If you understand the scale and impact that WordPress has had in the content management space, then you can start to get a good idea of what exactly Magento means to those in the e-commerce arena.
It’s the most popular e-commerce store on the web, powering websites for sole traders to massive international brands. The e-commerce industry might as well be called the Magento industry; nearly a quarter of all sites run on the platform — that’s one in every four, globally.
Understanding E-commerce
Knowing how to get started with Magento can be somewhat confusing and daunting. It has several versions to suit businesses of varying shapes and sizes, as well as an updated version, Magento 2, that’s used by fewer businesses but offers even more powerful functionality and scalability.
Chances are, if you’re looking to set up or grow your e-commerce store, then Magento is right for your business. Get to grips with the different versions and features today and find out why it has become the world’s leading e-commerce platform.
Individuals and small businesses
Whether you’re just setting up your e-commerce store or are small and growing, Magento Commerce Community Edition, the free and most basic version of the platform, should be first on your list of e-commerce options.
Magento Commerce is an all-in-one platform that enables individuals and small businesses to deploy e-commerce stores easily and quickly. One of the main reasons for this is that it’s based on cloud technology, doing away with all the costs and hassles of maintaining, managing and hosting a commerce solution for yourself.
However, Magento is much different from other out-of-the-box e-commerce solutions like Shopify. Such platforms are great if you’re a new business that wants to throw up a generic website with limited functionality. But for small business owners who want full control over their experience with no restrictions on how much they can grow, Magento is a much better solution.
A few years back, Custom Plugs, a business from the North of England that designs unique custom “plugs” (the large earrings that stretch the ear), moved from Shopify to Magento to support their business going global.
Using Shopify meant they had to run three separate stores (UK, EU, and the US), leading to high costs and a heavy workload. Magneto streamlined all their operations into one store, whilst also allowing them to implement third-party extensions to help them scale and improve efficiency even further.
Established retailers
The great thing about Magento is that it can take you from brand brand-new start-up to a long-established e-commerce master. And it will do so all whilst giving you as much support and flexibility as you could need.
Magento Enterprise Edition is the premium, paid version of Magento. It’s completely customisable, and as such, is ideal for established retailers who want to scale and create a truly one-of-a-kind store.
Like WordPress, it has a wide ecosystem of developers and extensions at its disposal. Unlike WordPress, though, it’s 100 per cent dedicated to e-commerce, and so its features and offerings are uniquely crafted to improve everything from order management to traffic levels and product sales.
The latest update of Magento, Magento 2, exists alongside the original version and is the epitome of everything the platform has to offer. It’s a popular choice for mid-to-large retailers as it is based on the latest tech, is feature-rich, and affords unmatched freedom in managing content, functionality, and layout.
For instance, in Magento 2, the backend panel is less technical, loading speeds are quicker, the checkout process is simpler, and it’s much easier to integrate it with data, third-party tools, and other web and cloud services. It’s also responsive and search engine-friendly, making it hugely desirable for retailers whose users often find them by searching the web on the move.
Large businesses
The global leader in enterprise e-commerce solutions, Magento supports huge names like Coca-Cola, Nike, Ford, Samsung, JCB, and Men’s Health in selling their products in the online global marketplace.
Not only is the platform equipped to handle enterprise-level order volumes and is the gold standard of security and GDPR/data privacy compliance, but it also gives retailers access to cutting-edge features they won’t find anywhere else.
An example of this is its Progressive Web Applications (PWA) studio, a system that is specially designed to optimise mobile conversions. Despite mobile traffic being on the up, the number of people who buy on mobile is still low compared to desktops. A lot of the time, this is due to poor and unresponsive checkouts, which pale in comparison to the swift and fully-custom platforms of big players like Amazon. But the PWA studio is changing this landscape by reinventing the mobile shopping experience and making it quick and easy for anyone who uses Magento.
Helly Hanson, the professional and outdoor clothing brand, switched to Magento Commerce and Magento Order Management (MOM) after its legacy eCommerce platform was discontinued. Doing so meant they could unify over fifty different sites, each with tens of thousands of products per store, their own language options, product availability, and payment and shipping rules.
The brand wanted to create a truly mobile e-commerce experience that was delivered in a highly personalised way for each customer. Magento gave them that and more; after an implementation period of around ten months, mobile traffic increased by forty-eight per cent and their overall revenue surged by nearly fifty per cent.
This couldn’t have been done without the Magento Order Management (MOM) system. The MOM allowed Helly Hanson to sync orders from one site to the correct fulfilment centres in Europe and America. It utilises some of the most advanced AI in the business to centralise order information, offers a global view of all real-time available inventory, and offers a customer support service that ensures you always meet their expectations.
Magento is a powerful e-commerce solution for any business that wants flexibility and support in building and growing their online store. Making sure you choose the right platform is the biggest hurdle, and from then on, you just need to find the right experts to ensure you make the most of it.
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