5 great reasons to love Umbraco Commerce

However, as a relatively new player in the market what can Umbraco Commerce offer you that other e-com providers can’t and how do you know whether it could be the right fit for you and your company or organisation?

Only recently released in July 2023, you might be wondering how Umbraco Commerce has already successfully managed to get a name for itself. The truth is, the well-known e-commerce solution, ‘Vendr’ was originally developed by Outfield Digital, a small agency that was subsequently acquired by Umbraco HQ in April 2023.

With Umbraco’s mission being to, ‘make it simpler to build digital experiences’, this strategic acquisition has meant that they can now offer a powerful e-commerce solution that neatly dovetails into their existing CMS platform. This enables their customers to create with ease, engaging online shopping experiences for their end users, without the pain of having to re-develop their entire platforms to become e-com ready.

Whether you’re a complete newbie to Umbraco or already a fan, we’re here to offer up five great reasons to love Umbraco Commerce…

If you have unique, complex requirements and are searching for an e-commerce platform that can bend to your needs, aspirations and future goals, Umbraco Commerce is flexible and robust enough to do this. The platform prides itself on being customisable and can adapt to changing requirements and easily scale with your organisation.

Umbraco has an open and flexible architecture which typically enables straightforward integration with existing 3^rd party systems. Furthermore, it doesn’t set restrictions or set frameworks to your front-end which means that designers have more flexibility to be creative.

A single Umbraco installation can run multiple websites, which is particularly useful for organisations that need to power many websites. Also, as it’s a cross-platform solution it’s possible to manage intranets and mobile apps, as well as e-commerce, of course!

Umbraco Commerce also has global reach due to in-built localisation features which could prove highly beneficial to companies already operating in international markets and for those with ambitions to expand internationally. It’s also well-equipped to handle different languages and currencies.

For those already using Umbraco, Umbraco Commerce offers a cohesive experience as the product follows conventions already typical of the Umbraco CMS. This familiarity provides confidence in the solution and, as you’d expect, relative ease of use.

For those not already familiar with Umbraco, the interface is super user-friendly, adopting an easy-to-use logic that offers an intuitive editing experience for the user. Amongst some of the most useful features for content managers/editors is the ability to crop your images directly within the media library and to automatically publish and unpublish through built-in scheduling functionality.

Umbraco Commerce’s seamless integration with the Umbraco CMS is one of its most favourable features as this makes things a lot easier to manage and update product listings, blogs etc.

Furthermore, with a breadth of supportive documentation and training videos, and a well-established Umbraco community on-line, it’s easy to access useful support and advice when in need of a helping hand!

Whilst Umbraco Commerce’s ‘shopping cart’ enables you to manage with ease your; stock, products and sales transactions, there is also an opportunity for you to tailor your customer’s experience on your website through personalisation.

Tailoring to your customer’s demographics, tastes and shopping habits can be realised through a number of different approaches; collection of data, personalisation of content, recommendation of products and targeted marketing.

This level of personalisation can be achieved because Umbraco can be seamlessly integrated with many different 3^rd party analytical solutions, meaning that there is extensive scope to develop an enhanced on-site experience for your customers which in turn encourages customer loyalty, retention, improved conversion rates and increased sales.

Umbraco Commerce, like Umbraco CMS is a completely free, open-source e-commerce solution, meaning you don’t have to pay any monthly fees for using the platform. A further attractive aspect is that unlike many other e-commerce platforms, Umbraco Commerce doesn’t charge any transaction fees, meaning more profit on sales!

Umbraco is an established and trusted brand, that offered its first open-source version of Umbraco in 2005. Currently, world-wide, Umbraco powers more than 750,000 websites and with the recent launch of Umbraco Commerce, the stage is set for a continuation of development and growth for this solution for many years to come.

With a positive attitude to the extensive Umbraco community, this brand values feedback and contributions from website owners, managers, developers, designers and users alike, meaning that the product is constantly evolving and keeping a pace with changes in the web world which, we believe, is a massive plus.

Umbraco Commerce is a very powerful platform, perfect for larger companies that have unique and/or diverse requirements, requiring specific customisation, bespoke integrations and a need to scale over time. That said, as Umbraco Commerce is not a hosted SaaS product, it does require technical expertise at the helm to; integrate, configure, optimise and maintain the solution. In this regard, it is likely to be a product less favourable for much smaller enterprises with smaller shop turnover.

Umbraco lovers are already embracing Umbraco Commerce as a breath of fresh air. If Umbraco Commerce is new to you then do consider finding out more through the Umbraco website or feel free to contact us for an informal chat about the power of Umbraco and what the platform could potentially do for you and your organisation.

NB   Umbraco Commerce is designed to work with Umbraco 12 and above, so you may need to consider an upgrade if you are thinking of implementing it with your existing Umbraco CMS. Umbraco 10 is also supported but would require a review of your specfic set up. Want to discuss what this means for you? Then do drop us a line, we’d be happy to help!