Magento Shop
Optimum performance through scaling and extensions
The Magento online shop software is one of the fastest growing platforms for ecommerce. Many retailers and companies use the shop system to reach more customers and increase their online sales. The first version of the open source software was released in 2008 by Magento Inc. from Culver City (California). Since 2011, the company has been part of the X.Commerce Business Unit of eBay. Magento is a registered trademark and was released under the Open Software License 3.0. Version 2.0 was released in 2015 and is now the market leader for eCommerce platforms.
Technically, Magento consists of an open source platform with Zend PHP and MySQL databases running on a Linux server as standard. The ecommerce solution is often set up in a classic LAMP environment (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). Thanks to its modular structure, the shop system is highly flexible and fully scalable. Users also appreciate the wide range of control and configuration instruments. In addition to PHP, the shop system can also be configured and the interfaces defined via an XML file. To cache the data, the ecommerce system works with various cache backends such as ZendPlatform, SQLite, XCache and a few others.
One of the system’s capabilities is to manage several shops with their catalogs and customer data on different domains. It is also possible to set up the shop system to be multi-client capable and to display different products to customers. The shop system is also used in the B2B environment and can accept and manage orders on the frontend.
Companies that choose the ecommerce platform currently have a choice of the following editions:
Both editions use the same core, also the frontend, backend and the structures of the shop software are identical. The main differences are in features, warranties and support.
Earlier editions such as Enterprise Edition Premium and Go have since been discontinued. The latter was the smallest version of the shop system. The Go edition was hosted by the manufacturer and was intended for smaller companies or individual projects.
The Community Edition is the free version of the platform and suitable for all those who want to open an ecommerce website but only have a small budget available.
The platform can be easily set up and configured. Developers and web designers can also customize the system to their individual needs.
The free version also contains useful functions, such as granting discounts, creating wish lists, redeeming vouchers or sending newsletters. New functions can be added on request.
Magento Shop Community Edition – what you need to know:
Users do not receive any guarantees for possible errors in the shop software for the free Community Edition. In addition, many free extensions are available for the CE, which are not always error-free. Sometimes, however, companies need an ecommerce platform that is even more powerful, with professional support and functionality guaranteed. For this reason, the Enterprise Edition (EE) exists.
In contrast to the CE, an annual licence fee must be paid for the EE. In return, the user receives the following advantages:
Through professional customer support, the manufacturer ensures that the shop system runs smoothly. EE customers receive direct support, partly from the developers themselves and are preferred when fixing bugs.
Support, training and consulting are provided by experts. For any website that processes thousands of visitors, requests and sales every day, sophisticated caching is needed to take the load off the server and the database.
EE provides full page caching, resulting in significant acceleration in page load speed and server utilization. Licensees also receive modules developed by the manufacturer specifically designed for high-volume websites. These are for example modules for targeted sales campaigns, product browsing or product comparisons.
The question of guarantee and warranty is very important for users of shop systems. With the Enterprise Edition, the manufacturer is liable for sales losses caused by faulty software.
Magento Connect is a showcase function that allows you to search for extensions for both editions. Many developers offer special extensions for the shop system, which can make sense. These can be modules for marketing, site management or to improve the customer experience. Custom APIs can be created in XML for the Magento Core API. For EE, these extensions are tested and certified by the manufacturer. However, caution is advised with extensions for the CE. These are not checked and there is no guarantee for error-free operation. The company offers detailed documentation for its products to support the development of its own projects. The Magento Forum consists of a network of dedicated users who support beginners in a meaningful way. Experienced developers can have their knowledge certified and thus distinguish themselves from competitors.
Any time at:
info@srtgmbh.com
Monday – Friday
9 am – 5 pm
Send us a message by using the request form.