How could people resist themselves from buying if they are lured with great choices, competitive pricing, and 24x7 shopping access? With so many cool things to buy out round the clock, why would people stop themselves from getting things?
The easiness of buying things online has surpassed the convincing power of brick-and-mortar stores to get customers inside. Today there is a significant rise in the number of people preferring web for their purchase rather than the physical stores.
Gone are those days were we hit into streets with our friends and family to get clothes, household items, gifts, and all other necessities. Today, no matter what goods you want to purchase, everything is accessible and achieved in a touch. Your ordered product gets delivered at your doorstep instantly, giving you no pains of wandering.
Today it is unusual to find a popular store without its online presence. Every business has understood the significance of keeping an online face to attract customers. The major reason behind this rising e-commerce trend is their convenience of shopping 24x7. Unlike any office hour, people aren’t tied with any time zones to shop. Be it day or night, they get access to things online. Also, a variety of choices are made accessible online compared to physical stores. Moreover, customers get the best deals on the web.
Price comparison is made easy and lucrative with e-commerce stores. When shopping in a physical store the customer has to often compromise with the pricing. They reluctantly nod to the fixed price set by the seller. Because it isn’t that easy to bargain or walking from shop to shop in search of the best pricing.
However, with e-commerce, price comparison is easy and quick. In addition, online stores have no limitations like that of a physical store. Using online stores, customers can shop from anywhere around the world that too from a variety of choices displayed on these websites.
Estimated Online Purchase Made by Consumers
Rise in Online Purchasing
Now coming to the retailer’s point of view, the eCommerce website overcomes the limitations of geography. With the physical store, the seller cannot reach out to large customers. However, with eCommerce, they can fly above the geographical limitations.
Secondly, with an eCommerce site, the retails can gain new visitors with search engines. With a physical store, your branding totally relies on word of mouth advertising and other discount offers. However, with eCommerce, there brings in explosive traffic with search engines. Also one can keep an eye on consumer’s buying habits.
Last but not least, the decreasing cost of inventory management. The operational cost in setting up multiple warehouses is significantly brought down with eCommerce as it automates the inventory management system. Even without keeping the inventory in hand, it is possible to conduct sales through eCommerce. However, this isn’t practical with physical stores.
With rising e-commerce trends, there is a rise in e-commerce software applications in the market. If you go in the hunt of best e-commerce software you would end up with numerous choices like Odoo e-Commerce, Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce, OpenCart, and many others. Each application promises with effective tools to sell things online. However, remember that choosing the right and best e-Commerce software, will only help you to survive in the competition of stylish stores and make good returns.
It is estimated that US shoppers have spent over $453 billion in online purchases this year. Compared with the records of 2018, there is a 16% rise in online shoppers this year. Needless to say, there is a drastic adoption rate of online purchasing among customers. This is not the case of Americans alone, see how much other countries spent on online purchase:
How much online shopper around the world are spending
Estimated average e-Commerce revenue per online shopper in 2019
This simply underlines the importance of having your own eCommerce store to lure customers. As said before, there are n-number of E-commerce software choices in the market promising out-of-box solutions to sell products online just like a walk in the park.
If you see them from a distance, you may feel that all these solutions are moreover the same. However, they may not be. From pricing to ease of use, design flexibility to value for money, each software will differ from one another.
How to choose the best eCommerce Software?
Choosing the best eCommerce software is always tricky as it involves a lot of considerations in terms of pricing, features, scalability, user-friendliness, and many others. However, to ensure the explosive sales growth of your eCommerce store, you must consider the following elements.
1) SEO Friendliness
2) Mobile Friendliness
3) Security Features
4) Platform Scalability
5) Product Management System
6) Order Management System
7) Return Management System
8) Multichannel Integration
9) Multi-payment Option
With multiple eCommerce software available in the market and each software offering something unique, you are put in a dilemma of what to opt and how. You may not need all the features listed in the application but cannot overrule the majority of it as well. Thus choosing the best eCommerce application purely depends on your understanding of your business specifics.
Understand the business requirements is the foremost thing to do before choosing your application.
There are mainly two types of eCommerce applications available in the market:
a) SaaS-based eCommerce platform
b) Open-source eCommerce platform
SaaS eCommerce platform is known for its swiftness and simplicity of management. It demands neither any coding knowledge or any technical team to build the software. The ready-made application is hoisted online and users can easily sign up and set up their online store. However, the drawback of choosing SaaS-based eCommerce is the hefty recurring price. The price can go up exponentially with the extension period. Moreover, you will have no opportunities like that of customizing the application based on your requirements. You have to satisfy with the existing features and completely rely on the vendor to get things fixed.
However, with open source, you won’t have any such issues.
Choosing opensource eCommerce software gets you with source code, giving you absolute control over your eCommerce website and the business. Also, the users can assure higher scalability and customizability on the application compared to SaaS. With an open-source eCommerce platform, it is possible to micro-personalize the website making use of various other modules.
Thus, one can confidently assure the right eCommerce software for your business. For instance, if your website is in need of any additional payment gateway option, one can simply install a module for it and make the option available in your application. It is that simple with opensource eCommerce.
The Top 5 Opensource eCommerce Platforms in 2019:
1. Odoo eCommerce
2. Magento
3. Prestashop
4. Drupal Commerce
5. Open-Cart
Odoo vs Magento
This blog takes an in-depth look at two major e-Commerce software applications: Odoo and Magento. We will compare here how they differ in terms of their pricing, design, features, customer support and more. In the end, you will be confident enough to choose between the two.
If you’re thinking of building your own online store and is looking for the finest e-Commerce application, this article is for you.
The best eCommerce application should encompass all those features we discussed earlier. It is not just that a” Buy” button to purchase your goods makes your eCommerce software worthy and result-oriented. There should be many features incorporated in the e-Commerce application to keep a balance of inventory, accounts, marketing and more.
More importantly, the eCommerce application should be user-friendly. The usability for customers encourages frequent visits of customers, eventually promising with good sales.
With no further ado let us see how Magento and Odoo promise great sales.
When it comes to e-commerce software, Magento is indeed a king. The application instantly hit the e-commerce market with its own charms and fancies. Magento came with a beautiful and functional design to win over customers, creating a strong customer base of themselves at a rapid speed.
While it continued to earn its share of credits say more than 250K installations out of Magento, new entries made their way without much struggle. One such entry to be reckoned with is the Odoo ERP. While Magento and other e-commerce applications concentrated mainly on their independent front end frameworks, Odoo surfaced with an integrated business management kind to manage online stores.
Odoo in itself is that self-reliant and robust that, it totally evades the necessity of any standalone applications in the business to manage their sales, customers, purchase, accounting, inventory, marketing and so forth. Despite the business size and complexity, Odoo offers a comprehensive and easy mode of management of all business operations ranging from eCommerce, accounting, inventory, customer relations, sales, human resources or purchase. Thus making your company’s backend process very strong. From seeking a potential client from CRM to confirming his sales order and timely delivery of goods, everything gets easily automated with Odoo. One need not rely on any standalone application to know the stock updates, product quantity on hand, or movement of goods. With Odoo everything gets coordinated and initiated in real-time.
So you may counter that even Magento offers advanced backend. But let me clear that Magento has advanced backend only for e-commerce based functions like order and catalog management. However, to manage the company’s inventory, accounting, or purchase, the users have to buy Magento extensions for great prices. However, Odoo offers them at a lesser price.
This has made Odoo a pocket-friendly application comparing to Magento. Many businesses ranging from small medium enterprises to large have significantly benefited from Odoo for their cost-effectiveness. The integrated Odoo suite promises comprehensive management of the e-commerce business, power puffing with many out-of-the-box functionalities comparatively at lesser prices. Odoo with its additional custom-built modules makes sure that nothing is left short and it covers every aspect of eCommerce business, like inventory management, accounting, marketing, etc.
Not convinced? Continue reading………………..
Odoo vs Magento: Feature comparison
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Catalog Management | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Configurable products | Yes | Yes |
Product Inline Page Builder | No | Yes |
Product Inline Page Builder | Yes | Yes |
Digital Products | Yes | Yes |
Product reviews | Yes | Yes |
Recurring Products(subscriptions) | Via extension | Yes |
Inventory Management | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Barcode Support | Via extension | Yes |
Product Demand Forecasting | Yes | Yes |
Stock On Hand | Yes | Yes |
Stock Available | Yes | Yes |
Supply chain | Via extension | Yes |
Return/Exchange Managemen | Yes | Yes |
Shipment Tracking | Yes | Yes |
Backorders Management | Via extension | Yes |
Multiple Warehouses | Yes | Yes |
Purchase Management | Via extension | Yes |
Inventory Reports | Yes | Yes |
DESIGN
General | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
WYSIWYG Editor | Yes | Yes |
Drag & Drop Page Builder (Building Blocks) | No | Yes |
Responsive Web Design | Yes | Yes |
Auto-Generated Sitemaps | Yes | Yes |
Customizable HTML/CSS | Yes | Yes |
eCommerce Usability | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Breadcrumb Navigation | Yes | Yes |
Site Search Engine | Yes | Yes |
Sorting of Search Results | Yes | Add-on |
Product | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Multiple Pictures per Product | Yes | Yes |
Bulk Image Upload | Yes | No |
Bulk Product Import/Export | Yes | No |
Hierarchy of Categories | Yes | Yes |
CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT
General | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Cart Abandonment Tracking | Yes | Yes |
Persistent Cart | Yes | Yes |
Customer Portal | Yes | Yes |
Buy Without Signup | No | Yes |
Customer Testimonials | Yes | Yes |
Customer Contact Form | Yes | Yes |
Customer Order History | Yes | Yes |
Customer Specific Prices | Yes | Yes |
Live Chat on Website | No | Yes |
Affiliates Management | Yes | Add-on |
Wish List | Yes | Yes |
SHIPPING
General | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Custom Shipping Rules | Yes | Yes |
Flat Rate Shipping | Yes | Yes |
Label Printing | Yes | Yes |
Gift Wrapping Option | Yes | Yes |
Free Shipping Options | Yes | Yes |
Weight Based Shipping | Yes | Yes |
Shipping Connectors: DHL | Extension | Yes |
Shipping Connectors: UPS | Extension | Yes |
Shipping Connectors: USPS | Extension | Yes |
Shipping Connectors: FedEx | Extension | Yes |
PROMOTION AND MARKETING
General | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Email Auto Response | Yes | Yes |
Email List Management | No | Yes |
Drag & Drop Mail Designer | No | Yes |
Affiliate Program Support | Yes | No |
Coupons & Promo Codes | Yes | Yes |
Reward Points | Yes | No |
Discount Management | Yes | Yes |
Customizable Email Templates | Yes | Yes |
Integrated A/B Testing | Via extension | Yes |
Gift Cards | Yes | Add-on |
Product Ratings | Yes | Yes |
Product Bundling | Yes | Yes |
Product Comparison | Yes | Add-on |
Up-sells in Shopping Cart | Via extension | Yes |
Cross-sells on Product Pages | Yes | Yes |
eBay Marketplace Integration | Via extension | Yes |
Amazon Marketplace Integration | Via extension | Add-on |
Private Sales | Yes | Yes |
Site-Wide Banner Advertising | Yes | Yes |
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
General | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Integrated SEO | Yes | Yes |
Inline SEO Suggestions | No | Yes |
Optimized URLs | Yes | Yes |
Link Tracker | No | Yes |
SALES MANAGEMENT
General | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Sales Reports | Yes | Yes |
Search Reports | Yes | No |
Data Import | Yes | Yes |
SSL Support | Yes | Yes |
Integrated Invoicing | No | Yes |
Multi-Store Support | Yes | Yes |
Taxes by Country/State | Yes | Yes |
Advanced Taxes: Fiscal Positions | No | Yes |
Payment & Pricing Features | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Payment Gateway: Redirect | Yes | Yes |
Payment Gateway: Server 2 Server | No | Yes |
Recurring Payments | No | Yes |
PayPal Integration | Yes | Yes |
Multi-Currency/Multi-Providers | Yes | Yes |
REPORTING
Reports | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Sales Report | Yes | Yes |
Inventory Reports | Yes | Yes |
Subscription KPIs (MRR, Churn, etc.) | No | Yes |
Google Analytics Integration | Via extension | Yes |
Product Performance Reports | Yes | Yes |
Sales Summary Reports | Yes | Yes |
Site Search Report | Yes | No |
Report Engine | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Dynamic Graphs | Via extension | Yes |
Dynamic Pivot Table | No | Yes |
Customizable Dashboard | Yes | Yes |
Export Report to Excel | Yes | Yes |
PRODUCTIVITY AND USABILITY
Productivity | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Ability to Add Fields in Backend | No | Yes |
Ability to Add Fields in Front-end | No | Yes |
Usability | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
Full Web Interface | Yes | Yes |
Fast Backend (Ajax) | No | Yes |
Responsive Backend | No | Yes |
Multi-language | Yes | Yes |
Interfaces | Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
API | Yes | Yes |
Apps Store | 94,201 extensions | 21,946 apps |
It is crystal clear that Odoo outweighs Magento in terms of its functionalities.
Where Magento specifically caters to the needs of the eCommerce industry, Odoo positions itself to be the complete all-in-one business suite. Odoo caters to the eCommerce industry need alongside manage the other business operations like accounting or inventory with the same seriousness. The assortment of large built-in applications empowers Odoo to take care of challenging business operations like accounting, analytics without any deployment of extra plugins. However, with Magento, you may have to depend on expensive plugins to answer functional capabilities that seem critical to a modern e-Commerce store. In Magento, we often need to deploy additional modules if the question is related to back-office and operations management. However, with Odoo, it is by default. Also, you get equipped with all essentials tools to say out-of-box solutions such as product comparisons, promo tools, multiple- currency, multi-language, etc. When compared the Odoo vs Magento, these factors of Odoo overrule the limitations of Magento.
Odoo vs Magento: Which eCommerce software is more easier to set up?
When it comes to the usability factor, it is Odoo that outweighs Magento. Comparing to the latter, it is Odoo that is much easier to set up and use. Making use of several modules available in the Odoo app store, one can seamlessly build and align the e-Commerce website. The simple drag and drop building blocks of Odoo website builder enables users to craft their own website without much professional assistance. However, to micro-personalize your website, you may need the assistance of Odoo developers who are enriched with technical and functional knowledge. When it comes to eCommerce website building, the significance of UI/UX is high.
The advantage with Odoo ERP is that you have a huge community of skilled, certified and professional Odoo developers available in the market. These developers have access to various resources like documentation and community forums, helping in fixing critical issues at a rapid speed. Hiring Odoo developers from a reliable and trusted Odoo partner can surely gift you the benefits of business growth.
Odoo vs Magento: Cost Comparison
The price of deploying both Odoo and Magento depends on the chosen platform i.e. the opensource platform and closed platform. The opensource version of both Odoo and Magento will be very basic and will not have all the features that an eCommerce software must-have. However, choosing the enterprise edition will get users with advanced features like integrations, SEO friendliness, and many others. If we look at the prices, both open-source of Magento and Odoo are free. However, enterprise licensing fees differ for both Odoo and Magento.
While the licensing cost of Magento Enterprise starts from $18,000 per year, the licensing fees of Odoo Enterprise price depend on the number of users and features. It starts at $130 per user annually. Also, the users can go for a free trial of the enterprise version in Odoo. This helps in easy decision making of the application.
| Magento Enterprise | Odoo Enterprise |
MONTHLY PRICING | $1500 | $25/user |
FREE CLOUD VERSION | No | Yes |
CONTRACT DURATION | Yearly | Yearly |
FREE TRIAL | No | Yes |
FREE UPDATES | No | No |
UPGRADES TO FUTURE VERSIONS | No | No |
HOSTING AND MAINTENANCE | No | No |
SUPPORT | Yes | Yes |
Conclusion:
Though Magento seems to be the front runner in e-commerce software, Odoo is a stiff competitor to Magento. Odoo is quickly picking up to the pace of Magento, successfully accomplishing each front end features that are the highlights of Magento. However, the upstart challenger strongly backs with robust features( backend) for the intrinsic management of eCommerce business. From offering a strong and stable platform to assuring of SEO friendliness to the website, Odoo serves with great management features. It will soon be a big threat to Magento.
Moreover, a huge community of developers is constantly working on the open-source ERP platform, constantly improving its architecture and extensity picking to the pace of Magneto.
Odoo totally evades the necessity of business to depend on expensive extension and standalone applications. Odoo e-Commerce comes already synced with other modules in the ERP. And this tends to be a genuine danger to Magento.
If your requirement for your eCommerce store is very limited, with no great number of integrations, Magento can be a good choice. However, if you are looking for wide integration possibilities, going for Odoo will be viable. Compared to Magento, Odoo is more open to integrations and customizations. The functionality of Odoo can be easily increased via integrating the application with third-party software. The rich API library and web service in Odoo make it practical almost all kinds of Odoo integrations.
And finally coming to the cost, with no license fee for Odoo Community, Odoo eCommerce will remain a viable choice for the small enterprises to start their own online stores, without making suffer their pockets.
To know the complete offerings under Odoo eCommerce, refer to our Odoo book.