Some commonly mentioned platforms for building eCommerce websites are Magento, Woocommerce, Bigcommerce, etc. Definitely, each business will have its considerations, but one platform that always appears as a top choice is Shopify. In spite of the fact that Shopify is highly rated, businesses should still weigh the pros and cons of this platform before making a final decision.

As a result, SECOMM has prepared this review, helping businesses understand what Shopify is, how Shopify works, implementation costs, and especially the pros and cons of using this platform to build a comprehensive eCommerce website.

What is Shopify?

Before becoming one of the most popular eCommerce platforms globally, Shopify started as an online ski store called Snowdevil in 2004. Later, the company transformed into an eCommerce platform named Jaded Pixel.

In 2006, Shopify was officially founded in Ottawa by young programmers Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake. Since then, Shopify has gradually affirmed its position as a reliable and fastest-growing eCommerce platform in the last two years when most companies faced many difficulties because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Up to now, the number of Shopify users has increased significantly. As reported by StoreLeads, there are currently about 2 million websites using the Shopify platform to build and develop online businesses. In the second quarter of 2022, the number of newly opened stores reached 150,928, an increase of 10.8% compared to the same period in 2021. In Vietnam alone, there are about 2,000 websites using the Shopify platform in operation, up 9.8% in the second quarter of 2022 over the same period in 2021.

Total revenue in the second quarter of 2022 reached $1.3 billion, up 16% over the same period in 2021, corresponding to a compound annual growth rate for three consecutive years of 53%. Gross profit in the second quarter of 2022 increased by 6% to $655.6 million compared to $620.9 million in the second quarter of 2021 (According to Shopify’s report).

While Shopify is one of the most popular and user-friendly eCommerce platforms available today, businesses still need to determine if this is what they need to expand their business, all the advantages and disadvantages of the platform, mostly the cost issue.

Pros of using Shopify for an eCommerce website

Cost-effective Deployment

For a start, businesses can enjoy a 14-day free trial without a credit card requirement. When the free trial ends, businesses are encouraged to opt for one of the solution packages with suitable features and appealing promotions.

Table list of price, and features of Shopify solution packages.

First and foremost, because Shopify is a SaaS platform, the cost to get started is usually quite low. Despite the fact that businesses must pay monthly fees, transaction fees, theme fees, and extension fees, Shopify is still significantly less expensive than open-source platforms such as Magento, WooCommerce, and others.

The development of an open-source platform necessitates the assistance of experienced programmers and takes a long time to deploy, whereas the SaaS platform is the inverse. That is the reason why starting with a SaaS platform, specifically, Shopify, will save businesses both time and expense.

Another cost highlight is that SaaS platforms, in general, and Shopify in particular, require an ongoing monthly fee rather than a one-time purchase fee to use the platform. This reduces the risk of businesses investing too much money in the Shopify platform but not meeting their expectations during the implementation process.

Furthermore, the Shopify platform is appropriate for different-sized businesses in the market. The Starter, Lite, and Basic packages are appropriate for SME businesses engaged in eCommerce. Shopify, Advanced, and Plus packages are ideal for large-scale businesses that require advanced features to run an effective eCommerce website.

Ease of Use

The only way to adapt to the ever-changing market and quickly reach a wide pool of potential customers is for businesses to deploy eCommerce websites as soon as possible to avoid being left behind in the competition of the digital transformation race. One of the important factors when building an eCommerce website is choosing the right platform.

In particular, the top goal to consider when choosing an eCommerce platform is the ease of use. If a platform takes users too long to learn and implement or makes users dependent on external support, then the platform is not easy to use

Shopify has an easy-to-use interface for users with little programming knowledge. Moreover, Shopify is a SaaS eCommerce platform with a pre-designed system that offers hosting, interface, features, and technology infrastructure maintenance, allowing businesses to easily build and operate the website system with just drag and drop without worrying about technical issues.

Simple steps to get started with the eCommerce website implementation with Shopify:

1. Choose from one of the solution packages depending on the business needs
2. Choose a business domain
3. Choose an appropriate theme and template
4. Choose essential features
5. Optimize the eCommerce website and add products
6. Go-live

24/7 Available Customer Support

This is one of the most crucial factors influencing users’ decision to use Shopify. Difficulties and obstacles are inevitable when building an eCommerce website, so Shopify has assembled a reliable and trusted team to assist users.

As a result, if your business requires assistance, assistance is available 24/7. Businesses can reach Shopify via email, chat, and a hotline worldwide. What’s more, users can access community forums and useful documents for developing eCommerce websites on this platform, mostly through the Shopify Support Center.

Security and Data Backup

The Shopify platform runs on PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) compliant servers, allowing merchants to accept credit card payments. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption is enabled on all Shopify websites to secure visitor data, while a backup system allows businesses to store and save data regularly by exporting data to a CSV file.

As an outcome, the platform encourages the addition of an advanced backup solution from the Shopify Store, such as the Rewind app, as it is seen as a lifesaver if users accidentally delete content such as products or images or a video demonstration. To keep your eCommerce website secure, simply back up your data on a regular basis and use a strong enough admin password.

Variety of Themes

The interface is the appearance of a business’s eCommerce website. The more appealing the website interface, the more likely it is to retain customers, attract more visitors, as well as generate more conversions.

Shopify understands the importance of a website interface, so it has made a host of available themes, both free and paid, suitable for a wide range of businesses and fields, making it simple for businesses to choose from.

The free Shopify themes are ideal for startups, small and medium-sized businesses, and individuals. Businesses can customize their eCommerce website according to their needs and brand features by using features such as responsive web design, product filters, and product color display templates.

However, free themes have some downsides, including a limited number of themes, limited design, and a lack of advanced and specific features, which makes website customization difficult.

In fact, free themes are great for launching an eCommerce website. Premium interfaces, also known as paid themes, will be more suitable for large-scale businesses or businesses on the rise, with an average cost of around $140-$180/theme.

Shopify’s paid themes include advanced integration features such as live chat support, newsletter popups, upsell features, faster page loading, and much more. Thereby, businesses can run an eCommerce website automatedly and smoothly.

The Cons of using Shopify for an eCommerce website

Not Easy to Keep Track of Expenses Incurred

The cost of using Shopify, besides the notable pluses, the platform has a small but enough minus to make some businesses hesitate to start.

In addition to the monthly fee for using the enterprise platform, businesses must pay for other costs such as themes, applications, extensions, marketing features, sales, and SEO on a monthly basis with no long-term possession.

For example, to use the Free Shipping & Hello Bar application that offers free gifts, free shipping, or other types of promotions, users will buy for $8.95/month, which means ongoing monthly in regards to other expenses, businesses will pay an additional $8.95 for this app until it is no longer used. 

When there are small expenses incurred each month, it is difficult to control cash flow for large-scale businesses that have to manage and operate many websites at the same time.

Meanwhile, open-source platforms require a one-time purchase fee rather than an ongoing monthly fee. Although the features are not yet available and take a long time to program, businesses can possess those features for eCommerce websites in the long run. Thereby, it makes cash flow management more convenient and effective.

Difficulty with Content Marketing

It is a great way to promote your eCommerce website. Users can use Shopify to blog and optimize SEO, drive free traffic, and improve brand positioning.

However, this blogging feature on Shopify is not as user-friendly as WordPress. Some of the criteria Shopify can improve regarding blogging and content writing include:

• The outdated editor.
• The blog layouts are inflexible
• No categories force users to use tags
• Cannot add related blogs
• Cannot embed products in blogs
• Not easy to integrate third-party add-ons

This will be a barrier for businesses when using Shopify to promote eCommerce websites by optimizing SEO if the content is a core element of the business’s marketing strategy.

Limited Customization

Another limitation of Shopify is that the platform’s interface is customized using the Shopify Liquid setup. Meanwhile, many website developers are already familiar with the PHP programming language to customize the themes and templates of the website, it is a common technique used by WordPress.

Therefore, users who do not have much experience in programming will face many obstacles when using Shopify’s tools to customize the interface of the eCommerce website.

However, businesses of all sizes can still use other useful Shopify features like Shopify Themes, Shopify App Store, Shopify Blog, 24/7 support team, and more to set up an eCommerce website quickly and effortlessly.

Cannot Possess Source Code and Data 

Because the entire business’s website system is hosted on Shopify’s server, the ownership and control of the website source code will belong to Shopify, not the business. Similar to other SaaS platforms such as BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix… Shopify has a Lock-in feature, which means that when converting a website from one platform to another, businesses will no longer be able to use the old website source code and have to rebuild from scratch on a new platform.

Similar to the source code, business data is also stored on Shopify’s servers, so data ownership and control are quite limited. This makes it difficult for businesses to connect data among internal departments or users’ personalization, etc. Especially when switching platforms, data loss or misalignment is often unavoidable.

Shopify will not assist in the event that businesses stop using the platform for any reason. The only asset businesses can keep and take away is a CSV report containing website information.

Hence, before starting an eCommerce website on the Shopify platform, businesses need to carefully consider the benefits and disadvantages of stopping using it to conclude whether Shopify is the best fit for business in the long run. 

Going by this article,  Shopify is one of the eCommerce platforms that many businesses would love to choose when deploying an eCommerce website. However, besides the outstanding advantages, there are still certain downsides, so businesses need to carefully consider and compare with other platforms before starting out. 

With many years of experience in implementing eCommerce in many countries, SECOMM provides free consulting services with professional eCommerce solutions.

Contact us today for free support and advice!

Since its inception, Magento has maintained its distinct position in the eCommerce development community. One of the primary reasons for this is that Magento has a diverse, highly applicable feature system compatible with all business models (B2B, B2C, B2B2C, D2C).

SECOMM will introduce some “cool” Magento features for businesses to consider

Multi-brand solution

The Multi-Brand Solution is a multi-language, multi-currency, and multi-store solution that helps businesses unify all content and products on a single “screen.” Businesses with various brands, stores, or business models can set up multiple pricing structures, display a wide range of product types, and customize payment methods for any audience ( B2B, B2C, B2B2C, D2C).

This function assists businesses in increasing sales by utilizing all content to create eye-catching websites to maximize customer information. As a result, targeting different customers with product recommendations and promotions is possible. Simultaneously, Magento’s adaptability enables businesses to personalize the purchasing experience through customized categories and pricing.

MSI (Multi-Source Inventory)

MSI is a prominent feature of Magento 2 (starting with version 2.3.0) that allows businesses to easily manage products from multiple stores, significantly improving inventory management regardless of customer location, warehouse, or sales channel.

This feature enables businesses, particularly dropshipping businesses, to ship one order containing multiple products from multiple warehouses while ensuring on-time delivery to customers.

Headless Commerce

Magento’s headless Commerce is an eCommerce architecture that separates the frontend (which represents the user interface) from the backend (which means the eCommerce functionality). The front and backend are linked together by an API, allowing businesses to easily customize and update without interfering with the user interface or CMS pages.

Thanks to the applicability of Headless Commerce, Magento websites benefit from faster page load times and personalized user experiences at a lower long-term cost.

Comprehensive Analysis

Magento allows you to track and measure eCommerce system performance using built-in tools like Google Analytics, which tracks and reports traffic, audience, purchasing process, and purchasing behavior.

Use Google Tag Manager to quickly update website metrics and related tags to increase personalization and reach the right goals for the following marketing campaigns.

Use Facebook Pixels to measure ad performance and capture actions taken on the website.

Furthermore, Magento supports Business Intelligence (BI) analysis. Magento BI is a cloud-based platform that allows you to consolidate and manage data sources, create data models, and create charts and reports from a single screen. Sending out periodic reports also helps to control information sharing.

Integrating various B2B functions

Specially designed for B2B customers, supporting various functions like: 

• Shared Catalog: This allows companies to create “shared” catalogs with prices, products, and customization rights for multiple brands.
• Business Account: Assist admins in creating accounts, managing all data, and assigning sales representatives as accounts’ primary contacts.
• Quick Order: Order by SKU is similar in that it allows customers to add products to their cart by simply entering the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) code and quantity information or loading a CSV file.
• Business Credit: Allows businesses to extend their B2B customer credit line, allowing them to make purchases up to the authorized credit limit on their account. This function assists businesses in tracking and controlling credit issues.
• Quoting: Allows businesses to manage quote requests in the admin interface, view contact history between buyers and sellers, and export data.
• Payment on Account: This feature is applicable globally or in business and occurs in the payment process with a message that will appear at the top of the order to indicate the status as an additional offline payment method that allows companies to make purchases up to the credit line specified on file.

All of these features assist businesses in managing user accounts via the customer portal, allowing them to quickly set up multiple levels of buyers with specific roles and benefits.

In addition, companies can track quotes and orders, define purchasing rules, and manage credit online simultaneously. Since then, business and management in the B2B model have become more efficient and faster.

Advanced search function

Live Search combines artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (Adobe Sensei) to provide fast search results and personalized product recommendations based on customer behavior, trends, characteristics, and other data.

ElasticSearch is an open-source distribution that supports enterprise-level search engines for searching data on the server. This function aims to perform real-time analysis and data source mining (MS SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc) to optimize highly for fast language-based searches.

Simultaneously, overcome the difficulties by hiding all other complex operations by providing API access.

Smart page builder

This function includes a variety of actions, such as the ability to drag and drop content on the website to provide the best user experience, preview how the content will appear on the user interface, and modify forms to enter and customize content.

Initially, Magento’s functionality only supported the Magento Commerce version (Magento Enterprise Edition). Still, since Magento 2, the developer has supported the Magento Open Source version, allowing businesses to create unlimited CMS content pages.

High Security

Magento’s high security has long been a distinguishing feature that makes it the preferred platform for businesses.

Using a periodic security scanning tool to quickly identify problems and update patches and notifications, propose security solutions to deal with arising errors, and effectively improve and optimize website security.

To increase the level of security for administrator accounts, use advanced passwords. The administrator password should be at least seven characters long and contain letters, numbers, and special symbols. Password complexity may be increased with lower case/case sensitivity, or re-login may be required after a certain length of a login session, depending on additional adjustments.

CAPTCHA security can protect both administrators and website visitors. In addition, using CAPTCHA aids the system in preventing bot spam and malicious code from entering the system illegally.

The 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) function provides additional security for system user accounts. To effectively limit threats of unauthorized access and attack on user accounts, customers must authenticate with an OTP security code sent to their phone number after logging in.

PWA (Progressive Web Apps)

PWA combines a website and a native app (for Android and iOS) on tablets and smartphones. Therefore, PWA enables your website to function and interact with mobile users in the same way that a native app would.

However, depending on the user’s needs, this website can be converted into a mobile application right on the device. Users can download the app to their phones when they visit the website. If the user agrees, they can open and browse the website in the same way they would an app on their phone.

Advanced SEO

SEO is another fantastic feature of Magento, in addition to optimizing website content, this feature also searches for indexed pages and assesses the SEO quality of each page. From there, the business website can use the robots.txt file to prevent the crawling of low-value parameters and consider only indexing pages with high search potential to improve rankings.

In addition, Magento has many other features such as cross-device compatibility, quick purchase and quick checkout, and so on. However, the development cost of an e-commerce website with such complex features is often very high, ranging from $5,000 to $100,000.Businesses should think about their e-commerce strategy when developing a unified sub-feature system.

With extensive experience developing many complex e-commerce systems on Magento, SECOMM understands the challenges that businesses face when selecting a platform and implementing E-commerce.

Contact SECOMM for a free consultation on comprehensive e-commerce system development solutions!

Magento is a specialized open-source platform for creating the most popular eCommerce websites today.

Currently, it supports two versions: Magento 1 and Magento 2. Some websites use Magento 1 platform, such as CellphoneS, and Bach Long Mobile (Magento Open Source 1.9). Websites using Magento 2 such as Di Dong Viet, and Kidsplaza (Magento Open Source 2.3).

So what is the difference between the two versions, and why have businesses not upgraded their websites to Magento 2?

What is the difference between Magento 1 and Magento 2?

Technology infrastructure

Magento 2 uses newer technologies than Magento 1, resulting in more diverse performance, user experience, and functionality.

Extensions

Magento 1 and Magento 2 support a wide range of third-party extensions. However, many utilities on Magento 1 will frequently repeat a piece of code, causing conflicts for the website’s functional system, and requiring a significant amount of time to manually fix it. Meanwhile, Magento 2 has supported a plugin that allows code to overlap, assisting in the issue’s faster and more effective resolution.

At the same time, Magento 2 support utilities frequently use new technologies (HTML5, CSS3, Requirejs) at lower prices. Compared to Magento 1, this makes it easier for developers to customize, upgrade, and build new functionality for the website.

Dashboard 

Magento 1 is frequently criticized for having a messy admin interface that takes a long time to adapt. In contrast, Magento 2 is more user-friendly for admin accounts because:

• The dashboard makes it easier to read revenue, profit, tax, and reports effectively
• Allows quick information searches
• Allows for easy product creation and management
• Easy access to backend components

SEO

Magento has long been known for its SEO capabilities, but developers can improve SEO even better with Magento 2:

• Canonical tag support: Fix repetitive content to help increase the SEO content score for the website.
• Enable Meta tags (Meta Title, Meta Description, and Meta Keywords) for individual pages, which will aid SEO for each detailed product page.
• Magento 2’s new technologies are responsive and provide a better user experience across devices.

High Security

Since June 2020, Magento has stopped updating and releasing security patches and fixes for Magento 1. Therefore, Magento 1 websites easily become a target for cyber attacks.

Meanwhile, the publisher continuously updates Magento 2 to increase the system’s security. For example

• Improved password encryption (SHA-256) makes the system more difficult to compromise.
• Argon2UD13 support through PHP sodium extension (version 1.0.13) helps protect the system’s database
• 2-factor authentication for the administrator account to limit impersonation to steal website data.

Why do businesses hesitate to upgrade their website to Magento 2?

Magento 1 still meets current needs

Magento 1 continues to meet enterprise eCommerce systems’ interface, functional systems, and management system requirements. As a result, businesses continue to use Magento 1 rather than upgrading to Magento 2. At the same time, the Magento technical community continues to support the utilities for Magento 1 enthusiastically.

Magento 2 appears to be quite new to businesses.

Although Magento 2 provides many improved utilities, its technologies are still relatively new for many companies, particularly those in countries that have lagged behind eCommerce market growth.

 It takes time and money to upgrade.

Upgrading from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is difficult because the technology infrastructure is entirely different between the two versions. As a result, website developers will require a significant amount of time to migrate all functions and data from Magento 1 to 2, ranging from 1 to 3 months on average.

In addition, businesses require a technical team with expertise in new technologies to manage the system and efficiently upgrade the website. As a result, the upgrade costs more, ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 or more, depending on the system’s complexity.

Although Magento 2 outperforms Magento 1 in every way, many businesses are hesitant to upgrade their websites to Magento 2 due to various issues. However, upgrading the website to Magento 2 is unavoidable in the long run due to the growing gap between the two versions.

Our company – SECOMM, has been partnering with many big enterprises such as An Nam Group (Vietnam), Jasnor (Australia), and Changi Airport Group (Singapore). As a result, we are aware of the challenges and worries firms face while developing an eCommerce website system as well as upgrading their websites from Magento 1 to Magento 2.

Get in touch with us now for FREE eCommerce development consultancy and solutions

With over 200,000 websites worldwide, Magento is today’s most widely used eCommerce platform. Magento is always the best choice for businesses to use because of the benefits of open source code and specialized features for the eCommerce market.

Businesses must carefully study the strategy and consider the needs of the website system when deciding between Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce to implement eCommerce on the Magento platform.

Magento Open Source là gì?

Magento Open Source was initially known as Magento Community Edition (CE), a free version of the Magento open source platform. This version provides a flexible framework for building eCommerce websites, which is popular among many businesses.

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What is Magento Commerce?

Magento Commerce, formerly known as Magento Enterprise Edition (EE), is a website system used by large businesses with complex website system requirements. 

This instance provides an on-premises solution as well as a hosted solution as a service (Magento Commerce Cloud), which aids in website performance and user experience. As a result, the annual fee for using this version is $24.000.

Comparison between Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce

Hosting

The platform will charge an additional $2.000/year for the included hosting service when using Magento Commerce to ensure that the business’s website system is constantly updated and upgraded, allowing it to handle high traffic and bills of lading more quickly.

Meanwhile, Magento Open Source is free to select a hosting provider that meets the business’s requirements and budget.

Feature

The following table compares the features that distinguish the two versions of Magento:

Magento Open Source has fewer features than Magento Commerce because it is a free version. Businesses, on the other hand, businesses can build the necessary functions themselves using extensions from the Magento ecosystem, the community of extension developers, or the project developers with whom Magento collaborates.

Cost

Magento Open Source will require a lower investment than Magento Commerce, from hosting and domains to website development. Nevertheless, the technology infrastructure is the same, so the costs of interfaces and extensions are calculated similarly.

Technical assistance

While Magento Commerce provides global technical support, including cloud service integration, Magento Open Source is not directly supported by the Magento technical team. However, the current Magento Open Source website developers continue to ensure expertise so that the business website is constantly updated and effectively operated.

Should businesses choose the Magento Open Source or Magento Commerce version?

Magento Open Source will be ideal for startups, SMEs (small and medium enterprises), businesses new to eCommerce, and even large corporations that do not yet require Magento Commerce’s advanced functionality system. Because using Magento Open Source is advantageous:

• Spending less money: Eliminate license costs, opt for more affordable hosting, and avoid paying for unnecessary specialized functions.
• Choosing to develop essential business features: Creating specialized functions to address industry and product-specific issues.
• Appropriate for all stages of business growth: Businesses can create basic features and then gradually improve them.

Meanwhile, Magento Commerce will be appropriate for large businesses because:

• Complex functional systems are available: such as Advanced Marketing, Bill of Lading, and Delivery Process Management, to meet global sales needs.
• Dedicated Hosting Service for Websites: Using the same service from Magento developers will ensure that the website works more efficiently.

Choosing the best Magento version will be determined by each company’s long-term eCommerce strategy. However, it is also critical to implement those versions. They must collaborate with professional Magento developers to consult on and implement the best eCommerce solution.

With in-depth experience and developing many complex eCommerce systems on Magento, SECOMM understands the obstacles in choosing a platform and implementing Ecommerce businesses face.

Get in touch with us now for FREE eCommerce development consultancy and solutions 

The growth of the grocery eCommerce industry in the Vietnamese market in 2021 is undeniable. According to the Google report, online grocery-related searches will increase by 223% in 2021, 3.6 times in June, and 11 times in July during Vietnam’s lockdown due to Covid-19 in several provinces.

Recognizing the market’s enormous potential, the need for a professional eCommerce website for online grocery businesses has grown significantly to expand the business system, supporting digital transformation and long-term revenue growth. Some of Vietnam’s largest grocery businesses, including Annam Gourmet Market, Bach Hoa Xanh, Organica, Farmer’s Market, and WinMart, have led the way in developing an eCommerce website system and have seen great success.

Choosing the right platform to build an eCommerce website makes the above brands successful. Platforms play a significant role in developing and operating an effective online grocery website. Along with well-known names such as Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce, Magento is considered the best online grocery support platform.

The advantages of creating eGrocery websites on the Magento platform

Various approaches to designing a website interface

Businesses have many options when designing the eGrocery website interface on the Magento platform, including using available themes, customizing themes, and creating their own.

Businesses can find Magento-specific themes in the grocery field, developer community, or partner using available themes. It helps businesses reduce the cost of interface design, but it limits businesses’ brand positioning because the interface is easy to duplicate with other websites.

Businesses can save money and add brand identity elements such as colors, fonts, layout, and so on by customizing their themes. However, businesses need a team with extensive Magento expertise and experience to set up and customize the interface efficiently.

Businesses will have a one-of-a-kind website for their brand if they design their interface. However, it will require an enormous investment in development costs and a professional team.

When choosing Magento to develop an eCommerce website, most grocery stores often customize or use their themes to support an in-depth eCommerce business.

Various eCommerce functional systems

The Magento platform provides a comprehensive set of features, ranging from basic to advanced, for the development of professional eCommerce websites. Additionally, Magento allows you to create custom functions to solve specialized grocery industry problems.

Basic functions to assist businesses in running an efficient and smooth website system, such as

• Catalog Management: Manage all data, processes, categories, attributes, prices, inventory quantities, and images/videos to operate and optimize the efficiency of the online grocery store.
• Store Management: Manage product inventory and each branch’s business activities and personnel.
• Cart and Checkout: Manage the shopping cart and customers’ information when they check out.
• Customer Management: Manage customer information to increase marketing efficiency, purchase experience, and customer satisfaction.
• Marketing Management: Optimize SEO and implement marketing strategies with tools to increase business sales.
• Sales Management: Create and manage sales, order, payment, and shipping processes.
• Content Management: Create and optimize all content elements for CMS pages, image storage, customize themes, and design websites.
• System Management: Delegate administrators to review the best methods for website security and maintenance
• Analysis and Report: Support tracking and measuring eCommerce system performance and developing future strategies.

Advanced functions that improve consumers’ online shopping experiences, such as advanced search (Elasticsearch, live-search), MSI (Multi-Source Inventory), abandoned cart, similar product recommendations, PWA (Progressive Web Apps), multi-layered product catalog, and so on.

In addition, industry-specific functions assist businesses in dealing with their problems and reducing mistakes in the online grocery industry, such as order tracking, fast delivery, delivery time and location options, etc.

The ability to expand the system in the future

The high flexibility of Magento open source is an outstanding advantage that helps the system not only operate effectively at present but also expand the system to accompany businesses in the future.

Grocery businesses can fully integrate 3rd party services with Magento, making eCommerce operations efficient and smooth: 

• Payment: Integrating with card payments (ATM, VISA, Master Card); e-wallet (MOMO, Zalo Pay); payment gateways (OnePay, VNPay, Paypal), and COD that helps diversify the payment experience.
• Delivery: Integrating with delivery companies like Giao Hang Nhanh, Giao Hang Tiet Kiem, Viettel Post, and order tracking applications aid in the processing and optimizing delivery processes.
• Management software: Integrating with software like ERP, CRM, POS (SAP), Salesforce, and Oracle that help run all businesses’ resources.
• Business analysis tool: Integrating with business analysis tools (Business Intelligence-BI) like Power BI, Tableau, and Looker assists in the improvement of the business strategy and growth plan

Marketing: Integrating with marketing software from Email Marketing (Mailchimp, Getresponse) to advertisement (Facebook, Google, Zalo, Tik Tok) to optimize eCommerce business

Besides that, Magento also allows businesses to expand from one website, and one store to many websites, and stores, and convert multi-language, and multi-currency flexibly while still being able to manage all data at the same time.

As a result, Magento is a suitable platform for a wide range of business models, including B2C, B2B, B2B2C, and O2O, as well as a wide range of business sizes, including new businesses entering the eCommerce market, startups, SMEs (small and medium enterprises), and large corporations.

Outstanding security

In the path to building a website, security is another significant benefit that makes the Magento platform the preferred platform for online grocery stores.

Magento includes a security scan tool that helps identify problems and propose security solutions to handle arising errors, effectively optimizing the security of grocery eCommerce websites. Moreover, to improve admin account security, Magento requires admins to use advanced passwords with at least 7 characters, including letters, numbers, and special symbols. Simultaneously, password complexity can be added to lowercase and uppercase passwords or re-login after a certain amount of login session time. Furthermore, Magento supports two-factor authentication, such as OTP or CAPTCHA code, to strengthen the security of the grocery eCommerce website system.

Diverse ecosystems

The Magento platform has a worldwide developer community that includes many experienced and professional Magento developers.

Magento is also part of the Adobe ecosystem, helping businesses easily access new technology trends and use Adobe’s available application store.

With such a strong development community, online grocery store businesses will receive the most assistance in resolving technical issues and consulting on building eCommerce solutions that are appropriate for their business model.

Difficulties in creating an eGrocery website on the Magento platform

High development cost

Although Magento is highly appreciated for its features and performance, the cost issue is still a significant obstacle that makes many eGrocery businesses hesitate to choose Magento.

Implementing a complete eCommerce website system built on Magento costs between $10,000 and $250,000.

The table comparing Magento construction costs

Take time to implement

A complete Magento project typically requires 3 to 6 months, with some projects requiring up to a year. As a result, businesses frequently waste time because of the complex functional system and the scarcity of Magento experts.

Professional team required

Businesses require a professional team with a deep understanding of Magento as well as practical experience on highly complex systems to implement an effective eGrocery website using Magento.

Annam Gourmet’s case study

Although Annam Gourmet has previously owned a website, it is primarily used for brand development, and the effectiveness of eCommerce activities has not been prioritized. As a result, this website system is not comprehensive and is limited to crucial eCommerce functions. Furthermore, to transition into the “new normal”, Annam Gourmet must expand its online sales channel more intensively and effectively.

In order to meet the needs mentioned earlier, as well as to support the company’s long-term development goals in the Vietnamese market, Secomm and Synova successfully built a complete eCommerce website system on the Magento 2 platform.

The Magento 2 website system is operationally stable and effective with other components in Annam Gourmet’s operating system. As a result, Annam Gourmet’s eCommerce website, with typical grocery industry elements, is capable of meeting all business needs, such as operating effectively in a highly complex system, quickly processing huge amounts of data about products, customers, and orders, and seamlessly syncing with ERP, CRM, POS, and so on.

In general, when building a grocery eCommerce website with Magento, businesses can master everything from interface design to feature system, leveraging a diverse ecosystem, a system capable of flexible customization, and superior security. On the other hand, businesses must prepare and invest in a budget, time, and team to successfully and effectively implement it.

Our company – SECOMM, has been partnering with many big enterprises such as An Nam Group (Vietnam), Jasnor (Australia), and Changi Airport Group (Singapore). As a result, we are aware of the challenges and worries firms face while developing an eCommerce website system.

Get in touch with us now for FREE eCommerce consultancy and solutions in eGrocery businesses.

Along with the eCommerce market growth comes an increase in business demand for a separate eCommerce website system to maximize online business.

The platform’s role in developing and operating an effective eCommerce website system is enormous because choosing the right platform will help businesses save time in building a team, saving system development costs, reaching potential customers, boosting sales, and seizing long-term sustainable development opportunities.

Among today’s popular platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and others, Magento is widely regarded as the best platform for developing eCommerce websites, with over 186,000 websites in use worldwide.

What is Magento?

Magento is an open-source platform designed specifically for the eCommerce industry. In addition, Magento is the most challenging source code platform in the PHP programming language. As a result, Magento can handle a company’s specialized needs in a constantly changing and evolving market like eCommerce.

Many major brands and corporations, including HP, Asus, Puma, and Walmart, have used Magento platforms. In addition, some famous brands in Vietnam use Magento websites, including CellphoneS, Vua Nem, Kids Plaza, Mobile Viet, and so on.

Classification

Magento currently offers two versions: Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce.

Magento Open Source

Magento Open Source was initially called Magento Community Edition, a free version of Magento. This version provides a “framework” to build eCommerce websites flexibly, so it is very popular with many businesses.

Some websites use Magento Open Source in Vietnam, such as Canifa, Kids Plaza, Bach Long Mobile, etc.

Magento Commerce

Magento Commerce was previously known as Magento Enterprise Edition. This version is appropriate for significant businesses that require a website system with complex functions.

In addition, this edition provides an on-premises or a hosted solution as a service (Magento Commerce Cloud), which aids in website performance. The minimum fee for using this version is $24,000 per year.

The brands using Magento Commerce in Vietnam are CGV, Bibo Mart, Rohto, etc.

The Pros

Functional systems from basic to advanced

Magento includes all of the features required for a complete eCommerce website, including category management, content management, sales management, marketing management, and customer management, as well as analysis and reporting. 

In addition, Magento owns many extensions with advanced features such as Headless Commerce, PWA (Progressive Web Apps), MSI (Multi-Source Inventory), ElasticSearch, etc to meet all eCommerce needs for businesses.

Furthermore, Magento has a global technical support community comprised of many experienced experts and professional development units to assist with meeting all business requirements.

Flexible customization capabilities

Magento possesses all the advantages of an open-source platform with flexible customization capabilities. Owning and controlling the entire source code, in particular, allows businesses to customize parts of the code in the system, easily update, or even develop new functions based on each business specificity.

High scalability

In addition to customizing, Magento also has very useful website scalability. Magento allows businesses to scale from one website to many websites, one store to many stores, but the management is still on the same system. Besides, Magento supports multi-language and currency conversion, helping businesses expand globally.

Superior security capabilities

Magento’s high security is also an outstanding advantage, with the ability to control the system regularly, propose security solutions, improve security for administrators, and prevent bots or unauthorized malware, among other things. As a result, this platform assists businesses in reducing potential risks associated with the data and transaction processes.

The Cons

High development cost

The cost of owning a Magento website is high due to its many outstanding benefits, such as the functional system, customizability, scalability, and good security. However, depending on the system’s complexity, a website built on the Magento platform costs between $10.000 and $100.000.

Take time to implement

A comprehensive Magento project requires implementation time ranging from 3 months to 1 year. A complete Magento project requires implementation time ranging from 3 months to 1 year. As a result, it slows down businesses’ digital transformation processes and makes it difficult for them to keep up with competitors’ development rates and market trends.

A team of qualified technicians is required

Businesses require a technical team with high expertise and experience with the Magento platform to build and operate an intensive eCommerce website system customized to the unique characteristics of each product and category.

As a whole, Magento is an eCommerce platform that is appropriate for all types of businesses, including startups, SMEs (small and medium enterprises), and large corporations. However, budget, time, and professional team issues have caused many SMEs businesses to be hesitant to use Magento to develop eCommerce websites. That is why Magento frequently be used in large corporations to build complex eCommerce systems.

Our company – SECOMM, has been partnering with many big enterprises such as An Nam Group (Vietnam), Jasnor (Australia), and Changi Airport Group (Singapore). As a result, we are aware of the challenges and worries firms face while developing an eCommerce website system. 

Contact SECOMM now for a free consultation on detailed eCommerce system development solutions!