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When you put yourself in the shoes of someone looking to start a new eCommerce business from scratch, there’s actually a surprising number of avenues you can go down in terms of getting your store online.
Those lacking the more technical know-how may opt for a website builder like Squarespace where the majority of tricky coding and design issues are taken care of by the store’s theme. Others may want to go one step further and enjoy the greater freedom offered by one of the more established eCommerce platforms like Shopify. Both these options give new businesses the ability to set up a store quickly and just get selling – but is there a better way to enter the industry?
It’s fairly obvious to say that any eCommerce business will want to generate significant sales and ultimately a good chunk of profit in the long run. Sometimes it may feel like just diving straight in and learning the ropes as you go is the logical way to start – and for some business owners, they’ve enjoyed great success by taking this approach – but this doesn’t work for every business, every individual and every store.
This is where Magento offers a fantastic alternative to the simpler platforms.
Already established as the world’s leading eCommerce platform, a site built on Magento can form the cornerstone of online business success thanks to its huge support network and an unrivalled range of product management features.
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It has developed a reputation as being a more costly option when compared to the likes of Shopify and Squarespace, and it’s fair to say that there are some retailers out there that have been stung in the past due to the platform’s complexity, but none of this should put you off.
Why? Because if you want to create a website that influences, engages and converts, you’ll be hard pushed to find a better platform than Magento.
New businesses that aren’t selling online at the moment will undoubtedly be looking at a variety of options for eCommerce platforms, and chances are there’s one important question they’ll be asking themselves over and over – which is the best eCommerce platform to go for?
As part of the Media Lounge team, I can’t speak highly enough of Magento so I’m writing this article today to highlight 5 key reasons you should choose to work with this platform above all others. While it’s not perfect (what platform is?!) and won’t fit every type of business, Magento is certainly worth your consideration if you want an eCommerce platform that will change and evolve as your success grows.
Catalog Management
The main reason for having an eCommerce store is to sell products, of course, so uploading new items to your store needs to be stress-free and straightforward – which for some platforms out there just isn’t the case.
Avoid the tiresome task of manually uploading products by using Magento, which allows you to upload thousands of products with just a single click. It’s this level of functionality that encourages some of the biggest retailers in the world to use Magento over rival eCommerce platforms that don’t offer this option.
Not only can you one-click upload all your products on Magento, the platform also allows you to add a number of attributes such as SKU numbers, descriptions, prices, images, makes, models and more. This genuinely handy catalogue management system gives you complete control of your store, giving you greater freedom and more flexibility than your typical eCommerce admin panel.
Pricing Options
One of the most important requirements for any eCommerce business is its ability to adjust its prices quickly and correctly. Magento gives you the power to do this thanks to its fantastic range of customer group pricing options, allowing you to set various prices for wholesalers, staff or even VIPs. This kind of functionality just can’t be matched by other platforms and gives Magento yet another advantage over its competition.
The pricing option functionality available through Magento just can’t be matched by other platforms and gives it yet another advantage over its competition.
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To give you even more control, Magento also allows you to prevent users that aren’t logged into an account from seeing the prices of products. In doing this, you can understand the different product preferences of both new and existing customers, ultimately allowing you to make changes to your store to improve the user experience.
Stock Alerts
A much-forgotten perk of using the Magento system is the product alert feature. This isn’t an alert for you either – it’s for your customers.
Studies have shown repeatedly over the last few years that the ‘fear of missing out’ and a sense of urgency around product sales can increase conversions. Letting customers know when a particular product is on sale or back in stock after a period of being unavailable can be the spark needed to reignite that urge to buy.
This isn’t perhaps a game-changer in terms of the features that will make or break an eCommerce platform, but it’s definitely something that can help a smaller business build a more engaged customer base.
Multi-store View
Sometimes becoming the single dominant force in one country isn’t enough and you’ll want to extend your business reach across the rest of the world. It may also be the case that you’ve reached a point where your store needs to cater for more than just one language.
Some eCommerce platforms simply aren’t set up for this level of growth and you’d need to create brand new stores on different domains – not only is this a huge amount of effort, it’ll mean double the catalogue, which means double the products, which means double the hard work.
Magento is different in this aspect. The platform was built with growth and expansion in mind, which is why you can use your main store to create multiple front-end store views that deliver the same user experience to customers no matter what country they are in or language they speak. Ultimately this allows you to deliver your products to a wider audience without the need for multiple stores and all managed from one back-end system.
Customisable User Interface
The final benefit I’m going to highlight in this article is how using Magento allows you to provide your customers with a better experience when they use your store.
What do I mean by this? Well, Magento gives you the power to change the layout, design or theme of your front-end store without the need to rip out the back-end of your site.
For example, if you’ve noticed something that could be affecting your checkout process and want it changed, there’s no need to panic – with Magento, you can work to make smaller tweaks across your site over a period of time, with the end goal of increasing conversion rate and therefore profits.
Summary
Although Magento is more complicated than some of its competitors within the eCommerce platform industry, it also delivers a much more comprehensive and intuitive experience to both you and your customers.
If you want a platform that will allow your business to get up and running immediately for a small cost, you’d generally be better off looking at some of the better out-of-the-box alternatives like Squarespace and Shopify. If you’re serious about developing your eCommerce business over the long term and investing in its future, Magento is the only credible candidate in terms of a viable platform.
Still unsure? Drop an email to [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help!