Magento 2 is a highly popular ecommerce development platform and is used by startup, MSMEs and big organizations as well. Mostly, the small scale industries tend to use Magento Community edition as it is open-source and free to use while the medium and large scale industries prefer to use Magento Commerce (paid edition). Also, Magento Commerce comes with its next-level features. These features can bring your ecommerce operations to the next level.
Magento Open-Source Vs Magento Commerce
Many ecommerce site owners prefer to use the Magento Community edition as it is free to use. But after a while, when the business will grow, this free edition will not scale up to meet the requirements of large scale ecommerce activities. Let’s know the underlying differences between the Magento Community Edition and Magento Commerce (Enterprise) edition.
If you want just a startup and looking for a free version of an ecommerce development platform then you must try the Magento community edition. You just need to hire a Magento development company like us who can set up the ecommerce store on this platform.
On the other hand, Magento Commerce is being used by medium or large scale enterprises that have established their online business. It is a paid edition of the Magento and comes with many existing additional features. As a store owner, you don’t need to worry about the server and can forget all queries related to speed and performance while in the Magento open-source you have to look after for all the security and performance of hosting infrastructure. You will have to work with the hosting provider to create a plan which can meet sudden traffic surges while Magento Commerce cloud has been designed to scale fast. Instead, you just have to pick up your phone or send a mail.
Comparison Of Features
You can find multiple resources on the official Magento site for understanding the differences between Magento Open-Source and Magento Commerce. There is a PDF by which you can compare both editions and outline the entire feature set of Magento Commerce. However, while making a purchasing decision, these files will make you more baffled. Even after reading multiple guides, you have to painstakingly search through each User Guides for differences.
It will also take a lot of time to do this deep-level research. Hence, in this article, we have listed down all the advanced features which are only present in the Magento Commerce and not in Magento open-source. We hope that this features list will help you while choosing between both these editions.
Who We Are?
At Emizentech, the best Magento development company in India, we are a team of highly experienced Magento certified developers. We have developed more than 440 Magento stores in Magento 1 & Magento 2 from scratch. We believe in developing highly captivating ecommerce stores with interactive features and functionalities. Go through our regular articles, blogs and stories to stay updated with the latest trends of the ecommerce industry.
30 Features Present Only In Magento Commerce
Let’s go through the list of exciting features which are only present in the Magento Commerce:
- 1. B2B Requisition Lists
- 2. B2B Payment on Account
- 3. B2B Quotes
- 4. B2B Company Accounts
- 5. B2B Shared Catalogs
- 6. Support Tools
- 7. Scheduled Import/Export
- 8. Action Logs Report
- 9. Customer Attributes Manager
- 10. Store Credit
- 11. Shopping Assistance
- 12. Returns
- 13. Order by SKU
- 14. Order Archiving
- 15. Gift Options
- 16. Additional Payment Methods
- 17. Wishlists
- 18. Visual Merchandiser
- 19. Rewards & Loyalty
- 20. Related Product Rules
- 21. Private Sales & Events
- 22. Google Tag Manager
- 23. Gift Registries
- 24. Email Reminders
- 25. Customer Segments
- 26. Page Hierarchy
- 27. Content Staging
- 28. Dynamic Blocks
- 29. Advanced Catalog Search
- 30. Category Permissions
Let’s discuss each of these points in more details.
1. B2B Requisition Lists
The B2B customers can maintain the Requisition lists which are almost similar to wishlist but the products can’t be removed after being purchased. Requisition lists are used for making easier the reordering of products. For instance, the requisition list items can be easily added to a shopping cart or moved or copied from one requisition list to another.
2. B2B Payment on Account
This is an additional offline payment method by which companies can make purchases up to a specified limit as per their profile. You can enable this feature globally or for a particular company. After enabling it, it will display at the checkout instant. Also, on using Payment on Account as a payment method, a message will appear at the top of the order indicating account status.
3. B2B Quotes
An authorized buyer can be added using B2B quotes. The buyer will now able to initiate a price quote from the shopping cart. From the admin interface, the merchants can manage quote requests, check out communication history between buyer and seller, save views, and export data.
4. B2B Company Credit
The merchants can give a credit line to B2B customers using the B2B company credit, who may then make purchases on their account up to their allowed credit limit. There is a Credit Activity dashboard from where the merchants can monitor issued and utilized credit.
5. B2B Quick Order
The customers can add products to the cart by just entering SKU and quantity information in the Quick Order interface or by just uploading a CSV file.
6. B2B Company Accounts
In this feature, the visitor on the Magento store can request opening a company account, or the admin can create a company account.
After approving the company account, the Company Administrator can set up the Company Structure, add Users and Teams, assign Roles and Permissions, and manage the Company Profile all from the storefront.
7. B2B Shared Catalogs
The merchants can create “shared” catalogues with custom pricing, products, and permissions using the B2B Shared Catalogs feature.
But these catalogues will be available for particular customer groups, and custom catalogues will be created visible to only specific company accounts.
8. Support Tools
The Support Tools come with Data Collector and System Report which can help in finding known issues in the system if any issue arises.
These tools can also help in development and site optimization. You can use them as a diagnostic tool for Magento’s support team for identifying and resolving issues.
9. Scheduled Import/Export
The merchants can schedule imports and exports using Scheduled Imports/Exports on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis. It is highly useful after integrating 3rd party services.
The import feature includes Advanced Pricing, Products, Customers, and Addresses, Customers Main File, and Customer Addresses. The export functionality includes Products, Customers Main File, and Customer Addresses.
10. Action Logs Report
You can get an informative report of all admin actions using the Action Logs Report. Each record is time-stamped and records the IP addresses and user’s name.
The log detail includes admin user data and related changes made during the action.
11. Customer Attribute Manager
The merchants can add additional customer details using Customer Attribute Manager. It supports the order, fulfilment, and customer management processes. You can add custom attributes to the Account Information, Address Book, and Billing Information sections.
12. Store Credit
The merchants can refund customers for cash purchases using the Store Credit functionality. The customers can, later on, use this credit for making purchases, and track the status of refunds from the account dashboard.
A credit memo will make a refund, once the order is paid and invoiced. However, a credit memo differs from a refund. It goes back to the customer account where it can be used for future purchases.
13. Shopping Assistance
A customer who has registered for an account can get assistance through Shopping Assistance. The merchants can edit customer’s shopping cart contents in real-time from the Admin interface. Also, the customer service representatives can check the customer’s shopping cart content while the customer is in communication with him.
14. Returns
RMAs, or Returned Merchandise Authorizations, let the customers make refunds or replacements of their orders. In the Order and Returns interface, the customer can enter order and return details to request a return. After approval, a unique RMA number will be assigned for return product identification. You can enable RMA for all products or some specified products.
RMAs are often issued for simple, grouped, configurable, and bundle product types. However, RMAs are not available for virtual products, downloadable products, and gift cards.
15. Order By SKU
This functionality allows users to add products to cart just by entering SKU and quantity information. Or, you can upload a CSV file from within a customer account.
16. Order Archiving
For cleaning their workspace, the merchants can archive orders regularly using the Order Archiving Functionality. It will not just keep the admin interface clean but will also improve the performance of the store.
17. Gift Options
The customers can add gift options for their products before checkout using this functionality. It can be a special message, gift wrapping, or the user can add a gift receipt, printed greeting card etc. You can even charge the customers for gift wrapping and printed gift cards.
18. Additional Payment Methods
There are many additional payment methods such as PayPal, Braintree, Klarna, Amazon Pay, etc. which you can integrate into your Magento Commerce store.
19. Wishlists
The Wishlists features will allow you and the customers to manage the wishlists on their account. By using the Wishlist Search widget, site visitors can search for any public wishlist. The feature is quite comparable to the gift registries search widget, but an item purchased from a public wishlist isn’t removed from the original wishlist.
20. Visual Merchandiser
The merchants can merchandise through Visual Merchandiser. It means defining the products to appear within a category. It can be done through a drag-and-drop interface, or by applying rule-based conditions powered by “Smart” attributes.
21. Rewards & Loyalty
The merchants can offer a points-based loyalty program using the Rewards & Loyalty features. The customers can get points for different instances such as creating an account, placing an order, submitting product reviews, etc. The site admin can manage points, allowing merchants to control point allotment, balance, and expiration.
22. Related Product Rules
Using the Related Product Rules, merchants can specify which related products, up-sells, and cross-sells will be displayed in the product pages conditionally instead of manually. The rules are mostly associated with a customer segment for dynamic targeting. It is one of the most powerful time-saving features of Magento Commerce.
23. Private Sales & Events
The merchants can create exclusive sales events for customers using Private Sales & Events. As a merchant, you can also make events to visible only for the registered or logged-in customers. But the events are time-bound; the Event Ticker displays a countdown to the event end.
24. Google Tag Manager
GTM or Google Tag Manager lets the merchants manage tags (javascript “pixels”, or code snippets) for tracking customer activity, personalize content, measure engagement, and other marketing initiatives. Google Tag Manager support and Google Analytics Enhanced eCommerce are provided natively only in Magento Commerce.
25. Gift Registries
The customers can create gift registries for special occasions. They can invite their kith and kin for purchasing gifts through Magento Commerce Gift Registry Search Widget. It will let the customer search for another customer’s registry.
26. E-mail Reminders
Sending automated e-mails on different instances such as leaving cart abandoned, wishlist activity, is a basic need for ecommerce stores. E-mail reminders functionality of Magento Commerce will encourage the customer to return on site and make a purchase. Abandoned cart (or wishlist) emails can be automatically sent based on triggers such as “number of days abandoned”, “number of line items”, “item quantity”, “cart total”, and more.
27. Customer Segments
For showing the content such as banners and promotions (shipping cart price rules) to particular customers you have to segment them using Customer Segments functionality. You can segment the customers on particular attributes like address, order history, shopping cart contents, etc.
The information gets continuously updated, thus the customers become associated and vice versa from the segment as they make purchases.
28. Page Hierarchy
Page Hierarchy allows merchants to organize content pages within a hierarchy and add pagination, navigation, and menus with an easy to use drag-and-drop admin interface.
29. Content Staging
The merchants can create, preview, and schedule new content to different sections of their website such as Products, Categories, Promotions, Widgets, etc. using Content Staging. It is highly useful while scheduling on-site marketing for a new promotion which must be published at a specific time. Magento Commerce also provides an easy-to-use visual dashboard for scheduled content, the Staging Dashboard, which displays active and upcoming “campaigns” in a timeline view.
30. Dynamic Blocks
The Banner option has been replaced by Dynamic Blocks in Magento Commerce. You can create rich, interactive content from price rules and customer segments. Unlike carousels, these dynamic blocks cycle in a specific sequence or random orders. This allows merchants to create slide-show campaigns.
31. Advanced Catalog Search
Magento Commerce now supports ElasticSearch. Searching is mostly the first interaction of the user with the ecommerce site. A powerful search engine in your ecommerce site is highly required.
32. Category Permissions
Category Permissions allow merchants to limit access to browse categories, view pricing, or add to cart for products within a category based on customer group.
Wrapping Up
In this article, we have covered almost every feature which is present in Magento Commerce and not in the Magento Community edition. We are an advocate of both these editions but it depends on your requirements which one you should choose. At Emizentech, the best Magento development company in India, we are having expertise in developing exciting Magento stores from scratch and giving proper consultation. Let us know your requirements.
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