Why Magento is the Ideal Platform for eCommerce Sites

April 10, 2019 / eCommerce

eCommerce

While WordPress dominates as the leading CMS platform for building websites, it isn’t an out of the box eCommerce solution. To create an eCommerce site on WordPress, you’ll need to install plugins, such as WooCommerce. Magento, on the other hand, is specifically designed to deliver eCommerce functionality from the get-go, with the platform’s future development focused on improving the performance of eCommerce stores. As a tailor-made eCommerce CMS, it is, therefore the ideal platform for online businesses and here, we’ll discuss the reasons why.   

All the Benefits of Open Source Software

As an open source software, anyone can take Magento and make developments to it. This means it is far more likely to have large numbers of people contributing to its improvement, both to the core software and in the creation of add-ons. The result is that the software is constantly being upgraded to deal with the demands of users, innovations in technology and changes in user behaviour.

Of course, the other great benefit of open source software is that it is free to use. Unlike propriety applications, such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop, where you need to pay for a licence before you can use them, the Magento Community Edition costs nothing. There is, however, a proprietary version called the Magento Enterprise Edition, which is paid for.

Magento Community Edition

The Community Edition is, by far, the most used version of the software and, being open source, has one of the most extensive eCommerce developer communities online. This network of developers has led to increasing use of the platform in the eCommerce sector. Indeed, as far back as 2013, it had already been recognised as one of the world’s most popular eCommerce solutions.

Magento Features

Magento’s popularity is not difficult to understand when you discover its easy to use features. As a flexible CMS, it enables users to quickly create eCommerce sites that work in a manner that best suits the needs of your online business. For example, it supports multiple websites, so you can sell your products across more than one domain, which makes it ideal for those with separate international sites; it enables you to offer flexible pricing, so you can offer promotions, multi-buy discounts and sales; and it provides the tools to deploy advanced sales techniques, such as upselling and cross-selling, which have become key features of the leading online stores.   

It is also an excellent platform for SEO. Any website built with Magento is pre-configured to be responsive and mobile-friendly, both of which are important ranking criteria with the major search engines, like Google and Bing. In addition, Magento even generates search engine friendly URLs that are ideal for meaningful indexing and for marketing. There are also numerous add-ons which you can install to help you optimise your site and your content even more effectively.

Domain Name

Key to the success of any online store is the look of the website. Magento offers a wide range of template or themes for you to choose from and you can customise these to ensure they meet your customer needs and brand requirements. From a customer point of view, the platform is also designed to let visitors search your site with ease and to buy quickly, without the long-winded hassles that often cause people to abandon their cart.

Easy to Manage

One of the biggest advantages of Magento is that it makes it easy for website owners to manage their store. Updates to the software are installed automatically for you, ensuring you always have the latest features and most secure version; and its well-organised admin area makes it easy to manage products, set prices for different customer groups and add product images.

There is a multitude of Magento add-ons available, many of them free to use, each of which adds additional functionality to your website. From adding email subscription capture to improving security and much more, these useful tools can be easily installed and configured from the back end of your site and deployed in minutes.

Online Support

Magento has been around for over 10 years and is now an established leader in the eCommerce sector, powering over 200,000 websites, with brands such as Nike, Fox, Ford and Olympus relying upon it. This popularity means that there are increasing numbers of websites providing support for it as well as companies offering specialised Magento services.

Magento Hosting

If you are opting for a dedicated eCommerce platform like Magento to run your online store, it makes sense to choose a dedicated Magento hosting solution. Dedicated WordPress hosting has been available for years, now, thankfully, dedicated Magento hosting packages are also available. Here, the server is configured for optimal Magento performance, ensuring that the site can cope with the heavy demands faced by a successful eCommerce company.

Conclusion

If you are going to use the right tools to do the job, then it makes sense to consider a dedicated eCommerce platform, like Magento, to build your online store. It’s ease of use, open source development and growing popularity make it an ideal choice.

If you are looking for dedicated Magento hosting for your eCommerce site, check out our Magento hosting packages.

Author

  • Niraj Chhajed

    I'm a SEO and SMM Specialist with a passion for sharing insights on website hosting, development, and technology to help businesses thrive online.

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