Magento Mobile: Will It Boost Mobile Commerce?

Although many open source communities such as Joomla and Dupral have provided mobile extensions for their CMS solutions, there are very few content management systems (CMS) designed for mobile commerce. A Mobile platform launched the Magento Platform in early June, which is one of biggest PHP open source CMS which specialises in E commerce. Currently the Magento Mobile platform is limited release only, and North Face will be their first client.

What Magento Mobile Offers

Magento is a PHP open-source CMS for E commerce based on components of the Zend Framework. Magento is owned by a company called Varien. It officially started development in early 2007 and was first released seven months later. Now the fast growing E-commerce platform is deeply integrated with its mobile commerce solution. These features will be key for the success of Magento Mobile:

• Integration with existing system: The Magento mobile deeply integrates with the retailer’s existing Magento E-Commerce Platform, including full integration with the store’s catalog, checkout, inventory, reporting and more. Therefore, the shopping experience is ensured to be seamless for customers interacting with retails across multiple channels, no matter what device is used to start or complete the transaction.
• Multiple devices support: Since there are so many mobile devices with unique features, people are always confused by which device is going to support. IPhone or Android? Even iPad? It is important to provide a cost-efficient extensibility across multiple devices and also deep support for native features on each mobile device. The Magento will allow administrators to easily support new device and incorporate individual features for each device that are relevant to their business and customers’ need.
• Support for payments: One of the biggest barriers to mobile commerce is fast, easy and safer payments. Personally, the only reason that I don’t like to purchase on the mobile is the difficulty of typing all the details, such as credit card information. Now Magento mobile integrates with PayPal’s mobile payment library for iPhone, iPad and Android, delivering a simple and seamless mobile payments experience.

The Cons of Magento Mobile

• Not Free. Although the Magento platform is a PHP open source project, the Magento Mobile extension is not free at this moment so considering the specification of the system, this could put off a large potential client base who use other Magento products. Just like the main Magento system, it is something taken up by smaller companies given the good functionality available for nothing, but for larger companies who demand more from the system there are other options available albeit at a higher price tag. It really depends what you want from the product.
• Magento Platform Existing Users Only. Because it is built on the exiting Magento Platform, only the Magento existing users could easily install the mobile module. Otherwise, other platform users have to switch to the Magento in order to use this service.

What Next?

I believe this is a milestone for mobile commerce and will leverage it onto a new level. With Magento Mobile or other similar mobile platforms in the future, retailers could manage their online business easily across multiple channels and customers would be given a seamless shopping experience.

Today North Face Euro, one of the world’s largest outdoor product companies, has selected Magento Mobile to power its mobile commerce initiatives. Now iPhone users in Sweden and the UK are able to download the application and purchase products directly from their iPhone. Watch the demo video below or check it out on your own iPhone if you are interested.

Obviously the Magento system is only one product on offer and there are certainly other, perhaps better, options out there. For more information on content management systems and what options are available to you, such as our own redfish product, please feel free to contact us today.