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Behind The Scenes: What Magento 2.0 Can Do For You

Less than six months ago, Magento announced the release of Magento 2.0, its “next generation open source digital commerce platform”. A recent whitepaper reported findings from initial benchmark testing[1] and revealed how the new platform can:

  • Process up to 39% more orders per hour
  • Deliver nearly instant server response times for catalog browsing
  • Enable up to 66% faster add-to-cart server response times
  • Provide up to 51% faster end-to-end checkout times

I wanted to learn more about Magento 2.0 and the benefits for eCommerce clients, so I recently met with Kaushal Shah, Perficient’s practice director for Magento.

What are some of the trends you’re seeing in eCommerce, and how does Magento support them? 

Research and surveys indicate that year over year, mobile commerce is growing exponentially. One of the biggest things I’ve noticed is that our customers request responsive sites. They no longer ask for a separate desktop and mobile site, and Magento has the framework that supports responsive design.
The other thing I’ve observed is that customers want a lot more information before making a purchase. They take more time to make sure they’re choosing the right products. And for that, they need to easily find and access the right information. Merchants are satisfying this demand by providing this content, such as product descriptions, images, video, reviews and ratings. And collectively, this helps the merchant convert faster.
The native features of Magento Enterprise Edition will allow merchants to provide all of this information to buyers, and the platform is a cost-effective alternative for companies that want a lower TCO for their digital commerce.

Which new Magento 2.0 features will clients most enjoy?

Magento 2 offers many new features, but let’s put them into two categories – performance and architecture.
Regarding performance, Magento 2 supports PHP 7, which optimizes web pages for faster delivery, accelerates server response times, and increases efficiency for backend operations. Additionally, Magento 2 supports multiple databases, so you can have separate databases for customer information, product catalogs, and orders. With this type of organization, there isn’t one database that creates a bottleneck for the site’s overall performance.
In terms of architecture, Magento 2 is more modular, making it easier to build a custom feature quickly and deploy on top of the platform. The other architectural advantage is with upgrades – upgrading from one version to another is much faster, and Magento plans to release a new update every quarter instead of every six months.

How do extensions enhance Magento 2.0, and does Perficient have any available in the marketplace?

I like to compare the extension marketplace for Magento to Apple’s app store. Magento provides many native features out of the box, but every client has different needs. So there’s always something you’ll need to add on top of the standard platform.
And to accomplish that, we have the marketplace where people can search for extensions or features they need to install on the basic platform. Perficient currently has 14 extensions available on the marketplace, and we’re in the process of updating these extensions for Magento 2.0.

Wherever you are on your commerce journey, Perficient is here to help you navigate the transformation. Join us for one of our sessions at Magento Imagine, April 11-13, 2016 in Las Vegas. Perificient thought leaders Kaushal Shah and David Hess and our client Ashley Gensler, founder and CEO of Loom Decor, will present “Migrating to Magento 2.0: Insight from a Beta Partner.” This first-hand account will capture the business drivers, road map, and journey behind Loom Decor’s recent migration to the much-anticipated Magento 2.0.
Add these sessions to your calendar now:

Tuesday, April 12 | 2:15 PM, Lafleur 2
Wednesday, April 13 | 12:25 PM, Lafleur 1

[1] Compared to Magento 1.X

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Stephanie Gallina, Senior Manager, Microsoft + CXC Partner Marketing

Stephanie has more than 15 years' experience in marketing communications, leading and executing marketing strategies for corporate and non-profit organizations. She elevates the awareness of relevant digital solution topics and thought leadership for Perficient.

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