August 10th, 2018

With over 25,000 e-commerce websites now using Magento, it’s hard to ignore that this platform is paving the way for online success. It’s not just smaller companies either; some of the biggest brands in the world, such as Ford, Nike and Coca Cola have selected this platform.

Released in 2008, it changed the e-commerce market forever – within 18 months it had exceeded one million downloads. Purchased by eBay in 2011 and, most recently, sold to Adobe, it continues to be the quickest growing e-commerce platform on the market. So why is Magento so popular?

Magento Explained

Built on an open source system, it is a feature-rich e-commerce platform that offers merchants the flexibility they need, as well as complete control over the design, content and functionality. Unlike other platforms, Magento was developed from the beginning to function as the perfect platform for online stores.

There are two versions of Magento available, which are:

Magento Community – or Magento Open Source as its now called, which is ideal for small to medium-sized business looking for a low-cost e-commerce store. This free open source edition allows users to tailor and customise Magento extensions to build up the website functionality and consumer experience.

Magento Enterprise – the paid version of Magento which is used by bigger online stores. Unlike the community edition, you will have advanced custom functionalities and features to play around with.

Which version is best for your business?

When you have finally decided that Magento is the platform for you, there are a number of factors you need to consider before choosing which edition to go with. Each version appeals to different business objectives and needs. The decision should be based on how best you are able to use the distinctive features on either version.

You will also have to factor in the number of sales generated per month, the number of unique visitors and the time you are willing to spend implementing the store. It’s at this point that you will most likely make the decision as to whether you are going to manage this in-house or look to work with a developer.

Benefits of using Magento

Open Source

Magento is an open source platform which is a key benefit to developers as they have more flexibility and it is secure.

Built for e-commerce

As mentioned before, Magento was built from the start to be an e-commerce platform, unlike WordPress and many other platforms. Not only is it e-commerce friendly, it was also designed to ensure that the platform was easy to use.

Mobile Friendly

With more users visiting websites on mobiles or tablets, it is key that your store is adaptable. It is exceptionally easy to put a Mobile Friendly e-commerce website onto Magento. With thousands of responsive themes available, you have no excuse to not make your store Mobile Friendly.

Functionality

Unlike its open source competitors, Magento offers an enormous amount of built-in features such as newsletter management, blog and CMS (content management system) functionality, a layered navigation, personalised products, multi-language support, virtual and downloadable products and an absolute tonne more.

Adaptability

No matter the size of your business, there is a version of Magento to match your needs. For instance, small & medium businesses would be suited to Magento Community, whereas for large businesses Magento Enterprise will serve these splendidly. With various layouts and subjects accessible in Magento, it can offer each business something unique.

Extensions

With the world’s largest selection of extensions, there are never-ending options to effortlessly extend your stores capabilities. Users will find it easy to expand and differentiate from other competitors by using different extensions – there are both paid and free extensions and prices depend heavily on the complexity of the issue the extension is solving.

Multiple stores

From the same backend, the platform supports multi setups and stores. Each store can have its individual product catalogue and custom configurations – for example, delivery and tax can both be managed from the same admin dashboard. This can save time, effort and money for businesses.

SEO Friendly

With over 2.3 million Google searches per second, it is impossible to ignore the importance of SEO. Magento offers built-in SEO features which will help you optimise your URLs, descriptions, sitemaps and many more. As it is designed to easily help you improve the optimisation of your website, it will also save you time and money. From the ground up, the way that Magento is coded is built with SEO performance in mind, with search engines being able to read the site easily.

Secured platform

After months of hearing the word GDPR, security is the first major concern for every company when it comes to their e-commerce website. Magento is developed to guarantee security for their clients with all transactions being secured with effective data encryption.

So that’s it…

Hopefully, you will now have a better understanding of Magento and why so many businesses have invested in this open source platform. Here at Brave, we have a number of specialist Magento developers which have helped multiple clients grow their e-commerce business. Whether you are starting out or looking for ongoing support, get in touch to see how Brave can help you.