Last month, a few of us went down to London to attended the biggest and most successful European Magento event yet – Magento Live UK 2016 (MLUK16). Magento merchants, partners and e-commerce enthusiasts alike were treated to a range of informative presentations, not to mention plenty of networking opportunities.
If you couldn’t make this year, don’t worry. In this blog post we’ll take a look at some of the highlights of this year’s event.
Meet Magento
MLUK16 celebrated the growth of the platform throughout Europe. Magento now has 53 clients on the recently published Internet Retailer Europe 500 list, making it the fastest growing and most widely used e-commerce platform in Europe.
One particularly notable announcement at MLUK16 was the news of the company’s partnership with the Meet Magento Association, meaning it’s now much easier to get involved in the Magento Community. The Meet Magento Association includes a portal to find local ‘Magento Meetups’. With a growing global network of innovators, experts and enthusiasts, it’s a great idea to become part of the growing Magento e-commerce community.
Personalisation and Mobile – the next level
Personalisation has become commonplace in e-commerce and customers expect a website to be tailored to their needs and interests. At MLUK16 however, there was talk of another – more actual – level of personalisation. An upcoming trend is to allow customers, through e-commerce sites, to create their own personalised product. One of Magento’s clients, footwear and clothing retailer Oliver Sweeney, is letting customers personalise their shoes, boots and accessories with a ‘Sweeney Tattoo’ of their own design.
Another rising trend highlighted at MLUK16 was the use of apps on smartphones. There is potential for fully transactional e-commerce apps, but at the moment it remains a bit of a risk for retailers. The majority of money from mobile e-commerce still comes from the mobile web rather than apps, as people tend to use only a small set of apps quite frequently. Is it just a case of developing the apps and then the sales will follow? Only time will tell.
Magento 2.1
The updated Enterprise Edition of Magento was possibly the biggest news of the event. Magento 2.1 boasts an impressive set of tools to improve content updates, boost sales and conversion rates, and simplify the whole e-commerce process. Content updates, first of all, can be put together and previewed much more easily. The prepared content, which includes product, category and promotion updates, can then be scheduled.
Magento 2.1 is presented in a tidy timeline dashboard format so you can see all of your scheduled updates and changes at once. This makes it easier for teams to organise the changes for maximum sales output, but you can also share the updates amongst the team much more easily. Staged content is easily shared for reviewing and approving.
PayPal enhancements in Enterprise Edition make the payment process much quicker. It enables shoppers to use PayPal without the previous issue of leaving your site to do so. With card details securely stored, it’s a smooth, simple, personalised process. Quicker checkout leads to a boost in sales.
Multi-award winning digital agency
Are you launching a new e-commerce store or looking for ways to improve your existing site? If so, why not let the award-winning Magento experts at Fluid Digital help? Our team of digital specialists offer tailored Magento e-commerce support packages to businesses of all shapes and sizes. To find out more, get in touch with our team. Simply call 0161 762 4920 or complete a contact form and we’ll get back to you.
Image credit: MagentoLiveUK
