2019 Magento Outcomes & Improvements

Want to discover insights of Magento in 2019? The company has been working hard the whole year to provide its clients with lost of new functional solutions. Magento does its best to empower businesses of the clients and enhance customer experience constantly upgrading the platform to cover all their needs. In order not to miss a thing, check out the article to discover all the updates and outcomes of one of the leading ecommerce platforms worldwide. Let’s start!

What has been Updated in Magento in 2019?
Top Magento News 2019
Notable Magento Events 2019

What has been Updated in Magento in 2019?

Magento 2.3.2

Magento has released a platform version – Magento 2.3.2 – that contains lots of security and performance improvements for Magento Commerce and Magento Open Source.

Magento Open Source 2.3.2

• The version was released with over 75 brand-new security enhancements like close cross-site scripting (XSS), remote code execution (RCE), sensitive data disclosure vulnerabilities and other security issues.
• The new version also includes over 200 functional fixes and 350 pull requests from the Magento community. Magento redesigned the checkout page, improved concurrent access to block cache storage, product page gallery load optimization and more.
• Magento 2.3.2 released 130 enhancements of Sales, UrlRewrite, Catalog, UI, Customer/Customers and Checkout/One Page Checkout modules and created an opportunity to use Braintree and Braintree PayPal when checking out with multiple addresses and other features.
• Magento introduced completely new tools into the version like data export, discount coupon generation and mass editing of products.

Magento Commerce 2.3.2

• The version contains inventory enhancements like commands enabling retailers to check for reservation differences and resolve them, a new endpoint for Bulk Partial Stock Transfer and more.
• Magento improved GraphQL performance allowing to catch cmsBlocks and cmsPage, products, category and urlResolver queries.
• Magento Commerce 2.3.2 was released with Progressive Web Apps (PWA), BlueFoot to Page Builder content migration and a list of vendor-developed extension enhancements.

Security Patch Magento 2.3.2-p1

Striving to keep the platform up to date, Magento has released a new security patch – Magento 2.3.2-p1 – for both Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce. The patch is based on the previous major quality release. It allows users to decide whether they want to directly switch to the new Magento version – Magento 2.3.3 or install the security patch and keep using the older version. The main task of the patch to strengthen Magento-based websites. So, if users need a faster security upgrade, security patch Magento 2.3.2-p1 has hundreds of functional fixes and improvements which will improve online store performance.

Magento 2.3.3

Magento released a new version of the platform – Magento 2.3.3 – that includes over 170 core product functional fixes and 75 security improvements. The company fixed lots of small and large issues and reasonably enhanced its solutions.

• Magento upgraded the platform with Varnish 6.2.0 support, PHP 7.2.x and PHP 7.3.x support and Zend Framework 2 Components upgrade to the versions Active/LTS.
• The version optimized the platform’s performance by allowing the merchants to disable the automatic URL rewrite generation, moved non-critical CSS components to the bottom of the page and more.
• In Magento 2.3.3 were fixed over 75 security issues including remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities, enforced XSS (cross-site scripting) protection and others.
• Magento upscaled functionality of certain products like Page Builder, GraphQL and Google Shopping ads Channel.
• Yotpo has become a part of Magento 2.3.3 core code and was integrated into the Admin panel.

Top Magento News 2019

Mark Lavelle Decided to Leave Magento

Mark Lavelle, Magento CEO, decided to leave the business almost one year after Adobe has acquired Magento. He was a part of the Magento Community for almost eight years and he hoped that the company will keep growing.

Lavelle has led Magento since the company was a part of eBay and did best to let Magento be a part of the Adobe ecosystem. With Lavelle, Adobe got an opportunity to integrate with Magento platform as well as has combined the open ecosystem. Mark Lavelle also decided to step aside as the ecommerce leader within Adobe. He said that Magento will come to some organizational changes to simplify collaboration with Adobe.

Magento Announced PWA Studio

Magento announced a release of Progressive Web Applications necessary to create online stores with apps useful to improve mobile conversion and deliver good cross-channel experiences. There are also new innovations in Adobe Experience Cloud helpful to succeed in CXM in both brick and mortar and online stores. The new version of PWA allows to solve multiple tasks of retailers at once:

– Instant “App” Gratification with no need to download or install an app before use.
– Fast interaction, smoother scrolling and transposition of web pages with no need for redownload.
– Push notifications to send contextual and personalized messages with one click.
– Rapid Re-Engagement since a PWA can be saved on the home screen.

Adobe Introduced Next Generation of Adobe Exchange

Adobe has updated the Adobe Exchange to empower the development and management processes of apps and integrations with Adobe. The new generations Adobe Exchange includes Adobe I/O APIs and services necessary to help users work with Exchange applications.

In this version, Adobe optimized packaging and distributions. Users can create Exchange apps connected to Adobe I/O APIs and services, get access to product sandboxes, publish apps on marketplace and more.

The Adobe Exchange offers lots of new APIs and services like API and Event Gateways, Runtime and Adobe Sensei.

Magento Unveiled Adobe Commerce Cloud

Magento announced the availability of Adobe Commerce Cloud what is a scalable and flexible platform to manage, optimize and personalize the commerce experience across the customer journey. Adobe Commerce Cloud provides the following advantages to its users:

– Analytics foundation with commerce dashboards.
– Cloud service with full management.
– Retailers can optimize commerce process on Amazon.
– The Cloud can be integrated with other ecosystems and supports headless deployment models.

Adobe Introduced Commerce Advances for Small and Mid-Scale Companies

Magento announced an update of Magento Commerce for small and mid-market businesses. The company offers Amazon Sales Channels, Google Shopping ads Channels and PageBuilder integrations to empower small and mid-scale businesses to improve the end-to-end experiences merchants deliver to its customers across channels. Magento Commerce has the following capabilities for its users:

• Extend customer reach.
• Accelerate time to market for phones with high conversion experiences.
• Use powerful behavioral analytics.
• Target new audiences.
• Speed up website content updates.
• Expand global inventory management.

Magento Introduced Amazon Sales Channel

Magento introduced a free Amazon Sales Channel extension available in the Magento Marketplace for both Magento Commerce and Magento Open Source. It is aimed to simplify the way merchants work on Amazon and allow them to integrate their catalog, manage listings from the Magento admin as well as establish a bi-directional data flow. The main benefits of Amazon Sales Channel in Magento include:

• Vast product info accessible by syncing Amazon information backwards with Magento catalog.
• Intelligent Pricing as well as Pricing Rules.
• Multiple Amazon Accounts
• Inventory Management as well as Fulfillment and Order Management.
• Listing Management.
• Quantity Discounts as well as B2B Pricing.

Magento Announced Fully Integrated and End-to-End Google Advertising Solution for Google Shopping Ads Channel

Magento released Google Shopping ads Channel available for both Magento Commerce and Magento Open Source. The solution is aimed to help engage and convert customers across the Google network. Google Shopping ads Channel in Magento has the following benefits:

– Google Ad management through a single source – Magento store’s admin dashboard.
– Google Merchant Center and Google Ads management in one-end solution.
– Create a Google Ads account and use Google Smart Shopping to advertise the campaign.
– Use Smart Shopping campaigns to simplify management, boost conversion rate and expand the reach of an online store.
– Auto-Sync Maintenance as well as Simple Onboarding.

Magento Announced Braintree Integration into Default PWA

Magento integrated Braintree into its default PWA storefront called Venia. Its main opportunity is to provide a quick way to start credit and debit transactions with a trusted gateway. Braintree offers an easy to integrate card flow allowing users to quickly set it up and start accepting card payments in a flow. Pay by card option will help to boost the conversion rate of an online store.

Adobe Commerce Cloud Launched Headless Offering to Serve the High Customer Experience Needs of Enterprise Customers

Adobe Commerce Cloud announced a functional infrastructure to optimize continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) processes as well as allow clients to realize agile and quick iterations of their codebase. Magento started to provide headless APIs to support PWAs. It also offers PWA Studio to create and manage rich PWAs as well as a sample PWA store helping to accelerate deployment.

Magento Commerce Awards of Paradigm B2B Combine

Magento Commerce took part in the Mid-market and Enterprise editions of the Paradigm B2B Combine an, as a result, was awarded over fifteen medals. It is a new way to evaluate B2B commerce vendors that rates them across ten categories like:

• Vendor’s ability to execute promises.
• Partner ecosystem with technology developers to provide the platform with innovations and customize it according to the vendor’s needs.
• Vision and strategy to evaluate a vendor.
• Promotions and transaction management and more.

Magento Introduces New Capabilities to Business Intelligence

Magento developed new features for its cloud-based data management and visualization platform – Magento Business Intelligence. The new capabilities include:

– Scheduled data reports with sophisticated email summaries to make the process of sending the reports and visualizations automotive. It also offers to send an email summary one time or schedule updates using the built-in calendar.
– New data visualization with bubble chart, scatter plot and scatter plot with a trend line options. They diversify the appearance of the graphs as well as change the level of data presentation and comprehension.

Magento Offers Yotpo Reviews and Visual UGC

Magento started to provide clients with Yotpo, ecommerce marketing platform, with reviews and visual UGC solutions. With Yotpo, brands can increase customer loyalty and sales using the following tools:

• Automatically view customer content using Yotpo Focus.
• Recreate Instagram experience using customizable video, photo and review galleries.
• Find out customer feedback with natural language and sentiment analysis processing tools and more.

Having integrated Magento stores with Yotpo, a retailer can enjoy Tested to Ensure Top Performance, Performance Analytics at Your Fingertips, Stay Ahead of the Curve, Seamless Implementation and Integrate Pre-existing Reviews.

Magento Introduced Robot-Assisted Retail and Hands-Free Shopping

Magento suggested new technologies to enhance the shopping experience and change the way retailers run their businesses. The company provides:

• Hands-free shopping to shop seamlessly with head movement tracking via Apple’s ARKit. The shoppers can perform various actions like product selection, checkout and quantity selection without hands.
• Robot-assisted retail to help customers make purchases from start to finish. The humanoid robot helps people to sort products, shows items in stock and advice deals according to customers’ reaction. The solution also has a 3D camera, directional microphones, omnidirectional wheels and more.
• Seamless checkout and payment experiences built on the payment request API with PayPal and Braintree express checkout.

Magento Acquired New B2B Technology

Magento acquired Accorin’s order approval technology that helps B2B buyers to control spending and corporate policies enforcement for online purchasing. The solution supports multiple approval tiers of orders and APIs to integrate with existing business systems and many more. The technology will be released this year.

Adobe Announced New Commerce Capabilities for SMBs and Mid-Market Merchants on MagentoLive Europe 2019

Magento provided Adobe’s enterprise-grade commerce capabilities small and mid-scale companies like:

• Amazon Sales Channel in the U.K., Early Access Program for Commerce Product Recommendations, Magento Commerce 2.3.3 and Magento Open Source 2.3.3.
• Magento Commerce on Microsoft Azure.
• Adobe Stock integration with Magento.

Amazon Sales Channel in Magento Became Available in the U.K.

Magento announced Amazon Sales Channel extension for both Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce. Amazon is one of the largest ecommerce marketplaces in the U.S. and having a presence there, merchants are able to reach a huge customer base. That is why Amazon Sales Channel extension is a powerful solution for business owners who strive to empower their online stores.

In 2019, Magento made the extensions available in the U.K. So, whatever the merchants’ location is, they can sell their products on Amazon U.K. Marketplace. Magento Sales extension is also available in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Magento Announced Early Access Program for Commerce Product Recommendations

Magento worked out Product Recommendations powered by Adobe Sensei that can help to increase sales of retailers up to 30%. The company is going to open access to Magento Commerce in January 2020 to let its clients enjoy the following benefits:

• Gathering and analysis of shoppers behaviour instantly.
• Product recommendations with high personalisation.
• Adding product recommendations to appropriate store pages to increase sales.
• Widgets for custom product recommendations and more.

Magento Innovations Lab Teamed Up With Amazon Web Services

Magento Innovations Lab expanded its relationship with AWS as well as partners and developer community. As a result, Magento developers get an opportunity to leverage the following Amazon services:

• Machine Learning (ML) services.
• Visual search with AWS Rekognition.
• Voice Commerce with Alexa skills.

Magento developers also got access to:

• Amazon developer guide.
• Hosted office hours.
• Ongoing tech support.
• Free AWS developer accounts.

Notable Magento Events 2019

Magento Contribution Days

Magento Contribution Days is a project aimed to help people learn more about Magento 2 core. Each year thousands of Magento developers and ecommerce enthusiasts share their experiences and ideas.

In 2019 the event took place in Munich on 20-22 September. Magento Contributions Days was hosted by the Tech Division company and sponsored by two ecommerce companies – Comwrap and Adyen. There were lots of notable Magento guests like Frontend Architect at PWA Studio James Zetlen and a famous Magento Evangelist at Adobe company – Ben Marks.

Magento Contributions Days Munich was mainly focused on how to craft, optimize and deploy Progressive Web Application for Magento 2.3 as well as possible Magento 2 core improvement, ecommerce innovations and the new version of the Multi-Source-Inventory feature.

Magento Live Europe

Magento Live Europe is a widely known event aimed to educate the Magento Community members and share ecommerce knowledge. The event is also a great opportunity for growing companies to be noticed and heard. It gives a chance to learn directly from Magento enthusiasts and developers.

In 2019 Magento Live Europe took place in Amsterdam and lasted from 21 to 23 Oktober. Over 2,000 ecommerce professional participated in the event, among them were over 300 delegates and 20 exhibitors. The conference was mainly focused on Magento 2.3.3 which was released shortly before Magento Live and functionality of Progressive Web Apps. There were also lots of useful topics, including marketing tactics aimed at various generations like Baby Boomers, Millennials and others.

Wrapping up

2019 was a successful year for Magento and we are very excited to see the new solutions and upgrades of this ecommerce platform in the year 2020. We will be happy to share all the upcoming Magento news in our blog. Follow us to know everything about Magento first.