Configure language in Magento Mobile App with SimiCart

One of the biggest features of SimiCart is multi-language support, which means SimiCart can be translated to any kinds of languages, even RTL ones. In this post, I will guide you how to configure the language in the SimiCart mobile app.
Step 1. First, login to your administration
Step 2. Next, in App Information tab, go to Language

The SimiCart’s app is set default as American English. If you want to change, there are two ways:
(1) View and Edit inline
– Select the language you wish to translate. Here I choose Romanian

– A new screen will pop up and you can translate the original language to your language. In my case, I will translate all the text to Romanian

– Click Save to save all the work. Yoy will be directed to App Information tab (2) Edit and upload the CSV file You can also translate direct in thi CSV file

– Download the default CSV file.

– Open the file and you can translate the default language into your language. In my case, I add the Romanian language.

Note: if you have more than one store with different languages, please translate all of the language in one file. It will be automatically detected in the system for your store. For example, I have 4 stores namely English, Italian, German, Chinese so I will translate all the languages as in the image above. You can download translated csv file of 6 languages ( Italian, Greek, German, Chinese, Norwegian, Romanian) Language file for SimiCart.csv 

– Then upload the file to App Information tab

Here you go! You’ve finished configuring the Language for your Magento Mobile app with SimiCart! Now your app runs well with any language you’ve translated.

See more Mageno Mobile Apps built with SimiCart in different language HERE
Try to build Magento Mobile apps yourself with Demo site HERE!
For any question, feel free to comment in the box below!

Why January is the best time to build a mobile app

Seeing the trend of mobile applications, many of store owners plan to build a mobile app in2015. One of their top concerns when approaching SimiCart is “When is the best  time to build their store a mobile app?”. Personally I think the best time is when you see the need to build a mobile application for your store and ready to get one.  No matter how easy the building proceed is, it still costs you time, money and quite a lot neuron. So it is important to start only when you are ready.
But if I have to give out a specific time, I would chooose January! Yes, it’s January when you ( and your customers also) are just back to work after a long holiday. Check the reasons “why January is the ideal month to build a Mobile app” in the below infographic!

SimiCart is offering Referral Program  from 13 January to 13 February. You get one free Magento mobile app when referring a friend successfully! Enough for you to run for and bring a Magento mobile app back yet?

(Infographic) If you don’t get Magento mobile apps, then..

Magento is one of the most common e-commerce open sources of the world. But it holds a big weakness in mobile commerce business as its mobile solution is not sufficient. There are 2 popular mobile solutions: responsive design and mobile app. Magento offers responsive design (since version 1.9) but no complete solution to mobile app yet. Actually, Magento once introduced Magento Mobile, which was an automatic app builder platform. But it is said that the project almost cancelled as its last update was since 2012.

Personally I think this is big disadvantage for Magento merchants because responsive design is becoming as must-have for any online stores. Whereas stores from other e-commerce platforms such as Shoptify has already enjoyed benefits that mobile apps bring. So if you have a Magento store, let’s see what you miss if you don’t have Magento mobile apps for your store.

Source: SimiCart Blog

7even reasons to build Magento Mobile Apps with SimiCart (Infographic)

The world we are now living changes every day. From the day invented the first telephone, we now have 4.5 billion smartphone users globally. As more and more people using mobile devices, we are changing the way we shop, too. Whether it’s on smartphones, smartwatches or tablets, we can now browse and buy just about anything we want anywhere, anytime.

For retailers, this presents an enormous challenge as their customers are expecting a consistant shopping experience all across offline stores, conventional E-commerce websites and all devices. That’s why mobile commerce is more than just another channel – it connects all the dots together. This applies to all Magento retailors also. Extending the Magento-based E-commerce website into a mobile app is a must with any retailor who wants to succeed in M-commerce. Like the title said, SimiCart ideally is the best solution to your M-commerce strategy. Please, find out the 7even reasons with this following infographic.

Native App vs. Responsive Website – which one is better choice?

E-commerce is now suffering from the conquest of mobile commerce. Apparently, customers no longer stick to their PCs or laptops but turn to their smart phones or tablets. This shift forced the store owners to come up with new ideas to catch this trend.  Responsive website or mobile store app, that is the most common confusion of store owners. Here is some information you should consider before making choices.

What are differences between mobile store apps and responsive websites?

Nearly 90% of you cannot realize what is mobile store app and responsive design website based on their looks which are quite similar on handheld mobile devices.  However, in depth, they are totally different.

Mobile website can be understood as web pages designed for mobile devices, not only for large screen (PC screen). It also consists of browser-based HTML pages that are linked together and accessed over the Internet.

Mobile applications, differently, are not web pages designed for mobile devices. Exactly, they are mobile software which can be downloaded and installed on smart phones or tablets. Since they are not responsive web page, these apps cannot be opened on mobile browser. Instead, they run on mobile operating systems like iOS, Android, Windows Phone …  and their interface is mobile optimized.

Confusing between two? Let’s see their Pros and Cons:

	Native app	Mobile Website
Pros	- Faster access from mobile screen. – Optimized for mobile devices with more interactive user interface- Allow easy access to the phone’s features such as the address book, camera… – Enhance user experience : looks, feels, browsing…- Engage more customers and keep longer and more frequent user interaction time -Increase customer return rate, conversion rate. – Safer because it is reviewed and approved by application store administrators.-Lag less when user browse, scroll.- Take advantage of mobile features like locating and personalizing.	- Responsive designed for mobile devices – Reach people from search engines- No limitation on platforms.- Not need to be approved by application store.- No need to download or install. – Takes small data storage.
Cons	- Cannot run on browsers and reach people from search engines.- Require developing for each platform.- Need to be approved to appear on application stores.- Need to be downloaded and installed.- Take a more storage on mobile devices.	- Slower access from browser- Limited access to the phone’s capabilities- Limited user experience- Limited user interaction time – Less convenience to browse

“…85% of respondents  preferred a mobile app than a mobile website.”

This number was revealed by Compuware in 2013 when they carried out a survey of 3,500 consumers. This number speaks louder than any evidence.  Although mobile website is considered to be more important, mobile apps seem to be more preferable from customers’ perpective. Therefore, it is quite necessary to have a mobile store app on your own.

If you are worried about the cost and time to get an app like that, SimiCart can help you out. It’s the easiest way to build a Magento mobile apps for your online store at only $299 one time only.

Source: SimiCart Blog

Magento Products

In Magento you can add products to your store manually one by one, or many products at once.

Add a single product to Magento

To add one product you have to follow these steps:

1. Login to your admin area.
2. Choose Catalog -> Magento Products -> Add products
3. On the next screen you have to choose your Product setting such as Attribute Set and Product Type. Click on Continue.
4. The New Product form will appear. Here you have to fill out the required information such as Name, SKU, Weight, Status, Tax Class, Visibility.
5. Click Create New Attribute. You can add the price and description of the item. Don’t forget to click Save and Continue Editing.
6. You can add addition information if required.
7. Add an image for the product.
8. Click Save.

Add many products in Magento at once

If you wan to add many products at one you have to export first a files with one product so you have a sample structure for the products you want to add. You have to fill in the required information – separated by commas, new line for each new products, and upload it back in Magento.

1. Go to Catalog -> Manage Categories and create the categories you wish to have.
2. Click Save category.
3. Add manually a product in each category and export the categories. Click Go to System -> Import/Export -> Profiles and choose Export all products.
4. Select Run profile.
5. When you are ready, you can use the exported file as a template.
6. Fill in the required information such as product name, price, description etc.
7. Go to your admin area.
8. Choose System -> Import/Export -> Profiles.
9. Click on Import All Products.
10. Choose CSV/tab separated as data format type and choose the .csv file you want to use.
11. Click Save and Continue Edit.
12. Then go to Run Profile, select your cvs file in the dropdown menu.

You are ready.

Magento Installation

Some web hosts provide professional Magento installation as paid or free additional service to their magento hostingpackage, or have Auto-Installers in their Control Panels. If your web hosts does not provide any of these options, or you want to install Magento manually in order to customize its settings, please read the following short manual.

• To install Magento you will have to download the latest stable Magento version from the official Magento website. You can download the full installation file package from magentocommerce.com/download . It usually comes as a zip file, so you will have to unzip it first, or upload it and unzip it on the server.
• You can upload the files via FTP to your hosting account. You can choose between the public_html folder and a sub folder, if you do not wish Magento to appear directly on your home page.
• When the package is uploaded, you will have to extract it if you haven’t done that yet, and change its file permissions (set to 755) according to the requirements listed on magentocommerce.com
• You need to create a new MySql database and new user for your future store. To do that, login to the Control Panel of your hosting account and use the MySQL databases management tool.
• Attach the user and the database together.
• Run the Magento Install Wizard. You will have to point your browser to the URL of your website – your home page or the folder you have chosen to install Magento in. Follow the instructions of the wizard.

• Fill out your database connection information – data base name, user name and password.

• Setup your administrator user. Choose an encryption key, or leave this field blank – Magento will generate it for you. Be sure to write it down, since you will need it for password encryption and other operations later on.
• That’s it! You are done.

Related: Magento Mobile Apps, Mobile Apps Builder