Top Reasons Businesses Fail To Maximize Value With Magento

At IronPlane, I’ve come across a several recurring challenges businesses face that prevent them from getting the most out of their Magento implementation. Through my work with clients across various industries and in my regular discussions with prospective clients, I've seen these challenges repeatedly hinder businesses from fully leveraging their eCommerce potential.

Magento and Adobe Commerce are incredibly robust eCommerce engines, and when developed and maintained effectively, they can deliver substantial value to any eCommerce business.

So, why do so many businesses struggle with Magento? From our experience, the following four factors are the most common reasons:

Choosing the Wrong Platform

There is no best eCommerce platform. Each business occupies a place in the digital commerce realm with distinct requirements, a defined budget, and a potential growth trajectory that may be realized by not just one, but likely several different eCommerce technologies. Businesses that do not take the time to analyze their needs may end up investing in the wrong platform and ultimately may be forced into an expensive replatform.

Choosing the Wrong Partner

Often related to underinvestment, the agency offering the lowest hourly rates typically has the least experienced developers. Senior developers are expensive, and any reputable agency also provides strong project management and client services, which add to their costs. I often say that Magento is only as good as the development team supporting it - and with the number of businesses coming to us reporting extensive technical debt following an inexpensive build, this is proven true time and again.

Underinvestment

eCommerce is no longer a simple build followed by minimal maintenance. The true value in an eCommerce platform for a sophisticated business lies in the integrations and customizations. These require smart initial design and development as well as efficient ongoing maintenance. Companies that fail to budget for ongoing maintenance costs end up acquiring technical debt and losing market advantage.

Under-resourcing Your Internal Team

A client's team is typically responsible for various tasks, including business requirements gathering, user acceptance testing, and regular project communication with the project team. These efforts help keep the project moving forward without major delays. Without adequate resources dedicated to these functions, even the best external development efforts can falter, leading to miscommunication, technical debt, delayed implementations, and missed opportunities for optimization. (Thanks to Adrian Ilovan for suggesting this one!)

Not Leveraging the Full Potential of the Platform

This point ties back to the importance of the right partner. A competent development team will have seasoned Magento developers as well as experienced solutions architects. These professionals can guide you to the hidden treasures of Magento functionality that can set you apart from your competition.

Neglecting Ongoing Maintenance and Optimization

Beyond the initial build, regular updates, security patches, performance optimization, and data management are critical. Efficiently handling these ongoing tasks ensures the platform runs smoothly and securely, maximizing its value over time.

Today there is a wonderful world of technology options in the eCommerce space. Choosing the right platform, a strong agency partner, and planning ongoing investment in maintenance and optimization are the best ways to ensure you are getting the most out of your eCommerce investments.