Learn About Magento: Ecommerce Solutions for Community and Enterprise

Learn About Magento: Ecommerce Solutions for Community and Enterprise
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Magento is an Open Source ecommerce solution that first hit the market on March 31, 2008. An updated version, Magento 1.1 was released on July 25, 2008. The newest version Magento Enterprise 1.3, a commercial version selling for $8,900 per year, was released on April 15, 2009.

Magento ecommerce offers the ability to manage more than one store on more than one website from a single control panel. There is support for more than one language and multiple currencies. Taxes do not have to be a hassle because tax tables will help determine the taxes due on each order. Magento even serves as a content management system for informational pages about the store, the company or products. Magento templates are 100% completely customizable so web designers who recommend this software for their clients will be able to create an unique presence for their customers. Magento is built for search engine optimization, with sitemaps, full control over URLs and META descriptions for products and categories.

There are several different payment gateways site administrators can choose from in order to better suite their customers. Payment gateway options include: WorldPay, PayPal, Frontis, ChronoPay, ePay, PayBox and more.

Integrated checkout options include:Google checkout, checkout without an account or with a guest account, ship to multiple addresses, create an account before checkout, and gift messages.

Magento ecommerce makes marketing easy with different coupon and promotional code options. Administrators may choose to restrict promotions to a store, to a customer group, a specific time period, or product category. Coupon examples include: Buy x amount and save x amount, receive x% off orders over x amount, and even free shipping.

If interested, there are online demos of both the Community and Enterprise Editions online. Potential users can explore the store front and the admin control panels to get a feel for the software before choosing to implement it on their websites.

Web designers and developers can increase their marketability by learning more about Magento ecommerce through looking at the source code. In learning how to build custom solutions and templates, web designers can offer more services to their clients.