Resident Magento Guru: Brian Van Buren
In addition to leading our hotshot team of web developers, our multi-talented lead developer also specializes in strategizing, conceptualizing, and programming custom Magento projects.
About Magento Programming & Development
Magento is a scalable, high-performance e-commerce solution for businesses. Right out of the box, it contains most of the functionality anyone would want or need in a shopping cart. It’s also extremely flexible and infinitely customizable.
When We Use Magento
Magento is our go-to solution when we’re building a large e-commerce site with multiple products for sale. It is a great tool that allows us to customize everything exactly how the client wants. Magento is especially powerful if there are complex business rules relating to your inventory or if we need features like promotional codes, sales, and international shipping.
If you don’t need an online store, or if you do need a store but your product selection is limited or doesn’t change much, we’ll likely go with something else. We have other solutions up our sleeve that are more practical and better suited to your needs.
About Magento 2 Programming & Development
Magento 2 is the latest platform of Magento. It allows for a better user interface, better security, and an overall faster site experience. For customers looking for the latest and greatest e-commerce platform, we highly recommend checking out Magento 2.
When We Use Magento 2
When determining if Magento 2 should be used as opposed to another service like WooCommerce or Shopify, we always take into account the complexity of the project and the client’s specific needs. The more complex the project, the more likely we are to recommend Magento 2 for their store – especially if it involves interfacing with external sources.
Magento 2 vs WooCommerce
There are several eCommerce platforms available, but Magento 2 and WooCommerce are the two we use most often. However, if your project needs any of the below features or functionality, we would recommend using Magneto 2 over WooCommerce.
Discounts and Coupon Codes – Magento 2 lets you add coupons and discounts from the very beginning. While you can find a way to add them in WooCommerce, the functionality and execution is more robust with Magento.
Multiple Languages Supported – Magento 2 comes with several languages built-in. To get this in WooCommerce, you would have to buy a plugin that would allow for multiple languages and currencies.
SEO Capabilities – While neither Magneto 2 nor WooCommerce offer SEO functionality natively, both can be achieved via plugins. Magento 2 actually takes the cake with their proprietary SEO extension, offering more features than you’d typically see with other Woo integrations.
Our Best Magento 2 Work
Below is a quick recap of some of our most recent sites that were well-suited for development with Magento 2.
Resilite – Resilite is the leading manufacturer of protective mats & padding for wrestling, gymnastics, cheerleading, pre-school, tumbling, martial arts, and more. Their reputation for customer satisfaction and first-class, American-made workmanship has helped drive them to become the world’s largest mat manufacturer. It should come as no surprise then that they have a vast and complex inventory that needs to serve the entire nation.
They have a huge catalog configurable products that need to integrate with custom shipping solutions and interface with external APIs. And, because they offer custom products, it was important to be able to dynamically calculate the costs in real time.
Blackout BMX – Blackout distributors is a wholesale supplier of BMX bike parts. Their focus is on providing the best products for BMX shops and carrying a wide range of in-demand brands, including Kink, Cinema, Merritt, ODI, Duo, KMC, Etnies, ProTec, TripleEight, and more. Because of this, they have a huge inventory that’s constantly changing.
Our Magento 2 development on the site was extensive, featuring the need to combine a large catalog of configurable products (plus inventory management) while also interfacing with Blackout’s proprietary internal business systems. Add on customized UIs for a tailored wholesale shipping experience and you’ve got yourself lots of pieces to tie together into a cohesive experience.
Ready to start your project development, but aren’t sure what will make for an optimal eCommerce solution? We hope you pull this article up to weigh the pros and cons — and maybe even consider reaching out to a(m)! We’d love to help you find your ideal development platform and get you started on a path for sales success.