JULY 2017 ORANGE REPORT
For this month’s Orange Report, we’re resolving your speed, accessibility and customer care concerns. Like always, we encourage everyone using Magento to make the most of it’s functionalities by incorporating the very best Magento extensions and news. So we have created the monthly Orange Report to keep ourselves up to date and to recognize some of our favorite Magento news and extensions.
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MageBees – Lazy Load Images
Page load speed is a primary target for developers and merchants alike, since search engines penalize slow-loading pages. Lazy Load allows the images to load on scroll, calling up the image only when the visitor scrolls to within a selected threshold (in pixels) of the image container. The tool lets you upload any “loading” icon you choose, which may be a bit ironic, since you really don’t want your shoppers to have to look at a loading icon.
Olark – Live Chat
Olark installs via a snippet you paste into your footer code. Trial and premium versions are available. Premium service allows for more flexibility and rule-building around when the chat box shows up and how it interacts with the site visitor. Like anything driven by javascript, this live chat service can add to the weight of your pages, so keep an eye on that.
Amasty – Extended Product Grid with Editor
Both M1 and M2 merchants often come to us looking for more flexibility and efficiency with editing products. This extension permits bulk editing of products directly in the product grid – including name, sku, category, visibility, quantity and status. For merchants whose catalogs never sit still, this tool can save weeks of data entry time. The M2 version includes grid customization and the ability to save and quickly access grid layouts.
Magmodules – Rich Snippets suite
Even if you’d have to look up what “rich JSON markup” means, that doesn’t mean you don’t need it. As SEO grows in complexity, subtle changes to how your website presents information within browsers can make a big difference in how shoppers find and interact with your offerings. Merchants use this to quickly and easily control their structured data markup.