Month: May 2021

 

There is no doubt that digital marketing is the way of the future for B2B (business to business) transactions. The B2B eCommerce industry in the United States alone targets to hit $1.8 trillion by 2023. At that point, it will account for 17% percent of all US expenditures, and that figure will rise as the minimum tenure of B2B customers begins to decline. By switching to Magento Commerce, you can easily integrate upcoming B2B commerce capabilities while investing less in-app maintenance.

10 Reasons Why Magento Is the Ideal B2B E-Commerce Platform

1: Online Shopping is Made Easy!

Through Magento’s extensive shopping options, you can allow quick and easy buying while boosting revenue. Investors who fully know whatever they want would benefit immensely from the fast order functionality since they can bypass the click process and quickly place an order for the items they need. With cheap, frictionless purchasing, you can speed up the buying process, enable quick reorders for regular procurements, and boost recurring sales.

2: Your Go to Store

Magento’s e-commerce offers all that you need to for your online marketplace. You can sell several products via service offerings and captures and handle all of your accounts effortlessly. You will set up and incorporate your Magento e-commerce platform with your ERP or CRM solutions

3: Customize as you wish

Magento seems to be an extremely scalable framework. Since it is also open-source software and developed using the standard programming language PHP and some other techniques, this means that if you have the ability, time, and budget, you can potentially configure Magento to do virtually everything you want to be doing.

4: Customer’s Fragmentation

If you’re like most of the B2B businesses, you have different prices for different clients. In most cases, you will have client segments who push various percentage incentives to different consumers. Magento helps you provide different prices to different consumers and build consumer groups that will get different pricing incentives.

5: Convenient Ordering easy Invoicing.

Magento does have an advanced order management system. It allows you to see all of the transactions in one place and click on every particular order. You will also go through a product delivery system, in which the orders can be New, Undergoing Payment, Delivery, Finished, and other such order phases. You will also invoice consumers and give them reports on the status of their orders’ shipping. Finally, Magento offers you the power and versatility to use excellent customer service for B2B customer bookings.

6: Responsive Interface

The designers will create an elegant and responsive interface for UX and UI for Magento B2B e-commerce creation. This satisfies the rising desire of smartphone consumers for smooth touchpoints. At the very exact moment, your e-commerce store is open and seamless throughout all platforms, allowing your customers to shop whenever and wherever they choose

7: Diverse Functionality

In contrast to other Online marketplaces, Magento offers an excess of rich and varied features. These features assist shop owners in managing the whole company, from merchandise development to customer experience and even advertising and branding.

8: Secure

In contrast to other websites such as WordPress or WooCommerce, Magento has fewer hacking opportunities. Whereas WordPress is by far the most targeted site with several weaknesses. The explanation for this is that Magento has several built-in applications that can be used without the possibility of adding extra plugins.

9: SEO Friendly

SEO is another excellent way to demonstrate that Magento seems to be the right tool for the websites. Magento provides users with sufficient SEO modules to improve SERP rating, including webpages (HTML and XML), URL rewrites, metadata, etc.

10: Topnotch Performance

In terms of website success, Magento is well worth being one of the pioneer sites to have the best performance and user interface available. Fast page loading speed combined with efficient query time complexity helps the website perform much better than before. This motivates consumers to investigate content or items mainly on the web page and notably reduces page trash while increasing the exchange rate.

It is recommended to hire a Certified Adobe Solution Partner and Developers for upgrading your Magento B2B store.

 

Novel disease Covid-19 has changed every aspect of the living hood and so is commerce. All the trends of online buying and selling have been transformed rapidly. Many brands have evolved, fulfilling the latest demands of users. The growth of such startups and brands depends on how they deploy experience to the target market, showcase themselves and facilitate the user. As the name depicts, it’s not wrong to say that commerce has forfeited its head. Moreover, headless commerce has unfolded as the hottest topic in eCommerce nowadays.

What is Headless Commerce?

Headless commerce is dissociating from the front-end and back-end in an eCommerce system. Now brands are autonomous in developing whatever they wish to develop by taking advantage of novel tools and technologies. It works by providing some APIs to developers so that they can directly develop the front end for eCommerce stores (both web applications and mobile applications). Headless Commerce allows the online business to enrich its user experience without any disinclination.

Ins and outs of Headless Commerce

Architecture

Putting it in a nutshell, the commerce application programming interface is the game-changer for headless commerce. It aims to make all the content and data available to all platforms by focusing on background processes. Infrastructure, security, and all other e-commerce functionalities are performed invisibly in the background of the application. A headless CMS API calls aids in connecting both the front end and back end.

Features

Headless Commerce enables:

– Liberty of indicating framework

– Multilingualism

– Organizing digital assets (images, videos and text files, etc.)

– Scalability

– Modeling, architecting, and approval of content

– Augmenting roadmap and integration

Pros

– Digitalization and innovation in business comfort the customers in a way that they can access all their requirements with quality services without any friction. This fact makes headless commerce a necessity.

– Headless commerce has transformed the capabilities of traditional models. Businesses can market themselves and increase reachability using every possible channel to maximize sales, interaction, and competitive advantages more importantly.

– As headless commerce platforms can function independently, the developers also gain an edge in implementing custom designs.

Cons

– It’s expensive as it requires large investments to develop instant infrastructures.

– Instinctive functionalities of e-commerce platforms can be limited after configuring headless commerce.

– Headless commerce is not only expensive but is also tiresome to manage. It’s not suitable for small teams.

Trending Platforms

Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Magento, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce are the most trending headless commerce platforms. Let’s explore what makes them unique.

– Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a SaaS(cloud-based software as service) solution designed for e-commerce. Commerce cloud supports scalability, optimization, and artificial intelligence. Hence, it generates a highly personalized user experience and boosts B2C e-commerce. Key functionalities include the integration of all social media channels, full mobile-first suite, instant, and right customer insights, boost organic traffic, and generates more revenue. Above all, its type ahead (search guidance) feature helps the customers/shoppers to find whatever they want to buy from all over the globe and pay bills with just one single click.

– Magento is an open-source platform enabling online businesses to implement dynamic shopping carts, control functionality, outlook, and content of shopping stores. It helps the business to grow by providing impactful marketing and catalog tools. SEO is another amazing feature of Magento.

– Shopify targets businesses ranging from small to medium scale only. Wherever Shopify plus supports the large enterprises also. Fundamental services of both versions are the same but Shopify plus offers more load balancing capability.

– BigCommerce is the best platform to implement and maintain the front end of online shopping stores. It is abundant with built-in functionalities and resources so it suits large enterprises the best.

– WooCommerce is a customizable eCommerce platform built on WordPress. It is completely open-source which means you can modify and customize anything and everything. Because you have complete control, you can add unlimited products and users, and take unlimited orders.

The Future of Headless Commerce in 2021:

The future of headless commerce relies on how businesses indulge emerging technologies (Voice search and IoT etc.) and enhance user-friendliness. Tech gadgets have enabled the customers with innovations. They want to have smart solutions, frictionless and instant purchases so it’s important to keep pace with revolutionary trends in business and strive for a tech-enabled future.

The best way to predict the future is to create it. With the tech expertise that we have at Bizmia, the stage is set for greater things. Let’s talk about how we can make you materialize the future that you have envisioned.

Introduction

According to a survey conducted in 2019, about 61% of the global online retail traffic was generated by mobile. This number is expected to increase since people are on their phones all the time as opposed to sitting down to use a desktop device. This trend has sparked an interest in the development of technologies that support mobile e-commerce. Two of the most common words you will come across in this realm are “Storefront Reference Architecture” and “Sitegenesis”. If you are confused about what these words mean and the difference between the two, keep reading.

Sitegenesis

Sitegenesis is a storefront specifically designed for websites that sell clothing and general department store items. Sitegenesis was launched by Demandware and is based on their eCommerce platform. The aim of Sitegenesis is to provide store owners with a template for their store that features the best practices related to usability, merchandising, technical and information architecture.

Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA)

Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA) is a UX designed by Salesforce specifically for eCommerce sites. It was developed with the aim of aiding the creation of efficient sites that are optimized for mobile devices. Salesforce took the initiative of developing SFRA in light of the fact that most mobile optimization technologies are based on previously used desktop-focused technologies, which causes friction in the user experience. SFRA was created after a detailed study of more than 2000 online stores and learning the best practices from them.

The Differences

Both SFRA and Sitegenesis seem to be similar as they are both UX for online stores. For eCommerce vendors, it can be difficult to choose between the two as they both claim to solve the same problem. In order to make the decision-making process easier, the following is a comparison of SFRA and Sitegenesis over some of the most important areas.

The History

In order to understand the differences between SFRA and Sitegenesis, it is important to understand the sequence in which both were released. Salesforce built Sitegenesis with the goal of improving the mobile shopping experience in 2009. Sitegenesis 1.0 was desktop-only so in 2014 Salesforce released the 2.0 version which supported all tablets, desktops, mobiles, etc. 3 years later mobile-focused MFRA was released but it was perceived mostly as an extension to Sitegenesis, so in 2018 the company renamed MFRA to SFRA. So the main difference is that Sitegenesis is a predecessor of SFRA.

Customization

SFRA has a well-designed inheritance model that allows modular code. The well-organized code allows users to extend the functionality according to their requirements. While the legacy code organization and inheritance model make Sitegenesis much more difficult to alter and maintain.

User Experience

SFRA has a great user experience thanks to the fact that it is based on data-backed research, shopper journey analysis, and heat mapping which allowed a firm understanding of techniques that work. On the other hand, Sitegenesis provides a large number of features for each form factor, leading to a smooth user experience.

Integration

SFRA offers continuous integrations and has support for all kinds of testing including integration tests, unit tests, and functionality tests. Sitegenesis also supports continuous integrations but it does not contain the command-line tool and the examples included in SFRA.

Price

When it comes to the Total Cost of Ownership (TOC), Storefront is much more affordable than Sitegensis. Its mobile-focused approach and advanced architecture have allowed it to provide service while keeping overall costs low.

Technology Stack

Sitegenesis is based on proprietary technologies like Demandware Scripts, so in order to customize its code vendors will have to look to industry experts with relevant experience and vast knowledge. On the other hand, SFRA is created using open standard technologies like MVC, Bootstrap, and Javascript which are very common, and many people are well versed in them. They are also easier to work with so customizations will be conveniently handled.

Both SFRA and Sitegenesis can massively improve the UX of an eCommerce store and provide the shoppers with a smooth and hard-to-forget experience to turn them into returning customers. But they differ a lot in the technologies used, the architecture, and the price involved. eCommerce vendors should analyze their situation to see which one will fit them best.

The best way to predict the future is to create it. With the tech expertise that we have at Bizmia, the stage is set for greater things. Let’s talk about how we can make you materialize the future that you have envisioned.

 

The End of life for Magento 1 was on June 30, 2020. It’s done! Magento 1 is no longer supported and a lot of merchants are freaked out. It is more than obvious that this didn’t happen overnight. The merchants were informed about Magento 1 EOL back in September 2018. However, there are a lot of business owners who are still pondering over the ‘How’ and ‘If’ of Magento 1 to 2 migration.

What happens if you stay on Magento 1?

Current Magento 1 users have two simple options; staying on Magento 1 or migrating to Magento 2. It goes without saying that Magento 2 is a better platform than Magento 1 but a lot of business owners are still using the abandoned version of Magento.

Ecommerce businesses that are still using the old version of Magento have to find ways to make their online store secure. End of life for Magento 1 literally means that the company will no longer provide the security patches that make your online store safe. You are at the mercy of third parties for the provision of the required security patches. Some merchants consider it a promising option but this cannot be the same as the official support.

Official support means that the company will provide a patch whenever an exploit is discovered. Third parties claim to do the same but you can’t ignore the fact that the demand and supply rule always governs the market. It is very likely that in near future, only a handful of merchants are still using Magento 1. This will drop the demand for Magento 1 related security patches and as a result the third-party providers will step back.

It is not that your business will collapse if you don’t migrate to another platform today. Your online store would still be live and if you happen to have made a deal with a trusted security provider, you are good to go for some time. However, it is not worth the risk to stay on Magento 1 forever.

 How is Magento 2 Better?

Official Support

Since we are past the End of Support deadline, the first and foremost thing to mention in this section is that unlike Magento 1, Magento 2 is a supported platform. As discussed earlier, an ecommerce platform that has official support is very secure but that’s not it! Magento will not only provide the security patches for Magento 2 from time to time but will also add in advanced features like PWA integration, code automation, advanced reporting and extended cache support.

Better Architecture

Magento 2 houses many new technologies that were not included in the previous version. It supports the newer versions of MySQL, CLI, Composer, Apache, Symfony, NGINX in addition to the default support of Memcached, Redis, and Varnish. Another important upgrade in the architecture of Magento is the minimized JavaScript that translates to a significant reduction in unnecessary browser operations.

Faster and Efficient

Customers hate it when the page they are trying to view is taking ages to load. Keeping this in mind, Magento 2 is so designed that the pages load no less than 30 to 50% faster as compared to Magento 1. Moreover, the stores built on Magento 2 are capable of handling as much as 39% more orders within 60 minutes as compared to Magento 1. This means that even with higher traffic, the pages will load faster so that no customer is left disappointed.

Why Aren’t People Migrating?

It seems that merchants are finding it hard to believe that the company has actually abandoned the 12-year-old Magento 1. Business owners are even claiming that it is very insensitive and cruel of them to cut off support for such a widely used ecommerce platform. However, the company has something to say in its defense.

The company released Magento 2 back in 2015 and announced that they will provide support for both; Magento 1 and 2 for a period of 36 months. The merchants had complete freedom to choose either Magento 1 or 2 to build their ecommerce store. Fast forward to three years, in September 2018, it was announced that the support for Magento 1 will cease on 30th June of the year 2020. Thus, the previously announced 36 months support window was extended to 55 months.

The users were informed almost 2 years before the cessation of support so that they have ample time to migrate to Magento 2 but a lot of merchants deliberately waited till the last moment. Many others have been trying to make all the necessary arrangements required to migrate to Magento 2 but are still not ready.

Is Migration Difficult?

Some people wrongfully considered Magento 2 an upgrade of the previous version but this is far from the truth. You might have noticed that the word ‘upgrade’ is nowhere to be seen when it comes to switching from Magento 1 to 2, the word ‘migration’ is used instead. This is simply because switching to Magento 2 is not a simple upgrade. It is just like migration. In simplest terms, you will have to carry all of your data and take it to a different platform. A lot of things will have to be designed again.

This migration will also affect your SEO setup. Once you migrate to Magento 2; the metadata templates, cross-links, and custom URL formats might get completely lost. This means that the entire SEO setup will have to be re-optimized. In order to get things back in place, you can take help from an SEO specialist.

Lastly, it must be mentioned that the process of migration is expensive. Many merchants are just not in the position to make such a big investment at the time.

Conclusion

Magento is one of the highly sought-after ecommerce platforms globally. This powerful Content Management System is running the online businesses of more than 250,000 merchants worldwide. It was smart of you to choose Magento in the first place.

Now that times have changed and the good old Magento is not good enough, the smart thing to do is to embrace the change and welcome a better, faster and more efficient platform for your ecommerce business.