When it comes to website development, most developers or designers only concentrate on the functionality and design part from the end-customer perspective, while an admin panel is often left without care and attention. They do not consider the total time needed to plan, design, and customize an admin panel, which might take up to 100-200 hours. 

In fact, having a well-built Magento admin panel that is fully tailored to your company's requirements is as vital as having a feature-rich and client-oriented website.

With a fully tailored Magento admin panel, you can acquire in-depth insights into your business or users' behavior, as well as make invaluable data-driven decisions, thus boosting your profits. 

That said, it is very important to understand what practices of installing a Magento admin theme, then customize it to make it fit your specific business needs best. 

In this article, we'd like to share our knowledge and conduct comparative research on the solutions that we stick to when developing admin panels for our client’s projects.

Also, we would like to offer the FREE Responsive Magento Admin Theme called MPANEL - Magento Admin Panel which you could download at the below box. 

MPANEL Magento Admin Panel Free Download

A better, smoother, and user-friendly Magento tool which helps to improve your business management.

FREE DOWNLOAD

You could download Magento Admin Panel for FREE by clicking on the below download button.

MPNEL Download

What is the Magento Admin Panel?

When you log into your Magento 2 Admin area, you will find yourself in the Admin Dashboard - the default startup page for store owners and their staff.

Here, you can see all the info about your lifetime sales, average order value, last orders, and search terms.

Magento 2 admin panel

Day-to-day operations that can be done from the administrative interface include updating products, processing orders, launching promotional campaigns, creating new posts, etc. The website backend is also where the storefront’s design is changed, widgets are added, and third-party extensions are enabled and configured.

However, no two businesses are the same. You may one day realize that the Magento admin panel by default is quite convenient, but some drawbacks still exist, some of which you may have found out and some others you may have never paid attention to. 

While working with CMSMART’s client on developing their website, we have found some issues with the Magento admin panel that may have a negative impact on your work. 

  • The default design of the Magento admin panel may make you get bored. It is a pity that Magento does not allow you to create a personal template of your own. 
  • In the Magento admin panel, you have several ways to add products: through Product Manager, CSV/XML files, or API. However, all of them usually takes a lot of time. Editing each attribute or a specific product is difficult. Time is precious to every business. Therefore, adding products should be done easily and quickly.
  • If your store has more than one administrator, you can get into trouble with admin management because the senior manager cannot control which administrator has logged in and what actions he performed. When something goes wrong, it is difficult to determine who caused the problems. Not to mention the individual responsibility, the problem fixing process can be delayed. It is better if the log-in history is recorded.
  • You must check the Magento admin panel frequently to update all information about important events in your store such as order placement, new reviews, and tag, newsletter subscription, coupon use. Email notification may be helpful in this case so that you can keep track of your business timely.
  • You cannot preview the frontend at the same time you make the configuration in the backend. You must do step by step: go to backend → setup → save configuration → go to the frontend to see the changes. It is too time-consuming and inconvenient.

So, we came up with the question - why not optimize the Magento admin panel to get a better experience and reach the highest efficiency in work? 

Why Would You Need Magento Admin Panel Extension?

A Magento admin theme has become a way to make it easier for developers to build the UI of a Magento store backend. Imagine a set of ready-to-use pages and elements (like widgets, charts, and icons) that you can integrate into your Magento admin panel in almost no time instead of developing from scratch. 

Building an admin dashboard from the ground up will take you roughly 500-1,000 hours which is equal to $10,000-50,000, based on the average developer salary in your area. Or, you can buy a licensed Magento admin theme for under $1,000. Some Magento admin themes are even free. 

area outsourcing cost

It may sound very cool, however, when it comes to the Magento admin panel, a ready-to-use Magento admin theme (even premium ones) could not meet all of your specific business needs. Say, you are building a Magento admin panel to visualize and manage data collected from a network of machines in a one-of-a-kind smart factory setting. This kind of Magento admin theme requires deep customization and integration.

You will need it tailored to users’ unique expectations for the design and functionality. Unless your developers’ needs are covered by one of the ready-made solutions available on the market, going for a customized template will probably be the optimal option. Consider it a good rule of thumb for any development project you are working on that requires a back-end UI. Plus, this way is still far cheaper than developing one from scratch. 

Now, let’s have an overview of our Magento admin panel extension to find out what it could do for your project. 

Magento Admin Panel Overview

As a store owner, you must have an eye on all activities occurring in the backend. It's extremely vital to track what is happening on your website, which one has been changed and how admin users are working in the backend. 

Magento Admin Panel is a useful extension that helps Magento's shop owners to monitor each and every admin users' actions on the backend, offering a better Magento admin theme, updating products faster, managing orders easier, configuring notification emails, and setting up admin panel colors. 

The store admin can easily install Magento Admin Panel on his/her website which then is easy to use and manage without any additional effort. Save time to focus on the business and get high results for sales and better performance. 

Let's dive deep into the capacity of this feature-rich and benefit-oriented Magento Admin Panel extension!

Magento Admin Panel Benefits 

Let's take a look at some benefits that this Magento Admin Panel extension brings to your business. 

Manage Your Dashboard Easily

Efficiency and easy to use is often the requirement of e-store owners when it comes to management software. The Magento Admin Panel provides you with attractive dashboards that come with customized modules to suit your requirements. You can generate sales reports with details like average order value, number of orders, total sales, etc…with ease. 

Magento Admin Panel - Manage Dashboard

The Magento Admin theme is fully responsive so you could use it on any device, easy to check your business anytime, anywhere. 

Improve Order Management

magento admin panel - order checking

Order management gets fussy sometimes, especially with the huge number of orders. With Magento Admin Panel, you can customize the order row or the individual status blocks in different colors which enables you to quickly check order status. It will be especially effective for tracking orders from your mobile devices.

Improve Brand Awareness

With Magento Admin Panel, you can easily create configuration layouts for your Magento admin theme by changing Background Color, Background images, Border, Shadow. 

magento admin panel - brand awareness

More than 100 modern and stylish pages are available that allow you to easily customize your admin panel and make it look brandable and professional. 

You also could set up your logo from the Magento admin page. 

magento admin panel - logo setting

Magento Admin Panel Main Features

Search pro: The search tool helps you find anything in your Magento admin panel quickly and easily even though you are not on the page. It is designed to maximize the admin search experience. 

magento admin panel - pro search

Themify and awesome icon font: Icon fonts make your admin interface more attractive and friendly. You will not get bored with the default design of the Magento admin theme anymore. 

magento admin panel

Use CSS3, HTML5, and CHARTS JS: This Magento admin theme is built by CSS3, HTML5, and chart JS to create animated, interactive graphs which make your Magento admin page neat and clear. 

magento admin css3, HTML5

Header and Footer configuration: Flexible customize your header and footer. With Magento Admin Panel, you can easily customize the background, border, and shadow of your Magento admin theme. 

magento admin panel - header & footer setting

Menu position configuration: You can choose among 3 types of menu: Vertical menu (default), Vertical menu (New), and Horizontal menu. 

magento admin panel - menu position

Customize the main color: 4 predefined color schemes are suggested by our expert designer will help you customize the Magento admin theme to be matched with your brand color. 

magento admin panel

Customize status color: You can easily manage your order status by customizing order status colors or product status colors.

magento admin panel

Import & Export data: Magento Admin Panel allows you to export the configuration layout that you have created. So, if you own several websites at the same time, you could easily configure the Magento admin page of other websites with a few clicks by using the saved layouts. The exported configuration will be saved as a JSON file.

magento admin panel - import/export

Magento Admin Panel Tutorial

Below are the user guides on how to install the Magento Admin Panel and the configuration of the main features. 

Installation 

You could easily install Magento Admin Panel with 3 steps: 

Step 1: Extract extension pack into the site folder

  • Select the extension package and extract

  • Select module pack extracted and copy the file to the site folder

Step 2: Run commands to deploy the extension

  • Open the command execution window and access the root folder setup website

  • Implemented 3 the commands:

php bin/magento setup:upgrade

php bin/magento setup:static -content:deploy -f

php bin/magento cache:flush

Step 3: Active the extension in Magento admin 

  • Log in to Admin Magento. Now you can customize what you want 

Configuration 

Magento Admin Panel was developed with a clear design to provide users with easy navigation while maintaining all the functions and features of the original admin panel. Moreover, after successfully installing the Magento admin theme, you can personalize the template with your brand and insert your company logo and favicon. Let's take a look at how to configure and customize your template. 

How To Change The Logo On Magento Admin page

How To Change The Avatar On Magento Admin page

How To Change The Menu Position On Magento Admin Page

How To Change The Category Icon On Magento Admin Page

How To Customize Button Style On Magento Admin Page

How To Customize Order, Product Status Color On Magento Admin Page

How To Customize Layout On Magento Admin Page

How To Export A Layout Configuration From Magento Admin Page

How To Import The (.Json) File Into Magento Admin Page

Magento Admin Panel Technical Support

After downloading our FREE Magento Admin Panel, if you face any troubles or need technical support from our developer team, please kindly submit a support ticket for help. You could follow these steps to create a support ticket. 

  • Step 1: Go to your CMSMART Dashboard -> choose Download Tab.
  • Step 2: On Download Dashboard, find FREE Responsive Admin Theme Download box -> click on the Support Ticket button.
  • Step 3: Input your website URL, FTP, Cpanel...and describe your issue in detail (the more detailed it is, the easier it is for us to help you). Click on the Save button and wait for the reply from our developer team. 

MPanel support ticket

Each account could create a maximum of 5 support tickets at the same time. To make it easy for our developers to support you, please kindly write down one issue in each support ticket only. Our developers will answer your support ticket within 24 hours (at weekends or holidays, the answer time could be a little bit longer). 

For each issue that you confirm the problem is solved, we will close that support ticket. Then, you could open a new one if your total support tickets already reach 5. 

If you could not submit a support ticket, please leave a comment below or contact us at support@cmsmart.net. 

Magento Admin Panel Integration And Customization 

To tell the truth, not many developers or website owners have ever used an admin theme for website development. The reason for this is quite simple: these templates have a narrow target audience and field of application. 

However, it can help web development companies to create an off-the-charts offer: creating a good-looking website from both sides, back, and front. Also, it’s a great opportunity for website owners to have a stylish dashboard, that will be both informative and comfortable.

How do businesses use the Magento Admin Panel?

How do businesses use admin templates?

Let’s point out two business categories here:

  • Developers and companies, who create websites for clients.

  • Website owners who are interested in improving their website and making it more comfortable and informative from both sides.

Developers and companies

If you are a web developer, I guess you’ll try to create an awesome Magento online store for each client. Not only website design matters but also dashboard appearance. Allow your client to use task management systems, CRMs, or any other admin panel. Make it stylish and informative to impress your clients.

A nice design for the admin panel of a website can give you the edge, can make the interface more pleasant to use, and ultimately more user-friendly. A well done Magento admin theme is a sure path towards a good UX, especially if you don’t have an eye for UX like most hard-core developers do.

Website owners

A stylish dashboard with awesome visual elements makes working with a website more pleasant and fast.

If you are a team with several people who work with the website's admin panel, it’s always more easy and comfortable to navigate a visually understandable dashboard. Also, good internal visualization helps to organize processes in a better way.

Everybody who has access can see analytics with progress bars, tabs, etc. It can be a general statistic of the store or the statistic of the concrete person (in CRM).

High-quality admin themes are mobile perfect, so it’s easy to work with the dashboard every moment, everywhere.

Our Magento Admin Panel is a useful and user-friendly extension. You’ll be surprised how much time and effort this Magento Admin Panel Extension saves you. However, as I mentioned, no two businesses are the same. You might not find everything you need for your business management in one premade tool. For some specific businesses, you need more features to reach your requirements. 

Fortunately, this extension code is completely open, which means you can customize the code as per your need. 

Magento 2 Extensions for Administration

To start with the basics, a Magento admin panel (or any kind of admin panel) is a separate interface in an application designed for handling various data.

Your operation and testing teams will find an admin panel very useful for verifying data and handling CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations.

Apart from the day-to-day operations, such as viewing and editing profiles, a well-established admin panel can be turned into a dashboard to display graphics and charts. In other words, it can provide statistical business metrics and analytical reports. That said, having a business-oriented admin panel is a silver bullet for your experts when it comes to managing and supervising numerous intra-company processes.

Yet, the first and foremost rule you have to remember all the time is that your admin panel must be fully tailored to your specific business needs.

Since there is no complete or comprehensive list of functionality features that must be implemented into a basic admin panel version, you have to decide which ones to opt for based on your particular project requirements.

There's a bunch of industry-specific features that you would like to add to your list, but as we see from practice, there's a minimum set of functions you'll need to work with your business data. 

In this article, we would like to recommend some must-have Magento extensions/modules that allow you to make your Magento admin panel management more effective. Create a better Magento backend by updating products faster, managing orders easier, configuring notification emails and setting up admin panel colors. You’ll be surprised how much time and effort these extensions save you.

Analytics and Reporting

analytics and reporting

One of the most crucial factors of an eCommerce website is its precise analytics and reporting.

Some Magento Open Source extensions make it easier to turn tracking data into visual reports. The reporting function gives metrics about your eCommerce site. You can check sales reports, customer behavior, and so on. The admin dashboard gives a report overview for quick analysis.

You can drive value from the data & improve the buying experience. It provides a place for central analysis and removes data challenges.

Product Browsing

product browsing

To buy products online, people need to understand what an eCommerce website sells and easily browse to discover what products are available and which best suit their needs. The path to products must be wisely designed to convey differences among various product categories and among individual products, and therefore help customers purchase the item they are interested in.

Let’s talk about three key things you should have when displaying your products in your online shop: product images, catalog, and product page.

High-quality photos

Ecommerce websites should display high-quality, large, and eye-catching photos optimized for page load. Make sure that your photos can be viewed from different angles with text directing the customer’s attention to a call-to-action. Your eCommerce website design shouldn’t be focused only on your homepage. You should also use high-quality product images throughout your design on the product page or product catalog. So if you really want to provide the best user experience, use a 360-degree view to let customers spin the items left and right from every angle possible.

Product catalog

Creating an information-rich product catalog is a major key to converting potential customers into loyal clients for eCommerce retailers. A product catalog is a detailed document related to a store’s inventory which usually includes product images, product information, delivery options, price, company name, handling charges, stock keeping unit details, the available quantity, color, etc. Showcasing such structured and diverse categories helps customers understand what your website offers and makes it easier to browse the products they are interested in.

Product page

An effective product page can help you convey the value of the products offered on your eCommerce website. The product page shows customers what the products look like and helps them understand if they want to purchase the items. Encourage customers to continue exploring your website and products by including a section for featured products, best-sellers, exclusive items, related products, or top savers. Furthermore, you can also show bundles of products that are frequently bought together for the upsell. 

On the Magento extension market, there are tons of extensions that help you to display your product in an eye-catching way or upsell extensions that help to boost sales and improve customer experience. Here are some for your reference: 

Magento 2 Frequently Bought Together Extension 

Magento 2 Supplier Management Extension 

Magento 2 Product Sticker Extension

Magento 2 Country Specific Product Extension 

Magento 2 Upsell Product Extension

Magento 2 Out Of Stock Notification Extension

Marketing

marketing

Make sure your online store allows you to create and manage discount coupons, special offers, gift cards, and pricing rules. These marketing tools mentioned below can help you to upsell and cross-sell your products.

Product reviews

Customers read reviews and about 88% trust online testimonials as much as personal recommendations. Encouraging customers to write feedback on the products gives your website credibility as it shows that you have real paying customers. Furthermore, customer reviews will add keywords to your online shop, which improves your site SEO (search engine optimization).

Special offers and discounts

Your eCommerce website will benefit from having discounts, offers, and freebies listed right on your product page. Many eCommerce sites use special offers in their standard marketing techniques via email, social media, or text messages. Creating promotions will motivate people to purchase more because they’re saving more. What’s better than savings? Free shipping! People are likely to complete an order and purchase the product if shipping is free, thus, reducing a customer’s shipping fees will eventually increase your sales.

You could refer to the following extensions: 

Magento 2 Product Review Extension

Magento 2 Membership Extension

Magento 2 Affiliate Marketing Extension

Magento 2 Flash Sales Extension

Magento 2 Reward Points Extension

Magento 2 Customer Discount Extension

Purchasing

purchasing

A minimalist design with an easy-to-use checkout, well-designed shopping cart, secure payment options, and various shipping possibilities are key drivers that make it easier for users to buy products.

A well-designed shopping cart

A shopping cart should be simple to use. It has to give customers the option to add or remove products to the cart, change quantities, choose shipping options, enter promos, or purchase something else. A shopping cart layout also needs to have a simple visual design, displaying company branding (colors, logo, motto) and including prominent checkout buttons.

An easy-to-use checkout

One of the reasons for cart abandonment is the long or complicated checkout process. Make your customers fill out only the information that is necessary to purchase, including mailing and billing address, credit card number, and shipping option.

Shipping options

The ability to order online and receive the product on time can help to drive sales and create return visitors. Make sure you choose the best shipping software for your eCommerce businesses. Furthermore, it’s crucial to allow your customers to select the type of delivery options for their orders. The system also needs to automatically calculate the shipping fees and include delivery time and options for faster delivery.

Secure payment options

Similar to shipping, the payment option is one of the most important features of an eCommerce website design. A credible eCommerce store should have a secure payment gateway such as PayPal, Stripe. Furthermore, your customers should be given the possibility to select from a list of various payment gateways as different payment options are popular in various parts of the world.

You could refer to the following extensions:

Magento 2 Quote Sales Extension

Magento 2 Advance Quick Order Extension 

Magento 2 Delivery Date Extension

Magento 2 PDF Invoice EXtension

Magento 2 Checkout Success Extension

These amazing and distinct features of the Magento eCommerce platform make it stand out from its stiff competition like Shopify and WooCommerce.

As it provides the best eCommerce tools and functionalities for users as well as admin, Magento is the best eCommerce platform. 

Many companies engage their business analysts to undertake a detailed survey and define a sufficient set of functions required for the efficient management of a website. Together with technical advisors, business analysts can then prioritize the most vital features and choose the right development approach to create an admin panel.

In case you want a perfect Magento Admin Panel with the latest Magento trends, technologies, and tools but do not know where to start, feel free to contact us.

Third-party Integrations

First of all, ask yourself whether you will need to integrate your Magento admin panel with any third-party platforms or systems. To maximize the benefits as well as streamline the workflow, make sure your admin panel is compatible with third-party APIs and plugins. Having all the key features and services in one place will make your team more than grateful.

Based on these questions, you can come up with an understanding of whether you should save your company's budget and deploy a standard admin panel or choose a multi-functioning solution instead.

How Could CMSMART Support You

Now let’s go over that what is a Magento admin panel or Magento admin theme about things:

  • Admin themes are huge time-savers, sparing developers the need to write tons of code from scratch.

  • These admin themes are highly customizable 

  • You can integrate an admin theme with virtually any other system in place, which makes it a go-to solution for companies with specific industry requirements.

  • Many websites offer free admin themes that you can try out first before. Consider getting a free admin theme and using it before making a purchase. This way, you can assess the quality of the template and know if it’s the right template for you. We think it’s worth considering a company that provides after-sales service that you can use in case you run into any troubles and provides service to customize an admin theme that speaks to your needs and propel its integration with your ecosystem.

Finally, we can safely say that an admin panel is an essential part of every web-driven application. Backed by admin panel metrics, you can be aware of every process within your business ecosystem as well as gather invaluable insights to drive your revenue.

Here, at CMSMART, we tend to adopt the most efficient tech-enabled solutions for building a full system that helps our clients draw new customers and boost profits. If you have any questions left, we are eager to provide you with a piece of expert advice.  

Feel free to contact us for sharing your ideas at [email protected].

Rose Helen

Shop Owner
Rose Helen is a highly accomplished Ecommerce Project Consultant with a strong background in managing and guiding successful e-commerce projects. With her exceptional expertise and strategic mindset, she helps businesses achieve their goals in the digital marketplace.
With years of experience, Rose Helen possesses an in-depth understanding of e-commerce platforms, technologies, and best practices. She works closely with clients to analyze their needs, develop tailored strategies, and execute effective project plans that drive growth and success.
As an Ecommerce Project Consultant, Rose Helen excels at overseeing project lifecycles, from inception to completion. She ensures projects are delivered on time, within budget, and with the highest level of quality. Her exceptional project management skills enable her to effectively communicate with stakeholders, manage resources, and mitigate risks throughout the project journey.
Rose Helen is a strategic thinker who leverages her extensive knowledge to identify opportunities for improvement and innovation. She provides valuable insights and recommendations to optimize e-commerce processes, enhance user experiences, and increase online sales.
With her strong communication and collaboration skills, Rose Helen builds strong relationships with clients and key stakeholders. She fosters a collaborative environment, working closely with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless project execution and alignment with business objectives.
Beyond her technical expertise, Rose Helen is dedicated to delivering exceptional client service. She goes above and beyond to understand her clients' unique requirements and provide them with personalized solutions that drive tangible results. Her commitment to client success is evident in her approach and the long-term relationships she builds.
Rose Helen's passion for e-commerce, coupled with her extensive experience and project management skills, makes her a valuable asset for organizations looking to thrive in the digital landscape. With her guidance, businesses can navigate the complexities of e-commerce projects and achieve their objectives with confidence and success.