It’s hard to deny the fact that Magento has quickly become one of the most powerful, and popular eCommerce platforms today. There are plenty of reasons why store owners love Magento, from its SEO support to its mobile-friendliness. Of course, like any other CMS platform, there are ways that you can enhance the performance of your Magento solution using plugins and extensions.

Extensions and plugins on Magento allow you to build out your eCommerce website in a range of new and exciting ways, enhancing customer experience in the process. However, there are so many different extensions and plugins to choose from, that it can be difficult to decide where you should get started. Fortunately, we’ve put together our list of the top 8 picks for 2018 to help!

1. Delivery Date Scheduler

Today’s consumers want to know when their items are going to arrive, and they want to know now. If you want to make sure that they don’t miss their all-important items, this extension is the way to go. The delivery date extension helps you to provide convenient insights into when they can expect their packages; you can also add calendar view options too.

2. FedEx Smart Shipping

Speaking of shipping, why not make your life a little bit easier with the FedEx smart shipping extension? This tool allows website administrators to handle different aspects of shipping, like arranging for consignment pickup or getting shipping rates from your website. All you need to do is install the plugin and configure the settings to suit your needs.

3. SEO Hub

Handling SEO for a growing eCommerce store can be tougher than it seems. Fortunately, you can have the extra help you deserve from the SEO Hub. One of the most popular SEO extensions for Magento, the SEO Hub allows you to handle everything from data feeds, to meta tags, canonical URLs and more within a few minutes. Additionally, you can also get notifications when something goes wrong with your SEO strategies too!

4. Advanced Product Designer

If you design the products that you sell on your eCommerce website yourself, then you might decide to download a tool like the Advance Product Designer. This extension allows you to be a little more creative with your options, by allowing customers to add their personalised names and features to things like pens, books, and clothes. If you really want to set your business apart, this is a great way to show your customers that you’re putting them first!

5. The Quotation Manager

If you’re missing out on potential customers because they don’t want to waste time waiting for you to get back to them with a quote on your services, then you could always take a different approach. Instead of sending information back and forth over email, download the Magento Quotation Manager Extension. Once you add the extension to your store, customers can simply ask for a quote, and you can send it to them from within the website itself. Additionally, this is a great way to keep your prices under wraps, and you’ll still receive email notifications into the details of your quotes.

6. Magento Shop by Brand

If you’re the kind of eCommerce company that sells a range of different products from disparate brands, then you might want to give your customers the opportunity to shop by picking their favourite brand from a line-up. The Magento Shop by Brand plugin allows you to create separate pages for each supplier in your framework, and you can add products to each brand page for better categorisation. There’s also the option to create a page to list your brands from A to Z.

7. Magento Price Match

Want to prove to your customers that they’re not going to get a better deal from anyone but you? Then the Magento Price Match Extension is a good way to start. With Price Match, you can allow your customers to report a lower price that they’ve found on your product and request a discount. This way, you can offer a more competitive price to certain customers, without lowering your costs for your entire consumer base. It’s a great way to differentiate yourself without losing too much money.

8. Magento Refer a Friend

Finally, if you’re sick and tired of searching for additional customers to add to your roster, then why not make your life a little bit easier by turning your customers into marketers? The Magento Refer a Friend extension is an innovative solution developed to help store owners market their products using customers that might want to refer them elsewhere. You can generate unique links for each of your customers, and even view and manage transactions that come from referrals too.