In 2015 the average ecommerce store has more extensions than ever before. While they might give you additional features and functionality, did you know that you are actually much better off without them?
There is talk amongst industry leaders that the age of third part extensions may be slowly coming to an end due to their detrimental effects on other aspects of the business.
So, to make sure you don’t make the mistake of launching an overly complicated website, here are the 5 reasons why you should keep your online store simple, clean and agile.
- Saves You On Development costs
Building a large, feature heavy store with a platform like Magento can set you back from $30,000-$100,000, and chances are you don’t need half the features any way.
From the very moment that you launch your site you can save anywhere from $5,000-$30,000 by stripping out the extensions and features that aren’t essential for your websites core functionality.
This means that you save on development costs for installing the extensions plus also the consistent extension conflicts that can make upgrades in the future very difficult and expensive.
Just to clarify, there are some extensions that are fantastic and are essential to running a great online store. It’s just important that you don’t over do it and install more than is absolutely necessary.
- Saves You On Extension fees
The average extension will set you back approximately $100-$250 in license fees. When you multiply that by the 10 extensions you’ll skip during the development, your savings stack up very quickly.
Not to mention there is a growing trend in the SaaS community to charge monthly subscriptions, so by avoiding these you’ll dramatically drop your overheads on a monthly basis.
- Site Loads Quicker & Boosts Conversions
A recent study by WordStream revealed that a faster website can boost conversion rates by up to 15%. One of the quickest and easiest ways to speed up your website is by reducing unnecessary code and extensions.
In fact recent tests run by Great4You revealed that by removing a single social media sharing plugin they were able to increase page load speed by 3%. Then by further eliminating 5 other plugins that didn’t add much value they were able to increase overall speed by 11.2% in total.
The result of this was a 6.7% increase in opt-in conversions and a decrease in bounce rate by 8.2%.
- Easier To Optimize
As an online business owner you know by now the importance of split testing and improving the conversion rate of your site. But did you know that if you strip out unnecessary extensions you can reduce the cost of these tests and upgrades by over 30%?
This is because when your site is built on a simple platform, you eliminate expensive development bills that come from dealing with extension conflicts and unstable third party code.
Whether you’d like to start on optimizing your product page or your home page, there are many conversion rate optimization checklists out there that will walk you through the tests that you can run. And as you start doing your research you’ll find that that a simple website will make your life a lot easier
- Creates an easier visitor path.
Did you know that if your visitor can’t find what they’re after in less than 10 seconds, and in less than 3 clicks you’ve likely lost them forever? These sorts of statics should keep you awake at night, as they are truly the difference between millions, and nothing.
Most ecommerce platforms such as Magento or WooCommerce have a very clean and responsive core theme that they pour millions into developing as the flagship and model of ecommerce success. So by building your site based on one of these core themes you’ll save countless hours of development and worry.
Plus, because they were built by the platform themselves, you’ll have higher quality code, quicker load times, less bugs, and a site that is easier to update and build overall.
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About The Author:
Author, and Marketing Expert, Joel House is one of Australia’s leading authorities in ecommerce and online retail. Joel has been featured on Digital Marketing Radio and is currently the Head Of Marketing at Online Visions, a boutique ecommerce & Magento Development agency.