8 Horrible Ways I Know Your Site Is Using Magento

I’m one of those people who believes that less is more - especially so when it comes to eCommerce. Simplicity is key; ask anyone trying to optimize their checkout conversion rate. Over the past few years I’ve seen my fair share of eCommerce websites, the bulk being on Magento. In this quick post I’ll share a few ways to trim and simplify your Magento website, improve your customer experience and be a bit different from the approximately 120,000 other Magento websites out there. Here are 8 horrible ways how I know your site is using Magento:

1 - You have too many useless content blocks on too many pages

Circles were only popular in the dotcom bubble, or so Magento designers thought (some think they might be back in style sometime soon). That’s why boxes are everywhere by default in Magento. You know the ones: the default content blocks that have a bold heading with a darker coloured background and main content with a lighter background. While this is a good way to present blocks, it is also a good way to look like most other Magento sites. Customize how they look and where they are displayed; rectangles everywhere make your site look like the easiest and most boring game of Tetris that has ever been played. That being said, Magento’s default blocks are cool and sometimes useful. But you need to ask yourself a question: do my customers want/need/use them? Chances are most of these features are just a waste of prime screen real estate. Most blocks are usually removed, however there are two I see regularly that I think can also be removed:

1. Tag cloud: tag clouds can be useful in some situations but, in my opinion, are generally a waste of space
2. Poll: unless your eCommerce store is secretly a front for a useless data research company, you don’t need a poll. There are some situations where polls are useful, such as post purchase product reviews, but I see far too many polls asking useless questions. Polls are a trade off between screen space and information. Personally I value screen space very high, so I would only include a poll if the information I am gaining from it is extremely valuable.

2 - Your site’s logo is still the Magento logo

This is another easy fix that I see way too often. Unless your logo is an upside down “W” in an orange box, there’s no reason for it, so make sure you’re not doing it!

3 - Your emails are boring

I’ve found that most merchants use Magento’s transactional email system in tandem with a third party solution. Usually the third party email templates are stellar. Usually Magento’s are not. I’ve received hundreds of boring, plain welcome emails after creating a customer account. This is the first email that most of your customers receive. Don’t you want it to be exciting and unique? Don’t you want every email you send out to be exciting and unique

4 - Your admin log in url is www.yoursite.com/admin

This one is dangerous, but so easy to fix. If I can access your admin panel log in just by adding /admin to your base url, I’m one step closer to getting in. Change it, it’s really easy to do!

5 - Your search sucks

Magento is really good at a lot of things. One of these is not search (out of the box). I’d consider augmenting it with a third party solution. There are several out there that I won’t name - just make sure the solution gets you the “results” you're looking for.

6 - Your “My Account” page has too many subpages

Just like the previously mentioned content blocks, I often find the “My Account” page has too much included. I find this is usually hit and miss; it is either stripped down completely to the bare essentials or includes absolutely everything. Unless you need them, I’d get rid of as much as possible. Things such as“My Downloadable Products” and “My Recurring Profiles” show up more often than they’re needed. Don’t be afraid to customize this page too; it’s one of the more important parts in your customers’ experience!

7 - Your product pages have a product picture zoom feature

Customers will sometimes need to examine a product’s picture in detail. This depends on the type of product. Things like watches and jewellery need to have this so customers can scrutinize the aesthetic qualities of their potential purchase. Things like printer paper most likely do not - unless you’re in the designer printer paper industry.

8 - Your customer notification boxes are the default green

Every so often I will come across a beautifully designed Magento store, and begin browsing. I’ll perform an action that has a front end notification, and then this nasty, green box is thrown on the the screen and ruins the page’s feel. Make sure that these notifications match the rest of your site! Well there you have it - 8 horrible ways that I know your site is using Magento. These are just some examples that I’ve been annoyed by several times while investigating the customer side of Magento. Of course, this is a completely subjective topic. Do you agree or disagree with these? What would you strip out of Magento’s front end? Leave a comment below and I’ll include your ideas (with credit) in a follow up blog post!