Two Big Magento Commerce Announcements From Adobe

It’s fair to say that Adobe has been very busy in recent times. Not only have they announced plans to buy marketing automation company Marketo for $4.75 billion, but they also completed the purchase of eCommerce platform giant Magento Commerce back in June for $1.68 billion.

This is a company investing in its future, so it would seem. These are serious sums of money being thrown around and there is certainly strong reasoning behind it.

In the recent Magento Live European user conference over in Barcelona, Adobe and Magento teamed up to make two big announcements following on from the acquisition:

• The Magento eCommerce platform will now be integrated into the Adobe marketing suite.
• A new and improved version of Magento’s cloud eCommerce platform will be introduced.

Whilst these two announcements on their own make for huge news within the eCommerce industry in particular, there was another smaller note that Adobe will be launching Magento Payments with PayPal for fast and effective payment processing.

This news shows that the two companies are wasting little time in setting about adding the fantastic commerce capabilities of Magento into the Adobe platform, with the aim of helping brands and retailers to ‘make every moment shoppable’.

In a world where smartphone usage is growing day by day, impulse purchases can be made in seconds and online shopping as a whole is already a huge market, Adobe just wants a bigger slice of the pie.

Magento Integration Within The Adobe Cloud

The first and probably the most notable announcement will see Adobe’s customers enjoy access to Magento directly through the Adobe Experience Cloud. Marketing, advertising and analytics services can now add a shoppable element to their online presence.

Errol Denger, director of commerce program and strategy for Adobe Enterprise Commerce, mentions that retailers will be able to buy Magento and the Adobe Experience Cloud together in one package. “We’ve taken care of that primary integration between Experience Cloud and Magento”, he said.

This is great news for retailers around the world. Thanks to this new integration, they will be able to manage both online and offline marketing whilst enjoying the option of adding shopping functionality to their blog, social media, rich media and other advertising channels.

Adobe knows that this kind of integration will pay dividends in the long run, partly because this purchase path is well trodden. Consumers interact with some sort of Adobe service 233 trillion times a year, which accounts for over $141 billion in online revenue. Not only that, Adobe already works with 80 of the largest 100 online retailers in the US.

Magento stands on its own two feet in its own right as well – it ranks as the number 1 eCommerce platform to the Internet Top 1000 with 167 clients. Adobe can boast a client list that includes the likes of Charlotte Russe, Adore Me Inc and of course Apple.

“Consumers expect every interaction with a brand to be contextual, intuitive and meaningful, but companies have struggled to consistently deliver personalised experiences across the myriad of touchpoints,” said Mark Lavelle, senior vice president of commerce for Adobe and former CEO of Magento, who believes this integration will help to drive omnichannel sales. “The innovations we are bringing to market enable companies of all sizes and across industries to make every experience shoppable”.

The Launch Of Magento Commerce 2.3

The second significant announcement from the conference covered the release of the latest version of the Magento Cloud platform, Magento Commerce 2.3.

There are some sizeable changes included in this update, including integrations with Amazon and Google – merchants can now sync their stores with Amazon and integrate their products with Google Merchant Centre or Google Shopping campaigns.

Other updates include:

• Site design guidance: The updated platform includes PageBuilder, a drag-and-drop editing tool for on-site content that allows merchants to redesign or update their Magento stores without developer help.
• Tools for mobile: The Magento Progressive Web Applications (PWA) Studio enables merchants to create their own PWAs – a set of design standards that provide the look and feel of an app, but within a mobile website.
• Help for payments: The launch of Magento Payments, which utilises PayPal-owned company Braintree for the processing of payments, will help merchants to accept payments from shoppers via Magento, negating the need to find a payment processor themselves.

The best part of this update? Retailers using Magento Commerce Cloud can upgrade to Magento 2.3 completely free.

Summary

When looking at these two companies individually, you could argue that Magento has built its success from the foundations of working with small and medium-sized businesses whereas Adobe has broadly been enterprise focused.

With that in mind, Adobe has set about catering for the smaller businesses that want the same marketing, analytics and commerce offerings as the big boys, but at a simpler, leaner level. Offering these technology services to smaller businesses is a major part of the future of both Adobe and Magento.