Magento Review
Magento Review
How do you go shopping these days? I'm sure you have been annoyed by the COVID-19 pandemic because it changes everyone's lifestyle. Back then, we used to go shopping physically. However, it was not just shopping. It was a time for getting around, having fun, and hanging around with friends.
Now, it is not possible because everyone is scared of this mysterious disease. We needed to change our shopping style. And, that's where the internet started to help us. How? Well, you don’t need to go out. Or, you don’t need to waste your time staying in traffic for hours, bargaining with stupid salespeople who just think about their interests.
All these things have gone. We can do online shopping now. It is a very practical and efficient way of buying what you want. So, who is responsible for online shopping? Who is running it? In fact, there are hundreds of websites offering their visitors to buy from them in exchange for discounts and many other benefits.
Magento is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the world. Today, in this review, we are going to learn about this platform. However, before Magento, it is better to know what e-commerce is and how many types it has. Also, we need to know some of the best advantages of e-commerce platforms. So, let's get started.
What Is E-Commerce?
Let's keep it simple. E-commerce happens when you buy or sell something over the internet. it could be everything from goods and services. You might think that it is easy to handle it. However, sometimes it gets really complicated for example in transmitting funds/data.
Also, all financial transactions are happening through the internet. As you can see it has a very broad definition. However, there are some elements everyone agrees with. First, let me say that the word e-commerce is spelled in many different ways, including e-commerce, E-commerce, E-Commerce, eCommerce, and eCommerce. So, don’t get confused when you see them all on the internet. They are all the same. E-commerce is one of the most promising sections of the industry with lots of interest at the end.
How Does E-Commerce Work?
There are several online stores where your internet visitors can easily enter, select their product or service, pay the price and receive it as soon as possible. So, how does e-commerce work? The first and most important feature of e-commerce is that e-commerce gives its power from the internet.
As soon as a visitor is happy with the product/service you have intended to buy, communication happens several times between the customer's web browser and the server that hosts the online store website. then, the central computer, which is known as the order manager, will receive data about the order. The data will eventually end up forwarding to databases that are responsible for managing inventory levels, a merchant system, and a back computer.
The sufficiency of customer funds must be confirmed. After the order validation was processed, a notification will be sent to the store's web server. Another similar message will also be sent to the customer.
At this stage, the order data will be sent to the warehouse or fulfillment department. Then, the product and service need to be dispatched to the customer without any delay.
Types Of E-Commerce
As we said, e-commerce means buying and selling products and services on the internet. However, due to the very diverse needs that people have, the methods of e-commerce have been diversified too. In fact, we have seven types of e-commerce. We are going to briefly mention those.
Business To Consumer (B2C)
This is one of the most common types of e-commerce. It happens when a company tries to sell its products/services to ordinary consumers. Many big names in the market such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Walmart, Alibaba, etc. are some of the examples of B2C. B2C is very diverse itself. There are five types of B2C on the internet. Let's have a look at them.
Direct Sellers
This one is very famous and common. A product/service is sold directly to consumers. Many small, as well as big online businesses such as Microsoft and Apple, have chosen this method.
Online Intermediaries
In this method, the website that is selling the product doesn’t own it. In fact, the website advertises the product and makes it more highlighted so that more consumers buy it. In this way, the owner of the product can sell more. The website owner will take a cut of the transaction. Giants like eBay and Esty are applying this method.
Advertising Based B2C
This is also well-known. Imagine that you are a company producing home appliances. So, you pay some websites with the highest rate of traffic to advertise for you.
For example, you can pay YouTube to put several advertisements on a different part of its website. Then, you can be hopeful to increase your reach and make more sales. Community-based B2C and free-based B2C are two less familiar types of B2C.
Business To Business (B2B)
This method happens when big companies sell their product to other big enterprises including manufacturers and wholesalers. Also, a wholesaler can sell the product to a retailer too. Raw materials, software, or combined products can be sold in this method.
As an example, Apple company sells its products to other big companies such as Intel, Panasonic, and Semiconductor producer Micron Technology. Another example is the automobile industry. Materials like tires, batteries, electronics, hoses, and door locks are produced by some companies and sold to the automobile industry.
Direct To Consumer (D2C)
This is a novel method compared with other methods of e-commerce. Many brands are applying this method now to maximize their profit. In this method, big brands don’t waste their budget on paying retailers, distributors, or wholesalers. Instead, they try to exploit the internet to create a very direct relationship with their customers.
In this way, they get to know their customers much better and can revise their products and services as they wish. For example, these days, many businesses are very active on Instagram and make a close relationship with their target niche. They present their products and sell very efficiently. Also, methods such as subscriptions are another way of direct relationship.
Consumer To Consumer (C2C)
This is another interesting method of e-commerce. This is pretty recent. There are many things in your home and you don’t need them anymore. For example, you might have needed a big smart TV for your office but now you are quitting the job. You just want to get rid of it and sell it very quickly. Or, you might have a car but want to buy a higher model.
You don’t want to pay thousands of dollars to dealers to sell it for you. So, in these cases, you will need a consumer-to-consumer method of e-commerce. You just have to take some nice photos of your products, prepare a short description for them, and upload it on one of the websites designed to connect you to people who might be interested in your products. Companies like eBay, Etsy, etc. are some of the examples of C2C.
Consumer To Business (C2B)
Millions of people all around the world are getting more and more dependent on this type of e-commerce. It is relaxing and profitable for both businesses and consumers.
In this method, the product is usually made or produced by individuals or a team for use in a specific company or enterprise. In fact, freelancers are playing a key role here. What are the products of freelancers? There are many! They range from texts, photos, translated materials, and articles to software, websites, games, etc.
For example, you are a manager of a business need to run a professional website for selling your products. Well, the good news is that you don’t need to hire someone and pay for the equipment, facility, insurance, educations, etc. A freelancer can do the job for you and you pay based on his/her performance for this single project.
It is a win-win situation for both sides as you are free from spending too much and the freelancer can manage his/her time without getting stuck in a normal 8 am to 5 pm office work.
Advantages Of E-Commerce
You might have already guessed some of the most important benefits of e-commerce. Let's have a look at them.
Availability
Your products and services are being presented to millions of consumers seven days of the week and 24 hours of the day. You don’t need to open/close your online store at any specific or fixed time.
Everyone from every corner of the world will be able to browse your product and make a purchase if they like to. For example, when it's time for bed in your country, people in many other places of the world are awake and still buying from your online store.
Speed Of Access
Everything from choosing the product and paying the price to confirm your payment and receiving it happens much faster than normal situations. So, all processes start and finish relatively quickly.
Easy Accessibility
Sometimes, it is very hard to find the product you want. One reason might be the fact that no systematic categorization is in place in a physical store. However, with an online store, you can easily see the categorization of different products to reach them much faster.
International Reach
With an e-commerce business, you will be able to make your voice an international one. With a professional website in English as an international language, everybody can communicate and interact with it. definitely, there are millions of people living outside of your country but pretty interested in your products and services. With some efforts, you can make them your loyal consumers.
Lower Cost
This is pretty obvious that running an online store is much less expensive than a real store. You have to pay for water, electricity, gas, etc., and hire one or two workers to sort everything out. However, with a professional website, not much effort needs to be made.
Personalization And Product Recommendations
In a normal store, how do you guide people when they step inside your store? Probably, you will take a look at them and come with some recommendations, won't you?
However, with e-commerce, based on the history of each visitors' search, you will be able to anticipate what they are looking for and show it to them. Then, they will do the rest for you!
Magento! A Brilliant Name In The Industry Of E-Commerce
We have said pretty amazing stuff about e-commerce. So, now, let's see what Magento can offer us. The first question coming to my mind is “what is Magento?”. Let's start with that.
- Magento was started by Roy Rubin.
- Magento was previously named Varian in 2004. In 2008, it was turned into Magento earning billions of dollars in sales per year ever since.
- In 2011, 49% of Magento was acquired by eBay. It cost nearly 180 million dollars at that time. The entire acquisition happened a few months later.
- They have been pretty successful as nearly $155 billion worth of goods were sold through the Magento-based system.
- The platform's source code has been downloaded nearly 2,500,000 times.
- The platform is great for all different types of jobs. There are nearly 100k online stores selling products and services non-stop.
- These online stores are b2b and b2c. Also, they can be small, medium as well as big enterprises. For example, Coca-Cola, Nike, Ford, and Warby Parker are some of the big names in the study.
An Open-Source E-Commerce Platform
Magento is an open-source e-commerce CMS platform. Oh! Didn’t you understand anything? So, let me get a bit deep. We say that Magento is an open-source platform which basically means that everybody has access to the source code under a specific License. Therefore, modifying, enhancing, and altering Magento can be happened by any user accessing that source code. Basically, coding is free on Magento.
A Path For Commercial Transactions
We know that Magento is an e-commerce software. It means that all the commercial transactions are doable within the system electronically. In another word, Magento is an application that sells products/services online.
A Content Management System
Managing all content related to any commercial product you have focused on. These days, the importance of good content is clear like the sun. Content can direct the consumer to any specific brand or company to buy from.
Nowadays, people don’t look for products. Instead, they try to get as much as information possible. So, it gives you an amazing chance to anticipate their searches and come up with some nice suggestions about the quality and quantity of the texts. Your content is vital in attracting new visitors and turn them into your loyal consumers.
Successful E-Commerce Sites
As I said earlier, there are many competitors in the market. Do you know the giants of e-commerce? And, do you know what they sell? Or, what types of e-commerce they are doing? Here is a shortlist of some of the best in the market.
Alibaba is a Chinese company that was launched in 1999. Its main focuses are B2B, C2C, and B2C. The next company is Amazon which is conserved as the biggest retailer in the United States.
Walmart is active in offering traditional retail sales and grocery delivery as well as subscription services. eBay is another big name in the market, letting consumers and businesses get to know each other. Finally, another big name on the stage is Wayfair as one of the most efficient drop-shippers.
Suppliers, orders, and fulfillment are all managed by Wayfair. There are many more names which we don’t have time to discuss. However, after introducing Magento we will get back to this part and talk about several alternatives to Magento.
Reviews For Magento
The best way to understand whether a product or service works fine is to ask people who have used it. So, in this section, I'm going to focus on what people have said about it and whether they recommend it to other people or now. Let's get started. Before that, keep in your mind that they might be biased or just the competitors' agents sabotaging Magento's reputation. However, when you read enough, you will be able to distinguish between what's true and what's not true about it.
Review From E-Commerce-Patforms.Com
This is one of the most famous sites for writing about e-commerce platforms. So, it is a good idea to start with it. The website has mentioned several pros and a bunch of cons for Magento. We are going to briefly mention them. Let's start with the pros.
- As we said earlier, Magento is an open-source platform, so it is basically free to download. It is good for small businesses who want just to give it a try.
- People who are considered as dummies can easily use it thanks to the fact that it has been built very user-friendly.
- The backend user interface has been well-developed and it offers many different features.
- Extension and customization are available.
- It is scalable. It means that you can start with limited options and features and if you get many more visitors, you will be able to exploit more advanced features.
- There are several payment gateway integration options available.
- All of your themes and templates can be easily adjusted.
However, there are several disadvantages associated with Magento too. Here are some of the most important ones.
- Although non-technical people can get used to working with it, some people have said that even simple skills of coding knowledge could be difficult to communicate with.
- There is no good support available. However, if you pay for the expensive enterprise package, you will be able to receive comments from experts.
- Some features that you might need are missing. So, sometimes, you need to access a developer to do the job for you.
Now, we are going to review Magento concerning the features:
- Ease of use
- Pricing
- Templates & Design
- Inventory
- SEO & marketing
- Security
- Customer support, and
- The most important of all is payments.
Magento Review Of Features
Of course, there are several issues related to features. They include SEO, marketing, promotions & conversions, site management, catalogue management, catalogue browsing, product browsing, and checkout, payment, and shipping. We cannot cover them all but we review some important issues here.
- It has Google site mapping for online ranking.
- URLs are customizable.
- The data for each page of your e-commerce business is available.
- Printing is available for packing slips, invoices, labels, etc.
- Creating and editing orders are available.
- Shipping is integrated with Google analytics.
- Order tracking can be observed on your site.
We can also check other websites for reviews.
In merchantmaverick.com several pros such as
- Free downloading
- Great feature set
- High customizability and scalability, and finally
- The active global user community
and a few cons including:
- Developer skills required
- The steep learning curve and
- No customer support
have been mentioned as well. Also, in this review, Shopify, Square Online, BigCommerce, and Shif4Shop are four of the alternatives provided.
Other reviews come from g2.com. Interestingly, one reviewer said Magento is the best e-commerce platform one will ever see! He is happy that it is based on PHP and the architecture is JavaScript. If you are interested in learning more about it, just check the website.
>>>Please click here to go to Magento now<<<
Conclusion
e-commerce is something every business should think of. Your brand or company is not going to survive if you haven’t thought about your online presence. Several platforms can help you dominate the market and increase your sale. Magento is one of the biggest platforms in the e-commerce industry.
Here, in this article, we first talked about different types of e-commerce. Then, we introduced the platform Magento and reviewed its pros and cons. So, if you are interested in knowing about other platforms, don’t be worried because we are coming back very soon with new content.
I trust you enjoyed the Magento Review. Please stay tuned for more articles like this to come. Take care!
JeannetteZ
Your Opinion Is Important To Me
Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? I would love to hear from you. Please leave me your questions, experiences, remarks, and/or suggestions about this Magento Review in the comments section below. You can also reach me by email at Jeannette@WorkFromAnywhereInTheWorld.com.
>>>Please click here to go to Magento now<<<
You might also enjoy the following blog posts:
MAGENTO – An Easy Step-By-Step Tutorial For Beginners
WooCommerce Made Simple: An Easy Step-By-Step Tutorial
How To Build A Free Online Store
