This is a great time to be an eCommerce business owner, with the wealth of platforms available to site owners and no platform has shown itself to be more dynamic and more capable of delivering powerful functionality and integration than Magento. The good news only got better this week, as Magento launched the latest form of their digital commerce platform; Magento 2.0. This latest version offers much in the way of extensive new tools and features that will increase those all important conversion rates. As we’ve come to expect from Magento, the new platform places control firmly in the hands of brands and retailers themselves, enabling them to deliver engaging omnichannel retail experiences that are customer focused and cost efficient. There are two new products available to download now; Magento Enterprise Edition 2.0 and Magento Community Edition 2.0. Here at Superb, we are now building solutions in Magento 2.0 and accepting enquiries to migrate existing sites to Magento 2.0, all with CTR at the bottom.  So, what sorts of new features and attributes does the latest Magento platform offer? More importantly, how will they help your business compete in its industry, be that B2C or B2B? Let’s take a look.

 

Flexibility at its core

 

A wider choice with regards to how you implement your eCommerce vision, is made available by the new platform, through its incredibly flexible architecture.  The key reason for the greater flexibility, lies in the fact that the new architecture features a modular code base, which makes it easier to customise your site. All of the software can be sent to public or private cloud environments, much, much easier. There is further scope to connect easier with third party solutions, thanks to the more efficient APIs. The turnkey extensions, mean that enhancements to your site such as new product lines, can now be carried out easier than ever.

 

Engaging your customers

 

With personalisation key to engaging customers and providing them with the positive online experiences that they crave, it is important that the eCommerce platform that you choose, can allow you to create these experiences across any channel and Magento 2.0 provides just that. The responsive design themes are central to this, as they support sales that take place in any timezone or locale. Checkout quality, is another feature of eCommerce sites that can single-handedly engage or alienate your customers, they are so crucial to conversion rates. Thankfully Magento 2.0  allows you to offer the much sought after one-click account creations, saving your customers time and hassle. What’s more, there are options to customise the checkouts themselves.

 

Allowing for better productivity

 

As your business grows, you want to be able to stay on top of things and Magento 2.0 can help significantly.

Placing the merchant firmly in control, the new easy to learn Admin panel design, offers a streamlined interface, so you can update and track sales with ease. Access all critical business information through the admin panel and set up new products, with a faster than before product creation function. This is eCommerce platforms as they should be, there to help you drive growth and stay on top.

 

Faster performance

 

No need to worry over page loading speed, Magento 2.0 offers 50% faster page load times across many of its pages. The high-speed breakthrough is all thanks to the platform applying Apache Varnish to cache page content and the optimization of codes and images. Support for updates is also much easier.

 

Putting security first

 

Integration with all the usual payment systems, including PayPal, Braintree, and Authorize.net is obviously still possible, with WorldPay and CyberSource now included in the full range.  Improved security for consumers is rigorous and tight.

If the ease of which future upgrades can be performed, should you wish to incorporate future innovative functionality, hasn’t sold you on the new platform, then perhaps the reduction in the cost of running your site overall will ultimately win you over. Indeed, the modular architecture will reduce the complexity and cost of running your site. Magento 2.0, will undoubtedly enable you greater capacity to boost your sales and expand your business activities. Talk to us for more information on how we at Superb can help you make the transition to the new era of Magento innovation.