Magento is a growing platform with all the new addons to the Magento development services, and thanks to an outstanding product and exceptional marketing, retailers are abreast of the latest offerings in Magento.
eBay Enterprise has released the new versions of Magento Enterprise Edition (version 1.14) and Community Edition (version 1.9) at the Imagine 2014 global ecommerce event on May 13, 2014. This new release provides more than 50 enhancements that improve quality and security throughout the product.
Technology Updates:
EE 1.14 and CE 1.9 include the following technology updates:
- PHP 5.4, which provides better performance and more efficient memory usage
- The Zend Framework has been upgraded to version 1.12.3
- Magento EE only. Magento EE 1.14 supports Apache Solr versions up to 3.6.2
Responsive Web Design Templates (One website fits all):
The new responsive design reference theme is built on the modern technologies like CSS3, HTML5 and natively available jQuery. This design incorporates the best practices for mobile sites. This feature is available in both Magento Enterprise Edition 1.14 and Community Edition 1.9.
Faster time to market: This new release enables the developers to build the mobile and tablet friendly websites in half the time as previously required.
More customers & more sales: According to Pew Research Center Internet Project, nearly two thirds of cell phone owners use their phone to go online, and one in five cell owners do most of their online browsing on their phone (http://bit.ly/1ebr0Aa). Responsive design enables the site to connect with more customers, thereby leading to a surge in revenue stream.
Competition without size parameters: By the end of December 2012 most of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as other large enterprises had started implementing responsive design to their website. This new responsive web design provides all the Magento websites a chance to compete with these large enterprises in the mobile and tablet ecommerce platform.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Friendly: Responsive web design is Google’s recommended approach to mobile-optimized websites. Hence, this design helps improve the SEO ranking.
Bill Me Later:
“Bill Me Later® is a PayPal service that gives your customers access to No Payments and No Interest if paid in full in 6 months on purchases of $99 or more”. It helps retailers sell more inventory and capture up to 18 percent more sales(http://bit.ly/Scrgva) by offering special financing options on qualified purchases.
This feature is available in both Magento Enterprise Edition 1.14 and Community Edition 1.9.
Improved PayPal Express Checkout: The improved PayPal Express Checkout allows merchants to offer a streamlined checkout experience which automatically tries alternative payment options if the customer’s credit card is declined, increasing conversion rates and sales.
Drive Repeat purchases: The Bill Me Later integration provides great benefits for all involved. Customers can now spread out payments and retailers can sell more merchandise and drive repeat purchases. On a recent comScore online survey (http://bit.ly/Scrgva), “30% of Bill Me Later shoppers said they spent more than planned due to the six month financing offer.” “Financing gave them the flexibility to buy now and pay later on all purchases of $99 and up, so they can keep coming back for more.”
No Additional Fee: Customers have up to six months to complete the full payment of the transaction. Also, the merchant is not charged for additional fees except the standard PayPal transaction fees. The consumer is not the only one winning in this program, the Bill Me Later feature also allows for the merchant to be paid up front.
Cross Border Trade (price consistency):
“Cross-border trade (also referred to as price consistency) was added to support European Union (EU) merchants who want to maintain consistent prices for customers whose tax rates are different than the store tax rate.”
This feature is available in both Magento Enterprise Edition 1.14 and Community Edition 1.9.
Single Price across regions and geographies: “Merchants operating across regions and geographies can show their customers a single price. Pricing is clean and uncluttered regardless of tax structures and rates that vary from country to country.”
Great control over the pricing: This option provides greater control over their site and how their pricing is displayed.
NOTE: This feature is available for the EU (European Union) merchants and the prices must be displayed inclusive of the taxes. For more information regarding the configuration of this feature refer http://bit.ly/1kIhpbz.
Checkout Improvements:
Ajax Checkout: The customer can change the quantity of items in the shopping cart or remove items without refreshing the page.
Improvement in PayPal Express Checkout: Improve the PayPal Express checkout experience by eliminating the following steps in the checkout process:
- The order review page can be enabled or disabled. (The order review page displays after the customer logs in to PayPal.)
- Eliminate the necessity of clicking Update Order before Place Order.
Use of widget in mini Shopping cart: You can use the widget in mini shopping cart.
Solr Search Engine Changes (Magento Enterprise Edition 1.14 only)
Fast indexing: Magento EE 1.14 now comes with native support for Solr 3.6.2. Hence, the search indexing is performed as the catalog changes without any manual intervention.
Fresh Search Results: Due to the improvement in the fast indexing, the shoppers are provided with more up-to-date search results.
More efficient operation: These improvements helps merchants to be more efficient in operations and improve their performance during search indexing.
Contact Us:
DCKAP is having tremendous experience in handling Magento consulting and upgrade projects. We have executed major upgrades for large enterprise customers. If you would like our technical experts to review your website and provide suggestion for an upgrade, please contact us.
Please read our case studies to know more about our work.
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