Atwix blog

Everyone wants a fast website. That’s a fact. And if you ask how fast, most likely you will hear a reference to the Google Page Speed Insights. That’s a curious trend that we observe during the past couple of years. But why Google Page Speed Insights? The typical answer is that Google will love your website more if you have a green score. But is that a true? The short answer is no, and, to some extent, yes.

In March 2021 turns a year as we, in Europe and in the US faced a threat of Covid-19 and the first lockdown started. The world has changed since then — new-normal, normal, and the reality of our day-to-day. Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and FaceTime usage skyrocket. It’s no longer weird to have your kitchen in the background of your business call or to pet a dog during a board meeting. We move from a mid-size screen at work, to a small one during lunch and a big one before we go to bed. Services like Apple Fitness+ have been launched in 2020 to fulfill the demand for home-based everything. Our events become virtual… and on, and on, and on. The world has changed one year ago, and probably, to some extent, forever. Have we adapted to the new reality already? Not all. Will we have to? We think — yes. Will we need new tools to do that? Yes. Let’s review the e-reality we are living in and how it’s changing our lives, hopefully, for the better.

This is Atwix MageNews March 2021.

With Magento Community Engineering signed off and now pressing ahead with Magento 2.5, Adobe released Magento Commerce and Open Source 2.4.2. This latest release is powerful. It has numerous security fixes, performance improvements, and additional features. The Atwix team studied up on all the changes and has unpacked into small logical pieces for you. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Due to changes in the world economy, more and more (and more!) businesses find themselves going online. Even businesses that were already online are doubling down on their use of eCommerce. In effect, nearly every B2C company requires their own product, service, and professional counseling, which in turn generates B2B demand. In 2019, Forrester has forecasted that US B2B eCommerce will reach $1.8 trillion and account for 17% of all online sales in the US by 2023. Considering 2020 pandemic-related lockdown rules and corresponding changes becoming a new routine, we now expect to reach these numbers much earlier. The world will never be the same, and we have to adapt to the new reality.

Recently many people asked for my opinion on how things were going in the Magento engineering community. While 2020 was not as productive as 2019 for a variety of obvious reasons (like global pandemic), it was still a very cool year when reflecting on the new, powerful features delivered by the community (during a global pandemic). The following summary represents my thoughts on what we have accomplished, as well as useful insights based on the questions I received or observations I have made. Enjoy the read!

12% of 2021 has already passed. As they say, time sure flies. We are now well into the new year, and we are actively learning and applying these lessons as we Zoom through the first quarter. Is it too early to share what we are experiencing? Never! Sharing eCommerce trends and predictions is what we do. Magento is, after all, a dynamic platform built on top of an adaptive ecosystem.

Brands continue to face emerging challenges and are seizing new opportunities born in 2020 — like how to make eCommerce socially rewarding and engaging but also a secure and timely means to a merchant’s delivery to their customer — much like in-person commerce provided pre-pandemic.

Adobe’s eCommerce platform, Magento, is one of the most popular if not most powerful solutions on the market. There are many reasons this platform is unique in its ability to scale B2B and B2C organizations without sacrificing or degrading performance or security.

Extensibility, for example.

Magento allows you to augment native system functionality with preset modules available at the Magento Marketplace or via approved 3rd party vendor websites. When using standard Magento with server side rendering (Luma-based theme or similar approach), there is no need for additional development (outside of basic configuration is required).

Happy New Year, Magento community! For those of us working in eCommerce, last year felt more like a decade. B2B and B2C businesses as well as Adobe ecosystem partners faced quick and intense change. However, we (virtually) came together —  by innovating, learning, and growth. In this way, we collectively have reason to celebrate — we met the moment. While turning the page, let’s spend a bit of time recapping 2020 and predicting what is likely to occur in 2021.

2020 is nearly complete. The holiday season is now well underway. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone. End of year holidays remain in front of us. Even though we have a few more weeks left, this year will clearly be remembered as one unlike any. In reality, this year felt more like a decade than it did a year. For good reason. New norms were instantly forced on all of us. Impacted by a global pandemic and rapid economic change, ongoing uncertainty and instant pivots in market consumption trends, user behaviors, and general working norms — in 2020 we all experienced much and it changed how we now live our personal and professional lives.

It has been almost a year since we resumed work on Adobe’s Magento PhpStorm plugin. It’s fair to say that balancing merchant work with open source project contribution is not done easily. Especially during the build-up to the holiday season, when all of our client businesses ramp up their online eCommerce plans – requesting that agencies like Atwix ramp up development efforts, as well.

We all have 24 hours in a day, right? Kidding aside, with all the community’s interest, passion and motivation aligned, and now on the other side of the holiday sprint season, there is a clear need and now some time to re-commit effort to this critical community engineering project. And critical this project is! The number of people using this plugin defies the imagination. There were more than 70,000 downloads in November 2020. Almost every Magento developer is affected.