Magento is the most robust open source (Free to use) e-commerce platform in the ecommerce industry. The platform was first released in 2007 and has been growing ever since. In the later years, Magento was then bought by eBay. Saying Magento is a robust platform is actually an understatement. In my many years of development, I've yet to see a platform that can compete whether paid or open source. Let's put it this way, there are so many configuration settings in the administration panel there are many seasoned Magento administrators and developers that are still learning new things about the platform. Magento 1.x was built around the Zend Framework. The Zend Framework, for those who aren't familiar, is a php rapid development skeleton that uses the MVC(Model View Controller) methodology. It allows for PHP developers to create feature rich platforms with pre built functions. An example is a function we all use everyday, logging into your social network account. Now imagine being able to create the ability to login and logout of a dashboard in a matter of a day where as in the olden times, this function would take weeks. The Zend Framework comes with many useful functions pre packaged. As i mentioned previously, Magento is an open source platform. This means it is free to use commercially. I remember the first time I found out about the free platform I couldn't believe my eyes. A platform like this takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to create. Yes folks, it is free!. You can get a copy of the platform on Magento's website. http://magento.com. They even offer free updates and security patches. In the computer world, that's like saying Microsoft Windows is free with free updates. Magento is used by popular brands. Some you may know such as Burger King, Swiss Gear, and Invicta. Others you may not know such as Fraport (German Airport Store), and SEAT, a subsidiary of Volkswagen. Let's start off with the saying the possibilities are endless. Magento is an Enterprise solution, with enterprise options from flexible SEO options to a streamlined checkout. Furthermore, the platform can be formatted to fit your business needs. Have multiple warehouses? No problem! Work from home and only dropship? No problem! Do you have a start up retail business? No problem! There's Point of Sale Software that manages your POS and Magento Inventory. We can even go further to say that you can also connect Magento to your Amazon shop or Ebay shop. The list goes on! I've literally seen sales increase when a client moved to Magento. The most important to know about Magento. It does not perform well to hacky development. Everything must be developed within Magento standards. This means, that Odesk developer that charges 10/hr to build your website will not cut it. You will end up spending more money trying to fix your website instead of working on what's truly important, improvements to increase sales even further. All too often I've seen clients complain about Magento being a bad shopping cart software when behind the scenes, their website is running poorly because of poor choices in picking a developer to manage their website. This turns into poorly written themes, php code, and extensions. If you need to know if Magento will fit your needs or need advise with your current Magento website? Give us a shout! Click Here! Side Note: I've worked with Open Commerce, Zen cart, Agora Cart, Open cart, Woocommerce, Shopify, and i've yet to see a platform that can compete with the Magento platform. Thanks for reading, I hope you've found this information useful. What is Magento?
What makes Magento tick
Magento is free
An Enterprise solution for large corp. and start-ups
What can Magento do for my business?
Keep Magento clean and reap the benefits.
