Magento Community Edition: Introduction and Features

Magento Community Edition 2.3.1 is the most acclaimed release of Magento e-commerce serving myriad features to developers which helps them to create irresistible shopping experience for their potential buyers.

Magento Community edition 2.3.1 is an open source e-commerce platform which is majorly used by small and medium sized merchants to build their online store.

This blog will provide you an in-depth knowledge of the features offered by Magento Community Edition 2.3.1. Below is the list:

Website Management Features

• Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
• Declarative DB Schema
• Asynchronous API to run multiple API requests at the same time
• Select and control information to share across multiple online stores from a single admin area
• Assign permissions and roles across users
• Easy integration between Magento and any third-party application by Web services API
• Custom website design and styling
• Online customer groups management
• Integrated content management system (CMS) for creating and managing informational pages
• Integration of Google optimizer for A/B and multivariate testing
• PHP 7.2 support
• Page Builder
• Upgraded version of the WYSIWYG editor
• Improved indexing performance

Security Features

• Google ReCAPTCHA
• Two-factor authentication
• Cache Management ACL

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Light footprint design for fast load time and SEO
• Sitemap auto generation
• Google Sitemap creation
• URL rewrite controls
• Search Engine friendly URL’s
• Meta-information for products, categories and content pages
• Auto-generated popular search terms page
• Google Content API for shopping

Analytics & Reporting

• Google Analytics integration
• Admin Report Dashboard with Business Overview
• Sales Reports Including Total Sales and Refunds
• Tax Reports
• Reports of Abandoned Shopping Cart
• Reports for Best Viewed Products
• Top Sold Products Report
• Report Low Stock Item
• Onsite Search Terms Report
• Product Reviews Report with RSS Support
• Tags Report with RSS Support
• Coupon Usage Report
• Total sales invoiced
• Total sales refunded

Catalog Management

• Simple, Configurable (e.g. size, color, etc.), Bundled and Grouped Products
• Virtual Products
• Downloadable/Digital Products
• Customer Personalized Products – upload text for embroidery, monogramming, etc.
• Tax Rates per location, customer group and product type
• Attribute sets for quick product creation of different item types
• Create Store-specific attributes on the fly
• Media Manager with automatic image resizing and watermarking
• Advanced Pricing Rules and support for Special Prices (see marketing tools)
• Search Results rewrites and redirects
• Approve, Edit and Delete Product Tags
• Approve, Edit and Delete Product Reviews
• RSS feed for Low Inventory Alerts Customer Personalized Products – Upload Image, Select Date/Time options for products
• Customer Sorting – Define Attributes for Customer
• Sorting on category (price, brand, etc.)
• Multi-source inventory (MSI)
• Inventory Management with Backordered items, Minimum and Maximum quantities
• Batch Import and Export of catalog
• Batch Updates to products in admin panel
• Google Base Integration

Related : How to Create Magento 2 Attributes?

Product Browsing

• Elasticsearch
• Product Option Selection
• Grouped Products View
• Add to Wishlist
• Send to a Friend with Email
• Multiple Images per Product
• Product Image Zoom-in Capability
• Product Reviews
• Related Products
• Stock Availability
• Multi-Tier Pricing Upsell

Checkout, Payment, & Shipping

• Guest checkout and checkout with account to use address book
• Shipping to multiple addresses in one order
• Option for account creation at beginning of checkout
• SSL security support for orders on both front-end and back-end
• Saved shopping cart
• Accept gift messages per order and per item
• Shopping cart with tax and shipping estimates
• Saved credit card method for offline payments
• Configurable to authorize and charge, or authorize only and charge on creation of invoices
• Integration with multiple PayPal gateways, Amazon Payments, Braintree and Authorize.net
• Accept checks/money orders
• Accept purchase orders
• Additional payment extensions available through Magento Connect
• Offer Bill Me Later as a payment option
• Shipping integration with label printing – view, edit, print labels for all major carriers
• Integrated for real-time shipping rates from: – UPS, UPS XML (account rates), FedEx (account rates), USPS and DHL
• Ability to specify allowed destination countries per method
• Flat rate shipping per order or item
• Free shipping
• Table rates for weight, sub-total, destination and number of items
• On-site order tracking from customer accounts

Marketing Promotions and Tools

• Online Poll Creation and Management
• Newsletter Management
• Landing Page Creation Tools
• Catalog promotional pricing with the ability to restrict to stores, categories or products
• Flexible Coupons Rule and Pricing Restrictions
• Free Shipping Promotion Management
• Multi-tier pricing for quantity discounts
• Minimum Advertised Price (MAP)
• Bundled Products Options
• Customer Group Pricing
• Recently viewed and compared products
• New Items Promotional Tool
• Persistent shopping cart
• On Page and In Shopping Cart Upsells and Cross Sells
• Send to a friend for all visitors or registered users only
• Send wish lists by email

Order Management

• View, edit, create and fulfill orders from admin panel
• Create one or multiple invoices, shipments and credit memos per order to allow for split fulfillment
• Print invoices and packing slips
• Call Center (phone) order creation
• Create re-orders for customers from administration panel
• Email Notifications of Orders
• RSS feed of New Orders
• Customized Order Status
• Assisted Shopping

Customer Service

• Contact Us form
• Feature-rich Customer Accounts
• Password Reset email from front-end and admin panel
• Order and Account Update Emails
• Customizable Order Emails
• Create and Edit Orders from the Admin Panel
• Order History with Status Updates
• Order Tracking from Account

Customer Accounts

• Account dashboard
• Address book with unlimited addresses
• Wish list with ability to add comments
• Order status and history
• Re-orders from account
• Recently ordered items
• Default billing and shipping addresses
• Email or send RSS feed of wish list
• Newsletter subscription management
• Product reviews submitted
• Product tags submitted
• Downloadable/digital products

Catalog Browsing

• Flat Catalog Module for Improved Performance with large catalogs
• Static Block tool to create category landing pages
• Ability to assign designs on category and product level (unique design per product/category)
• Configurable search with auto-suggested terms
• Recently viewed products
• Product comparisons
• Recently compared products
• Cross-sells, Up-sells and Related Items
• Popular Search Terms Cloud
• Filter by Product Tags
• Product Reviews
• Product listing in grid or list format
• Breadcrumbs
• Layered / Faceted Navigation for filtering of products in categories
• Layered / Faceted Navigation for filtering of products in search results

International Support

• Support for localization, multiple currencies and tax rates
• Includes support for WEEE/DEEE in EU
• Support for accented characters and right-to-left text
• Site registration
• Shipping destination addresses with ability to specify per shipping method
• Billing addresses with ability to specify per payment method

Mobile Commerce

• Mobile HTML5 (pre-integrated)
• Device-specific media capabilities for audio and video
• User-friendly search and results display
• Clean display of product detail pages
• Pinch, multi-touch and scaling images
• Easy swipe between product images
• Drag-and-drop of products to the shopping cart
• Easily customizable for a fast time to market
• Reduces long-term maintenance costs and eases site updates

Conclusion

The Magento Community Edition 2.3.1 is the free version and obviously what’s free is everybody’s first choice. However, if any business is planning to expand its operations in the near future, it should definitely invest in the superior platform like Magento Enterprise Edition. Investing in Magento Enterprise Edition would really make sense as it offers diverse functionalities which will help your store to achieve remarkably big volume of online sales.

For the companies that have huge requirements but don’t have experienced Magento Developer, choosing a reliable Magento Development Company offering full support for Magento Enterprise Edition would be the right option to choose.

Get in Touch!

To make this big decision for your online store, our highly-experienced Certified Magento Experts are happy to answer all your queries.