Magento released the latest Magento Commerce 2.2.2 update on 12th December, just 2 months after 2.2.1 was released. Whilst you might question what's changed in such a short period, there are some game changing features available in this version that will a have huge impact on the performance of your ecommerce offering by streamlining the customer experience and promoting higher conversion rates.
So, if you're yet to be convinced to take the leap to Magento 2, or you want to try utilise these new offerings the best you can by doing a little research, here's what's on offer.
The Update
Magento Commerce and Magento Open Source have received major upgrades with all-new features made available to both. Over one hundred community-submitted bug fixes and multiple pull requests have also been implemented which promise to make the latest version Magento's most powerful offering.
Instant Purchase Checkout
When Amazon's instant purchase checkout system patent ran out in September earlier this year, Magento wasted no time to become the first commerce leader to offer an 'Amazon-like' experience as a standard feature.
Image credit: Magento
The new instant purchase feature allows returning customers to skip many of the traditional checkout steps, streamlining their experience and making it quicker to complete their purchase in 'One Click'. Magento does this by using previously-stored payment information and shipping details to skip stages of the checkout process.
Simply select the instant purchase button on a product page, and the customer will be taken directly to a confirmation page where they can place the order.
Apart from the obvious time-saving and ease of use, this function promotes loyalty from consumers by encouraging repeat purchases; as they know next time they shop it can reduce the time spent plugging in details they have previously entered. The time it takes to place an order according to Magento, has been decreased by 90%.
What's also really interesting here is that Amazon allowed Steve Jobs to use their patent back when he was developing iTunes. It was reported that Apple managed to increase their revenue by around 30%*. So we can't wait to try this out for our customers.
Advanced Reporting
Next, Magento has implemented advanced reporting as a core-feature to the platform. This will allow merchants to access actionable insight reports and enable them to operate with greater intelligence. There are 20 different reports to get stuck into through the easy-to-use web interface; all accessible from the Magento Admin.
Image credit: Magento
There are three pre-configured dashboards available:
Orders which includes; the number of orders, revenue, AOV, taxes and shipping fees collected.
Customers which includes; registered accounts, unique customers and key metrics by customer.
Products which includes; the quantity ordered and best-selling products by revenue and volume.
Analytics is an extremely important aspect to any business, especially in the ecommerce sector. Being able to make data-driven business decisions off the back of analysing data direct within Magento's core-product is a welcomed upgrade.
Email Marketing Automation
In our recent comparison of the best email marketing service, we mentioned that dotmailer was Magento's first and only Premier Technology Partner. This status has been cemented even further with Magento's addition of dotmailer's email marketing automation in 2.2.2. Merchants can now easily set-up and create campaigns in minutes.
Adding this functionality straight into Magento allows retailers to serve highly personalised, automated messages to customers, helping to provide them with offers they find genuinely useful and ultimately boosting sales.
It's not just email that is supported through dotmailer either; SMS, push notifications and even direct mail can be sent to consumers giving a highly flexible marketing channel to utilise.
Even if you're unsure about dotmailer and what it can provide your business, Magento users have access to a 14-day free trial to see how beneficial it can be.
Magento Shipping
The update also provides efficiency, clarity, and eases operations by integrating Magento multi-carrier shipping and fulfilment capabilities, You can now manage your shipping from start to finish from the Magento Admin. Whether that be comparing shipping prices from multiple carriers to fulfilment rules.
Sound Good?
We're Magento experts, with nearly 10 years experience and many successful projects under our belt, we would love to hear about any Magneto project you have in the works. Visit our ecommerce packages page here, contact us through our website or call on 01183 805 705.
Comments and feedback
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