We’re now moving into Content Area 3: Elements of a Magento eCommerce Site. This is the meat and potatoes section that deals with actual Magento usage and less general best practices. This is by far the largest content area broken out into 13 segments. Since there is so much to cover in each section, I’ll be creating a post for each one. This post deals with the Magento Catalog […]

Here’s the second set of questions from the Architecture area of the Magento Solution Specialist test prep program. This area will comprise about 30% of the test questions with the main focus on understanding the Magento framework, some PHP concepts, MVC architecture, what features would require custom code and what functionality is baked into Magneto.

7. What are the required attributes for creating a CMS page using Magento Admin functionality?

In […]

The second area of study focuses on Magento Architecture. This is relatively important and will comprise about 30% of the test questions. The main focus is on understanding the Magento framework, some PHP concepts, MVC architecture, what features would require custom code and what functionality is baked into Magneto.

From what I understand, this is not a developer-level test, so concepts are most likely going to be more important that […]

8. What are best practices for protecting eCommerce user data?

The first step in protection would be to not collect sensitive customer information if possible. If a third-party, off-site payment gateway can be used, it removes a lot of complexity for the merchant.

The next step in protection occurs during transmission. When transferring sensitive customer information, SSL should be used (see yesterday’s post on why)

Next, if we need to […]

4. What “social merchandising” techniques and tools are used in eCommerce?

“Social merchandising is part of the marketing mix now used by online retailers to convert fans and followers to customers. A relatively new marketing tool, social merchandising has plugged into the potential of social media networks to influence online shopper’s decision-making process.” — Houston Chronicle

Generally we would be thinking of using social media sites such as […]

I’m currently studying for my Solution Specialist test and found there weren’t any official study guides to follow. Magento does put out a test objectives document with some sample questions – the problem is these questions don’t have any answers included.

Content Area 1: eCommerce Questions 1 – 3

1. What is the difference between omni-channel and multi-channel retailing?

It first helps to define what a channel is. A channel is an […]