The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the need for conferences to become virtual events. That’s true for F8 Refresh, Facebook’s online conference for developers that introduces new business tools such as new API features and messenger updates. Learn more here: F8 refresh.
Beyond anything we could have anticipated, the social media phenomena evolved from being a “simple” communication tool to a global social sphere with content spanning entertainment business, media, and education.
Hope you enjoyed the June edition of MageNews. Share your thoughts and comments with us!
In May the Magento 2 PWA had a new episode of the Community Sync. This time, two very interesting topics were discussed during the event. The first one was related to Cypress integration. The Cypress is a modern tool for front end testing. It provides better performance for testing scenarios and useful features such as image screenshot.
Content
- Stripe + Bouncer: New alliance strengthens fraud protection
- Akeneo: Streamlining sales data communications
- Amazon: Expanding its warehousing and delivery fleet
- Facebook F8 Refresh: Virtual developer conference update
- Segment Analytics.js 2.0: New features speed, simplify data analytics performance and delivery
- Adobe Commerce recap
- Important security fix for the Klaviyo
- Community Engineering Hangouts: Supporting your eCommerce growth strategy
- Magento PWA Studio Community Sync: Don’t miss it!
- Magento 2 – PHP 8 compatibility
- Upcoming events
Stripe + Bouncer: New alliance strengthens fraud protection
So what does this mean for the world of the eCommerce sphere? Generally, the first active sales phase of the year is completed, and companies are presenting their plans and roadmaps for the rest of 2021 and the next year. This is the ideal time to start preparing for big upcoming digital sales events and campaigns like summer clearance sales and Black Friday sales event later on in the autumn.
The summer solstice is upon us, the equinox that marks the halfway point for 2021.
Adding products to the cart from the wishlist was a second topic highlighted during the sync. A new feature was implemented and should be included in the next Magneto PWA release. Check this presentation to learn more: PWA Studio Community Sync 20 May, 2021
Akeneo: Streamlining sales data communications
If you want to learn more about Adobe Commerce and Akeneo integration, check here: Akeneo Connector for Magento 2.
Here, in the June edition, we’re sharing more news and updates to fuel and inform your future planning activities.
The Akeneo platform is one of the most well-known eCommerce PIM systems, and it makes sense for us to check the highlights of their specialized event #Unlock2021, where the company shared more information about the new platform updates and product experience use cases. The main focus of the event was on business growth and technology unlock. For example, in the Customer-led Sessions, Evelyne Cardinal from Solotech described how Akeneo boost the eCommerce part of the company. And at the Product Highlights & Demonstrations section, the What’s New in Akeneo PIM 5.0 briefly describes the list of the new features: there are 70 new features!
Amazon: Expanding its warehousing and delivery fleet
Performance improvement plus fully backwards compatibility with the previous version of the library makes this an excellent time to start using this excellent tool.
This is a positive development for Adobe Commerce and Amazon integration. Smooth delivery helps create great customer experiences, and that is certainly true an official Amazon Sales Channel is provided by the Adobe Commerce platform. Find more details here: Amazon is spending big to take on UPS and FedEx.
Facebook F8 Refresh: Virtual developer conference update
Both topics are very important when it comes to project and module maintenance and development. Catch the replay now: Community Engineering Hangouts. May 19, 2021.
During the May session, the engineers shared these next topics with the community:
And more good news: Stripe offers a unique model for businesses using Adobe Commerce for online stores. It supports integration with Stripe’s payment method to create a fortified bridge between Adobe Commerce and fraud detection. Learn more: Stripe – Magento Modules
Segment Analytics.js 2.0: New features speed, simplify data analytics performance and delivery
Check out the results of the Magento PHP 8 Compatibility community project: This is a great example of collaboration and teamwork from the Magento Community Engineers team and Community contributors. Enough said.
Consider visiting Community Engineering Hangouts as a best practice – not only from the technical perspective but also from the global planning for the e-commerce project growth strategy. Those meetings highlight the latest news and updates from core engineers and can help you get the details on upcoming changes first-hand.
We in the eCommerce world all agree that data is the key to business success. Storing, analysing, transferring, and protecting data – all of those actions contribute to healthy business development. It’s not always simple. What if than online store produces hundreds of thousands of data sets? And all of this data combines different aspects like user activity, sales, and checkout? For handling data aggregation and analyses in the digital world, we have the Segment service for sharing, combining, analyzing, and integrating various data sets generated by online stores. Check this integration catalog to learn more: Hundreds of integrations!
Community activity recap
Adobe Commerce recap
The Adobe Commerce platform provides out-of-the-box functions for different sales activities: marketing, sales, CMS, customer segmentation, etc. However, when it comes to extending those features with the more specific tool, Akeneo platform seems to be the most popular solution.
Important security fix for the Klaviyo
During peak sales seasons, this can cause significant damage to every facet of the business, from online to manufacturing. Stripe service seems to be the right solution to protect against these kinds of attacks. Under the hood, Stripe uses machine learning techniques to improve the fraud transaction identification process. In May 2021, Stripe acquired Bouncer. This new alliance creates a powerful tool for business security. More details here: Stripe acquires Bouncer to help businesses with fraud prevention. It’s always critical to monitor the security level of your projects 24/7. The highest priority is to be secure for upcoming sales campaigns. In May 2021, the fix for the security vulnerability reported by Jeroen Boersma merged into the master branch of the Klaviyo Magento extension. We highly recommend you updating this module to the latest version: Klaviyo read customer quotes for guest carts.
Any security issues pose dangers for online businesses: cross-site scripting (XSS), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), Brute Force Attack, Man-In-The-Middle Attack, and other familiar bad actors. For protection from these attackers, a number of well-known solutions come to mind: code quality analysers, application development best practices, and server-side protection applications. But in the digital commerce world there is one kind of vulnerability that poses a significant threat: fraud transactions. This is when, for example, stolen cards lead to fraudulent unauthorised transactions and real headaches for merchants and banks.
- Upgrade jQuery library to the latest version: from 1.12.4 to 3.6.0
- Cloud Managed Services Support in 2.4.3 and further: AWS support.
We see opportunity to integrate two platforms with the help of this official package from Facebook: Facebook Business Extension. Now Segment just announced the general availability of Analytcs.js 2.0. This library connects the service and web stores. Key features are described in this announcement article:Analytics.js 2.0: Good Data Meets Fast Performance.
During this strategic time, it’s important for different business departments to collaborate and share data and insights. In the May MageNews, we talked about important announcements from the Adobe Summit and Magento Association Connect – all useful information to guide you in your planning for the second half of the year.
Magento 2 – PHP 8 compatibility
Great to see that the official Magento blog is active! It is good to have one more portal where we can share vital information regarding the latest updates. An outstanding example of this is the newest recap from the Adobe team. It contains information regarding Adobe Commerce releases with the main focus of PHP 7.4 compatibility and security upgrades. What else can you learn in the recap? For example, in late May, the PWA was added to the Security Scan Tool; Egress Filtering added to the Firewall for the Adobe Commerce Starter merchants. Get all the information here: Update to PHP 7.4 with the New Adobe Commerce releases!
Upcoming Events
Delivering goods to the customer is key to completing a successful sales cycle. Every eCommerce business needs a stable, reliable delivery service integrated with its sales platform. According to the latest news, the Amazon company is expanding and enhancing services to meet this key need for fast, consistent service. According to recent news reports, the company is investing in additional warehouses and expanding its delivery fleet, with more airplanes, trucks, and vans).
