Online presence is crucial for businesses today. With the pandemic, most people are buying online. Foot traffic has significantly lessened because no one goes out. How do you adapt to the new normal?
That’s the reason why businesses are improving their e-commerce strategy. It’s almost mandatory to have a website to cater to their customers.
With that, demand for online jobs for web developers has risen. Aside from WordPress and Shopify, Magento Adobe Commerce is widely used by developers to create e-commerce websites. This is the reason why.
What is Magento?
Magento is a web development platform made by Adobe to cater to businesses for online selling. It’s free to install, but you need web hosting, securities, and app extensions to make it fully work.
The difference between Magento and Shopify is that Shopify already has a set template, and further customization might not be possible. On the other hand, Magento is an open-source platform built in PHP. So you can design the website from the ground up.
Although there’s room for customization, it’s quite challenging for a regular person. And with that, demand is rising for Magento Adobe Commerce developers as well.
Magento developers earn roughly 20k-85k PHP for full-time positions and 20k-45k PHP for part-time positions as well. Here are 7 essential skills you should have to be sought-after.
Technical Skills
To be sought-after, you must be well-versed with the technical skills required for the job. Magento is not easy. And you need the following programming languages and tools to be proficient.
- PHP 5.6 to 7
- OOP
- MySQL
- Zend cache
- HTML
- XML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- JQuery
And it doesn’t stop from there. It’s important to understand product posting, shipment, catalogue pricing rules, check out processes in Magento. And also, there might be additional programs and plugins, depending on the needs of your client.
Basic Graphic Design
Most people have a low attention span, especially when browsing online. How do you grab their attention? Graphics play a major part.
You don’t have to do it yourself. But you should have basic graphic design skills to code what your client wants in their website. With this, you can also limit design instructions to what’s possible in Magento.
With eye-catching graphics, you can let your potential clients stay longer on your website. And eventually, it might convert to sales alongside your other marketing strategies.
UI/UX Design
How easy can your customers use your website? You might have a beautifully designed page, but if it’s hard to navigate, it wouldn’t matter. That’s why UI/UX design is crucial in your web development.
You should design elements, such as buttons, links, and checkout steps that smoothly convert potential visitors to customers. The more convenient to use, the more sales your client will get.
Basic SEO
The more people that visit a website, the more chances that a customer will buy. But how do you drive traffic? And how do you drive traffic for free?
Yes, there’s such a thing as organic traffic with SEO. SEO or search engine optimization are practices that allow a website to rank organically on specific keywords on search engines.
You may not be the one in charge of this. But you should understand the basics to develop an SEO-friendly website for your clients.
Quality Assurance
Inevitably, you will have faulty code when developing websites. There will be bugs and errors that you need to fix. But how do you find them efficiently?
You should employ QA skills for your website to find these errors and create safeguards that your client can use to keep the website running smoothly.
And even if there are no apparent errors yet, you should test the website for vulnerabilities it might encounter. It’s better to find all these vulnerabilities during the development phase. After all, a few minutes of downtime might mean thousands of dollars lost for a company.
Collaboration
You will not be working alone. Most likely, you will be with a team of graphic designers, SEO specialists, copywriters, marketing specialists, and so on when you develop. Can you collaborate with them well?
Express your ideas and harmonize them with your teammates’ perspectives so that you can build a website that can supply the needs of your client.
Up to Date
What you know now might not be applicable in the future, especially with the advancements in web development. That’s why you should always be up to date with your expertise.
Follow thought leaders in your industry. You can also enrol in courses and seminars. And don’t forget to interact in communities in your field. In this way, you can be relevant for the coming years ahead.
Conclusion
Are you ready to become the best Magento Adobe Commerce developer? With the skills above, you are on your way to the career you’ve always wanted.
If you’re looking for opportunities in this field, check this link for more information. Cheers!
