At the 2016 Magento Live event, Deryck Harlick and Brent Peterson delivered a presentation that broke down the steps for setting up and launching a Magento 2 store in 90 minutes or less. The breakout session showed attendees how easy it is to create a customized website without any programming or coding experience. With the right hosting provider, anyone can build a site and go live in just 1 day! Here’s how you can get started:
1. Choose a hosting provider.
Depending on your business needs, you need to figure out whether Magento Open Source or Magento Commerce is the right fit for your business. Then, you can browse through a number of expert Magento partners to make the installation process quick and easy. A few hosting providers, such as Nexcess, Cloudways, and Mgt-commerce, have the resources to help your site go live immediately and keep it going strong with:
- Technical support from Magento experts.
- High-performance optimization.
- Access to the latest technologies.
- Flexible scalability.
- Managed migrations and updates.
- Security tools.
2. Select a theme.
You can choose from thousands of responsively-designed themes and templates that can be customized to suit your ideal website aesthetic. Along with an excellent user interface, a well-designed Magento template should also feature the following perks:
- 100% responsiveness.
- Cross-browser compatibility.
- Different premade layouts for your home page, gallery, and store pages.
- Enhanced navigation features, such as MegaMenu, layered navigation, etc.
- Blog functionality.
3. Create a catalog and add products.
Your Magento store provides a few different ways to organize your catalog, including:
- Display Products Only. This simple layout shows the product, the description, and the image uploaded for that product.
- Static Block Only. This displays the static block you select, making the page appear as a landing page for shoppers.
- Static Block and Products. This catalog option allows you to separate lists of products with customized static blocks between each category.
Once you have your catalog layout set up, you can begin uploading your products to the store catalog. There are several common product types available to cover any possible item your store specializes in, such as:
- Simple products.
- Configurable products.
- Grouped products.
- Virtual products.
- Bundle products.
- Downloadable products.
- Gift cards.
4. Configure Your Store
In order to tweak your website’s appearance, just go to the Content section to find items like Pages, Blocks, Widgets, Posts, and Comments. Each of these features will make it easy for you to add new content, customize the layout of your web pages, and monitor comments on your blog post-launch. If you’d like, you can also visit the Magento Marketplace to find helpful extensions and add-ons to make sure your site runs as smoothly as possible.
At this point, you also need to configure payment and shipping methods, prices, tax rules, and other essential features required to actually sell your products. You may also want to provide links to your social media profiles, post a few articles on your blog, and ensure that your navigation is user-friendly.
5. Start selling!
After completing these key components, you’ll be ready to go live with your brand-new Magento store. For more information about how you can make the most out of your eCommerce experience, check out the resources offered by Wagento or join the community of Magento enthusiasts who can offer help and advice as your business continues to expand. All you need to do is take the first step!
