Magento 2.4: A new release for new opportunities

According to July’s Adobe’s Digital Economy Index – that analyses over a trillion visits to retails sites and transactions across the top retailers - online shopping has now become the primary means of commerce around the world as purchases previously made in person are shifted online.

Many brands have overhauled their digital operations or changed their business strategies to maximise this online surge.

So, it will be a relief to learn that Adobe’s latest version of Magento Commerce and Magento Open Source is designed to help merchants capture new opportunities through this uncertain time and help futureproof their business.

Here, Redbox looks at some of the highlights.

Paving the way for in-store pick-ups

With many consumers concerned about bricks and mortar shopping over the past six months, but some brands not offering delivery, Adobe’s DEI noted a spike in ‘buy online, pick-up in-store’. Maximising this potential may be the first step in encouraging customers back to store more regularly or for longer outings.

The new In-Store Pick-Up in Inventory Management allows merchants to easily select the physical inventory locations for customer pick-up and then give customers the chance to find their nearest location during checkout. It will also show other information such as opening and closing times.

Once the order is ready for pick-up, merchants can let them know with a simple click.

Content Rules

The ‘Content is King’ saying has never been truer, as more consumers take to online shopping.

Merchants must ensure their content is new, exciting and above all relevant to keep visitors engaged and coming back.

The latest version of Magento Commerce and Magento Open Source has a brand new Media Gallery that Magento says ‘performs up to 30 times faster and strengthens our integration with Adobe Stock’.

Merchants can now search for images more efficiently and filter quickly thanks to new image attributes, licensing information and tags, on images uploaded from Adobe Stock.

Managing assets is easier throughout the site, with new image details that include how often and where an image is used across pages, categories or products.

Merchants can also now find any Adobe Stock preview image in the Media Gallery, reducing the steps required to license stock preview images.

Seller-assisted shopping

As more customers turn to digital, some may will find it hard to navigate ecommerce sites for the first time.

With the new Seller Assisted Shopping feature, merchants can assist their customers in real-time.

Sales or customer service reps can now log into the store front as the customer, assisting with tasks such as creating orders, finding products, adding buyers or setting up wish-lists.

Customers will have to allow access and all sessions will be destroyed after logout – with no customer passwords required.

Being able to assist customers in this manner can lead to better customer engagement and improve the overall shopping experience.

Much more to get excited about

Of course, there are many more exciting updates and features, including updates to the cart and checkout workflows, security enhancements, solving over 100 new core code problems and updated payment integrations.

Merchants using Redbox partner Klarna for instance, will now be able to use new on-site messaging to help shoppers understand the available credit and financing options – a massive boost in helping conversions.

Magento’s latest release was launched at the end of July and you can find out all the updates, features and fixes here.