eBay Enterprise launched a new program designed to help merchants quickly create Magento storefronts using Magento Community Edition. The Magento Small Business program makes the software more accessible to smaller merchants who don’t have software and design expertise by matching them up with third-party vendors.
An eBay Enterprise spokesperson told EcommerceBytes it launched the program to ensure small businesses entering the market have the tools they need for growth.
While Magento Community Edition is free, and merchants can add functionality through extensions for sale by third-party developers on its marketplace, Magento does not provide technical support for the software.
The new program offers a turnkey solution starting at $89/month offered through Pixafy, a strategic Magento partner, “with one of the world’s first ecommerce SaaS solutions built on Magento Community Edition.”
It also teamed up with four developers that provide full-service support for those who want to take a more do-it-yourself approach to creating a Magento store. All of the Small Business program solutions leverage Magento extensions and integrations with PayPal, Braintree, and eBay Marketplaces.
Magento had launched a store-hosting solution for small merchants called Magento Go in 2011 that was a web-hosted service with pricing that started at $15/month. But eBay closed Magento Go along with its own ProStores web-hosted solution last year.
Amazon also closed its store-hosting solution, Amazon Webstore, to new merchants this month.
