Pros and Cons of Magento Ecommerce Platform
Magento has been in the ecommerce landscape for more than a decade. It is seen as a market leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant. The platform is used by top companies like Nike, Ford & Cannon.
Initially released in 2008 by Varien.Inc, Magento has become one of the largest ecommerce platforms. In May 2018, it was acquired by Adobe for 1.68 billion dollars.
Magento offers a flexible end-to-end ecommerce solution. Merchants get customized site functions. They can use the open-source platform to create the best consumer experiences.
Before you decide on this platform, see if it fits your business requirements.
In this article, we look at the pros and cons of the Magento ecommerce platform.
1. High Flexibility & Customization
Magento is open-source, so you can modify the code as you want. You get the freedom to create customized templates. It lets you build on-brand storefronts for your customers.
Your online store may have many complex processes. Some of which may include:
- Multiple target regions
- Multiple languages & currencies
- Different laws & compliance for countries
- Integrating Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
- Using IoT devices for selling
- Extensive catalog of custom products
- Localized content for different regions
You have to customize your ecommerce site for various target customers. With Magento’s wide range of features, you can modify storefronts based on customer requirements.
If a function is not present natively, you can get it with third-party Magento extensions. You get thousands of features from catalogs to promotions & SEO.
Magento allows you to separate the core parts to reduce complexity. It is done using the headless commerce approach. That way, you can make changes to many storefronts. It is done without affecting the backend.
2. Built-in Features & Functionality
Magento comes with an extensive list of out-of-the-box features. The core features have all that is required in a standard ecommerce website. Magento’s general feature list includes:
- Marketing, promotions, & conversion tools
- Site management
- Catalog managing & catalog browsing
- Checkout, payment & shipping
- Order management
- Customer accounts & customer service
- Analytics & reporting
The standard features are found in all Magento deployed products. Along with the general features, the highlighted features also help grow your business.
Some of the Magento feature highlights:
- Page builder
- Content staging
- Customer segmentation
- Dynamic rule-based product relations
- Instant purchase to boost conversion rates
- Visual merchandising
- Business intelligence
The comprehensive feature set helps boost conversions, agility, performance, and more. Along with these, Magento also provides B2B integration to manage company accounts and credits.
You can create next-generation Magento 2 stores with Progressive Web Applications (PWAs).
Some other features include responsive theme designs. It lets you customize your themes for devices. For search queries on massive catalogs, you can integrate Elasticsearch.
The Magento Admin experience offers an intuitive dashboard to check sales and orders. You can check search terms and best-selling product data.
These are some of the main features & functionalities provided by Magento. You can check the Magento feature list to learn about the features in detail.
3. Advanced SEO
SEO is an essential component for any e-commerce business. Your online site has to be ranked highly on search engines.
Magento comes with an extensive suite of SEO features. Some of its top SEO capabilities include:
- Meta tags for products & SEO friendly URLs
- Automatically generate a Google roadmap
- Create unique category paths for product URLs
- Image optimizing
- URL redirects
- Prefixes & suffixes for title tags
You won’t need extra plugins for SEO, as all essential SEO features are built-in. Compare Magento’s SEO to other platforms to check the functions.
4. Mobile-friendly & Omnichannel Support
This year, Mobile e-commerce is set to make 3.5 trillion dollars. As consumers shift from websites to mobiles, online retailers have to keep up. A mobile-friendly site helps you to reach your customers.
The Magento software offers omnichannel features, which means that customers can interact with your brand on many channels. The channels include websites, mobile apps, social media, and so on. You can create a seamless user experience on any integrated device.
With omnichannel shopping, you can boost conversion rates. Consumers can have frictionless purchases without going through slow mobile sites or unoptimized content.
Brand consistency on all channels allows for more consumer loyalty & retention.
Using the consumer data from all channels will help you make better decisions on marketing campaigns.
5. Large Community Support
Magento platform has the rich community support of over 300,000 developers worldwide. Over the years, Magento partners have created thousands of extensions.
On the Magento community page, you will find FAQs and forums. You can use the documents and discussion pages.
The support is offered by the platform & members of the community. You can easily find technical assistance if you encounter any problem.
6. Scalable & a Global Platform
Magento is a robust ecommerce platform. If you have a large inventory, it is an excellent option for building your shop.
Magento can handle hundreds of thousands of products easily. Its layered cacheable architecture helps grow your product catalog. You can quickly respond to changing markets.
With Magento, you can extend your store to many countries. It is a global platform & allows you to reach new customers.
Magento simplifies complex business environments. You can host many brands as well as B2B and B2C hybrid commerce.
You can use native integrations to simplify workflows.
Fewer ecommerce stores can provide a smooth customer experience while scaling. It becomes chaotic to handle operations in different countries. There can be many time-consuming workloads.
Magento lets you scale across digital touchpoints quickly. You can add new technologies without blocking business operations.
7. GDPR & Other Compliance Laws
The GDPR is a regulation in EU law on data protection & privacy. Magento helps merchants to comply with the GDPR.
You have to execute the standard data processing agreement (DPA). Magento DPA has rules that work within the scope of the GDPR.
To stay compliant, Magento provides resources and documents. You can also use the Magento GDPR extension.
Magento Commerce (now called Adobe Commerce) is PCI certified as a Level 1 solution provider. It helps you to safeguard customers’ payment card information.
With Magento, you get many compliance features:
- Secure payment getaways
- Managing taxes and accounts
- Compliance assistance
- SOC 2 compliance
- Third-party auditors that test Magento systems
Cons of Magento ecommerce platform
1. Technical Support for Customizing
Magento comes with many customizing features. However, you will require developers with technical knowledge to set up your shop.
Magento has a complex architecture that needs time & expertise.You may have to opt for an agency that specializes in Magento development.
If you do not have a qualified technical team, you may opt for an experienced Magento developer. The developer has to understand your store requirements before making any changes.
2. Costs
A highly customized Magento store requires financial investments. You will require many plugin support and Magento development services. This may cost alot.
There are hosting & maintenance costs. There will be changes in functionalities as you build your store. All these costs can add up to make Magento pricey.
You should know your business needs before investing in Magento customizing options. With a suitable financial plan, you can minimize unnecessary costs.
Large stores would want to opt for the Adobe Commerce edition. However, the license fees for the commerce platform start from $22,000 a year. The costs go up quickly when you’re using the premium enterprise version.
It is advised to opt for the Magento Open Source edition for any business size.
You could be a small business or a large business with many storefronts. The community version of Magento offers all the functionalities with effective scaling.
Conclusion
As a merchant, you can quickly build a robust online store using Magento. It comes with extensive features, integrations & community support.
The flexibility & agility allows for effective scaling. You can grow your store rapidly & expand to new regions. Magento will help you adopt new technologies so you can future-proof your business.
To learn more about Magento hosting, check out the MGT Commerce blog.
