Transparency Is More Profitable

Magentist is our website where we sell the best Magento templates available out there. The Magentist’s team is made of the experts at designing for Magento, developing themes and extensions, and implementing custom solutions. Having a significant presence in the Magento market, Magentist often gets partnership proposals, inquiries from VCs, competitors, etc…

One conversation I had with a Magento developer (let’s call him ‘Mat’) is worth mentioning here in my opinion because it unveils important points about good business practices and their relation to profitability and sustainability.

Mat wanted to offer our Magento templates to his customers, but didn’t want his customers to know that the templates are based on the Magento platform. It may sound weird at first but most business owners looking to get an ecommerce site up have no idea what Magento is, or in fact that such platforms exist. Words like “open-source”, “object-oriented”, “mvc engineering”, “web framework”, are completely foreign to most people. So Mat was worried that if he disclosed that he was using the Magento Ecommerce platform, his clients would diminish the value of his service (Magento being a full blown, feature rich Ecommerce platform that has a free and open source community edition), or worse yet go somewhere else looking for a Magento developer. So Mat asked us if we could remove all mentions of Magento in some of our templates. Of course we refused.

If you have this type of worries, most likely you should reconsider your business offering and strategy all together. Think about the extra work you’d have to do to hide from your prospective clients information such as which platform you are using. Transparency is not only an ethical business practice, it’s also more profitable! And if it’s not – that means your business is a soap bubble. It may shine for a little while but really it’s empty and fragile.

I think best is to advertise yourself as what you are. If you are a Magento developer or consultant – be proud of it! Showcase what makes you different/better than the competition and of course you can link to our templates as examples of designs that can be used as a base for a Magento implementation project. That’s a great added value for customers looking for a full blown Ecommerce website!

Why would your customers go somewhere else if you have something to offer that they need? Why would they look for someone else if they feel like you are the right fit for their needs? If you feel like they would go off to search for your competition, then maybe you can change something in your business that would give you an edge over your competitors. Something that would convince your customers to stick with you. I think that would be better than building on ignorance. The opposite would be much better: you should emphasize exactly what your services are about and build an open and transparent business that succeeds because you offer something that is better or different than the competition. Not because people are misinformed (even if you disclose everything later down the line).

What you offer should be clear from the beginning and if you can’t make a successful business that way, then it’s time to change your offering to make it more attractive. In all cases I think that maintaining 100% clarity at all times is crucial.