Magento, the e-commerce platform of eBay Inc.’s e-commerce division eBay Enterprise, will discontinue two of its products geared toward small and mid-sized e-retailers, Magento announced today. The Magento Go and ProStores platforms, which count as clients 10,000 merchants, will go dark as of Feb. 1, 2015.
Magento will continue to offer the Enterprise and Community editions of its e-commerce platform, which are geared toward larger e-retailers. Craig Peasley, Magento’s senior director of marketing, says e-retailers that are growing fast and looking for more customization in the platform could consider either of those options. For smaller e-retailers, Magento is partnering with Bigcommerce, an e-commerce technology platform vendor, to transition clients to its platform.
“We chose Bigcommerce to help with the transition because of their shared commitment to client success and their proven track record of migrating large groups of merchants onto their platform,” says Mark Lavelle, senior vice president of product and strategy, eBay Enterprise. “Throughout this transition period, we will fully support both ProStores and Go, and clients will receive the same level of customer service they’ve come to expect.”
And for current customers of Magento’s Go or ProStores platforms, the transition to Bigcommerce will be free. Bigcommerce counts among its clients 50,000 online retailers in 25 industries across 100 countries. The total sales of all merchandise sold on e-commerce stores on the Bigcommerce platform is approaching $4 billion.
Steve Power, Bigcommerce’s president, says the company has transitioned more than 12,000 merchants from other platforms to its platforms—including 6,000 from ProStores. Depending on the size of the retailer and the customization of the e-commerce site, the transition can take anywhere from one day to one week, Powers says. Former Magento clients using Bigcommerce’s platform include iPen store, a specialty pen retailer; Karat Patch, an online jewelry retailer; and Ameritex flags, a retailer of flags and flag accessories.
Magneto has created information portals for Magento Go and ProStores clients with resources for the transition, including guides and checklists.
The decision to discontinue Magento Go and ProStores is part of a realignment, says Peasley. Magento is focusing on its core products—Enterprise and Community—and on mid-sized and larger merchants. The company is also working on developing and releasing the next generation of its platform, which the media and industry has dubbed Magento 2, Peasley says.
Magento Community is the open-source version of the platform, which means the code is accessible and editable by the public, and was the first product Magento launched in 2007. It’s not a platform for e-retailers who are just starting out, Peasley says, but for retailers who are looking for flexibility and are generating more than $500,000 in web sales. Magento Enterprise is for large e-retailers who do several million in web sales, Peasley says, and is available on a subscription basis.
Magento is the e-commerce platform cited by 34 retailers in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide and 64 in the Second 500. Bigcommerce is cited by one retailer in the Top 500 and four in the Second 500.