Atwix MageNews — May 2021

Big events, big news for the digital commerce industry

Greater collaboration. New services. Integrating AI into the user experience. These were the headline grabbers from announcements made at two recent springtime events – and they’re opening the door to new possibilities for more efficient business and technology cooperation through exciting approaches to the customer experience.

Here’s a recap of the two main events: AdobeSummit and Magento Association.

Content

  1. Recap: Adobe Summit
  2. Commerce Roadmap Updates
  3. Account Ace
  4. Savvy Search
  5. Magento Commerce (Adobe Commerce) and Adobe I/O
  6. Magento Association Connect Recap
  7. Consolidating the brands
  8. Live Search is here for an AI-enhanced experience
  9. April Magento Community Hangout
  10. Upcoming events

Recap: Adobe Summit   #AdobeSummit

Beginning on April 27, the two-day Adobe Summit featured an agenda that shone the spotlight on the increasing integration between digital and sales. This includes all the commerce levels – be it an online store in the B2C segment, a specific B2B platform covering thousands of lead-generating contacts or even online stores working as multi-vendor platforms. The Adobe company is well positioned to provide businesses and merchants with the services and tools needed to drive digital business. Here are some of the highlights and updates from this virtual event.

Commerce Roadmap Updates

Presenters at the Adobe Summit reported that eCommerce adoption is accelerating on all levels, based on a 2020 results analysis that shows more than 44% growth in consumer spending with 21% of online spending a share of total retail sales. Innovation is credited with being the force behind improved eCommerce experience delivery.

According to the Adobe products roadmap in 2021, the Magento world is waiting for:

  • An agile omnichannel eCommerce platform based on the Adobe Experience Cloud to provide access to powerful user experience and marketing tools. 
  • Accelerated profitable ownership through an approach that allows more choice in the preferred storefront to drive higher site conversion. This will be achieved through continuous innovations in a new UI framework (PWA + AEM), new GraphQL server and PWA components.
  • GraphQL coverage for the B2B segment of commerce.
  • Updated Magento cloud performance to handle 200M SKUs, 300ms average API response time and the successful management of 10,500 orders per hour.
  • Accelerated revenue with Magento Payments, a fully-integrated payment solution that includes fraud transaction detection and centralized reporting on the complete sales process.
  • New customer shipping experience for Magento-based projects, with the Adobe company and FedEx announcing a collaboration that begins with ShopRunner integration. This service will take Magento eCommerce to a new level of lifetime value with two-day shipping, easy returns and seamless checkout.

Account Ace

By its very nature, B2B segments have a longer sales cycle between the first contact and sales finalization. That’s why it’s vital to have a proven marketing service in place to create a clear vision of the communication process and the best client experience. Account Ace features two powerful tools to simplify the management and prioritization of both existing and new customer accounts: Account AI provides integration with Adobe Sensei to analyze customer activity. Buyers Circle analyzes visualization. Learn more: Account Ace​ – Adobe Summit Sneaks 2021.

Instant access to the data engaged in marketing campaigns is key to success. It’s always important to keep a finger on the pulse of a campaign with a clear view of how it’s going. This is what enables companies to make quick decisions with limited resource involvement. But how can you best achieve this if there are multiple applications included in the process, such as Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target or Adobe Journey Optimizer? A new project from the Adobe company named Savvy Search provides cross-search between Adobe Analytics and Journey Optimizer applications to allow marketers to analyze and edit related data. If you want more details: Savvy Search​​ – Adobe Summit Sneaks 2021.

Magento Commerce (Adobe Commerce) and Adobe I/O

During the Developer Ecosystem and Digital Commerce track at Adobe Summit, Igor Miniailo and Nishant Kapoor presented how Adobe Commerce is moving toward microservices architecture and what benefits this new approach brings to merchants and developers. They described the plans for adding integration and customizations to commerce features and how Magento will be integrated with the Adobe I/O service. Learn more: Extending Magento Commerce with Adobe I/O.

Magento Association Connect Recap  #MAconnect

The mission of the Magento Association is clear: To advance and empower the global Magento community and commerce ecosystem through open collaboration, education and thought leadership.

With a continuing commitment to that very statement, the recent Magento Association Connect event featured expert speakers who covered the latest news and topics from the Magento world. Held on April 29, this online networking event brought participants together to share their experiences and plans for the Magento future. The event provided an excellent opportunity to share business-specific information and build new connections between like-minded people to open new possibilities.

Discussion leaders included: 

And a thank you to the many other inspiring people from all over the world who joined.

Consolidating the brands

In April 2021, Magento Commerce and Adobe Commerce Cloud officially consolidated into one single brand: Adobe Commerce. Magento Open Source branding and support remains unchanged. This consolidation step is the logical continuation of improvements to the customer journey experience. By consolidating those two brands, the Adobe company provides a new level of multi-channel commerce to customers across various industries. Here’s more detailed information: Consolidating Our Commerce Branding.

Live Search is here for an AI-enhanced experience

It’s no secret that the search feature is one of the most critical parts of the customer experience. An optimal search factors in speed, relevance and appearance customization.This in turn requires a stable, well-architected solution that delivers the right search benefits without the need for extra business resources when it comes to maintenance and delivery.

On April 28, a new extension appeared at the Magento Marketplace published by the Magento an Adobe Company – Live Search. This extension features an AI-enhanced search experience based on Adobe Sensei. With the help of AI, customers can now get relevant product-based information on catalog data and its behavior. This feature significantly simplifies the entire search management and maintenance process. Live Search supports Magento platform compatibility: Commerce on prem (EE): 2.4 (current) and Commerce on Cloud (ECE): 2.4 (current). Get more details: Live Search.

April Magento Community Hangout

Another round of the Magento Community Hangout took place on April 21 This time, the Magento Community Engineer team highlighted two topics:

– Support of PHP 7.4 for Magento 2.3 by @fascinosum

– Magento Quality Patches tool overview by @vtymchynskyi

Both are timely topics for the community. The first discussion related to the project upgrade and the fact that the PHP 7.3 Security Support will end in 7 months (6 Dec 2021). The second topic focused on the new tool from a project upgrade and maintenance perspective. Catch the replay: Community Engineering Hangouts. Apr 21, 2021.

Hope you enjoyed the last MageNews spring ’21 edition and found it useful. We’d love to hear your feedback – feel free to share in the comments section below!