In my former role as President of Wagento Creative, I watched merchants struggle with a problem that shouldn't exist. One client had 80+ extensions on their Magento store - each requiring separate vendor relationships, different renewal cycles, and countless hours spent managing payments. Their e-commerce manager estimated spending the equivalent of $50,000 annually in staff time handling extension renewals, upgrades, compatibility, and vendor relationships. This administrative nightmare isn't just inefficient - it's holding back the entire Adobe Commerce ecosystem.
Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) has fallen behind competitors in creating a streamlined extension ecosystem. While the current Adobe Commerce Marketplace exists as a storefront, it only generates about 10-15% of extension sales, according to vendors like Ravi Mittal of Aheadworks and Rave Digital, whom I recently interviewed. The remaining 85-90% of transactions happen directly on vendors' websites.
Here's what's broken:
The implications of this fragmented approach reach far beyond mere inconvenience. Extension management has become a significant operational cost for merchants, diverting resources from core business activities. Many continue paying for extensions they no longer use simply because tracking becomes too complex.
Developers face their own challenges. Creating a sustainable extension business proves difficult when customers resist renewals due to administrative burdens. This ultimately leads to lower-quality extensions as developers struggle to support them long-term.
Adobe is missing a significant revenue opportunity while watching merchants migrate to platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce, which offer seamless app experiences with unified billing. As a result, the entire ecosystem suffers. The Magento community, once dominant in e-commerce extensions, now lags behind Shopify with half as many marketplace offerings (approximately 4,000 versus 8,000).
As Ravi Mittal pointed out in our conversation, "It's impossible for a brand... to keep up with 50 subscriptions." The extension ecosystem, while essential to Adobe Commerce's value proposition, has transformed into a liability rather than an asset.
The Adobe Commerce Marketplace requires a comprehensive overhaul alongside the App Builder platform to create a unified extension ecosystem that works for everyone. Here's what Adobe must implement:
One bill: All extensions should be billed through Adobe, with a single consolidated invoice and renewal date for merchants. This eliminates the administrative nightmare of tracking dozens of separate vendor relationships and payment cycles.
Simplified pricing model: Adobe must eliminate the practice of charging different rates for identical extensions based on the platform version. Currently, vendors impose premium prices on Adobe Commerce users compared to Magento OpenSource users for the same functionality. This creates a penalty for choosing Adobe's commercial platform. A fairer approach would price extensions based on meaningful metrics like usage levels or business size, bringing transparency to the marketplace and removing the artificial cost barriers between platform versions.
Marketplace incentives: To grow the ecosystem and compete with Shopify's robust app offerings, Adobe should reduce or eliminate commission fees for smaller extension developers while making the marketplace the primary sales channel. This would encourage innovation and diversity in the extension landscape.
Seamless installation and management: Extensions must be installable, configurable, and manageable directly through the Adobe Commerce admin. The current fragmented approach creates unnecessary friction compared to competitors' one-click solutions.
Free trial periods: Merchants deserve the opportunity to test extensions before purchasing. This try-before-you-buy approach reduces risk and encourages more experimentation with new functionality.
While App Builder represents Adobe's future direction for the SaaS version of Commerce, it currently appears to have a closed ecosystem where partner status is required to access development tools. I could be wrong since the platform is still evolving, but this raises a critical question: How will Adobe increase the number of available apps if they maintain this restricted access? The success of any marketplace depends on broad developer participation.
This comprehensive approach would transform extension management from a liability into a competitive advantage. Looking at Shopify and BigCommerce's streamlined app ecosystems, it's clear that Adobe Commerce is leaving significant opportunities untapped.
Adobe Commerce won't thrive unless we address this fundamental issue. The extension ecosystem is the platform's lifeblood, enabling the flexibility that sets it apart from competitors.
The community needs to demand change. Extension developers like Aheadworks are already taking steps - simplifying their pricing models and offering longer-term licenses. But only Adobe can create the unified billing and installation experience that merchants desperately need.
As someone who has built a business within this ecosystem, I've seen firsthand how extension management complexity drives merchants away. It's time for Adobe to catch up to competitors with a truly modern marketplace experience.
What do you think? Have you experienced these challenges with Adobe Commerce extensions? Share your thoughts in the comments.