Ecommerce CMS Focus: Introduction to Magento

A laptop screen with an online store displaying a product

It is vital that you have a content management system (CMS) that works for you — and for your customers. Of course, you don’t want an overpriced system, but you also don’t want the frustrations of a CMS that doesn’t have the functionality or individualization you want for your online business. The Magento CMS is a popularly established option to consider. The Magento ecommerce platform, now a part of the Adobe technology family, creates engaging, shoppable experiences. Learn what Magento can do and discover if it would be a good fit for your CMS needs.

What is the Magento CMS?

The Magento CMS is an ecommerce service that allows full customization of your online store. Using Adobe Commerce, the Magento ecommerce platform combines next-generation technology with integrated B2B in a global partner ecosystem. Magento also offers an extensions marketplace for detailed individualization fully to your specifications.

The Magento ecommerce platform allows your developer team to fully customize your web store exactly as you want it. A developer team is usually necessary; with the complex allowances in the Magento interface, you will likely need to outsource your web development to a dedicated team if you don’t have your own in-house team to maximize your ecommerce platform success.

Is Adobe Commerce the Same Thing as Magento Commerce?

When Adobe acquired Magento in May 2018, the services were essentially merged. This means that Adobe Commerce is powered by Magento. In other words, the Magento ecommerce platform uses Adobe Commerce. So, essentially, Adobe Commerce has become the same thing as Magento Commerce: a cultivated, customizable CMS experience for the dedicated web designer. Magento’s CMS can be fully integrated with the rest of Adobe’s tools.

How Popular is Magento?

The Magento CMS is one of the most popular ecommerce options, powering almost 1% of the internet and about 2% of the top 10,000 websites. In addition to its current popularity, Magento has a history of successes, with a committed body of loyal users to prove it. The Magento ecommerce platform is consistently recognized as a powerful, popular CMS. This popularity extends not just to the United States but across the world. The Magento CMS is particularly used for larger businesses that have enough resources to manage a minutely customizable online interface, and many of those companies have a global reach. 

A wallet leaning against a laptop keyboard ready for online shopping

How Much Does Magento Cost?

Unlike SaaS services with up-front month-by-month cost options, Magento’s CMS includes customization from the very start. This means that their pricing varies for each business. The cost of using the Magento ecommerce platform starts at $2000 a month, with pricing based on average order value and annual online revenue. 

The different hosting options for the Magento CMS program also affect pricing. Magento Commerce is significantly less expensive than Magento Commerce Cloud, since, by nature, it does include the same cloud infrastructure hosting that allows for environment integration and staging. The premium version of the Magento CMS has a wide range of advanced marketing features. However, the Magento Open Source is available to anyone to download free of charge as a customizable, self-hosting ecommerce platform. 

If you’re considering using Magento as your CMS for your ecommerce business, the comparatively steep cost of the full-service Adobe Commerce system is a factor to keep in mind. To find out how much implementing the Magento ecommerce platform with your business would cost, you can request a free demo

Magento Features

The Magento CMS is a full ecommerce solution designed to let you have your web store exactly the way you want it. The open-source nature of the Magento ecommerce platform allows complete customization of every level of your website. Magento allows both website optimization and website redesign: you can change each detail in an ongoing optimization process after the redesign of your ecommerce offering. 

One of the highlighted features of Magento’s Adobe Commerce is its content staging option, which allows creating, previewing, and scheduling content updates from your store’s administration panel. The dynamic allowances of this page create unlimited options for ecommerce listings and systems that you can set to automatically update. Each feature offered on the Magento ecommerce platform cultivates a sophisticated and uniquely personalized web-store system.

What Sets Magento Apart?

It is important to recognize that the Magento CMS is an ecommerce platform as a service (PaaS), in contrast to software as a service (SaaS) ecommerce options such as BigCommerce and Shopify. This means that while Magento is more expensive and complex than SaaS choices, it also offers more hosting options and a huge range of features to include with essentially unlimited customization. 

Statista reports that PaaS accounts for about 20% of the overall cloud services market, with SaaS as the market majority, so the Magento CMS already stands apart with its PaaS status. Essentially the Magento ecommerce platform both requires and allows more from the host business instead of being the host themselves. You have control over the platform rather than paying to use the software. 

Using Magento as Your Ecommerce CMS

Now that you know what the Magento CMS is and what sets it apart, you can determine whether the Magento ecommerce platform would work for your business. There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing the best ecommerce CMS platform for your business, so while it’s important to consider popularity and cost, considering or even trying the features available within a given system should be your ultimate determination. 

If you’re considering the Magento CMS as an option for your web store, you could download the free Open Source to test it out. A small business could give this free version a try to see if they can run the Magento ecommerce platform with enough functionality for success. For larger businesses, the integrated full-service package of Magento Commerce will likely be a better fit. A company that wants complete customization for their ecommerce system should consider Magento as a tried-and-tested option. 

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We hope our CMS series is helpful for business owners considering opening an ecommerce store or changing their existing store’s CMS. Want more details about any of the CMS options we’ve discussed? Contact us today for more information; our customer service team will be delighted to assist you. Don’t forget to follow our blog to stay informed on the latest developments in web design and development.