In recent years, we’ve witnessed the growth and transformation of online shopping. We can now shop at the convenience of our own homes while online sellers can reach a global customer base. Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in a rise in the number of eCommerce platforms. At the same time, many organizations are adopting eCommerce to not only take up the trend but to drive global sales. The whopping number of platforms available across the internet makes it difficult to choose a reliable, hassle-free, and complete solution to help push your business forward.
One of the most popular and reliable platforms available in today’s market is nopCommerce. The platform offers a splendid customer experience and will definitely set you apart from the competition. Our developers have helped numerous customers expand their online stores using nopCommerce by building plugins and extensions. Let’s take a deep dive to understand the amazing nopCommerce platform and highlight some amazing tips to help optimize your sales.
nopCommerce
Before we go any further, what is nopCommerce for the sake of those who might not know? It’s a free and open-source eCommerce platform based on Microsoft’s ASP.NET. nopCommerce is built for all sizes of enterprises regardless of your field of operation. The platform is GDPR, and PCI DSS compliant with in-built SSL and Honeypot support, meaning that it meets the security standards for all kinds of businesses. It is a stable, reliable, and easy-to-use platform with unlimited customization options. Having a modular and clean architecture, the platform enables developers to customize the front-end design and back-end functionality without any hassle.
Top Nop Tips for nopCommerce Development
Now that we know what nopCommerce is, let’s look into some of the tips and tricks for effective development.
1. Use Existing Plugins and Extensions
Before you start developing your online store, be sure to check out the nopCommerce marketplace and see what extensions, plugins, modules, and features are already available to minimize development time. Most developers waste a lot of time during development, instead of utilizing the support and features of the platform. There’s a healthy variety, meaning that you can experiment with different combinations to verify that your specific needs are met.
2. Avoid Modifying/ Erasing Source Code
In the tech field, things change and evolve rapidly with constant patches, updates, and bug fixes. To avoid complications with other extensions and future nopCommerce updates, we strongly recommend making changes and customization only at the theme/plugin level. In the case of proprietary modifications, ensure that you use partial classes in separate, easy-to-identify directories if needed. It’s best practice to recreate the directory tree in a single subdirectory to allow easier access and approach when upgrading nopCommerce in the future. However, in a unique scenario where you can’t accomplish your needs without altering the source code, we suggest that you submit your change to be included in updated versions of nopCommerce.
3. Implement Cache Management
With performance in mind, consider carrying out Entity caching with ICacheManager (per request) and model caching with IStaticCacheManager in instances that seem right. During implementation, it’s a good rule of thumb that your first resource for best practice is nop source code. The catching features offered by nopCommerce website development make it easier for developers to ensure their plugins’ performance.
4. Make the Most of Event Consumers
Rather than overriding something in nop.services, when possible use an IConsumer as a less invasive method for your customization. By utilizing ICustomer, you can add different functionalities without running the risk of breaking other installed plugins. You can check out the usages of IEventPublisher on nopCommerce’s source to see what’s available.
5. Utilize AttributesXml
A quick and effective way to associate non-searchable information to any BaseEntity is through generic attributes. Nonetheless, they usually require additional data calls to work well. The solution to eradicating this performance hit is to store information in AttributesXml whenever it’s possible.
6. Test Your Website on All Major Web Browsers
One major issue that web developers face is incompatibility after the website is finished. Different web browsers use different default values for various CSS properties. You should run multiple tests for your website on major browsers like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. Most of these top web browsers will even offer developer tools to help you. Chrome and Firefox both offer Chrome DevTools and Firefox Developer Tools respectively, each useful tools that allow you to edit, debug and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live on any web page.
7. Automatically Copy Views to the Output Directory
With plugin development, one of the bottlenecks for developers is the need to rebuild your project after every view/CSS/script file update. A pro tip is to build a console app whose sole purpose is to monitor specified plugin directories and automatically push any updates to the output directory (such as a git repository) upon saving. This will help you work your way around this holdup and improve your development speed.
nopCommerce has taken the eCommerce world by storm, gaining quick popularity for its embedded, out-of-the-box plugins, extensions, and innovative features like live chat, SMS notification, multiple language support, etc. As an open-source platform constantly offering cutting-edge solutions for ASP.NET Core, nopCommerce offers rich value to consumers.
Sigma Solve Inc. delivers end-to-end eCommerce development solutions using nopCommerce. As a leading nopCommerce development company, we help our customers take their eCommerce to the next level using next-generation tools and technologies. Get in touch with us today and leverage our 15 years of industry experience to transform your business for maximum output.
