What is Magento? Understanding the eCommerce Powerhouse

The remarkable rise of the e-commerce industry has been one of the defining factors of the last few decades, with modern consumers now able to order almost anything at any time directly to their homes.

By 2026, experts believe almost 25% of all retail purchases will take place online, demonstrating the popularity of e-commerce among the general public. But as most consumers will know, the quality of e-commerce sites can differ to a surprising degree.

While there are many factors to consider when assessing the quality of e-commerce sites, the platform businesses choose to build their brand on is perhaps the most important. These end-to-end software solutions allow businesses to manage assets, adjust marketing channels and adapt websites to best suit a wide variety of personal and professional needs.

But how do e-commerce retailers choose the right platform? Well, with almost 150,000 sites and a year-on-year growth of 33%, the Magento platform may be a great place to start. But what is Magento? And why has this e-commerce platform proved so popular with retailers?

What is Magento?#

Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform written in the PHP scripting language and marketed towards e-commerce retailers of all sizes. Originally released in 2008, the platform was later acquired by Adobe Inc in 2018, and is now ranked as the 4th most commonly used e-commerce platform globally with a market share of almost 2.45% and over 67,000 clients. 

The Magento platform is particularly popular with smaller e-commerce retailers, likely due to the service’s dynamic pricing system. Magento Open Source is completely free-to-open with slightly limited functionality, and subscriptions can be upgraded later to unlock new features. 

The popularity of Magento has grown significantly in recent years, with the service having been among the three most popular platforms for brands to migrate to in 2020, and the third highest market share with regards to the top one million e-commerce sites by traffic globally.

The key features of Magento#

Magento’s key features are easily-accessible regardless of which service tier brands choose to utilize, with those being Magento Open Source, Magento Community Edition and Magento Enterprise Edition. While rising levels of developer support and functionality are provided as brands upgrade through the tier system, Magento’s key features are available to all clients. 

Popular basic features of Magento include:

• Inventory management - Ensure inventory accuracy with live updates regarding stock levels across multiple sales channels to avoid instances of over/under-selling
• Product management - Display listings professionally with intuitive browsing tools, multiple product images per listing, zoom features, live stock availability counters, wish list options, pricing tiers, comments sections and multiple additional features
• Catalog management - Help customers find and assess products easily using category labeling tools, virtual product showcasing features, detailed product descriptions, dynamic pricing and easily-navigated social media sharing tools
• Customer accounts - Simplify customer account management with account status reports, transaction histories, multiple billing options and product recommendations
• Payment options - Multiple payment methods supported including PayPal, credit cards, Google Checkout and Apple Pay, with complete SSL security and encryption
• Analytics and reporting - Integration with Google Analytics to compile sales, tax, abandoned cart, product review, low stock, search term and coupon usage reports

Why e-retailers choose Magento#

Magento has proven popular with e-commerce retailers of all sizes for the platform’s intuitive and easily-managed core features. Setting up a Magento e-commerce store requires little technical knowledge or developmental experience, with active sites able to be easily scaled in line with expected business growth. Some of the main benefits of Magento stores include:

Dynamic pricing structure #

E-retailers of all sizes can find a Magento plan to suit their needs, with businesses able to choose from three primary account types that can be freely adjusted as and when required.

• Magento Open Source - No license fee / $100 - $500 per year web hosting fee
• Magento Commerce - $22,000 - $125,000 per year license fee / $500 - $6,500 per year hosting fee
• Magento Commerce Cloud - $40,000 - $190,000 per year license fee / no hosting fee

For Magento Commerce and Magento Commerce Cloud packages, pricing will be calculated in response to the client’s annual sales. Retailers that take in less than $1 million in gross revenue will pay reduced fees, while those taking in $25 million + are charged higher rates.

This dynamic pricing structure ensures businesses of all sizes can benefit from the platform.

Open source customization#

Thanks to the platform’s open source design, Magento offers its customers a truly flexible, scalable and customizable base from which to build a unique e-commerce store. Layouts, pages and directories can be freely adjusted in line with changing business needs, allowing e-retailers to add or remove functionality in response to client requests and data research.

A wide variety of third-party plug-ins, software solutions and tools can also be integrated into active Magento stores. This enables clients to benefit from popular data analysis tools such as Google Analytics and Hotjar, alongside additional management tools like third-party ERP, inventory management, shipping and logistics solutions, allowing for limitless customization.

Advanced security features #

Magento store operators benefit from an extensive range of internal security tools designed to protect both company and customer data from unauthorized access. Built-in Adobe Commerce tools perform advanced cybersecurity scans to identify and address suspicious activity, ensuring business owners are always immediately notified of potential cyber threats.

Mobile-first optimization#

With data suggesting almost 80% of smartphone users made at least one purchase online during the first 6 months of 2023, mobile optimization for e-commerce stores should be a top priority. All versions of Magento utilize the HTML5 markup language to ensure all storefronts are professionally optimized and properly formatted to be viewed on modern mobile devices.

Magento sites support drag and drop, multi-touch, zoom and swipe functionality as standard, enabling mobile users to easily navigate web pages and interact with virtual product listings no matter the size of their mobile device, ensuring a uniform experience for all mobile users.

SEO-friendly structure #

The Magento platform has been purposefully designed to support brands in their efforts to improve existing SEO practices. Clients benefit from a wide range of built-in SEO tools designed to improve website visibility and help e-retailers better reach their target audience.

Magento customers can automatically generate Google sitemaps, search-friendly URLs, product titles, meta titles and meta descriptions, as well as review site search analytics to identify new keywords and trending search terms most likely to resonate with customers.

Summary#

As the popularity of e-commerce continues to grow amongst consumers, the importance of setting up a secure, intuitive and easily-navigated online store will likely become increasingly apparent to businesses of all sizes. While there are multiple options to choose from when it comes to modern e-commerce platforms, few offer as much flexibility as Adobe’s Magento.

With a tiered pricing structure, open source customization, advanced security features and built-in optimization tools, business owners can create professional storefronts with little to no prior development experience, helping brands from all walks of life benefit from the rise of e-retail. With this in mind, it’s no surprise Magento is seen as an e-commerce powerhouse.