What do Nike, Paul Smith, Olympus, Bulgari, Ford and Samsung have in common? All these brands have their websites built on Magento. Now, this should not be a surprise, as according to a research conducted in May 2015, Magento has a market share of approximately 30 percent, which makes it the Best open source Platform for eCommerce among the thirty leading eCommerce platforms.
In last one decade, there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of open source eCommerce platforms but Magento still rules. Unlike the other open source platforms, Magento aimed at developing eCommerce websites since its inception. It is a PHP based eCommerce platform that has stood the test of time and is standing tall.
There are three versions of this open source platform:
- Magento Enterprise Edition
- Magento Community Edition
- Magento Go
This open source platform scores high on different parameters. It is well-suited for large-scale online stores and to develop high-end online stores. Different features of this open source platform empower merchants or businesses to scale up their eCommerce website as per the requirement. As it can earn the entrepreneurs high return on the Investment, it has turned out to be a reliable solution for eCommerce. Core features of this open source platform that make eCommerce development a breeze
- Customer segmentation
- User dashboards
- Supplier and shipping management
- Inventory Management
- Capability to upsell and cross sell
- Newsletters
- CMS option
The figure says it all
Various statistics and research findings reveal that Magento is truly the Best open source Platform for eCommerce. An analysis of Google Trends for the time-frame January 2010 to July 2013 shows that Magento is way ahead of the other open-source counterparts. The findings of a consulting group based on the interview of merchants who have migrated to Magento from other eCommerce platforms reveals, that this shift has resulted in a rise in annual sales.
As per BuiltWith, top eCommerce websites are developed with Magento. Another eCommerce survey, conducted in April 2014 discloses that for four consecutive years Magento continues to be the leading eCommerce platform. Owing to this research data there has been a remarkable increase in the number of websites opting for this platform.
*Source: Statistics from Visual.ly, rightway, Magento, TechCrunch & Many other blogs.
Why choose Magento?
You must be wondering, in spite of so many choices, why developers prefer Magento for developing eCommerce websites, over other platforms! Well, the reason is simple, it has all features that an eCommerce website needs to get success. It is easy to use, can scale up and most importantly provides better support. The CMS is also user-friendly and robust. Integrating Magento to the existing website is convenient, it provides a dynamic interface and a compelling user experience. Apart from this, other reasons to choose Magento for eCommerce development are
- Manage multiple stores – Whether you have one store or numerous, managing those will be easy from one admin panel with a single click option. Each of these stores will have individual IP addresses, domain names and security certificates. All the stores can have individual layout design and different hosting services. The centralized admin panel makes it easy to manage online stores of different niches.
- Flexibility of choosing Hosting Service – You can choose any hosting service, unlike the other platforms. If required, you can switch the hosting service, in case you are facing problems with the recent one.
- Easy marketing– There are effective tools that help in up-selling and cross-selling products. This provides customers the chance to purchase more products and improves the revenue.
- Third Party Integration– This open source has plugins or ready-made applications that help in adding new features to the website, without writing code from the scratch. Integrating these third-party apps is extremely easy on this platform. The API lets seamless integration of any plugin, so choose an app and integrate it into the website.
- Customization – There are different templates and you can customize the look of your website with those. To create a temporary design or meet the specific need of business, you can switch between different templates and themes. By modifying different plugins and templates you can create an interesting front-end experience. There is also an option of changing the language that lets the online store reach out to national and international audiences.
- Scale up the website – Often users of many eCommerce platforms complain that they need to pay extra charges for integrating features that are relevant to their business and operations. Since Magento is open source, you can add unlimited products, product lines, and SKU without spending a dime.
- SEO-Friendly – It is needless to say that SEO is important for any website. The platform will save the pain of optimizing different aspects of the page. You can save time and effort as the source code has inbuilt features that ensure the website is SEO-friendly. Thus, creating meta tags, optimized URLs, site maps, category structures, and navigation will be easy.
- Fast loading time – Majority of the web users expect that the time for a site to load to be less than two seconds. Longer the loading time, users might shift to another service provider which will affect the conversion rate. Magento ensures that the website loads fast, caches the pages, retrieve data from the databases and process queries in a short time. So, there is no fear of customers abandoning your website.
Magento aims at aligning the online business with the present trend and the growth trajectory. It has all the features that are required for any eCommerce website. Enhanced security features that improve performance and customer experience make this the Best open source Platform for eCommerce. Irrespective of the volume or size of your business, Magento will fetch you a high Return on the Investment.
