Planning for an e-commerce venture? Picking up the right e-commerce platform is one of the significant steps. Here is a comprehensive read on choosing Magento to empower your online store.
The world of e-commerce is advancing at an unprecedented rate globally and regionally. Undoubtedly, e-commerce is the future of retail. The revenue in Australian e-commerce market is growing at an annual growth rate of 7.6% and is expected to reach at a market volume of US$ 26,905m by 2023.
If you want to capitalize on this transformation, this is the right time to begin an e-commerce venture. In case you have an established retail nine-to-five store and looking forward to sustainable long-term growth, it is time to act proactively by extending it to online.
When it comes to e-commerce website development, choosing between a custom web developmentand pre-made website template is a tough call. Both come with a list of pros and cons hence you need to analyze it and choose as per the project requirement. However, to gain a competitive advantage in the market, a custom e-commerce website works better.
A custom e-commerce website is professionally designed and developed from the scratch to suit your specific project requirement. It ensures higher ROI as it is mainly built after a thorough analysis of your business objectives and target audience.
There are more advantages to choosing custom e-commerce web development which is listed below.
➢ Higher User Engagement
Custom development offers a larger room for aesthetic expression and visual effectiveness. The website will be more visually appealing for your target audience which will result in increased traffic and sales. With custom-built websites, you can expect increased user engagement as well.
➢ Uniqueness
Having a run of the mill website is not beneficial in the long term for any forward-looking organization. A custom-made webpage gives you an opportunity to establish the uniqueness of your business online. It gives you the chance to include unique features in your website which will help in your brand building.
➢ Scalability
The size of your business is a make or break factor when you choose between a custom-built website and web template. As a start-up, you may not require a complex site. However, as your business grows, it becomes a prerequisite to have a site with advanced features. A custom-built site lets you integrate extra functionalities anytime you require it whereas scalability in pre-built templates is hardly possible.
➢ Search Engine-friendly
One reason why major businesses prefer to have custom websites is that it can be optimized for search engines. The brand will have higher visibility because search engines prefer custom-built sites over web templates. Moreover, it can be optimized for other devices like smartphones, tablets, etc.
Although a custom-built website is an expensive option, it gives you multiple opportunities regarding features, optimization, scalability, and business growth. However, you need a reliable platform to build the e-commerce website. That is where Magento comes in.
Magento is one of the powerful platforms for e-commerce website development which is used by startups and established businesses alike. It is a preferred choice for some of the world’s leading brands like Ford, Nike, OnePlus, etc.
It is estimated that Magento is used by more 146,394 websites in the world and enjoys a market share of 17% among the top 100k sites. Read below the reasons behind the much acceptance and popularity of Magento and how you benefit out of choosing it.
➢ A Flexible E-commerce Platform
When compared with other available options, Magento is undoubtedly one of the most flexible e-commerce platforms. The CMS of this e-commerce platform is highly flexible and works well regardless of the sales volume. Apart from that, when your online store is built in Magento e-commerce platform, your company will enjoy the ownership of the website and access to hosting. Hence you will have full accountability and ownership of the built product.
➢ Open Source Platform
Magento is a preferred choice for a large number of small and mid-sized organizations mainly due to its open source nature. It is obtainable for all users free of cost; hence the hefty license purchase costs can be avoided. All you need is to download and install the software and start building the website.
➢ Mobile-friendly E-commerce
With the current smartphone ownership of Australians being at 88%, a large number of customers access your online store via mobile devices. In Magento, you can build a website that can be seamlessly viewed in various mobile devices. It is one of the best mobile-friendly e-commerce platforms.
➢ A lot of Possible Extensions
Another plus factor of Magento is a large number of extensions it offers. It can be easily integrated with your website depending on your specific requirements. The ready-to-use extensions make the development process easier, and they are comparatively inexpensive.
➢ Support Community
Since its launch in 2008, Magento has been a robust e-commerce platform in the market which has led to the creation of an extensive support network. Being one of the hottest technologies in the present age, Magento has a large number of developers and coding enthusiasts who are accessible for online support.
➢ High Security
Be it a small business or established one, security is a prime concern for any organization. Since websites built on Magento comes with useful data encryption features, you can ensure enhanced safety to your customers.
➢ Search-engine-friendly
Furthermore, Magento has advanced SEO support features which make websites friendly to search engines. This e-commerce platform offers powerful SEO features that include search-engine-friendly URLs, customized meta descriptions, meta keywords, Google sitemap, image optimization, etc. Your website will enjoy higher search engine ranking with Magento, provided the SEO optimization is appropriately carried out.
Apart from the above-said features, there is a multitude of reasons that make Magento the preferred choice for start-ups and small business owners.
Cost-effective – Since zero expense is involved in license purchase, you need to incur the cost of development and integration in Magento e-commerce development.
Simplified process – Magento is highly user-friendly which makes it easier for you to operate your online store without any technical expertise. The CMS comes with an easy-to-use, intuitive dashboard where you can manage everything related to the store like product catalog, payment, products, pricing, offers, etc.
Excellent features – Magento website development platform offers a vast set of customization options which makes it ideal for both B2B and B2C industries. The various customization possibilities make it easier to build an online store that is well-equipped to meet your particular business requirements.
Payment gateway – Since Magento has partnered with several major banks, you can establish a robust, flexible and fast payment gateway to make transactions easy for the customers.
Magento offers excellent features, modules, extensions, various customization options to build an awesome e-commerce store. Although it is super-powerful and can do wonders, the choice of platform to create your online store should depend on whether it meets your unique business requirement.
However, hiring the right Magento e-commerce developers or a team who understands your business requirements is a decisive step. In a highly competitive market, you cannot afford to make a mistake on website development that may bring down your sales. Therefore, make sure you work with developers who have extensive technical knowledge and expertise in Magento e-commerce website development.