What is magento eCommerce

Magento e-commerce is a feature rich open source e-commerce platform that is used by many of the top multinational businesses today. It offers business owners true flexibility and more importantly controls over the design, content, and functionality. The script is completely scalable and has a wide range of options built into its control panel that benefit it’s users greatly.

Magento was released in 2007 and in just 18 months of being launched Magento surpassed one million downloads. It was developed by Varien (now Magento Inc) and is owned solely by Magento. The software was developed using the Zend Framework and uses EAV for the database to store data.

Magento Main Features

Analytics and reporting
Magento’s reporting suite allows the user of the online store to view store performance to enable effective changes that are needed to address your online customers’ needs.
Some of the features:
Google analytics integration
Sales reports
RSS order feed
VAT reports
Abandoned cart reports
Most viewed products report
Most purchased products report
Stock reports
Keyword report
Review report
Coupon report
Refund report
Repeat customer report

Product browsing

Magento features many product browsing features to help your business display, up-sell and cross-sell to increase revenue streams.
Some of the features:
Multiple display images
Zoom capability of the product thumbnail
Reviews
Stock numbers
Related products
Add to wish list
Send a friend an email of product

Customer accounts

Magento’s customer accounts allow the customer to save products to a wish list, edit details such as address and trackback activity they have had in the store, such as viewing reviews they have made on products.
Some of the features:
Orders – to include status and history
Re-orders
Default billing and order address
Wishlist
Reviews submitted
Account dashboard of full shopping cart options and information

Customer service

Magento’s enhanced customer service suite gives the customer a feature-rich list of options to include.
Some of the features:
Contact form
Customer accounts
Order history
Order tracking
Request forgotten password
Creation of orders and customising of existing orders from the admin panel

Checkout

Magento’s checkout will either allow a registered user or a guest to check out, with further options such as personal gift messages and use multiple delivery addresses and much more.

Some of the features:

Single page checkout
SSL supported for front end and back end
Function to deliver to more than one address in one order
Guest checkout
VAT and shipping estimates
Option to create an account before the checkout page
Gift messages per order and per item

As you can see from some of the features above Magento is a feature rich e-commerce solution.

Who uses Magento?

Ford uses Magento for its vehicle accessories online website.

Olympus is another great example of a large corporation that has deployed the Magento framework.

Nike used the Magento framework for its first online store in Australia.

Why Magento is a good choice

Magento has been chosen by many of the largest companies around the world and is the fasted growing e-commerce platform around the globe. It’s feature rich functionality make this platform key choice along with how quick it can be deployed. No matter if your business is small or large whether your business trades in retail or manufacturing, Magento is a great choice to achieve your tactical objectives.