Magento is easily approached from a crawl, walk, run perspective. With an amazing amount of OOTB features and a fully visible code base, you can scale capability investment over time rather than buying everything at once.
Abandoned cart messaging as an example
Crawl
Purchase a third-party extension that enables the basic feature within Magento. These extensions are typically a one-time fixed cost in the low $100s. You get the functionality, but it’s basic — single email, no segmentation, no advanced timing.
Walk
Use a basic email service like MailChimp or Omnisend to begin the journey toward a proper digital marketing experience. Better templates, basic segmentation, modest automation. Costs scale with list size.
Run
Use a full-fledged Email Marketing System (EMS) like dotDigital or Emarsys to enable a wide variety of digital marketing services and campaigns. Behavioral triggers, advanced segmentation, multi-channel orchestration, deep analytics. Costs grow significantly, but so does capability.
Why this matters
Most failed Commerce projects try to run before they crawl. They invest in enterprise-grade tooling for problems that haven’t yet emerged. The right approach is usually to crawl, validate the use case is real and valuable, then progressively upgrade the tooling as the merchant’s needs and budget grow.
Adobe Commerce’s flexibility makes this kind of progressive investment possible. Few other platforms let you swap out an abandoned-cart extension for a full EMS without re-platforming.
Adapted from the Adobe Commerce Primer, slide 33. Last reviewed May 2026.