OVERVIEW
Magento is an eCommerce platform that was released in the year 2008. Over the years, Magento as a platform has experienced multiple changes in its ownership, commencing from the original publishers Variens to the current owner, Adobe. It has during its change in ownership experienced significant improvement in the way it offers required services to all of its customers. Variens established the Magento extensively for the characteristic boost in the productivity for enterprises.
In the presence of noteworthy advancement and dynamism in the eCommerce world, the necessity for speed and swift decision making is constantly uprising. As a result, the productivity and reliability of a company are determined by the efficiency of the software it employs. This being the case, there is a substantial need for a software program that would minister to such need on a larger and broader scale, and would simultaneously strive for productivity, efficiency, and speed. The evolvement phase of the Magento has equipped it with the dynamism and proficiency to tackle this advancement.
PRICING AND TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP
The setting up and operation of the eCommerce platform runs at a cost which depends on the requirement and complexity of the organization. Magento provides one alluring option. It is the Magento open-source which is readily available for free downloads. Although the software is available for free, there are other imminent factors which are equally important and are not free, these include; the web development, hosting and other additionally incorporated services which are paid for.
An enterprise that uses the Magento edition will run at a cost relative to the need for such an enterprise merchant. To absolutely understand the basics behind the Magento pricing, it is very important to request individualized breakdown quotation. The totaled cost of pricing is based on the average stores order values in addition to the annual online revenue.
Ranging from $22,000 to $125,000 per annum, you can get their provided unmatched flexibility and a number of added advantages not readily available by many other eCommerce platforms. The service provided to enterprises varies from one end to another, depending on what each enterprise requires.
In addition to their pricing, other factors are required to attain a fully functional site, and platforms like Magento offers that. It offers out of the box kind of solutions and have a running cost which is associated with them.
The services it offers are:
⦁ Hosting,
⦁ Implementation.
⦁ Design and builds,
⦁ Third party integrations
⦁ Maintenance support.
MAIN FEATURES
The Magento open source eCommerce was designed for the purpose of advancing efficiency and productivity of enterprises. To achieve such, it has been equipped with features that would enable it to do so. Some of the features are:
⦁ Tools for marketing, promotion, and conversing- This feature helps in the globalization of the market and also in client business. It aid in the promotion of sales using some specifications which include;
Related product (up and cross sells): This is one of the most important marketing tool necessary for the evaluation of products as it provides you a search of related product to the one intended to be put up for sale. That way, it would be easy to develop strategies that beat market and bypass rivals.
Customers groups: This is another category under conversing, where you can group customers either by what they want or by the help required. This does not only makes an enterprise effective but also very easy to operate.
⦁ Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Most eCommerce platforms do not provide a reasonable percentage of search engine optimization to their site, the Magento however, offers 100% search engine friendliness. It offers you more value for the amount paid. Here are few benefits;
Google Site Map.
Search engine friendly URL’s.
URL rewrites, which allows
total control of URL’s.
Meta-information.
Categories and content pages.
Automatically generated site
map for display on site.
Google Content API for
shopping.
⦁ Site Management: A client with multiple websites and stores can get the luxury of running an administrative panel which would allow the ability to withhold or share as much information as needed. Templates are absolutely customizable, and the platform supports multiple language and currencies. Web services API allows easy integration between both Magento and other third party applications.
CAPTCHA functions are useful in the prevention of fake logins by automated softwares. This functionality can be employed for use in admins and customers logins areas.
⦁ Order Management: Having absolute managerial controls over orders placed by online customers is more than just stress relieving as this will help in organizing such order and also go a long way in fulfilling orders from the administrative panel. Enterprises can also use this option for creating single or multiple invoices. All shipments and credit memos for each order would aid split fulfillment.
⦁ Call center order creation: This feature help enhance clear control for administrator and front end improvement for customers during the entire shopping process. Changing the setting for products can be easily done by the sales representative from the adminstrative end, and by the customers through out the shopping process.
⦁ Personalized Order Status: Tracking of order is made easier than before with the availability of customizable order status which can be easily assigned to order state.
⦁ Up to 5000+ extension available: The Magento Extensions includes the channel that controls all the important chores which is much related to eCommerce just as merchandising, promoting, great control, site management catalogue and product browsing.
Having an extension up to 5000+ is an added advantage which helps in enhancing the features and functionalities of eCommerce websites.
EASE OF USE
As obviously indicated in the picture, we can handpick some built in features which would really help in the optimizing SEO and broaden your market to a much larger audience.
As a free software, Magento open source is not ridded of user friendliness, Magento’s administration and daily operations are ridiculously simple. The original setup and personalization process would actually require expertise in order to accomplish great results. If you are interested in the personalizing of your page, it is my advice that you employ the expertise of someone who is well grafted in web development.
During the process of testing the Magento eCommerce platform, I came to the conclusion that there is great necessity in getting someone who is experienced in the setting up and customization of your webpage. For inquisitive minds who really intends to have a head start and are willing to be familiar with the way Magento eCommerce operates, you can choose to sign up for a demo account on the platform. This can be simply done through their website.
Magento may undoubtedly be very stressful and difficult to set up, that shouldn’t be any problem as it is well known that nothing good comes easy. After the setup, the dashboard which is plainly and readily available shows all the necessary features you need.
Having so many features, there is quite a lot more to sieve through. It is important to add that the platform isn’t as basic to set up as many other eCommerce platforms, but after a little uplift in the learning curve, navigating through as an admin will come with ease.
Flexible Content Management System: Magento offers a total flexibility which is an added advantage that contributes to its ease of use. You can easily and swiftly build a customized solution that works well in sync harmony with your eCommerce business needs.
INTEGRATIONS & Add-Ons
Magento, as earlier stated is an open source, hence it comes as ease to congress of Magento community of developers to initiate new applications and extensions for the platform. Lots of integrations ranging to thousands are readily available in the Magento market place. A few of these readily available integrations in the marketplace are listed below:
⦁ Accounting & Tax
⦁ TaxJar
⦁ Avalara AvaTax
⦁ Quickbooks
⦁ Xero
⦁ Shipping & Fulfillment
⦁ ShipperHQ
⦁ ShipStation
⦁ Shipwire
⦁ ShippingEasy
⦁ ShipWorks
⦁ Aliexpress (Dropshipping)
⦁ Marketing & CRM
⦁ Mailchimp
⦁ Dotmailer
⦁ SpringBot
⦁ Zoho CRM
⦁ Salesforce CRM
⦁ Customer Service
⦁ ZenDesk
⦁ LiveChat
⦁ Analytics
⦁ Microsoft Power BI
⦁ Google Analytics
⦁ Security
⦁ Signifyd
⦁ McAfee Secure
Quite a lot of the Magento integrations are available at no cost. Others which will include the actual software that you personally integrate occasionally will attract associated monthly costs. Other integrations will cost some money, amounting to several hundreds of dollars at the outset. It is necessary to carry out relative compatibility before purchase.
SECURITY
Magento offers out-of-the box security to eCommerce store owners since security is a primary concern in running online stores. However, several steps are taken to exalt it so as to prevent security issues.
As a result of Magento being a self-hosted option, you are solely responsible for establishment of the sites security. You would have to duly ensure that the site is PCI complaint and would also have to install SSL certificate and new patches from Magento in order to resolve all security issues in the process.
At some instances, the version of Magento you operate would become outdated. There’s need to ensure that the version isn’t outdated as this would render your security patches useless.
Magento security scan tool can be used to check for security vulnerabilities and patch updates.
Google reCAPATCHA and two factor authentication comes as a standard with the latest Magento 2 release.
Pros of Magento
Free available download: One of the important pros of the Magento platform is that the software is readily available for download. Magento is literally one of the eCommerce platforms that provides such luxury.
User-Friendliness: Magento provides a user-friendly solution for users that lack the technical expertise to carry out the coding. There are other accessible designs to the admin without extensive and noteworthy experience or knowledge. These packages come together with ease and are easily understood by the admin. This is the essence of eCommerce.
Scalability: Magento has just the perfect and scalable system to handle increased growth in the amount of products and sales, making you switch up your game. With Magento. It is very easy to ratchet things up so as to meet your specific needs.
Large community of users: Magento being one of the widely used eCommerce platforms, has a large community of users which enables enterprise merchants get quick support. In addition, this helps to provide solutions to any issues the admin may face.
Cons of Magento
Hosting: There is great complexity in using Magento. This complexity requires that you host a Magento store on its very own dedicated server. This means extra expenses to get started and also extra monthly cost to boot.
Developing support and maintenance costs: Magento is undoubtedly expensive on technical support and this is because it is has a very complex background system. As a result, this would take even experienced developers time to learn. If you decide to opt for the enterprise option which will include direct support from Magento, a price benched around $15,000 per annum would provide you with your required service.
Time-Intensive: The learning curve for development in Magento is a little bit longer than it is with other eCommerce platforms, hence, it is a time consuming process whenever you try to make modifications or rely on input from a Magento developer.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MAGNETO AND SHOPIFY.
Over the years, Magento created an online store which will automatically optimize for different devices and various screen sizes. This was a splendid improvement as it led to increase in mobile shoppers than before. The noteworthy advantages of using Magento in contrast to other eCommerce platforms like Shopify are:
⦁ Magento, unlike Shopify has been around for a longer period of time. With longevity comes experience, and with experience comes improvement in service rendered.
⦁ In order to maximize Magento’s full functionality, there’s need to learn some codes and technical terms, making it difficult for the less computer-confident to use. Where as Shopify can be used by non-technical user. So if you are more technically inclined, you may want to go for Magento.
⦁ Magento, due to its scalability, enables eCommerce store owners evolve as their business increases in products and sales.
⦁ Magento is an open source and has a free basic platform for users. Whereas Shopify is a platform you need to pay for.
