Farewell Magento, and now?

It all started in 2008 when Varien, a small software development company in California, released its ecommerce platform in open source. No one at that time would have imagined that solution would turn out to be a worldwide success. In just a few years, that platform called Magento in fact became the most widely used and popular ecommerce platform worldwide.

The platform grew through a market place of extensions and plugins that could enable integrations with everything you could think of to integrate with an ecommerce. In this way, Magento has become a benchmark, capable of lowering the cost of building ecommerce platforms while providing a platform that is considered "a standard."

Despite the changes and evolutions since Varien's first release, from a business perspective, Magento has remained virtually the same.

If from a technical point of view, the birth of version 2.0 has put the whole community in great difficulty with choices not always appreciated and shared, now the acquisition by Adobe casts shadows on the future of the whole project.

This is because Magento seems to be destined to undergo the same changes that other e commerce platforms such as ATG, Blue Martini, GSI Commerce, Marketlive, Mozu, Demandware and Hybris have undergone since the acquisition.

In light of this context, Magento customers and solution partners are trying to assess the potential impact the Adobe acquisition will have on their ecommerce initiatives. While it is certain that enterprise-class customers will certainly benefit from the new relationship with Adobe, many customers will need to start considering alternative solutions for their ecommerce projects.

What will happen to Magento?

If we refer to historical precedents and look at the history of acquisitions in Adobe's house, many things are set to change in the next 18-24 months, and the impacts of these changes will be different for customers and solution providers.

With the acquisition of Magento, Adobe aims to complete its experience/content management platform called Experience Manager (abbreviated "AEM"). This platform is certainly a benchmark in its market but it is also very expensive. This means that Adobe is focusing its attention on enterprise-class and high-end business customers.

Unless a version of AEM aimed at the small business market is released, Adobe will have no interest in closing sales of the Magento platform to potential customers who are not potential adopters of the AEM suite.

Brand Magento is set to disappear

If we refer to historical precedents and look at the history of acquisitions in Adobe's house, many things are set to change in the next 18-24 months, and the impacts of these changes will be different for customers and solution providers.

With the acquisition of Magento, Adobe aims to complete its experience/content management platform called Experience Manager (abbreviated "AEM"). This platform is certainly a benchmark in its market but it is also very expensive. This means that Adobe is focusing its attention on enterprise-class and high-end business customers.

Unless a version of AEM aimed at the small business market is released, Adobe will have no interest in closing sales of the Magento platform to potential customers who are not potential adopters of the AEM suite.

The Magento solution provider industry is set to undergo a deep contraction and consolidation

As Adobe is increasingly focused on integrating AEM with Magento on creating combined solutions and transitioning from the old Magento team, time is playing against solution partners with Magento-only experience. Adobe expects its solution partners to be able to implement both AEM and Magento solutions (in addition to the rest of Adobe's product portfolio) and will encourage partners to move in this direction.

Solution partners without this expertise on Adobe products have a complex choice to make for the future of their business. There are four possible paths:

• Join forces with an Adobe solution partner through partnerships or mergers/acquisitions
• Acquire expertise on Adobe products internally by hiring or training resources
• Abandon the Magento system and partner with other ecommerce platforms
• Do nothing and leverage their Magento installed base as long as possible

What should Magento customers do?

Customers should start by asking themselves some simple questions:

If I were to choose my e commerce today, would my business be able to afford the cost of Adobe Experience Manager?

The question is not aimed at whether your business should implement a digital experience or content management platform now or in the future. The question is aimed at whether having to make a software selection today the cost of AEM + Magento would be among the possible candidates for your project. If the answer is YES then you have nothing to fear and probably the turnaround of this acquisition will be positive for your business. Businesses that are able to afford the cost of this very expensive suite will certainly be able to benefit from the transformation of Magento into an enterprise-grade product and the ability to access an entire suite of Adobe products specializing in cloud marketing and content management.

If, however, the answer is NO, then you must necessarily consider ditching your Magento for another solution. The supply of SaaS e commerce platforms has grown and consolidated in recent years, and there are many viable vendors to evaluate. After careful evaluation of requirements, you can choose platforms that have native content management features or that can integrate with less expensive digital experience platforms.

What future for iI Magento solution partner following my ecommerce?

If your solution partner does not yet have expertise in Adobe products, he or she is most likely looking into how to acquire it. Ask. We will most likely see mergers and acquisitions between solution partners to meet new market needs, and there will be a profound change in Magento-related offerings and business. If you decide to stay on Magento and your partner has no plans to acquire Adobe product expertise, it will most likely be time to change partners.

Change is already taking place

Magento has been hugely important in bringing a lot of businesses closer to e commerce and making it possible for many of them to start selling products and service online in the global marketplace. In a little more than 10 years, Magento has become a model and a benchmark for e commerce site development. Adobe will surely be able to take care of the technological development of the platform and pick up the baton from the community but the Magento brand and the idea it has represented over the years will soon disappear. Now it is time for everyone from customers to solution partners to decide how to develop ecommerce in a world without Magento.

Rewix has already implemented automatic data migration procedures from Magento 1.9 to make sure that not a single second or piece of useful business information is lost. Contact us for more information on how to enter the future of ecommerce with Rewix.

Freely excerpted from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/goodbye-magento-what-you-should-do-neil-lynch/. Thanks to the author.