30 Best Features of Magento Commerce
MaartenToday there are many eCommerce platforms available out there but Magento 2 seems to be a top choice. No matter the size of the business whether it is a small or enterprise-level business, they know the benefits that Magento 2 brings to the table, especially the Magento Commerce license that can bring their online operation to the next level.
There are two versions of the Magento Platform, one is Magento Open Source and the second one is Magento Commerce. But how they are different, let’s discuss it.
Magento Commerce vs Magento Open Source
Magento Open Source is the free edition of the Magento platform, formerly known as Magento Community. You can simply download and customize it as per your store requirements.
Its low cost and open nature, which is why the majority of merchants use Magento Open Source. It comes with tons of features to grow your business but Magento Commerce has more features than Open Source. The obvious reason being Magento Commerce is a paid edition of Magento.
Magento Commerce is known as Magento Enterprise. Magento Commerce unlocks the new possibilities to grow your eCommerce business. It comes with a lot of additional features compared to Magento Community.
Let’s dive in and compare the features of both editions of Magento Commerce
| Built-in Features | Open Source | Commerce |
| Integrated payment, checkout & shipping | Y | Y |
| Mobile Optimized Shopping | Y | Y |
| Global Selling | Y | Y |
| Catalog Management | Y | Y |
| Extended functionality via App MarketPlace | Y | Y |
| Instant Purchase | Y | Y |
| Site Search | Y | Y |
| Business Intelligence Dashboard | N | Y |
| B2B functionality | N | Y |
| Advanced Marketing tool | N | Y |
| Content Staging and Preview | N | Y |
| Customer Loyalty Tools | N | Y |
| WYSIWYG Page Builder | N | Y |
| Visual Merchandising | N | Y |
As it is very clear from the comparison that Magento Open Source has limited features. However, you can still manage to run a profitable eCommerce business using integrations and other marketing tools.
30 Features of Magento 2 Commerce That Is Worth The Investment
CATEGORY PERMISSIONS
Using Category Permissions, merchants can limit access to browse categories, pricing, and add to cart products for a specific category of audience
GIFT CARDS
With Gift Cards, merchants can now sell virtual, physical, or combined gift cards online. It also allows the merchant to keep track of gift card issuance and redemption data in the Magento admin dashboard.
ADVANCED CATALOG SEARCH
Magento Commerce also supports Elasticsearch. Used by high-traffic sites like eBay, Wikipedia, Elasticsearch is a powerful distributed search engine.
DYNAMIC BLOCKS
Dynamic Blocks has the same functionality as the “Banner” option. Banner Option was removed in Magento Commerce 2.4.0, but Dynamic Blocks have the same functionality as Banner Option.
Now you can create rich, interactive content which is driven by logic from price rules and customer segments.
An Open Source feature called Content Blocks displays fixed information such as text, images, and dynamic information from a widget. These features distinguish Banners from Content Blocks.
Rotating Dynamic Blocks allows you to create slide-show campaigns. Unlike carousels, it allows you to show content in a specific sequence or random order.
CONTENT STAGING
Now, Merchants can create, preview and schedule content changes to products, categories, CMS pages, and more with Content Staging.
If you’re scheduling on-site marketing for a new promotion that needs to be published at night or over the weekend, this feature can be beneficial.
Magento Commerce also comes with the Staging Dashboard, which provides an easy-to-use visual dashboard for scheduled content. It displays active and upcoming “campaigns” in a timeline view.
PAGE HIERARCHY
Merchants can now add pagination, menus, navigation using a drag-and-drop interface and Organize pages within a page hierarchy with Page Hierarchy Feature.
CUSTOMER SEGMENTS
With Customer Segments, merchants can now display content (banners) and promotions dynamically. It allows merchants to target specific customers based on properties like customer address, shopping cart contents, and more.
Segment information is updated continuously, so some customers are added and removed from a segment while shopping. It lets merchants plan and execute targeted marketing campaigns based on the past activity of customers.
It also lets merchants generate Customer Segment Reports, which can be used to measure the customer count in each segment, and it can also be used externally by exporting the data.
EMAIL REMINDERS
Sending automated behavioral-based emails is easy with Magento Commerce. Merchants can now send automated emails based on customers’ wishlist and shopping carts’ activity with Email Reminders. You can encourage visitors to revisit your site and make a purchase
Email Reminders allow merchants to send automated emails based on the customer’s shopping cart or wishlist activity, to encourage the customer to return to the site and make a purchase.
For example, if you want to send abandoned cart emails based on triggers like “number of days abandoned”, “number of line items”, “cart total”, “item quantity”, etc. you can now do it with Magento Commerce.
GIFT REGISTRIES
Customers can create registries for occasions for their loved ones using Gift Registries. Using the Gift Registry Search widget, They can invite their friends and family to purchase gift cards. Magento keeps a record of all the purchased items and remaining items of a registry
PRIVATE SALES & EVENTS
Create exclusive sales and events for customers using Private Sales & Events.
You can configure events to be accessible only to logged-in customers. Event ticker can help you display countdown timers for events that are time-bound.
You can keep track of sent, accepted, and discarded invitations using the Private Sales Reports. You can also check the conversion rate of events individually.
RELATED PRODUCT RULES
Forget about manually displaying up-sells and cross-sells with Related Product Rules. Merchants can specify which related products, up-sells, and cross-sells and display them conditionally.
You can also use it to dynamically target customers associated with the segment. Related Product Rules is one of the most powerful features of Magento Commerce, which saves your time and money.
REWARDS & LOYALTY
The Rewards & Loyalty feature lets you offer a point-based loyalty program to your customers.
Your customers can earn points for actions like account registration, inviting other customers, purchases, and for submitting product reviews. Merchants can control point allotment, balance, and expiration.
The best thing about this feature is it is not limited to a single currency, the points can be redeemed against purchases based on Reward Exchange Rates.
VISUAL MERCHANDISER
The Visual Merchandiser allows merchants to reorder products appearing under a specific category. It can be done visually via a drag-and-drop or by applying rule-based conditions.
WISHLISTS
Customers and site admins can now manage customers’ wishlists using Updating Wishlists feature. Also, customers can search any public wishlist by using the Wishlist Search widget.
It is similar to the gift registries search widget, the only difference is when an item is purchased from a public wishlist, it isn’t removed from the original wishlist.
ADDITIONAL PAYMENT METHODS
Magento Commerce supports additional payment methods, including PayPal, Klarna, Braintree, and Amazon Pay.
GIFT OPTIONS
Shoppers can now add gift options like a special message or gift wrappings before checkout. With Gift Options, shoppers can also add gift receipts and printed greeting cards.
By default, the gift options will be available to the entire website, but if you want to choose specific products, you can specify products you want to make Gift Options available.
ORDER ARCHIVING
It’s time to get rid of clunky workspaces, with Order Archiving, merchants can archive orders and clean up their workspace on a regular basis. It helps improve performance and keeps the admin interface clean.
You can archive Invoices, shipments, and credit memos automatically or manually. However, they can be viewed at anytime you want..
RETURNS
Returns enable customers to make returns for a refund or replacement.
Customers can request a return under the “Orders and Returns” section.
If it is approved, a unique RMA number is generated to identify the returned product.
If return or replacement doesn’t apply to all products, you can specify items on which it is applicable.
Note that RMAs are only available for physical products, they not available for virtual, downloadable products, and gift cards.
SHOPPING ASSISTANCE
Any customer can obtain assistance with Shopping Assistance if they have registered for an account in your store.
If required, Merchants can make the changes in the contents of the customer’s shopping cart in real-time.
Moreover, when offering assistance, the representative can see customers shopping cart content and if any changes are made, customers can immediately see the changes in real-time.
STORE CREDIT
Store Credit allows merchants to refund customers for cash purchases.
Customers can use this credit to pay when they make a purchase. They can also track refunds or store credits with their account dashboard.
If the order is paid and invoiced, it can be only be refunded via a credit memo.
It differs from a refund. Credit goes back to a customer’s account which can be used for any future purchases.
CUSTOMER ATTRIBUTE MANAGER
By default, Magento includes attributes to support the order, fulfillment, and CRM processes. But if Merchants want to add additional customer attributes they can easily add them with the Customer Attribute Manager.
Custom attributes can be added to the Account Information, Billing Information, and Address Book sections.
ACTION LOGS REPORT
All admin’s actions are recorded by the Action Logs Report. Each record includes timestamps, IP address, and the name of the user.
The records are detailed and include admin user data and related changes done by the user.
SCHEDULED IMPORT/EXPORT
Scheduled Imports/Exports, allows merchants to schedule imports and exports on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This is useful in cases when you’re integrating with third-party services.
SUPPORT TOOLS
Data Collector and System Report are included in the Support Tools. These tools may assist in identifying known issues in your system when issues emerge.
Additionally, these tools can be used as a resource for the development and optimization of a site. Or, it can be used as a diagnostic tool by Magento’s support team to identify and resolve issues, as well.
Additional Features for B2B
(B2B) SHARED CATALOGS
If you work with multiple companies, (B2B) Shared Catalogs help you create shared catalogs for different companies with custom products, pricing, and permissions.
(B2B) COMPANY ACCOUNTS
When you enable this feature – (B2B) Company Accounts, your site visitors can request a new company account. The account can be created by a site administrator.
The company AdministratorS can add users, assign roles, permissions, and manage Company Profiles from the storefront.
You can manage all this data from the admin panel, and you can assign a Sales Representative as the primary contact to each company.
(B2B) COMPANY CREDIT
With (B2B) Company Credit merchants get a line of credit for B@B, they can make a purchase with the credit limit available. With the Credit Activity dashboard, merchants can monitor issued and utilized credits.
In case if the company wants to make offline payments for the utilized credit limit, it can be accepted by the merchant, and later the merchants can update payments status via the admin interface.
(B2B) QUOTES
With (B2B) Quotes, you can add an authorized buyer, who can initiate a price quote from the shopping cart.
Admin interface lets merchants manage quote requests, they can also view communication between buyer and seller. Merchants can save views and export data.
(B2B) PAYMENT ON ACCOUNT
If a company makes purchases up to the credit limit and wants to make an offline payment method, (B2B) Payment on Account allows companies to do it.
This feature can be enabled globally or per company.
(B2B) REQUISITION LISTS
B2B requisition list is almost similar to wishlist but the products can’t be removed after being purchased. It makes it easier when you’re reordering the products.
Wrapping it up!
Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce both have their pros and cons. If you’re looking to grow your business at a substantial rate, Magento Commerce is worth every penny, it will give you an upper edge over your competitors with all the features that it provides.
So, start building your store from the scratch and boost your sales with Magento Commerce.