Technology has advanced exponentially over the past few decades, leading to changes in how people go about their daily lives, including shopping. Online shopping and eCommerce have become worthy competitors to traditional offline sales. As competition grows, eCommerce platform providers are ramping up their services to help merchants stay ahead in the market. Magento is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms currently available, chosen by over 270,000 successful merchants.
An inherently robust platform, Magento is fully customisable and can be adapted to suit any niche and business types, from small to large-scale businesses. It can effectively be scaled up and down to suit the changing needs of a business. If you are currently using another eCommerce platform but are not satisfied with its performance, migrating to Magento is possible. Even with the most efficiently developed and self-sufficient eCommerce platforms, having adequate support and maintenance is a necessity.
Any eCommerce site, including Magento, is available to customers 24/7 with no closing hours. Accordingly, you need support specific to your eCommerce platform to solve any issues that may arise. Sudden problems or downtime with your Magento site can damage your brand image and discourage customers. If errors arise during non-peak hours, there will be a minimal impact, whereas the effect can be disastrous during peak hours. Why take the risk? Pro-active Magento support improves your site proactively and is ready to solve any issues that arise quickly and effectively.
Why do You Need Ongoing Magento Support?
Magento support refers to all the support and maintenance services involved in ensuring peak performance from your Magento platform. This includes proactively improving and updating your site, identifying and fixing issues before they become big problems, and solving any errors you face.
The Magento Platform has been built with open-source technology that can be accessed by anyone, and detailed developer documents, forums, and guides are available. Customer support offered by Magento (Adobe) itself (mainly to its Adobe Commerce Cloud customers) varies depending upon the plan you choose and can also take time. Specialised Magento support focuses on speed so that there is minimal disruption to operations. Getting dedicated Magento support through an agency or an in-house team is ideal.
During development of a Magento site, you have plenty of time available as the site has not gone live in front of customers. After it is live, time becomes of the essence. Apart from emergency and ad-hoc repairs, Magento routinely releases new updates and security patches for its platform. Implementing these changes can provide new features for your eCommerce site and ensure that it is fully secure. With Magento support, you don’t have to worry about falling behind or missing out on an update. The support team can directly handle all updates, scheduling changes based on your traffic flow for minimal interruption.
As a complex platform, Magento requires experienced backend developers to monitor and maintain the eCommerce site. Despite being fully reliable, having backup Magento support is essential for smooth operations. Based on your budget, size of eCommerce site, time since your site launch, you can choose between different types of support services. By proactively contacting Magento support, you can prevent any breakdowns in operations. With ongoing Magento support, you can protect your eCommerce store against a wide range of problems from hacking and malware to website performance, crashes, and slow speeds.
With suitable Magento support, you can focus your attention on your business growth. Any concerns with the technical performance, new features you want to incorporate, or potential security concerns can be handled by your Magento support. Experienced Magento support staff can also guide you in improving and enhancing your eCommerce site for better success. There is no need to search online or scan consumer forums, instead you can simply reach out to your Magento support.
Types of Magento Support
Every eCommerce site is unique based on its design and development, even if they use the same Magento platform. There are various types of Magento support and maintenance services available to suit different business needs. The volume of traffic your site has and the presence of in-house technical support staff can influence the Magento support suitable for you. Most Magento support and maintenance services can be categorised into proactive, reactive, and responsive support.
Proactive Support
With proactive support, your Magento eCommerce (also known as Adobe Commerce) site is proactively searched and analysed to find ways of further improvement. By regularly revising and improving your site, you can ensure that you offer customers the best possible service from your Magento site. Proactive support includes all routine updates and upgrades released by Magento and all security patches. Proactive support is useful for all Magento sites but is particularly useful if you have hefty online competition in your niche. An up-to-date eCommerce site with proactive support can help prevent customers leaving for competitors.
Operating an eCommerce site is an effective way of finding out additional features and integrations you want to support. These can include features for easier management as well as better customer service and user experience. If you come across any features you want to incorporate into your site, proactive support includes all these changes. Capable Magento experts can also configure custom features as desired and remove unnecessary features you don’t have use of.
Other routine improvements to your Magento site as a part of proactive support can include an increase in server capacity and support for higher traffic. If you have outgrown your current Magento plan or want to switch to a different plan, that can also be done. Proactive support is designed to take place with minimal disturbance to your operating site. This is done by carefully studying your eCommerce site traffic patterns and scheduling changes so that there is minimum downtime. Full precautions are taken that no desirable data or details are lost during any changes.
Reactive Support
Even with the most conscientious of management, sometimes you might notice small bugs that can grow into bigger problems. Reactive support focusses on carefully analysing, scanning, and auditing your Magento eCommerce site for any issues or concerns. Reactive support is advisable for all businesses regardless of niche. For new Magento sites, it can spot and fix any unexpected problems, while for older eCommerce sites it can highlight and repair problems that may arise because of outdatedness.
Magento professionals are experienced and have honed a sharp eye in detecting any and every discrepancy with your site. With Magento reactive support, you don’t have to worry about regularly scanning your site for technical issues. The Magento support and maintenance team will conduct regular audits and scans to identify concerning issues. These include code audits, performance audits, usability audits, and SEO audits. The audits can be customised to suit your business needs and preferences, and conducted as frequently as desired.
Frequently conducted audits and scans can significantly reduce the number of emergency problems your Magento site faces. Any problems that come up during the scans can then be prioritised and repaired. If there is any major underlying issue that is causing the concerns, reactive support can identify the root cause and work on a solution. By targeting problems when they are small, you can avoid larger and more damaging problems later on. This enables you to offer your customers uninterrupted service, and prevents them from running into unexpected problems while shopping on your Magento site.
Responsive Support
Any type of visible problem, crash, or issue that affects the performance of your eCommerce site can have negative repercussions for your business. Site issues can discourage customers from purchasing, resulting in loss of sales and damaged brand image. The greater the delay in solving problems, the bigger the impact. Solving operational and performance issues of your Magento eCommerce site is a top priority. Responsive support is the most vital type of support for your eCommerce site, as it is used to solve problems and issues quickly and accurately, restoring site performance.
Most forms of Magento responsive support are available 24/7 so that any problem can be solved as fast as possible. For proactive and reactive support merchants can attempt to support themselves with aid from Magento resources. However, due to the urgency of responsive support, choosing specialised personnel or agencies is the preferred option. Regardless of the complexity of the issue, Magento specialised personnel have a better understanding of the platform, new updates, and possible issues. They can speedily solve problems to minimise downtime.
Due to the level of importance of responsive support, it is necessary to carefully check any service provider before trusting them. Problems for an eCommerce site can range from server issues, backend problems, and unavailability of features to cyberattacks, malware, and hacking. If you are facing repeated problems requiring responsive support, you may want to consider proactive and reactive support to prevent bigger issues. While having 24/7 responsive support can help in any kind of site breakdown or emergency, for seamless operations the goal should be to prevent the need for responsive aid.
Top Magento Support Services
The purview of Magento support services has expanded substantially over the years as the platform continues to evolve and advance. There are different Magento plans available and online stores can be completely customised to suit the business needs. Accordingly, the Magento support services need to be tailored to suit your online store needs, keeping in mind average traffic, goals, complexities, and its development.
Within the broad types of Magento support services, there are specific support services available. Based on your preferences and eCommerce goals, you can mix and match different services. Although it is possible to seek different providers for the various Magento support services, it can cause unnecessary hassles in managing support. Here are some of the top Magento support and maintenance services you can choose from:
- Emergency Support
The most important support service for any Magento eCommerce site is emergency support. Generally available 24/7 every single day, it is designed to quickly resolve any major issue or problem that your eCommerce site is facing. This can be anything from the entire eCommerce site going down or issues in checkouts, admin errors, or getting locked out from the back-end. Once a site goes live, any type of interruption should be avoided. Downtime results in direct loss of customer trust, sales, and revenue. Emergency support should be easily accessible, prompt, and capable of repairing the issue quickly with minimal interruptions to site operations.
- Ad Hoc Troubleshooting
Ad hoc troubleshooting as a part of reactive support aims to identify and repair small issues with your Magento eCommerce site before they become big problems. For example, error messages, problems in navigation or page loading. Flagging small issues and fixing them is an effective way to prevent larger problems from developing. In ad hoc troubleshooting, there is detailed scanning of your eCommerce site to spot any issues. For the best results, there should be routine scans of your eCommerce site. The exact frequency would depend upon the size and complexity of your Magento site, and how long it’s been since your last Magento update.
- Code Audit
The backbone of a Magento-based eCommerce site is its coding, including the core code of the online store, any custom codes and 3rd party codes. A code audit involves a thorough analysis of all the coding used in creating and operating your online store. By examining the code, a wide range of issues can be identified for improvement and repaired to make your eCommerce site bug-free, secure, and up-to-date. It also checks that the coding is compliant with required standards and if there have been any modifications to the code. It gives you a review of the overall health of your eCommerce site.
- Performance Audit
Another type of audit, a performance audit focuses on gaining actionable insights to improve the performance of your Magento site. It can comprise of frontend performance audit, backend performance audit, and Magento security audit. It checks the overall page loading speeds, and all the individual pages of your Magento site. These include homepage, product pages, product list page, category page, cart page, checkout page, and any other page. The session and cache configurations are evaluated along with the error logs. Insights from a performance audit are immensely valuable and can help in streamlining the operations of your eCommerce site, enabling you to offer customers quality service.
- SEO Audit
Search engine optimisation or SEO is an essential tool for an eCommerce site, bringing in customers from search engines. With adequate SEO, your site can rank higher on search engine results pages, increasing traffic, conversions, and sales. The SEO audit focuses on analysing the SEO capabilities of your Magento site. Even though Magento comes with extensive support for SEO, it might not always be optimised. SEO audits can help eCommerce businesses of any size, small medium or large, in identifying ways to improve their SEO and gain better search engine rankings. The SEO audits include both on-page and off-page SEO, giving you a comprehensive view of the SEO status of your Magento site. Although there are free SEO reviewing services, SEO audits from Magento support service providers have higher accuracy and reliability.
- Server Review
Any and every website requires hosting and servers to store information that can be relayed to customers. Magento offers plans with and without hosting options, and depending upon the type of hosting you are using, you can consider server reviews. The server level audit includes analysing the PHP coding, server configurations, and cache servers. Based on average customer usage and peak time traffic, the server configuration details are analysed. If you have independent hosting, frequent server reviews will help make sure that your Magento eCommerce site is fast, efficient, and scalable. With Magento hosting, occasional server audits can still help and guide you on if you need any upgrades.
- Site Optimisation
Site optimisation is a part of Magento support that focuses on enhancing the capabilities of your eCommerce site proactively. With the immense level of competition in the field of eCommerce, site optimisation ensures that your site is offering the best service possible. This includes streamlining the backend processes, optimising operations, and offering customers a positive experience. Site optimisation checks the speed of your eCommerce site, navigation, checkouts, and any other desired aspects. The categorisation of your products, image optimisation, server response time, and caching are examined. Site optimisation is customised to suit your niche and considers the level of service quality offered by your competitors.
- Security Updates
For any transactional site, particularly eCommerce sites, security is a primary priority. There needs to be adequate security for customer data, payment information, and for the overall eCommerce site. As cyberattacks and hacking evolve and adapt, it is essential for an eCommerce site to have robust security. Magento regularly releases security patches and updates that should be installed to maintain maximum security. Additional security certifications you may want to support can also be incorporated with other security updates. By maintaining strong security and staying up-to-date with latest security patches, you can protect your eCommerce site from security breaches and attacks. A single security breach can be disastrous and preventing them is better than attempting recovery.
- Migration
Migration is a Magento support service available for eCommerce sites using other platforms or providers, or using older editions of Magento. With migration, your existing eCommerce store is moved to the latest version of Magento. If you are unsatisfied with your current eCommerce site, investing in migration is a great option. A one-time service, it involves taking full backups of your existing eCommerce site, importing them to the new Magento site, and making desired changes. While Magento developers can perform migration, it is also available as a part of Magento support services. Since Magento support personnel work quickly with minimal disturbances to live sites, they are an excellent choice for migration.
- Magento Updates
A big benefit of using Magento is that it routinely evolves, releasing new updates for the eCommerce platform helping you keep your eCommerce site future ready. These new updates improve the Magento eCommerce platform both from a management perspective and for customers. Typically, there is at least one update every quarter, but the size of the updates can vary. Implementing new Magento updates is strongly recommended so that you can enjoy the latest features available. With Magento support services, the desired updates can be installed with minimal disturbance and downtime to your live eCommerce site. New updates are thoroughly scanned and tested before integration so that your updated eCommerce site performs well.
- Integrations and Customisations
One of the major advantages of Magento is its support for customisations and integrations. Often, all customisations are not configured during the development process and you may become aware of other desirable integrations once your eCommerce site is live. As a part of Magento support services, you can incorporate any other integrations and customisations you want in your eCommerce site. These changes and custom functionalities can improve management and customer experience. The eCommerce site can also be integrated with desired 3rd party tools and systems for advanced functionalities. Magento support services allow you to expand features and functionalities without interrupting the performance of a live eCommerce site.
- Redesigning UI/UX
The user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) you offer to customers is a driving factor behind the success of your eCommerce site. Regardless of how long your eCommerce site has been live, if you feel that your UI/UX are lacking, you can opt for redesigning them. An enhanced and customised UI/UX can significantly improve conversions and sales, bringing you loyal customers and long-term success. The UI/UX can be redesigned for desktop and mobile users. Current engagement and conversion data of your Magento site can indicate if you need redesigning. If you have adequate traffic but conversions are falling or if you have high cart abandonment rates, revising the UI/UX can help.
- Performance Monitoring
Monitoring the performance of your Magento eCommerce site is an important task so that you can identify any issues or drops in conversions as soon as possible. Magento support services provide an impartial and expert view on the performance of your eCommerce site. By studying key performance indicators such as conversion rates, bounce rates, cart abandonment, slow page loading, Magento support can identify when it is time for detailed audits. Routine performance monitoring is especially important for larger eCommerce sites with high volumes of traffic. Any problems or issues that may impact conversions are quickly identified and highlighted for urgent repair, before they can develop into bigger issues.
- Magento and eCommerce Consultation
Magento and eCommerce consultations move beyond the technicalities of your Magento site to discuss ways to meet your long-term goals. Since Magento support service providers have experience in dealing with the platform and eCommerce in general, some offer dedicated consultation services. Through consultations with experienced Magento professionals you can discuss your business goals and leverage their knowledge for a customised platform and support. Anything from your plans for expansion to market competitors, additional services you want to offer, and new functionalities can be discussed. The Magento support providers can advise you on how to adapt and grow your eCommerce site to meet your changing business needs.
Related Post: 8 Reasons to Invest in Magento Support and Maintenance Services
Options for Magento Support Providers
The popularity of Magento as an eCommerce platform has led to an increase in the availability of Magento trained professionals. With open-source technology anybody with adequate understanding and technical knowledge can attempt Magento support, but the quality, speed, and efficiency are not guaranteed. For eCommerce businesses powered by Magento there are a few options for Magento support providers:
Individual Support
Entrusting Magento support for your eCommerce site to an individual is the least expensive option, but also the riskiest. An individual, within your business or outside, would be responsible for any Magento support that you require. The actual costs will depend upon the qualifications and experience of the individual as well as the support services you desire.
The risk is higher as the entire responsibility of your eCommerce site performance will rely upon one person. This can lead to delayed response times, resulting in even higher downtime. If the individual is not familiar with the problem and need time for research or consultation, your eCommerce site may be affected for longer. In any situation, if the individual is not available, the operations of your Magento site will be at risk. Tasking individuals for Magento support is not advisable, particularly if you have decent traffic to your website.
In-House Team
A traditional form of Magento support, setting up an in-house team can be expensive however, it offers excellent reliability. In this form of Magento support, you would need to hire Magento support professionals directly and integrate them into your business. With capable professionals, you will have full transparency and control over their availability, tasks, and output. Based on the size of your eCommerce site and traffic, you can choose the number of support staff you need around the clock.
However, as you will be incorporating Magento support personnel into your overall staff, you will need to conduct a full hiring process. Administrative costs can add on, particularly if you want 24/7 support directly from office. An in-house team is fully reliable, if you choose the right professionals for the job. With Magento support in your own office, you utilise and implement any desired support service giving you greater flexibility.
Dedicated Agency
The most popular form of Magento support is hiring a dedicated Magento development or support agency that is experienced and reliable. By outsourcing your Magento support requirements, you do not have to invest in in-house hiring and you still get full support. A dedicated agency providing Magento support will have experience and can provide an effective outside analysis of your eCommerce site.
Typically, dedicated agencies will be available 24/7 and their experience enables them to quickly solve any issue that arises. Based on the services you require, you can discuss customised plans for your Magento site, and adapt the plans as needed. There is also no need to worry about the capabilities of the Magento support staff as the agency will have already vetted their expertise. Keep in mind, all Magento support agencies are not the same, and it is important to choose a reliable and capable agency that will be available as needed.
How to Choose Suitable Magento Support Providers
The Magento support needs of every eCommerce site vary, but testing out every form of Magento support is an expensive and risky process. It is advisable to carefully consider your needs and then choose the best possible Magento support system for uninterrupted support. Here are the factors to consider when choosing a Magento support provider:
- Services Required: What Magento support services are you looking for? Which services are you likely to want in the future? Check the services offered by the Magento support provider to ensure your desired services are available.
- Site Traffic: A crucial factor to consider when looking for Magento support is your current average site traffic, and expected growth projections. The higher the traffic, the greater the importance of speed in Magento support.
- Budget: What is your budget for Magento support services? Do you have adequate budget for an in-house staff, a dedicated agency or individual support? Reach out to possible providers to figure out best prices for your Magento eCommerce site.
- Experience: How much experience and knowledge of Magento does the provider have? Magento support relies heavily upon the experience of the providers, as it enables them to spot issues faster, and fix problems quicker.
The earlier you setup a Magento support provider for your eCommerce site, the better protection you will get against unexpected problems. Consider available options and services to find a suitable match that is within your budget.
Conclusion
Once your Magento eCommerce site goes live, it is ideal to have suitable Magento support in place to ensure that your site can operate at optimum level with minimal issues. By having reliable Magento support, you can prevent and repair breakdowns, utilise new features, and implement all the latest updates. There are a wide range of Magento support services available for proactive, reactive, and responsive support. Based on your eCommerce site, average traffic, and budget you can choose suitable Magento support services.
With the popularity of the Magento platform, there are various options for Magento support that you can consider, such as individual support, in-house teams, or dedicated agencies. While individual support is the least expensive, it can also be unreliable. Setting up an in-house team offers great reliability but also involves additional costs and administration overhead. Choosing a dedicated agency for Magento support gives you full reliability, fast response, and reasonable expenses.
As an end-to-end eCommerce development agency, we at 18th Digitech offer dedicated Magento support services. With 24/7 availability and certified Magento professionals, we offer a wide range of reliable and efficient Magento support services, customised to suit your needs. In addition to Magento support, we also offer designing, development, and marketing services that can help your eCommerce site succeed. Reach out to our team today to discuss your eCommerce needs.
