Likelihood to Recommend It's well suited for large eCommerce stores as it requires much effort to set up and the development cost for setting it up is high. It's less appropriate to use Magento where you are looking for quick development and launch of the store. Also, it is required to have a developer or sometimes the entire tech team to manage an e-commerce store, so you may need to hire a few PHP developers.
Read full review It's a basic system which does some things well but the things it does well are the basic things you would expect! Many other features that are a little beyond basic are just not available or you can get 90% of the way there but get stuck on the final 10% so you need to hire a developer who can try to get you through the last bit. An inventory management system with no bin locations pretty much sums it up. The reporting system is terrible. To get any real use you need to integrate it with Zoho Analytics but the problem there is it only syncs every 3 hours. The integrated shipping process is extremely cumbersome
Read full review Pros Magento is perfect if our web design client likes a specific pre-made template and wants a fast solution. Magento allows us to customize its open-source code to create additional features and functionality. Magento saves small businesses time and money if they only need a simple solution. Read full review It is simple to use. Does all the basics well. Is able to integrate with our CRM. Read full review Cons Not the simplest of solutions to use or maintain from an end-user perspective Other platforms are better with regards to SEO in our experience Fairly sluggish and slow compared to other platforms without the correct server specification and performance optimization work. Read full review Templates within Zoho Inventory are very weak. You can't customize many including package slips, shipment docs, etc... When an order has multiple packages, it's next to impossible to find the item you are looking for. Scenario, a large order has many packages and a customer has cancelled one of the items. You must click through every package to find the item, edit the package and remove it before you can cancel the item. The reports within Inventory are extremely basic and many of them are useless The packing slip module is useless as it does not print out bin locations It's an inventory management system but it does not have bin locations The backorder system is useless. If you "backorder" something then the whole order is locked until the backorder arrives in. Scenario.... a client orders 20 items, 1 is on backorder. You "backorder" that one item but want to ship the other 19... not possible. The order gets completely locked. You can't print out RMA requests. There is just no option to do it, you have to do a screen shot Integration with Amazon or other 3rd party e-commerce providers is troublesome. Read full review Likelihood to Renew It's the dominant force in the SMB open source market. With the continued support of eBay/PayPal, Magento will continue to evolve and should be a market leader for some time.
Read full review It is relatively easy to customise but the problem is sometimes it is not easy to see where this customisation is available. Also the integrations with external systems can prove problematic both during installation and ongoing development and maintenance. It's great for small companies with a simple inventory or even larger organisations with smaller product lines. And it is reasonably priced if you ar eprepared to put the time in.
Read full review Alternatives Considered In looking at a different platform to migrate to from Magento 1, we looked primarily at Big Commerce, Shopify and Shopify Plus. Our host was very negative about Magento 2, but we determined after a couple years it was due to the fact it had even more complexity (and very different) than Magento 1. Shopify Plus was attractive, but the cost factor for two sites led us back to Magento 2.
Read full review The inventory management is better than QuickBooks however you give up an awful lot to get that benefit. The reporting in QuickBooks is far superior. The reporting in Inventory is terrible with every few options to customize the reports. For example, pulling in a salesperson report that factors in returns is not possible. You can't pull a report to see what items need to be picked for all open orders.
Read full review Return on Investment Delays in development leads to missed timelines and opportunity loss. High cost of development and maintenance may currently outweigh the growth. Better handling of customer and order information makes for better customer service. Excellent API has been a boon for integration with our ERP Read full review We stopped using it as it was difficult to set up. Zoho offers a lot of features but the depth of its functionality proves limited as your demands increase. Read full review ScreenShots Zoho Inventory Screenshots