Magento – An Overview of the Advantages and Disadvantages

Magento – An Overview

Magento is the fastest growing open source platform on the Internet, it is steadily gaining popularity among online merchants as a tool for online sales. Magento platform was created in 2008, but in 2011 became a leader of solutions for Internet commerce. Due to the huge popularity and potential, in June 2011, Magento was acquired by EBay. Its user base is growing and as of July 2011, it amounted to 65,847 Web sites. This rapid growth and popularity is not accidental.
Magento is popular and many of the world’s leading brands. Among them are: Sony, Samsung, Swarovski, Nokia, Skype, Adidas, Gucci, Yves Rocher, Bulgari, Tiffany, Victorias Secret… Let’s consider advantages, disadvantages and the comparative characteristics of the platform.
What are the competitive advantages of the platform Magento?
Complete control and 100% flexibility
Most decisions are focused and sharpened for specific tasks and a specific business. In Magento the situation is the opposite, the platform enables to set up shop as you like, and as required by your business. No more limits and restrictions.
Constant updating
The platform is regularly improved and these changes can be easily made in your Magento online shop. Updates are downloaded from the admin side and takes a few minutes.
Friendly attitude of search engines
This allows you to quickly put your site into the lead on the search results and attract visitors to your store. Magento provides the details for the SEO, for each page of the site.
Support for an unlimited number of stores
In the admin side you can manage multiple stores. You will be able to switch from one Magento shop to another.
Basic features of Magento
Shop panel, custom filters for products individuality of each page, the different binding products, detailed ways to buy products (color, size,… ), a lot of options for displaying images (enlarged detail, magnifying glass… ), online payment, unloading goods in Excel and Xml, multi-lingual, discounts, gift certificates, personal account customer, order tracking on delivery, Wishlist, newsletter, reviews, search, shopping, and more.
Architecture
Magento is written using Zend Framework, taking the best of it and adding their own unique additions, it has become very convenient mechanism for setting up and managing Internet commerce. The great advantage of this structure is the ability to update and add-ons.
On the other hand, there some shortcomings of the Magento platform. They are the following.
Demands on server resources
Magento will not work on the cheap and poorly configured servers. It requires a good server or hosting. Fortunately now, it’s not a problem, as is easily possible to find a good hosting for Magento.
Few experts in this field
Development of Internet shopping on Magento is a very difficult task. It requires a good knowledge of its structure and a lot of experience programming.
If you decided to start from the less and then to switch to the Magento, listen to a good advice. Magento will help you save money and time as it is SEO-friendly and user-friendly. So if you would like to boost your online sales, do not pass by Magento online store!