Having a stable eCommerce business website is a must, and this can be achieved by selecting a reliable platform. Over the past decade, eCommerce platforms have seen tremendous expansion in ranking high on search engines.
Several eCommerce systems have made PHP developers’ programming tasks more effective and efficient. But there’s one platform that has consistently dominated the top of the list year after year: Magento.
Full-stack development might be more intricate than it is when a platform is not well-balanced. Fortunately, Magento is leading the market when it comes to eCommerce full-stack development. Today, we are looking at the reasons why Magento is the top choice as an eCommerce platform.
Features of Magento
Magento is built on open-source technologies. And what made the platform gain dominant ground against the competition is its flexible shopping cart system. It offers retailers total control over their online storefront’s looks, feels, and operations.
There are reportedly more than 185,000 operational Magento stores, according to BuiltWith data. The percentage of the market that Magento represents on the list of the top 1 million websites on the Alexa Web traffic analytics service is 4.24%. Thus, there are nearly 27,000 Magento stores on the list of websites on Alexa.
As of June 2020, Magento will have phased out all current Magento versions; thus, new versions are not kept up to date by the company. Adobe Commerce Cloud, first announced in March 2018, is available now. It is a cloud-based Magento build that utilizes other Adobe products.
Benefits of an Open-Source Platform
To build Magento, developers used open-source for both its license and technologies. And this is a good thing because:
- An open-source code allows anybody to view, use, analyse, alter, and share it.
- It encourages collaboration to produce better outcomes.
- It includes complete catalogue management.
- It allows the user to integrate instant purchase and site search functionalities.
As a result, it makes Magento customizable. It has higher security requirements and more dependable performance. This platform is just perfect for PHP developers for website building to meet the goals of sellers and other end users.
Hosting Freedom
Many of Magento’s competitors, such as Shopify, put limits on online shop hosting variants. With this backend, users may use whatever type of hosting they prefer.
Users of Magento can select from the hosting provider the package and mode they feel best meets their requirements. What’s more, if you decide to shift to another hosting provider, they’ll be able to simply “pick up” their online shop and relocate to a better web host. Although, like any other eCommerce system on the market, this level of flexibility can’t be guaranteed.
Third-Party Components and Extensions
Magento never hesitates to integrate and employ third-party products and solutions. It’s one of the key reasons for its popularity and profitability among developers. The platform includes third-party connectors, components, and extensions to make it easy to:
- Install new Magento versions
- Update the platform
- Build new features and functions
Not to mention that people like having the option of increasing their services via an add-on that is either free or inexpensive.
Magento enables you to easily add whatever you want to your website, whether it is a/an:
- Payment gateway
- Feedback and rating plugin
- Social network integration
- Analytics tool
This provides you with the ability to enhance the design, function, and style of your shopfront.
Tons of Customization Options
When working with Magento, users can opt to add more than simple plugins and extensions. This makes Magento very configurable. A retailer must be able to customize their shopfront, so it represents their:
- Commercial products
- Marketing strategy
- Business sensibility
Almost everything is adjustable to match the demands of the business. From the size, layout, and design to the quantity of items, information, check-out processes, and payment options, and more.
Customization possibilities do not end with the shopfront. Alterations to the backend, such as code modification, are also conceivable and quite simple to accomplish.
Speed, Flexibility, Scalability
The strength of an eCommerce platform in the market is measured through its speed. Compared to other eCommerce platforms, Magento has the fastest browsing speed. And we are certain that many people would concur.
The core reason lies in the user experience. No user would bother to patiently wait for an online shop that takes forever to load. And this is what Magento wants sellers to avoid experiencing.
The same holds true for flexibility and scalability. Some shops need more resources than others. Magento can accommodate almost any size business, from small “mom and pop” shops to large corporate chains. This has made Magento a system that you can rely on as your company expands in the future.
Automatic Responsiveness
Mobile devices account for a significant part of eCommerce transactions. And their use is increasing significantly year after year. As a result, an online shop needs to be mobile-friendly to retain customers.
Magento, like other eCommerce systems, strives to deliver responsive solutions. It ensures that all shops developed on its platform can operate and be seen effortlessly on all portable devices by using HTML5. This also includes drag-and-drop, griding, picture resizing, and other capabilities.
Fixed Issues
To date, Magento has been active in fixing issues that clients encounter from time to time. The latest version, Magento Open Source 2.4.1., contains approximately 280 new core code updates and 35 security upgrades.
It accommodates the resolving of around 290 GitHub problems by members of the developers’ community. These community contributions vary from simple code clean-up to important GraphQL upgrades.
Installation, Upgrade, Deployment
Thanks to Adobe Commerce integration, installing, upgrading, and deploying in Magento is convenient. This requires a single Git repository for Production, which contributes to its accessibility.
There is a maximum of four active environments, including a production server master environment. If you want to simplify web development, you can start with the platform’s Starter architecture.
In essence, to produce and implement the websites of their clients, PHP developers can:
- Develop, stage, and then deploy client website
- Use the Development > Staging > Production process
As for Magento’s deployment, you may refer to the following, which may be utilized to merge with the Staging and Production environments:
- Project Web Interface
- SSH
- Magento Cloud CLI commands
Adobe Stock Integration
With Magento, you will get access to full Adobe Stock Integration. This service gives you access to a wide range of high-quality, hand-picked, and royalty-free:
- Photographs
- Vectors
- Drawings
- Films
- Templates
- 3D assets
In other words, you can quickly locate, examine, and get Adobe Stock assets for use in all your creative endeavours.
Analytics
Magento Analytics is currently known as Magento Business Intelligence (BI). It uses a cost-free ARM (Advanced Reporting Module). This adds a dashboard view to reports and improves metrics. User information is centralized with another provider by Magento that utilizes your account to obtain the data it needs.
Bundle Products
Magento has another unique product integration feature: the “Bundle Products.” This is customizable and, with it, you may create yours from a given set of templates.
Each component in this bundle might differ according to whether it’s a Simple Product or a Virtual Product. Since then, you may configure a bundle’s value to be either dynamic or fixed.
Cart and Checkout
Magento’s cart and checkout are straightforward to work on for PHP developers. It’s all due to the collection of Knockout JS components, which is displayed using the Knockout JS templating framework.
In Magneto 2, PHP developers can take advantage of the components’ parent-child connection. This will be compiled in a big XML file for added convenience. Additionally, you can expand or alter this file in the theme or module of your choice.
Custom Customer Attributes
These distinct variables give the data needed to support a fulfilment, order, or operation. You may have to install fields other than those offered by default if you have specific needs. You can add these attributes to the following sections:
- Customer’s information
- Location or address
- Billing information (BI)
As for the address, they may also be utilized after checkout. Or it can also be for when visitors register for a new account in the BI section.
Key Takeaways
Magento is an open-source eCommerce platform that gives PHP developers:
- A versatile line of possibilities to implement functions for their client’s website
- Control over the design, content, and functioning of their online store.
Magento provides options for any PHP developer to put in place to meet their client’s needs. These are:
- Robust marketing and sales functionality
- Search engine optimisation
- Catalogue management
Considering the Magento full-stack development factors above will make the best out of your online business. It may result in a significant increase in:
- Efficiency at development
- UI improvement
- Overall satisfaction of various clients
By following these guidelines, you will understand how amazing it is to build an eCommerce website with Magento.