As the number of online stores continues to rise, the number of eCommerce platforms is also increasing and even the most popular platforms are adding new features and being updated to keep up with emerging technologies and trends.
As a business owner, you have to make the tough decision of balancing out the pros and cons of every eCommerce platform and choose the one that best meets your requirements.
That said, Magento, one of the most popular platforms available today, might be your safest bet.
Magento has always been and continues to be a popular and widely used eCommerce platform. It has retained its top position for five consecutive years now, and last year’s eCommerce survey results showed that the number of Magento sites had gone up by 35%.
This is despite the heavy competition from other platforms such as Shopify, PrestaShop, and BigCommerce. Out of the top 100,000 stores as per Alexa’s site rank survey, about 30% of the sites run on Magento, numbering at about 704. This is just one example of Magento’s popularity.
Let’s take a look why Magento is so popular.
Cost Effective
Magento comes in both free and premium versions. So, you can choose what works best for your business.
If you are just a small store trying to test the waters in the eCommerce arena, you can stick to the free version and still have all the necessary features without paying. Most extensions are also available for free and Magento gives you endless opportunities to tweak the code yourself to make customized solutions.
Great Features, Modules, and Plugins
Very few eCommerce platforms have the huge number of features and options that Magento does. If you are planning to run a long-term online store, Magento is really the only choice. It offers unmatched eCommerce functionality and marketing capabilities.
For example, if you want to add a new coupon code feature to your site, Magento makes it very easy to do so. Magento is written in PHP and if you have some PHP knowledge, you can easily customize the code to suit your needs. It is also relatively easy and inexpensive to hire PHP developers to work on Magento sites.
SEO Tools
Magento is also popular because its development team understands what good SEO can do for your business. The Magento installation kit has a bundle of default SEO tools and they can help you promote your site effectively. Magento, unlike many other eCommerce platforms provides superb CMS facilities as well.
Open Source
Magento is an open source platform and because of that, the community edition is completely free for use. This makes it the most cost effective.
Community Support
Owing to its open source nature, you can find hundreds of support websites and tutorials online. The numerous forums, blogs, and other resources are great, and more experienced Magento users are always glad to help out if needed.
Security
Security is of utmost importance for any eCommerce platform, and Magento’s developers take it very seriously. They offer secure transactions through PayPal and other extensions that can ensure better security for credit card payments as well.
Scalability
Magento is a high-performance, scalable solution that can handle almost anything that you throw at it. It has an advanced storage system that makes your site supremely responsive without the need to make large investments in server technologies.
There are several other useful features such as multi-language support, various payment delivery options, integration with third-party plug-ins, and one-step checkouts, at affordable costs.
While you might need some basic PHP knowledge and your own hosting account, Magento is definitely one of the best platforms available. The scalability, performance, and the amazing community support give it its edge.
So, are you deploying Magento for your online store? What platform were you using before? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading!
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