With the massive growth experienced in the eCommerce market, it is crucial to stand out from the competition. Luckily, this is possible by creating the best and most responsive e-commerce platform. Magento commerce is among the best and most efficient solutions that accommodate the needs of e-commerce businesses. Due to its innovative and valuable features, over 2000 online businesses benefit from Magento development services. In fact, Magento eCommerce was named the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce in 2021. Keep reading to determine whether Magento is the right choice for your online business.
What is the Magento eCommerce Platform?
Also referred to as Adobe Commerce, the Magento eCommerce platform (URL) refers to a digital commerce strategy that provides efficient inventory and sales management to help in an e-commerce store’s smooth running. Given that it is a component of the Adobe Commerce Cloud (ACC), Magento is also an open-source platform that aids in customizing, managing, and optimizing an online store.
It is worth noting that the Magento open-source platform is the free version that allows users to open and run an e-commerce store. However, the Magento commerce software is a premium subscription that offers enhanced security features, machine learning, personalized customer support manager and more technical support, effective multiple store management tools, advanced reporting, and live search tools.
Since its launch in 2008, Magento Commerce has released two versions of its platform; Magento 1 and Magento 2. Magento 2 is an improved version of Magento 1 as it features faster loading times, thanks to its PHP7 compatibility. E-commerce websites that use Magento 2 also enjoy automatic updates, seamless mobile experiences, and SEO-friendly optimization. It is also crucial to note that Magento 1 is no longer supported by Adobe. Magento 1 reached it’s end-of-life (EOL) in June of 2020.
Unique features of Magento Commerce
Facilitates Seamless Omnichannel Experiences
Although running different online stores is known to be a challenging task, this is not the case on the Magento e-commerce platform. Thanks to its robust configuration features, you can add and manage various e-commerce stores through one dashboard. Its multi-store features allow users to easily add catalogs and products to different online stores, reducing the time used to manage them. Users can also change the language on their e-commerce websites based on their visitor’s location using the multiple store views configuration.
Mobile Optimization
Mobile purchases account for 45% of all e-commerce sales in the United States. Thus, online stores need to provide mobile-friendly websites. The platform’s HTML5 compatibility allows Magento users to create basic mobile-friendly digital stores seamlessly. Its PWAS studio functionality lets users quickly optimize their web stores, websites, and mobile app.
Efficient Order Management
One of the major reasons why Magento is so popular is its smooth order management feature. Users can easily add and manage their inventory across multiple locations and sales channels. They can also automate refunds easily, efficiently accommodate returns, enhance customer experience, and decrease costs used during the order and inventory management. Thanks to Magento’s order management functionality, online stores can enjoy seamless backend processes and excellent order fulfilment rates for optimum performance.
Enormous Developer Ecosystem
Whether you choose to use a freelance developer or the Magento Development Service, you can easily extend the functionality of your digital store. Magento’s pre-built modules and plugins enable users to customize and extend their store’s functionality on the platform at their discretion. There are also plenty of Magento online forums, agencies, and events where people discuss the latest trends, features, and issues affecting the Magento eCommerce platform.
Fast Loading Times
Although it is not the fastest platform, Magento facilitates quick load times, enhancing your digital store’s overall performance. Users can also enhance frontend speed by implementing Magento modules like MagePack, potentially boosting their eCommerce revenue. The platform facilitates horizontal autoscaling, which aids in maintaining the peak performance of digital stores when experiencing high traffic. Note that you can increase your Magento webstore performance using innovative tools such as NGINX, Varnish, and CDN.
Multiple Payment Options
Magento supports several popular payment methods, including:
- Amazon payment
- Google Checkout
- Payal
- Bank transfer
- Authorize.net
- Cash on delivery
Thus, customers can enjoy smooth user experiences, which potentially increases the number of repeat customers. On the other hand, merchants can manage or reduce processing and gateway fees.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Magento Commerce
Over the years, many businesses have trusted Magento with their e-commerce websites. Thanks to its limitless functionality, Magento development services have proved to be one of the most scalable and robust platforms available on the market. The section below looks into the benefits and drawbacks of using Magento eCommerce.
Pros
- Automatic updates
- Over 3000 compatible extensions
- Flexible customization tools
- A global community of Magento users
- Multiple payment channels and shopping cart options
- Multi-currency and multi-language support
- Fast page loading speed
- Responsive Magento chat services
- Easy integration with Search Console and Google Analytics
- Enhanced security
- SEO-friendly
Cons
- Requires the help of experienced developers to set up a Magento e-commerce store
- Annual license for Magento’s Enterprise edition is costly
- Lack of a point of sales (POS) feature
- Users have to create a specific hosting environment for smooth performance
Magento Pricing
As mentioned earlier, Magento Open Source is free to use. However, Magento Commerce Software is a paid subscription service whereby users have to contact the support team for customer pricing plans. Depending on your revenue, these range from $22,000 to $190,000 annually.
Bottom line
With numerous eCommerce platforms on the market, finding one that best suits your business needs can be challenging. The Magento eCommerce platform has proved to be an efficient solution for digital stores. Whether you are a small or medium-sized online business, Magento commerce has the power to set you apart from your competition.
All You Need to Know About the Magento E-commerce Platform