10 free Magento modules you should check out

We all know that platforms like Magneto can help you run your e-shop efficiently, but upgrading it with some useful extensions really gives your website a competitive edge. And, with the e-commerce market showing steady growth, having a competitive edge seems crucial now more than ever.

Unfortunately, some Magento extensions can be quite expensive, so you can end up spending more money on them than on the development and design of your website. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t find some great free extensions that can help you improve your customers’ shopping experience and your website management.

That’s why we created this list of the best free Magento modules. We made sure to include a wide spectrum of extensions – from social media plug-ins and blog extensions to search and checkout modules.

1. MatrixRate table rate shipping

A good shipping strategy is crucial if you want to avoid people abandoning their carts due to high shipping costs or unclear shipping information. MatrixRate allows you to customize your shipping options and offer your customers various rates based on cart price, weight, and quantity. You can also set different shipping prices for different countries, states, and even zip codes.

One of the most popular Magento shipping rates extensions, MatrixRate is a great free solution that will make the creation of a viable shipping strategy much easier.

2. Facebook Reviews

Underestimating the potential of social networks in 2018 wouldn’t be a smart move, considering how much marketing potential these networks have. Facebook alone has more than 2.2 billion active users, and this number is growing daily.

One of the ways you can engage with Facebook users is by letting them know how much you appreciate their opinion. With the Facebook Reviews extension, your users can post Facebook reviews directly from the product page on your website. Facebook comments about certain products can also be displayed on the product page, giving the product credibility and making the page look more truthful.

3. Easy Lightbox

After working so hard to stock up your inventory and create an array of special products, you want to make sure they all stand out, right?

Easy Lightbox lets you do just that – it replaces the default image zoomer and presents your product in a nice lightbox window, which allows the users to see the product better. It’s also very customizable – you can change image size, thumbnail, and the lightbox itself.

4. LiveAgent live chat & helpdesk

Writing an email or calling an e-shop to ask questions about a product can be an unpleasant, time-consuming experience. LiveAgent Live chat eliminates the need for this, as it gives your customers an opportunity to contact you directly via a live chat button on your website.

Possibly the best thing about this extension is that it also enables you to connect with Facebook and Twitter, and respond to Facebook messages, comments, and posts, as well as tweets directly from LiveAgent. If your support is not online, your users can always leave you an offline message which you can later answer by email.

5. Banner Slider

A great solution for on-site promotion, with Banner Slider you display banners on your homepage or any of the 36 available positions. This can come in handy if you have a promotional offer, a discount, or a special category you want to promote by giving it a prominent position on your website.

Banners are customizable – you can edit their effects and showing time. You can even insert custom codes and create your own slider. If you want to know how your banners are performing, you can get detailed reports on clicks and impressions.

6. Instant Search +

A fast and efficient search extension, Instant Search + has a great AutoComplete feature that kicks in as soon as your customer types in the first letter of their query. Even if they misspell, this extension will recognize the mistake and correct it in the dropdown.

Search results are also personalized, meaning that if two different people type in the same word, they will get different results, according to their preferences.

7. Clever Google Adwords

Even the best website in the world doesn’t mean anything if there’s no one to visit it. Google Adwords campaigns are a great way to get more traffic to your website, but creating and optimizing these campaigns can be a tough ask if you don’t have the necessary experience.

Fortunately, Clever Google Adwords can do this for you, creating text and image ads automatically, based on your products and categories.

8. Awesome Blog

Another great way to get more traffic is Search Engine Optimization. As of 2018, Google searches account for more than 74% percent of all searches worldwide – one more reason why your e-shop would benefit from a blog section optimized by modern SEO standards.

With the Awesome Blog extension, you can create blogs, assign them to categories, and add tags. The extension also has a couple of nice features like blog comments, infinite scroll, social share, and multi-language support. All blogs also have Friendly Permalinks that help with SEO.

9. Image Optimizer

Nothing can ruin an online shopping experience like a slow website that takes more than five seconds to load a product or category page.

Image Optimizer solves this problem to a certain extent by helping you reduce image size, which affects loading speeds and helps your website run more smoothly. However, this size reduction doesn’t affect image quality, so your products will be as prominently and clearly displayed as they were before. The extension is easy to install and use, and it supports three image formats – JPG, PNG, and GIF.

10. MailChimp

You can use all of your valuable e-commerce data to launch an effective, precisely targeted email campaign. MailChimp allows you to sync your purchase data with your email lists and send your customers personalized emails.

This extension also enables you to segment users based on purchase history and set up marketing automation that can remind them about items they left in their shopping carts. Everything is measurable, as you can easily see all results and measure your ROI.

Conclusion

All of these free Magento modules can help you upgrade your e-commerce website and improve your customers’ shopping experience. But, the best thing about them – they’re all free. Feel free to try some of them out. There is no doubt that at least one of them will benefit your business and help your e-shop grow.