We’ve reached the end of another remarkable year, and the eCommerce industry has been a force to be reckoned with. From groundbreaking innovations and emerging trends to unique challenges and opportunities, 2024 has been a year to remember. Here’s the final edition of this year’s eCommerce roundup, capturing key highlights and trends that are set to shape the industry in the new year.
Industry Updates
Adobe Commerce B2B 1.5.0 Is Here!
- The latest release of Adobe Commerce B2B 1.5.0 has been rolled out with a host of new features designed to enhance efficiency and streamline operations.
Key features include:
- Multi-Buyer assignment- allowing merchants to assign specific buyers and approvers to companies for precise customer management.
- Storefront company switcher- for seamless navigation across assigned companies, available in both Luma and GraphQL headless storefronts.
- Parent-child company modelling- enables hierarchical account structures for better reporting, access control, and rule inheritance.
- New quote templates- These simplify recurring quotes by predefining terms like activation dates, prices etc.
Other enhancements to negotiable quotes include discount locking, duplication, ACL management etc.
Adobe’s Payment Services For Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source
- Payment services for Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source offer merchants a seamless way to collect payments through popular methods such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo etc. They provide a directly configurable option from the admin panel without any complex development or deployment. With the holiday season in full swing, the company plans to enable merchants to utilize these features to reach target audiences effectively, increase sales and boost average order values.
To optimize performance during the holiday season, Adobe recommends-
- Bookmarking support resources for prompt issue resolution
- Ensuring payment services are updated to the latest version to access new features.
Regularly monitoring transactions to be able to swiftly address declined payments.
Magento Open Source: Community-led prioritization process
The Magento Open Source Community-led prioritization process empowers the community to upvote pull requests (PR) that deliver the most value. The most-voted PR are labeled “Project:Community Picked” and are added to the community dashboard for further development.
During December, a new batch of 15 PRs were selected covering both the Magento2 and Page Builder repositories. This initiative underscores Magento’s commitment to fostering a collaborative community between Magento developers and users.
Shopify Winter ‘25 Edition: Top Updates To Power Your Business
Shopify’s Winter Edition ’25 comes bundled with several new features and functionalities that enhance performance. Here are a top few-
- Draft Orders now support functions, bundles, and checkout extensions.
- Shopify POS integrates with the bundles, retail customer segments, and customer metafields.
- Shopify Search and Discovery supports combined listings and category metafields.
- Performance Enhancements include faster loading speed across carts, checkout, and admin panel.
Other new features include Sidekick, Markets, updated analytics, and customer account extensions.
Shopify Campaigns Is Now Accessible To All Shopify Plans
Shop campaigns are now available to eligible merchants across all shopify plans, providing a powerful tool to drive new and returning customers to the store. With this update merchants can now set their Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), targeted Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), and daily budget while the Shop handles the optimization of creative placements, and audience targeting This new update requires merchants to pay only when customer convert, making it a risk-free growth channel to all businesses.
Pimcore Platform Version 2024.4 Is Here!
During the last month the newest version of the Pimcore platform was launched. Pimcore 2024.4 is aimed at creating and delivering the best digital experiences in terms of performance and flexibility. The update focuses on the improved capabilities to manage and optimize data, integrate with other systems, and create a more personalized, scalable solution for users. This version boosts operational efficiency and enables businesses to adapt quickly to changing market needs, all while ensuring optimal performance and smooth workflows.
INDUSTRY UPDATES
X Launches Shopify App To Boost Holiday Sales For Merchants
X recently launched a Shopify App to help U.S. and Canadian merchants drive holiday sales by seamlessly syncing products and running ads through X Shopping Manager. The app simplifies the campaign creation, enables dynamic product ads to be targeted to relevant audiences, and even offers easy performance tracking through the X pixel. With this new app, merchants can also showcase their top products directly on their X profile to engage with their audience.
Adobe And AWS Partner to Enhance Customer Engagement with Adobe Experience Platform
Adobe and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have expanded their partnership to bring Adobe Experience Platform (AEP) to AWS, enabling brands to create more personalized and effective customer experiences. AEP offers AI-driven insights and a unified customer view across all channels, ensuring timely and relevant interactions. Brands using AWS can leverage AEP-powered tools like Adobe Real-time CDP, Adobe Journey Optimizer, and Adobe Customer Journey Analytics to optimize engagement, conversion, and overall customer relations.
Instagram’s Trial Reels: Test Content With Non-Followers Before Sharing
Instagram recently introduced “trial reels”, allowing creators to share content with non-followers first to test its performance before posting it to their followers. This feature helps creators experiment with their content without the pressure of follower reactions. After 24 hours, creators can assess the reel’s performance and decide whether to share with followers or retry. The feature is available globally for eligible creators.
LinkedIn Introduces Dynamic Slideshow Feature For Premium Business Profiles
LinkedIn has introduced a new feature allowing Premium Business subscribers to create a rotating slideshow for their profile banner images. It’s like a highlight reel but on LinkedIn! This enables users to showcase up to five images that automatically cycle and exhibit their story by highlighting various aspects of their professional identity- such as services, interests, projects, etc. This feature is intended to create a lasting first impression on viewers and visitors.
Google’s Whisk: A New AI Experiment For Creating Content With Images
Google recently launched Whisk, a new generative AI experiment from @labsdotgoogle. Unlike traditional AI tools that rely on detailed text prompts to generate images, Whisk allows users to generate images by simply dragging in an image. With Whisk, users can start creating and exploring new possibilities, offering a more intuitive and visual approach to AI-driven content generation. This new tool simplifies the creative process making it easier to turn images into new exciting outputs!
Upcoming Events
Meet Magento India 2025
Meet Magento India is a premier event for Magento users, merchants, developers, and industry professionals in India. It offers a platform to network, learn, and explore the latest in Magento eCommerce innovations and digital transformation strategies.
Location: Bunts Sangha, Pune
Date: 24- 25 January 2025
Register:https://www.meetmagento.in/
Asia Retail And Ecommerce Summit
This summit is tailored for retailers, eCommerce professionals, and tech innovators in Asia, focusing on the latest trends, technologies, and strategies shaping the retail and eCommerce landscape. It provides a platform for key decision-makers to discuss the latest innovations in retail.
Location: Ayana MidPlaza Hotel Jakarta, Indonesia
Date: 22nd January 2025
Register: https://escom-events.com/retailindonesia2025?ref=online.marketing
The Retail Summit 2025
This summit is aimed at senior executives and decision makers in the retail industry across the Middle East. It explores the future of retail, providing insights into technology and improving user experience.
Date: 27th – 28th January 2025
Location: Riyadh
Register:https://www.retailsummitsaudi.com/?ref=online.marketing
India Digital Summit 2025
India Digital Summit is a key event for digital marketing professionals, tech enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs looking to stay ahead of the competition. The summit provides actionable insights into the future of digital marketing, business innovation, and emerging technologies.
Date: 16th – 17th January 2025
Location: Aerocity, New Delhi
Register:https://www.indiadigitalsummit.in/
NRF Retail’s BIG Show
This is an iconic event for global retail professionals, offering the latest trends, insights, and innovations across the retail industry. It brings together top executives, technologists, and thought leaders of the retail world.
Date: 12–14th January, 2025
Location: Jacob K. Javits Convention Center | NYC
Register: https://nrfbigshow.nrf.com/
