift Certificates/Cards (Physical and Virtual), Customer Store Credits, Strong Data Encryption (including PA-DSS compliance), and A Reward Points System. They basically added a ton of marketing muscle to the already-powerful system along with PCI compliance.

Their description of the new offering is:

“Magento Professional is an eCommerce platform for businesses who want to enter the world of eCommerce without the complications and long implementation cycle associated with developing a solution with Magento Community open source code. Designed for businesses who are working with a qualified Magento Solution Partner, Magento Professional has been thoroughly tested and warranted, and includes revenue-generating features not found in Magento Community.

Magento Solution Partners are able to produce Web stores that meet their clients’ unique business needs, with a clear and easy upgrade path to Magento Enterprise.”

And the cost for these features: $2,995.

Gift Certificates/Cards (Physical and Virtual)

Customers can buy physical or virtual gift certificates to your website. This is a huge feature for the holiday season, as gift cards have become very popular in the past. I know from experience! In the past 3 years I’ve gotten 3 Virtual Amazon Gift Certificates. It’s easy for a customer to use your website to buy a gift certificate and give it to a family member or friend for their Birthday or other Holiday.

Customer Store Credits

Store credit is great to manage product returns without actually having to process the monetary refund. It saves time during your back office processes as well as keeps your customer’s money in your account. The customer can use that credit at any time to buy something else on your site.

Here’s a video showing the Gift Cards and Store Credits Feature:

Reward Points System

A rewards system is a great way to entice repeat customers. It’s a known fact in marketing that it’s up to 10x easier (and less expensive) to get a customer to buy a 2nd time than it is to get them to buy the first time. A direct rewards system can make repeat customers even more likely to come back.

(you can get tons of tips like this in the quick guide in the top of the right column! Just opt in to the Newsletter!)

Strong Data Encryption

The PA-DSS requirement is coming up on July 1!

Read more about the Magento Professional Edition here.

If you want to know more about Magento Professional, please call us at 1-888-335-2747!

Tim Shulz, Sr. Product Manager at Magento talks about Magento Mobile and it’s incredible potential. “The Future of M” or thefutureofm.com is where they post information about the growing platform and insights into mobile.

Anyone else pretty excited about all of this?! It’s going to be awesome to see the mobile platform and all of the possibilities! Looking forward to it, Magento!

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on Cool Magento Video Featuring Tim Shulz, Sr. Product Manager @ Magento
• Click For More

A couple weeks ago, we had a post about Free Magento Themes which was a big hit. There are some amazing Magento Themes out there at no cost, but there are thousands of beautiful themes that you can grab for a low cost as well.

Using a template for your e-commerce site can work, it won’t work as well as if you have a Custom Magento E-Commerce Brand design. However, when you’re starting out you can use a modified template to get used to Magento and get started with your e-commerce business.

We went through and found a bunch of sites that have TONS of Magento themes. Here are some of our favorite Theme sites and top template from each.

http://www.silverthemes.com

Silver Themes has some extremely clean and crisp designs. Their themes run as low as $125.00 and up to $150.00, and based on certain features it can run higher. The link to their demo store to preview the themes doesn’t seem to be working though. It links to a fresh install of Magento.

Aside from that, these templates are very nice. One of my favorites is the Megastore Theme.

This theme has a very simple, minimalist design that would be easy to adapt to most businesses that are selling a variety of products.

Here’s a link to the Megastore Theme page.

Most of the Silverthemes Themes are layed out the same, with top & left navigation, 3 main feature banners in the center and a basic layout.

There is one that stands out called Sigyn Pro which is a much darker and grungy theme. Very cool.

Here’s a link to the Sigyn Theme.

Take a look a their other themes, at Silverthemes.com.

http://www.templatemonster.com

Link to Magento Themes Page

TemplateMonster has the largest selection of themes we found. They have 150 different Magento Templates ranging from $160 to $250 for the regular price, or $1100 to $7500 for the unique price. The unique price, when purchased, pulls the template off the site so it therefore becomes “unique”.

TemplateMonster’s themes are all fairly different. They cover dozens of industries and product types, color schemes and layouts. A bunch of them rely on high quality stock photography to really come alive, which makes them a bit less “out of the box” than a simpler theme. Basically, you’ll need to customize those graphics to fit your business before using the theme for your store. Overall, with the selection they have, you should find something to start with. I’ll show you a few examples below.

I like the look of this theme. The vibrant colors and the real “Home Depot” feel make it work for a store selling power tools. However, when you’re looking through and choosing a template, remember that anything that is a graphic and has anything specific in it will have to be redesigned. In this template, the “Free Shipping” graphic and 4 featured products will have to change if you don’t offer free shipping at that price level or have those products at those prices as well.

Take a look at the Tool Store page, and the Tool Store Demo. This template as of now goes for: Regular Price: $180 / Buyout Price: $5400

This furniture store template has a great color scheme and layout. I particularly like the effects and details used in the graphics. Again, be aware that these images are just examples and will most likely have to be customized to suit your products and offers. These are more generic than the Tool Store theme above but unless you’re selling very similar items, this is another example of a template that looks good, but is not “out-of-the-box”. It’s a great start though if you have a medium to high end furniture store.

Check out the Furniture Store Page, and Live Demo. This theme now goes for Regular Price: $180 / Buyout Price: $5400

This theme for a Men’s Fashion store is very slick and expensive looking. A lot of the look of this template relies on the product photos, so make sure you’re ready for that. However, the overall look and feel, and colors are a great start for an upscale online clothing store.

Take a look at the Men’s Store page, and Live Demo. This theme now goes for: Regular Price: $180 / Buyout Price: $2800

The “Woman’s Store” theme looks great, with bright colors and a more generic design. Since TemplateMonster gives you the Photoshop files you can easily customize these graphics which are mostly text to suit your needs.

Check out the Women’s Store page and Live Demo. This theme goes for: Regular Price: $250 / Buyout Price: $7500

I really like this theme! Regardless of what you’re selling, this is a cool design that uses excellent colors and transparency
to display your products in a really high quality way. The catalog page is laid out very nicely. One critique… change the product page font color to something a bit lighter and more legible. Otherwise, great theme!

Check out the Sneakers Theme page, and Live Demo. This theme goes for: Regular Price: $250 / Buyout Price: $3200

Last one from TemplateMonster. I like the design effects on the background and right column graphics on this theme. I hope that TM gives you the fonts you need to change those graphics since they look great but will need an update. This is a very fun and inviting theme!

Take a look at the T-Shirts Theme page and Live Demo. This theme goes for: Regular Price: $180 / Buyout Price: $2650

http://www.hellothemes.com

HelloThemes Magento Themes

HelloThemes has a great portfolio of Magento themes. Most of them look like they are for electronics stores but a couple are for clothing/fashion sites. Here’s a snapshot of their portfolio. You can even get all of their themes for $300, which is a good deal. Check it out.

Nice, Clean Design. Some social media elements on the homepage make it a bit more modern. The content slider at the top will need to be filled with product / sale features. Overall, the theme is nice, and generic enough to display nearly any product line.

Demo | Info

Dark theme, very cool. The effect on the background graphic brings it all together. Also, using CSS text-shadow on the right column filter titles as well as the category title adds a cool look to the catalog page.

Demo | Info

The “HelloGlam” template looks like a t-shirt store from the thumbnail but seems to have been repurposed to be a lingerie store (in the demo). In reality, it would work for any woman’s apparel store as the design is clean and very girly.

Demo | Info

ThemeForest.net

Link to ThemeForest Magento Themes

ThemeForest has 46 Magento Templates that are in teh $60 – $10 range. Take a look at the different styles and layouts they offer on their site. Since it seems that there are submissions from various template designers and developers the themes vary quite a bit.

The yarn theme has some cool graphic effects in the header and offers a great way to display artistic, organic or “green” items.

Take a look at the demo or get more info here.

The Antiqua theme is another one that has a nice graphic feel to it, epecially the lined paper drop down menus and neat textures throughout the template. Very cool for anything handmade!

Demo | Info

These were the themes that really stuck out but there are hundreds more that are excellent as well. If there’s a site that we missed that has a bunch of themes or a particular one that you like, post it below in the comments! Thanks for reading!

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on 13 Featured Magento Themes Reviewed and Links