eCommerce has seen a rapid growth over the past decade. While it may not have seemed possible for a business to survive without a retail presence not too long ago, eCommerce has given businesses the opportunity to not only survive but thrive online.
There are many different platforms and frameworks available that can be utilized for setting up an eCommerce store. There are software-as-a-service platforms that provide business owners with a plug-and-play solution. Those who prefer a more customized approach can opt for more powerful and flexible platforms.
What is Magento?
Magento is one such platform. This eCommerce platform is built on open source technology and it provides online business owners with a flexible shopping cart system.
It also allows for exceptional customization so business owners can exercise complete control over the look, feel, and functionality of their store.
Work on Magento started back in 2007 with the first public beta version being released in 2007. It quickly became one of the most popular eCommerce platforms. Even though it was acquired by Adobe in 2018, Magento's source code is still distributed under the Open Software License v3.0.
Magento also strives to make the process simple and easy for users. The Page Builder allows store owners to create content with an easy-to-use interface.
They can personalize parts of the store for specific customers and also update pages quickly. Modern drag-and-drop tools make it all very easy to manage.
There are many out-of-the-box templates that online store owners can take advantage of to create their site. It also simplifies the order fulfillment process by enabling store owners to allow customers to both buy online or pick up in store.
Why choose Magento over other B2B eCommerce platforms?
Magento is particularly preferred by B2B companies and it has proven its worth over the years as a flexible and reliable sales platform. It enables businesses to quickly develop their online stores and scale up to meet their requirements.
It also makes it easy to introduce new products and open up new sales channels. The platform's additional features provide an opportunity to offer customers great service.
Advantages
- Open-source
Given the fact that Magento is an open-source platform, businesses don't have a high upfront cost just to use the platform. They can work with developers to create customization features for their online store due to the open-source nature of Magento. - Advanced functionality
Magento offers a lot of functionality that other eCommerce platforms don't. This includes managed cloud services, DDoS protection, Varnish-based CDN, ability to scale globally with cloud delivery, manual data backup, infrastructure support, and more.
This eliminates the need to pay for third-party plugins as many other platforms require. For example, it's possible to set up multi-currency pricing, taxes, languages, discounts, and coupons without requiring additional software. - Customer groups
Creating customer groups can be very useful in tracking both B2B and B2C sales. All businesses have different types of customers. Properly segmenting those customers makes it possible to further tailor the service.
It's possible to create different customer groups in Magento to which different settings can be applied. This can be done to influence the offer structure, price, and other variables.
Disadvantages
- Separate hosting
A major disadvantage of the platform, which might be one of the reasons why small businesses just starting out may not consider it, is the fact that hosting is not included. Businesses that want to use Magento for their online store need to pay for the hosting separately.
Paying for the hosting separately obviously adds another expense on top of things. However, many find this to be beneficial as they're able to choose the hosting environment themselves. - Can end up being costly
Pricing for the Magento Commerce Starter plan starts at $1,600 per month. It's aimed at small B2C and B2B merchants that require flexibility. However, not all small businesses might be willing to put in that level of investment, even if they understand the benefits that Magento provides.
The Magento Commerce Pro plan can end up being even more expensive. There's no set pricing provided for this plan that's meant for established B2C and B2B merchants. Pricing for this plan is based on annual Gross Merchandise Value. - Customization is complex
Creating highly customized solutions with Magento can be complex. As such, it’s not something that many people can do on their own without the assistance of custom Magento developers.
Again, this may not be the perfect solution for businesses that are just starting out and don’t necessarily have the resources to invest in custom development.
Companies and businesses that use Magento
SEAT, a Volkswagen subsidiary, utilized the advanced Magento 2 platform to create a responsive and immersive website to sell cars online. The brand's customers are in the younger demographic that's mobile-savvy and always connected.
Therefore, it needed an online presence that could cater to that demographic. The Magento implementation allowed SEAT to improve navigation and page load times on mobile devices in addition to significantly increasing the average duration of mobile sessions.
Quebec-based fashion giant Marie Claire had more than 300 stores but no digital plan. It was only in 2015 that the brand decided to create an omnichannel experience for their four clothing brands, different loyalty programs, and all of their physical stores.
This transition ended up being a success. Marie Claire was able to convert their existing customers to omnichannel through the new digital experience. The brand saw its conversions increase by 40 percent while the average order value also surged by 30 percent.
Monin is perhaps the most famous syrup brand in the world. The brand was able to increase its sales by more than 400% because of Magento. Monin had been running its online operations on Magento Commerce 1 since 2013. It saw its overall US eCommerce revenue increase by 53 percent in just four years.
The company decided to upgrade to Magento 2 in 2018 in order to increase efficiency and modernize the architecture. Once the upgrade was completed, Monin saw an increase in sales by as much as 400 percent.
France's third-largest pharmaceutical laboratory, Pierre Fabre, migrated all of its four brands to Magento and ended up being regarded as one of the best eCommerce sites.
The company selected Magento cloud to bring their multiple brands on shared core infrastructure. The upgrade improved site performance and stability that repeat customers and high traffic require.
Pierre Fabre also added unique elements to their online store, including video storytelling and other rich content. After all four brands were migrated, the site performance increased by 30 percent year-over-year.
The company also saw an increase in conversions and average order value.
How much time does it take to build a custom Magento store?
The amount of time it will take to build a custom Magento store really depends on the nature of the work. It can take anywhere from one week to even a couple of years. This obviously doesn’t mean that developers won’t have an idea of the time it would take before they start working on the project.
The best custom Magento developers will first work with you to understand your vision for the project. They will then be able to provide you with an estimate of the time it would take to develop the store.
Obviously, the time required to create the custom store will depend on just how complex the work that needs to be done is.
If you only require a fairly straightforward custom store that doesn’t have a lot of additional functionality, then you probably expect it to be done in a short period of time.
If your online store has all the bells and whistles that one can expect from a highly complex implementation, then you can expect to wait longer for the work to be done.
How much does custom Magento development cost?
This is another variable that also depends on the nature of the work. The custom Magento developers that you work with will be able to provide you with an estimate of how much the development work is going to cost.
If the nature of the work is highly complex, it would require the developers to put a lot of resources into the project. This is going to result in a much higher cost.
Even the simplest of custom Magento stores can cost a few thousand dollars to create at the very least. The cost can go up rapidly if more customization is needed or there’s a requirement for third-party integrations.
Zibtek is one of the world's leading software development companies. We have worked with both Fortune 500 companies and startups, helping them bring their vision to life.
Our experts in custom Magento development can create highly customized solutions for you that fit your vision. We are based in the United States with offices in Salt Lake City, Utah. Contact Zibtek today and our team will be happy to reach out and guide you through the process of getting a custom Magento store developed.