Anyone working in eCommerce will be familiar with both WordPress and Magento as kings of their sectors. If you’re catching up, WordPress essentially started out as a basic blogging platform but its ease of use and flexibility have led to it becoming the platform of choice for millions of websites, from one-person local operations to multinational corporations. Magento, on the other hand, is set up primarily as an eCommerce platform.
Businesses wishing to sell online use this powerful system to create solid, secure websites that can easily integrate all the product information, payment, shipping and returns that are part and parcel of online retail.
But what if you’re sold on the pros of both systems? For example, say you want Magento’s industry-leading eCommerce capabilities but WordPress’s excellent flexibility and easy access for a team of bloggers? Do you need two separate websites?
The good news is that it is indeed possible to integrate a WordPress blog into a Magento site, so you really can have the best of both worlds. It’s not a straightforward extension, like most Magento installations; it will involve using a module and installing it that way, which means that unless you have a professional Mangento and/or WordPress development team, it’s really something you should outsource to the experts.
It’s worth noting that doing it the other way round – integrating Magento into a WordPress installation – is even trickier. Remember that these are two competing eCommerce platforms, as WordPress has the WooCommerce plugin. There are plenty of plugins that will let you share data and themes between the two, and it’s possible to use clever tricks to make two separate installations look like one, but again, it’s something you’d need to consult the WordPress and Magento experts on.
Also, the benefits are quite asymmetrical too. While Magento doesn’t really have a built-in blogging platform to match WordPress, WordPress does have a perfectly viable and widely used eCommerce solution that can be installed with one click. For that reason the demand for WP within Magento is much greater than the inverse, and there’s much more expertise and downloadable content to help site owners to do it.
Once you have got your WordPress installation running in Magento, though, it’s simple to pick up, especially if you’re already familiar with WordPress.
It will be a case of creating logins for users, selecting themes (which should ideally mirror the Magento site’s theme), and running the plugins and populating the blog as normal.
The ultimate aim is to have a seamless experience for the user, so they can move between the blog (where you can talk about products, and create landing pages for email and social marketing) and the eCommerce section of the site.
Just remember that you now have two separate platforms running simultaneously, so you’ll need to ensure both are kept updated and that there are no conflicts happening, for example with database access.
Are you interested in using the world’s best blogging platform on what many consider the world’s best eCommerce platform? Do get in touch, as we will be able to help.
