Magento

Let’s give a big welcome to Magento Community Edition 1.8! This new edition improves tax calculations, boosts product quality and stability, enhances performance, and advances security for the rapidly growing Magento community. Key highlights ... [More] include: Enhanced Tax Calculations Magento Community Edition 1.8 improves tax calculation accuracy for VAT merchants and eliminates potential rounding errors that can be confusing to buyers. Knowledge Base updates also provide more guidance on tax configurations and Canadian tax requirements, enabling you to more fully benefit from the native Magento tax engine. Functional Improvements We made approximately 350 functional improvements that boost product quality in key areas, including the web store, shopping cart, admin order creation, import and export functionality, web API components, and payment methods. Performance Improvements Magento Community Edition 1.8 enables a better shopping experience through faster page-loading in the checkout process and optimized cache adapters for single server systems, which minimize the number of cached pages that must be refreshed when product updates are made. The performance of the 1.8 administrator panel is also improved for those of you with large product or order databases. Security Enhancements Through a number of enhancements, we also strengthened the security of Magento Community Edition. A full list of enhancements is available in our release notes. Updates to the Alpha Release A few new updates were made to the alpha version of Magento Community Edition 1.8. We removed the requirement to have globally unique category and product URL keys, giving you greater flexibility in your URL structures. We also incorporated the recent USPS API patch, DHL code updates, and the latest Redis backend cache code, now called Cm_Cache_Backend_Redis. We have also included Cm_RedisSession, a Redis session storage module. More to Come We are fully committed to advancing the Magento Community Edition platform, which has been the driving force behind our growth to over 2,000 Magento Certified Developers and over 200,000 Magento merchants across the globe. Work is already underway on the next Magento Community Edition version, so stay tuned for more enhancements to come! Download Click here to start using Magento Community Edition 1.8 and check out the full release notes posted in our Knowledge Base to learn more. [Less]

The Magento team will be at the Shop.org Annual Summit in Chicago, September 30 - October 2. Party with Magento on Monday Night We're kicking off the event with one of our world-famous Magento parties on Monday, September 30, 7:00 - 11:00 ... [More] pm, at Public House, Chicago's hottest gastro pub. Enjoy great food, fantastic local brews and network with the Magento team, our partners and other merchants. Our Solution Partner Guidance is hosting the Bar, so be sure to try their signature cocktail at the party! The party is free, but please RSVP to secure your spot. At Shop.org Summit, Visit Magento and eBay Inc. at Booth #603 Join Magento in eBay Inc. booth #603 to play Magento Mania and discuss how we can help you take your business to the next level. And Don't Miss Magento Mania For a Chance to Win $500 Gift Cards and a Ticket to Imagine 2014 More than thirty Magento Solution and Industry Partners are exhibiting at Shop.org and they're giving away $500 gift cards from some fantastic online retailers. Visit Magento in eBay Inc. booth #603 for a Map of our partners' booths and a punch card. If you visit five or more of our partners and bring the punch card back to booth #603, you'll be entered into a drawing for a ticket to Magento Imagine 2014. The more partners you visit, the more chances you have to win a gift card! We can't wait to see you there! [Less]

Google Analytics ecosystem – Pinpoint the effectiveness of Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click and other marketing efforts. Highly experienced online merchants understand the importance of data and analytics, and almost all use Google ... [More] Analytics to some degree. While we look at some of the same overall numbers like traffic, bounce rates, landing pages, and conversion rates, the slicing and dicing of those numbers is a different matter for just about every merchant we talk to. While each merchant’s business strategy will drive them to look at different slices of data, almost every merchant would love to have more data, or have it presented in a more-accessible, actionable way. In this article, we’re going to discuss how to make sure you have a solid foundation upon which to build additional layers of insight using Google Analytics as a base. As you read through the article, you can learn how to do everything we talk about by visiting the resources we provide throughout this article. What is the Gang of Four? First off, when we talk about Google Analytics, you are best served when the various Google properties work as a team. Tying these services together is rarely the purview of a developer, designer or merchandiser. This is one of those areas that merchants or online merchandisers should embrace as part of their craft. While your systems integrator, developer or IT specialist may need to help you with the technical aspects, the vision should come from those responsible for marketing, merchandising and driving sales. The main properties are: Google Analytics - Understanding conversion Google Adwords - Tracking the effectiveness of your Ad campaigns Google Webmaster Tools - Where you push your sitemap to Google and Google reports back on the ‘health’ of your web site from a search engine’s perspective Google Merchant Center - Your online catalog as far as Google is concerned Note: While we are talking about Google, which dominates the search market, Bing and other major search engines also offer webmaster tools and other service to help you tune your offerings. Magento Enterprise Edition Makes It Easy Fortunately for Magento Enterprise Edition merchants your software makes the part that involves adding code to your site extremely simple. Adding Google Analytics is as simple as opening a free Google Analytics account and copying and pasting that account number into your Magento Enterprise Edition configuration panel. Finding the Adwords code is a little trickier, but, Magento Enterprise Edition also has a copy and paste solution for that. This article refers to Magento Go, but the steps are the same in Magento Enterprise Edition. Outside of Magento, if you really want to add more granularity to your Adwords tracking, you should connect your Google Adwords and Google Analytics accounts. Google provides easy-to-follow instructions for this, as well. You will connect your store to Google Webmaster Tools via your Google Analytics account. This is done by clicking verify when adding an account in Webmaster Tools. From a Magento perspective, you want to be sure to submit your site map so that Google will catalog your store’s pages correctly. Finally, if you aren’t using Product Listing Ads (PLAs) from Google, you should consider it. This will help ensure that your products show up in Google Shopping search results. The research on the subject we have seen to date shows a strong return on investment for most merchants who use them and manage them wisely. For more information on PLAs, take a look at an article we recently wrote on the subject. If you aren’t familiar with PLAs, you should read this article about their advantages. If you sell in Europe, Jacques Van Der Walt’s article on the subject is really a must read. In order to have your products show up in PLAs, you need to open a Merchant Center account, tie it to your Adwords account, and feed the products from your store directly to it. While there is no core function to feed your products from Magento Enterprise Edition to your Merchant Center account, you might consider a couple of potential solutions: 1. Via an extension: Wyomind sells an extension that helps you map your products to Google and creates the feed for you. 2. Use an external service like DataFeedWatch. Their service allows you to set up a feed quickly and gives you powerful mapping tools that allow you to make exceptions for products based on any attribute in your store and/or content within those attributes. In short, working with Google Analytics and the Google ecosystem is an absolute necessity for most merchants, but, many have delegated its management to their ‘techies.’ We urge marketers, merchandisers and entrepreneurs to take a more active approach in managing and analyzing the data in order to maximize the analytical power of your Magento store. [Less]

The Magento team will be at the Shop.org Annual Summit in Chicago, September 30 - October 2. Party with Magento on Monday Night We're kicking off the event with one of our world-famous Magento parties on Monday, September 30, 7:00 - 11:00 ... [More] pm, at Public House, Chicago's hottest gastro pub. Enjoy great food, fantastic local brews and network with the Magento team, our partners and other merchants. Our Solution Partner Guidance is hosting the Bar, so be sure to try their signature cocktail at the party! The party is free, but please RSVP to secure your spot. At Shop.org Summit, Visit Magento and eBay Inc. at Booth #603 Join Magento in eBay Inc. booth #603 to play Magento Mania and discuss how we can help you take your business to the next level. And Don't Miss Magento Mania For a Chance to Win $500 Gift Cards and a Ticket to Imagine 2014 More than thirty Magento Solution and Industry Partners are exhibiting at Shop.org and they're giving away $500 gift cards from some fantastic online retailers. Visit Magento in eBay Inc. booth #603 for a Map of our partners' booths and a punch card. If you visit five or more of our partners and bring the punch card back to booth #603, you'll be entered into a drawing for a ticket to Magento Imagine 2014. The more partners you visit, the more chances you have to win a gift card! We can't wait to see you there! [Less]

Google Analytics ecosystem – Pinpoint the effectiveness of Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click and other marketing efforts. Highly experienced online merchants understand the importance of data and analytics, and almost all use Google ... [More] Analytics to some degree. While we look at some of the same overall numbers like traffic, bounce rates, landing pages, and conversion rates, the slicing and dicing of those numbers is a different matter for just about every merchant we talk to. While each merchant’s business strategy will drive them to look at different slices of data, almost every merchant would love to have more data, or have it presented in a more-accessible, actionable way. In this article, we’re going to discuss how to make sure you have a solid foundation upon which to build additional layers of insight using Google Analytics as a base. As you read through the article, you can learn how to do everything we talk about by visiting the resources we provide throughout this article. What is the Gang of Four? First off, when we talk about Google Analytics, you are best served when the various Google properties work as a team. Tying these services together is rarely the purview of a developer, designer or merchandiser. This is one of those areas that merchants or online merchandisers should embrace as part of their craft. While your systems integrator, developer or IT specialist may need to help you with the technical aspects, the vision should come from those responsible for marketing, merchandising and driving sales. The main properties are: Google Analytics - Understanding conversion Google Adwords - Tracking the effectiveness of your Ad campaigns Google Webmaster Tools - Where you push your sitemap to Google and Google reports back on the ‘health’ of your web site from a search engine’s perspective Google Merchant Center - Your online catalog as far as Google is concerned Note: While we are talking about Google, which dominates the search market, Bing and other major search engines also offer webmaster tools and other service to help you tune your offerings. Magento Enterprise Edition Makes It Easy Fortunately for Magento Enterprise Edition merchants your software makes the part that involves adding code to your site extremely simple. Adding Google Analytics is as simple as opening a free Google Analytics account and copying and pasting that account number into your Magento Enterprise Edition configuration panel. Finding the Adwords code is a little trickier, but, Magento Enterprise Edition also has a copy and paste solution for that. This article refers to Magento Go, but the steps are the same in Magento Enterprise Edition. Outside of Magento, if you really want to add more granularity to your Adwords tracking, you should connect your Google Adwords and Google Analytics accounts. Google provides easy-to-follow instructions for this, as well. You will connect your store to Google Webmaster Tools via your Google Analytics account. This is done by clicking verify when adding an account in Webmaster Tools. From a Magento perspective, you want to be sure to submit your site map so that Google will catalog your store’s pages correctly. Finally, if you aren’t using Product Listing Ads (PLAs) from Google, you should consider it. This will help ensure that your products show up in Google Shopping search results. The research on the subject we have seen to date shows a strong return on investment for most merchants who use them and manage them wisely. For more information on PLAs, take a look at an article we recently wrote on the subject. If you aren’t familiar with PLAs, you should read this article about their advantages. If you sell in Europe, Jacques Van Der Walt’s article on the subject is really a must read. In order to have your products show up in PLAs, you need to open a Merchant Center account, tie it to your Adwords account, and feed the products from your store directly to it. While there is no core function to feed your products from Magento Enterprise Edition to your Merchant Center account, you might consider a couple of potential solutions: 1. Via an extension: Wyomind sells an extension that helps you map your products to Google and creates the feed for you. 2. Use an external service like DataFeedWatch. Their service allows you to set up a feed quickly and gives you powerful mapping tools that allow you to make exceptions for products based on any attribute in your store and/or content within those attributes. In short, working with Google Analytics and the Google ecosystem is an absolute necessity for most merchants, but, many have delegated its management to their ‘techies.’ We urge marketers, merchandisers and entrepreneurs to take a more active approach in managing and analyzing the data in order to maximize the analytical power of your Magento store. [Less]

We have closed registration for MagentoLive UK due to the overwhelming demand. Click here to be added to the waitlist. We have reserved a few passes for guests of our sponsors; contact your CSG representative or one of our Platinum, Gold and ... [More] Silver event sponsors for more information. We’d like to send out a big thank you to our ecosystem and the UK community for their enthusiasm and support for this event. We can’t wait to see you in London! Attendees, keep an eye out for email updates. Follow the event on Facebook and Twitter, and use the hashtag #MagentoLive to talk about the conference! Couldn’t make our London event? MagentoLive Germany will be in Munich on November 12, 2013! Register [Less]

We have closed registration for MagentoLive UK due to the overwhelming demand. Click here to be added to the waitlist. We have reserved a few passes for guests of our sponsors; contact your CSG representative or one of our Platinum, Gold and ... [More] Silver event sponsors for more information. We’d like to send out a big thank you to our ecosystem and the UK community for their enthusiasm and support for this event. We can’t wait to see you in London! Attendees, keep an eye out for email updates. Follow the event on Facebook and Twitter, and use the hashtag #MagentoLive to talk about the conference! Couldn’t make our London event? MagentoLive Germany will be in Munich on November 12, 2013! Register [Less]

Every eCommerce business deals with fraud and chargebacks, and, for many businesses, managing fraud is still a very manual process that is not only frustrating, but cuts into the bottom line. To solve these issues for their client, GSM Nation ... [More] , Magento Silver Solution Partner Signifyd used a cloud-based solution to automate the fraud prevention process. Here are the top results. 1. 80% Decrease in Manual Order Review: Signifyd’s solution saved GSM Nation hours of manual researching on Google, Facebook, and other sites. It scoured the web and combined public records, the social graph, device fingerprints, IP geolocation, proxies, issuing banks (BIN), cross merchant blacklists, search engines, maps and more. Signifyd then provided a single score that indicated the riskiness of a transaction, and all of the raw data to help with any remaining manual reviews. Click image to enlarge. 2. 20% Reduction in Fraud and 10% Increased Revenue: GSM Nation was declining good transactions, such as orders from international customers and orders with different bill-to and ship-to addresses, because they were afraid those orders might be fraud. Signifyd’s solution validated these transactions almost instantly, which, in turn, increased revenue substantially. Signifyd also offers a Guaranteed Payments program to cover chargebacks. 3. Reduced Chargebacks to less than 1%: Signifyd detected when a fraudster bought something and notified GSM Nation immediately, using the same enterprise-grade technology in use by top Fortune 1,000 merchants. Signifyd’s solution can also be integrated in minutes, not hours or days, with no upfront fees. This is a great option for businesses that don’t have technical support or developer resources because these solutions integrate with online stores in minutes. GSM Nation easily installed Signifyd through its extension in Magento Connect, at no charge. For more on how Signifyd boosted GSM Nation’s business with their fraud prevention solution, join their webinar, “How to Reduce Manual Reviews and Reduce Fraud Using Signifyd with Magento,” on October 1, 2013, at 11:00 am (PDT). Register Signifyd, one of the most widely adopted fraud prevention platforms, is also a Magento Silver Industry Partner. The first 100 customers who sign-up now for a two week free trial using Signifyd on the Magento Enterprise or Community Edition, will get up to 100 transactions per month free through January 1, 2014. [Less]

Every eCommerce business deals with fraud and chargebacks, and, for many businesses, managing fraud is still a very manual process that is not only frustrating, but cuts into the bottom line. To solve these issues for their client, GSM Nation ... [More] , Magento Silver Solution Partner Signifyd used a cloud-based solution to automate the fraud prevention process. Here are the top results. 1. 80% Decrease in Manual Order Review: Signifyd’s solution saved GSM Nation hours of manual researching on Google, Facebook, and other sites. It scoured the web and combined public records, the social graph, device fingerprints, IP geolocation, proxies, issuing banks (BIN), cross merchant blacklists, search engines, maps and more. Signifyd then provided a single score that indicated the riskiness of a transaction, and all of the raw data to help with any remaining manual reviews. Click image to enlarge. 2. 20% Reduction in Fraud and 10% Increased Revenue: GSM Nation was declining good transactions, such as orders from international customers and orders with different bill-to and ship-to addresses, because they were afraid those orders might be fraud. Signifyd’s solution validated these transactions almost instantly, which, in turn, increased revenue substantially. Signifyd also offers a Guaranteed Payments program to cover chargebacks. 3. Reduced Chargebacks to less than 1%: Signifyd detected when a fraudster bought something and notified GSM Nation immediately, using the same enterprise-grade technology in use by top Fortune 1,000 merchants. Signifyd’s solution can also be integrated in minutes, not hours or days, with no upfront fees. This is a great option for businesses that don’t have technical support or developer resources because these solutions integrate with online stores in minutes. GSM Nation easily installed Signifyd through its extension in Magento Connect, at no charge. For more on how Signifyd boosted GSM Nation’s business with their fraud prevention solution, join their webinar, “How to Reduce Manual Reviews and Reduce Fraud Using Signifyd with Magento,” on October 1, 2013, at 11:00 am (PDT). Register Signifyd, one of the most widely adopted fraud prevention platforms, is also a Magento Silver Industry Partner. The first 100 customers who sign-up now for a two week free trial using Signifyd on the Magento Enterprise or Community Edition, will get up to 100 transactions per month free through January 1, 2014. [Less]

On September 18th, Magento had the pleasure of attending the Fall 2013 WWD Digital Forum at New York’s Asia Society. For all of our fashion and beauty merchants, this is an event hosted by WWD editors and addresses everything from mobile technology ... [More] to social media marketing, eCommerce and beyond. We heard from several influential speakers throughout the day: GAP’s Global Director of Digital and Social Media, Rachel Tipograph explained how to make the shift to Lo-Fi Marketing using social tools like Instagram and Tumblr. Larry Promisel, SVP of Digital Commerce at the Camuto Group discussed the evolution of the Vince Camuto brand and their plans for a new eCommerce site. Julia Goldin, Global Chief Marketing Officer of Revlon gave an inspiring talk about how to build an iconic brand (see photo below). U.S. Director of Digital Marketing for Benefit Cosmetics, Claudia Allwood demonstrated how ‘laughter is the best cosmetic’ and taught the audience best practices for how to engage in social media in a fun, yet professional way. Amy Jain and Daniela Yacobovsky, co-founders of Magento site, BaubleBar showed us how to respond to customers in real time by making use of data and analytics. If you have the opportunity to go to the next WWD Digital Forum, we highly recommend it as it is a fantastic opportunity to stay current with the latest in digital trends and you’ll walk away with actionable insights to help you move your business forward. For more information about Magento and the fashion industry, please visit magento.com/fashion. [Less]