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.
The hosting cost for the Magento Commerce platform is $2.000/yr
Feature
The following table compares the features that distinguish the two versions of Magento:
Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce feature comparison table
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.
The table compares the deployment costs of Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce.
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.
Magento Open Source vs Magento Commerce comparison
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
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.
There are three ways to design an eGrocery website interface on the Magento platform.
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.
Magento’s functional system
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
The ability to expand the system
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’s outstanding security
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.
Magento’s ecosystem
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.
Cost
Magento Open Source
Magento Commerce
Magento Commerce Cloud
User licenses
Free
$22.000 -$125.000/yr
$40.000-$190.000/yr
Hosting
$100-$500/yr
$500-$6.500/yr
Free
Domain
$10-$400/yr
$10-$400/yr
$10-$400/yr
SSL Certificate
$50-$300/yr
$50-$300/yr
$50-$300/yr
Creating website
$5.000+
$5.000+
$5.000+
Developing website
$1.800-$10.000/yr
$10.000+
$10.000+
Extensions
$60-$600/ea
60-$600/ea
60-$600/ea
Total
$10.000-$17.000
$33.000-$149.000
$50.000-$207.000
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.
Creating eGrocery website for Annam Gourmet
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.
CGV; BiBo Mart; Rohto are now using the Magento Commerce platform
The Pros
The pros of the Magento platform
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
The cons of the Magento platform
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!
SECOMM has outlined the journey to create a comprehensive eGrocery website for the Vietnamese market with over 7 years of experience in eCommerce.
The initial stage: Basic eGrocery website development
The basic process of developing the eGrocery websites
Setting goals for the development of the eGrocery website
The first step for grocery businesses is to set goals and prioritize those goals to plan the result of an appropriate eCommerce website for each stage.
Businesses can consider long-term goals such as brand positioning, exploitation of potential customers, and product online business capability.
Short-term goal activities such as revenue growth, customer monitoring and analysis, campaign effectiveness evaluation, and so on should prioritize by businesses.
Furthermore, the user experience factor, which includes services such as payment, logistics, online customer care, and so on, is critical to increasing interaction, support, customer consultation, and problem resolution as quickly as possible.
In terms of duration, businesses can choose to deploy quickly to penetrate the eGrocery market or gradually adapt to the market at this stage. When deploying a grocery ecommerce website, the budget will be determined by each business’s strategy and financial potential.
Selecting a basic eGrocery website development platform
Two popular platforms assist businesses in developing eCommerce websites: SaaS (Software as a service) and Open Source. Here are some of the best Saas eCommerce platforms: Haravan, Shopify, and BigCommerce.
Pros: Rapidity, reasonable price, no IT experience requirement
Cons: Operating costs rise over time as a result of annual/monthly service license payments, platform developer reliance due to lack of ownership of source code and data, and limited functions such as the ability to integrate and expand the website system.
Top 3 SaaS eCommerce Platforms: Haravan, Shopify, BigCommerce
Open Source eCommerce Platforms widely used in the Vietnamese market include WooCommerce, OpenCart, and Magento.
Pros: The user owns the source code and data, has more interfaces and functions, and has better integration and extensibility than SaaS platforms.
Cons: It takes more time and cost to develop the website initially than SaaS platforms. Also, it requires an experienced IT team to handle its system.
Due to the significant differences between SaaS Platforms and Open Source Platforms, stage businesses prefer to use SaaS Platforms in the initial stages of basic eGrocery
Designing the interface of the eGrocery website
Businesses have to meet the following criteria when designing the website interface: UI/UX standardization, displaying the brand’s and the eGrocery industry’s characteristics, and product presentation synchronization to provide the best experience to customers.
There are three approaches to designing the interface: using available themes, customizing themes, or creating their own. Businesses frequently use the available themes in this stage to save the most money. Still, some companies with financial potential will choose the other two options for better branding.
Bach Hoa Xanh’s website
Adding functions to the eGrocery website
When operating a grocery eCommerce system, businesses can prioritize the development of basic functions to meet the essential needs during this time.
Some basic functions required in eGrocery websites, 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: Help track and measure eCommerce system performance and develop future strategies.
Quick purchase feature and wishlist on Organica’s website
Finalizing the legal procedures
According to Decree 52/2013/ND-CP of the Government, every individual or organization that owns a sales eCommerce website must notify or register with the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the eCommerce Operation Management Portal.
Websites that exceed the time limit or fail to register/notify the competent management agency within the time frame specified will be administratively sanctioned by regulations.
The following stage: Advanced eGrocery website development
The advanced process of developing the eGrocery website
Re-targeting
As the company grows and the market changes, the goals must be adjusted accordingly. This is also the time for leaders to rethink the business strategy’s target and money to invest in the grocery eCommerce website system. During this time, businesses frequently focus on the short and long-term goals of expanding the online grocery store system.
Long-term business goals can include expanding market segments, developing loyalty programs, forming consumer online shopping habits, etc.
Short-term goals for businesses can include capturing more new potential customers, increasing revenue, and supporting Ecommerce Marketing strategy.
Selecting platforms for conversion
When SaaS platforms are no longer effective enough to help businesses expand their online grocery store website systems, they have to turn to Open Source platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, and OpenCart to build advanced eGrocery websites.
Top 3 Open Source eCommerce platforms: Woocommerce, OpenCart, Magento
In this stage, platform selection criteria include:
Professional website interface, UX / UI standardization, displaying the brand’s and the eGrocery industry’s characteristics.
Comprehensive functional system from basic; advanced to industry-specific
Flexible customization and extensibility, allowing businesses to integrate with a wide range of third-party utilities and support multiple websites, multi-language, and multi-currency.
High security, assisting businesses in avoiding network attacks, and assisting with data backup when needed
Absolutely, businesses will face more challenges when switching platforms from SaaS to Open Source, such as changing costs, time to train personnel on open platforms, and data loss or errors during the conversion.
Selecting the development resources (In-house team or Project developer)
Businesses must choose the right resources to develop their website to build eCommerce website on an open source platform. Typically, companies can create an in-house team or find a project developer. Regardless of the resource, professional knowledge and practical experience about the chosen platform are required.
Selecting the development resources for the eGrocery website
Businesses should recruit and train IT and eCommerce personnel with expertise and experience in the chosen platform. Building the right team will take a lot of time and money. Still, it will help businesses manage resources better and actively edit or develop the website system according to the requirements.
Businesses should look for project developers based on the following criteria to collaborate with them:
Ecommerce experience (the number of years of experience, the quantity and the quality of projects they have done, and the complexity of projects).
The professional team (solution consultants, IT personnel, customer service).
Good process (analyzing, proposing solutions, developing, testing, and maintaining).
Fast processing and support capabilities.
Warranty and maintenance commitments.
This will help businesses learn expertise, gain experience, and develop a website in all aspects of the eGrocery industry. Still, companies and their partners must collaborate effectively to achieve a better result.
Re-designing the interface of the eGrocery website
Businesses can keep things the same while switching platforms. There is no need to change the current website interface. Many companies, however, will rebuild the website interface to match the new strategy and platform.
Similar to the previous stage, businesses have several options when designing the interface of a grocery eCommerce website: using available themes, customizing the themes, or creating their own. At this stage, however, businesses frequently choose to customize or design their own theme to reflect the characteristics of the eGrocery brand and industry.
OpenCart’s website interface store
Converting platform
After selecting the appropriate conversion platform, the conversion should be carried out carefully to limit the risk of data loss or enterprise error. To avoid errors, the conversion is usually done as automatically as possible.
The platform conversion process includes steps to extract data from the old system and record it into the new system. After converting the platform, businesses need to double-check to ensure that the converted data is fully and correctly according to the plan.
Upgrading functional system
In addition to the basic functions, businesses should focus on developing a more complex system of functions, including advanced and industry-specific functions for the eGrocery industry.
Advanced functions include order tracking, abandoned cart, similar product recommendations, advanced product search, multilayer product catalog, and others that improve the consumer experience and speed up the shopping process.
Industry-specific functions aid in thoroughly resolving the challenges of implementing intensive departmental eCommerce, meeting the needs of customer segments and businesses such as fast delivery, delivery time selection, and so on.
Furthermore, businesses must constantly update and develop user-friendly functions to stay competitive in the market.
Magento’s advanced functions
Operating and maintaining the eGrocery website system
When putting the grocery eCommerce website system through testing, businesses must review and test the entire website and functionality in a specific time frame to ensure order processing speed, website stability, and so on. In addition, businesses must immediately contact the in-house team or the developer if issues arise to adjust and improve the website before going live.
After the grocery eCommerce website system has stabilized, businesses should focus on Ecommerce Marketing strategies (SEO, SEM, Email Marketing, Content Marketing, Social Marketing, and so on) or implement Omni-channel to grow their online eGrocery business.
For long-term sales growth, businesses should maintain, update, and upgrade their website system regularly, quickly adapting to changes in the eCommerce market in general and the grocery market in particular.
The final step in developing comprehensive eGrocery websites is to operate and maintain the system.
In general, developing comprehensive eGrocery websites for the Vietnamese market is complex. It requires businesses to invest significant time and money in researching the best eCommerce strategy for each stage of business development.
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.
WinMart is a supermarket system and grocery store chain purchased by Masan Group from Vingroup. This brand was more commonly known as Vinmart at that time.
Farmer’s Market is a fresh food chain store brand managed by LARIA Trading Co., Ltd. To provide a seamless shopping experience O2O (online to offline), the company has built an omni-channel retail system serving over 4,000 customers daily.
Annam Gourmet arose from the two Annam Group founders’ deep love of European cuisine. Annam Gourmet chain stores have been successfully operating in the Vietnamese market for over 20 years, offering high-quality imported product lines such as high-end food, wine, beverages, and cosmetics.
With a 200% annual growth rate, the future potential of grocery eCommerce in the Vietnamese market is undeniable (according to Statista). There are numerous opportunities in the eGrocery industry. Recently, many challenges have arisen, necessitating careful consideration of tactics by business managers in order to take the most effective steps.
The eGrocery businesses have opportunities and challenges, requiring business managers to consider tactics to take the most effective steps. Finding a partner is tricky and building an in-house team is tough. Businesses must incur significant opportunity costs and time to reach the goal.
Our company – SECOMM has been partnering with many big enterprises such as An Nam Group (Vietnam), Jasnor (Australia), and Changi Airport Group (Singapore). We are aware of the challenges and worries faced by firms while developing an e-commerce website system.
Get in touch with us now for FREE eCommerce consultancy and solutions in eGrocery businesses.
In the future, as many expert predictions, AI can be a modern and popular trend to optimize the ecommerce experience correctly. However, businesses also need to consider the needs of target customers to have appropriate applications and increase the number of potential customers and loyal customers in the long run.