2022 Guide to Custom Magento Development

Today's increasingly connected and digital world is more important than ever for businesses to have an online presence. That presence should be based around and funneled into an eCommerce portal for many companies.

In mid- and post-Covid times, in particular, digital purchases are often the ideal way for both customer and company to proceed with a transaction that might otherwise have been halted or postponed. For example, this study shows that the pandemic increased online sales by around ten years of previously anticipated growth in just the first three months. So ensure that your eCommerce website provides the optimum experience for you and your customers.

What are Your eCommerce Options?

They are plentiful – but the first choice you have to make is between a simple, off-the-shelf, plug-and-play platform or if you would instead leverage the flexibility, customization, and power of a customized solution. For the former, any number of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies should be able to help you out; for the latter, you need a platform like Magento.

What is Magento eCommerce?

Magento was built and launched way back in 2007 and rapidly became recognized as one of the most popular eCommerce platforms in the world. As an open-source technology (owned by Adobe since 2018 but remains available for distribution under the Open Software Licence v3.0). Magneto's significant degree of popularity is due to its customization. Users can adapt the platform to meet their requirements and coordinate with their offering and brand with no issues.

Why Choose Magento?

For many people, Magento is the platform of choice for two fundamental reasons: flexibility and reliability. No online business owner wants a purchasing portal that does not accurately represent their brand and products. Neither do they want to have to deal with transaction issues or downtime.

With Magento, an online store can progress from idea to launch rapidly and then scale up and down as required and when new products need adding. One of the most attractive aspects of Magento for the new eCommerce business is the ability to use a pre-made template. It gets the business up and running with a minimum cost outlay. Then, when the sales start rolling in, you can move to a custom interface and scale up without a problem.

Magento evidences this is currently used by entrepreneurs and start-ups around the world, as well as by instantly recognizable multi-national companies as diverse as:

• Helly Hansen
• Performance Health
• Jomashop
• Coca-Cola
• Ford
• Proctor & Gamble

What Are The Positives?

• Initial costs – open-source code means that there is little capital expenditure required.
• Development – customization and development of the basic platform code can offer advanced features.
• Other costs – built-in scalability, the ability to conduct back-ups, DDoS protection, and other essential features are built-in: no need to purchase add-ons and third-party plugins.

What Are The Negatives?

• Hosting – you are using an open-source platform, so you will need to find your hosting for it. It can add to operational costs, although it has the benefit of allowing you to select the hosting provider you want to work with it.
• Other operational costs – while the upfront pricing might be attractive, the ongoing monthly fees can be intimidating (the plan aimed at small merchants starts at $1,600 per month). The free version targets developers or very small businesses.
• Complexity – the platform is the easiest to use. Still, to achieve the more advanced and intricate customization, you may need to use an expert Magento developer.

How Long Does It Take To Customize Magento?

Customization depends entirely on the amount of complexity you want in your Magento implementation. For example, a simple solution with minimal customization could reasonably be online in a week or two. In contrast, an intricate platform that works across multiple brands, with local pick-up at numerous locations, various customer groups, and loyalty plans, could take significantly longer.

To get an accurate idea of how long it will take to launch your new eCommerce site, you need to work collaboratively with your development team and provider. The people developing and customizing your platform must have a deep knowledge of your ultimate goals so that they can assess the complexity and ultimately tell you how long it will all take. Of course, this also depends on how many resources you can deploy – it will take one developer much longer to complete the work than it would two or more.

Why Invest in eCommerce?

User experience is one of the most critical factors in converting visitors into sales. If there are glitches in your eCommerce platform, you will lose customers: it is that important. Glitches are not even the only problem with poorly designed or deployed platforms. If the site is slow to respond or is not super-intuitive for users, they will likely seek the products or services they require elsewhere.

Your Magento implementation can also be a cornerstone of your SEO. You can leverage built-in features to create search engine optimized URLs, metadata tags, and other data. Your site will also rank better the faster (and smoother) it loads – poor visitor experience directly impacts attracting new visitors. You can see more about loading speeds and eCommerce SEO by checking out this article.

These extended features and benefits of Magento are why it is so important to use a skilled and experienced team of Magento developers. So you might be able to launch your sales platform with no external help, but to leverage the power, customization truly, and agility of Magento, there is no substitute for professional expertise.

What Next?

The Magento web development team at Digital Authority Partners has built customized solutions for various industries, including Fortune 500 companies, leading universities and educational institutions, and entrepreneurial endeavors. Get in touch to find out how we can help you optimize your eCommerce today.