If you want to take full advantage of your online channel, Magento is the complete ecommerce solution for you. But which Edition should you get? The free version of Community is tempting, but is it right for your business? Community is great for small businesses to break into ecommerce and get started with Magento. For some businesses, that’s all they’ll ever need. For others, it becomes an ever-tightening collar, keeping their business’ potential contained.
Community may be free to download, but there are limitations, which can often become obstacles that continue to build over time as your business grows. It can be a real problem for your users, which translates into problems with your sales.
With a lot of extra features, the Magento Enterprise Edition makes it easier for your customers to find what they want and purchase it.
- The Rich Merchandising Suite (RMS) allows you to segment your customers into groups and market directly to their interests. You know what they bought and what they might be looking for - now you can show them other products that will interest them. If they bought an outfit previously, you can show them matching shoes, accessories, and/or other outfits from the same designer. You can even restrict your catalog to specific segments for limited time sales events and private sales.
- Rule-based up-sells and cross-sells make product associations easier and more efficient. If you have a large catalog, it’s near impossible to do the product associations by hand. It takes too long - maximize your time and effort by using rules instead! Encourage additional purchases through up-sells, cross-sells, and related products based on product selections.
- Automated Email Marketing Reminders keep your brand and your products at the forefront. It’s not enough anymore to simply leave your customer experience in your store, the good experience needs to go with your customer as well. Email reminders customized and configured to their individual wish lists or abandoned carts can help influence purchasing decisions for the better.
With Enterprise, your site loads faster and more efficiently. Your page has 3 seconds to load before your visitors lose interest, even less than that for some users. Every second a shopper waits for your site increases the probability they will leave.
- Advanced Caching isn’t available with Community, but is included with Enterprise. It helps your pages load faster and more efficiently and can make a HUGE difference. We’re talking about going from 10 seconds to load down to 3 – that drastically opens the funnel, keeping more visitors on your site and increasing the opportunities for them to be engaged.
- Indexing goes to another level with Enterprise. The methods for indexing your products are more efficient and it’s easier to rewrite your URLs, saving you time and allowing you to create a truly unique, enriching experience for your customers. Using advanced search, they’ll love being able to find what they’re looking for more easily than ever!
- Persistent Shopping makes it easy for your customer to purchase from you. They can log in once, add items to their carts & wish lists, and it will be saved between browsing sessions. They can come back their session without logging in again, removing an extra step for them and setting them one step closer to purchasing.
When implemented correctly, you can enjoy better security with Enterprise. The Magento Secure Payment Bridge is PA-DSS certified, enabling merchants to attain PCI compliance easier and more efficiently.
- Secure transactions with the payment bridge give peace of mind to both you and your customers. They can shop securely and safely, knowing their information is protected and, should they choose, they can save their credit card information for future transactions.
- Better encryption means you can keep your customer’s data safe. The increased strength of encryption algorithms with the Magento Enterprise Edition keeps your site’s security top-notch.
- Additional production servers allow your store to expand and grow without slowing down your business or your customers. Persistent bandwidth and full-page caching keep your site loading quickly, while Enterprise seamlessly handles all the transactions you can produce. True, these come at an additional cost, but when you’re scaling your business up to handle more transactions more efficiently, it’s a price worth paying.
Enterprise is built specifically with the flexibility to scale and expand along with your business. If your traffic and transactions are booming, you can celebrate – there are no more limitations on growth! You have more tools at your disposal to attract more traffic, engage shoppers more deeply, drive conversions, and delight your customers, retaining them for both the short-term conversion and long-term relationship. You have more freedom in the look, feel, and functionality of your site, delivering a great online shopping experience your customers will love!