Magento Imagine 2013 Going On Now

Posted on April 8, 2013 by admin

Magento’s 2013 Imagine Conference has officially begun! Follow Magento’s own liveblog of the event to stay up to date with all the activity from Las Vegas.

Tonight began with a brief overview and some time to network with other Magentoites, and tomorrow has lots in store. There will be presentations on SEO, a keynote speech from eBay CEO John Donahoe and Magento COO Roy Rubin, and a number of breakout sessions on a variety of Magento topics.

This by far the biggest Magento event of the year so stay tuned to hear if Magento has any surprise announcements up their sleeve!

The Commative Team

Google Wallet Mobile ATM – Print Cash from your Phone

Posted on April 1, 2013 by admin

Cash is king and as much as the world continues to go digital, Google realizes that traditional methods of commerce are still important. Starting April 1st, Google is introducing Google Wallet Mobile ATM giving Android users access to cash on demand with their own personal phone-based ATM.

Using the newest encryption methods you’ll be able to access funds from your bank, credit card, and other accounts to give you paper cash on the go. Google’s mobile ATM will also allow users to issue out one dollar bills, as opposed to the traditional limitation of twenties only.This kind of small cash access will revolutionize small transaction commerce and Google’s software will keep a history of all transactions so you can easily monitor your spending and withdrawals.

Leave it to Google to debut its most innovative products each year on April 1st!

The Commative Team

Internet Sales Tax Inches Closer to Reality

Posted on March 25, 2013 by admin

This week the US Senate approved, in a non-binding vote, a bill that would allow states to collect taxes from online sales. Such a bill would allow states to recover an increasingly large chunk of unpaid taxes from Internet retailers. As state and federal law currently stands it is the responsibility of the buyer to withhold and pay appropriate sales tax for each out of state purchase they make, though virtually no one does. Under the new legislation all online retailers with over $1 million in sales would be held accountable for collecting these taxes.

The passage of some kind of online tax or national tax has been seen as an eventuality by many in the industry, but the execution of how such a law would work remains up in the air. Even this most recent bill was passed in a non-binding vote, helping to show support for the idea of an Internet tax without addressing the details behind how it would actually be levied.

There is hope that smaller retailers (many on free or open source platforms like Magento) would be exempt from any kind nationwide tax plan, given that the logistics of tracking ever changing tax rates down to the county level is overly burdensome. The current bill speaks to this, but the future remains wide open.

The Commative Team

Internet Retailing Expo 2013

Posted on March 19, 2013 by admin

If you’re an online or multichannel retailer then you’re going to want to check out Internet Retailing Expo 2013 at the NEC in Birmingham, England. This is one of the largest shows in the world dedicated to selling online and is an excellent resource for learning about new trends, networking with like minded colleagues, meeting new vendors, understanding best practices, and getting insights to keep you competitive.

The show packs a lot into two days and includes 12 workshops, 6 conferences, and over 150 exhibitors. Magento will be there taking up residence in the Pavilion along with a number of other Magento partners and providers. There are a number of speakers who will be presenting as well, including representatives from Forrester Research, Amazon, PayPal, and more.

There will also be free one on one consultations with Tony Sales, once labeled Britain’s Greatest Fraudster. Reformed after hacking his way to £30,000,000, he’ll be holding meetings to help retailers understand how criminals can abuse and break into their systems.

It’s a great show if you can make, so make sure to check it out.

The Commative Team

US Online Sales to Reach $370 Billion by 2017

Posted on March 14, 2013 by admin

The title says it all. Ecommerce is a driving force in US (and International) retail sales growth and on pace for a massive $40 billion dollar expansion over the next four years according to Forrester. While ecommerce has always outpaced traditional retail, that lead continues to expand, and in recent years has primarily been fueled by two factors; focus and mobile.

As retailers shift their focus away from brick and mortar operations over to the opportunities available in the online space, it’s no surprise that the ecommerce side of revenues has seen such an expansion. A proverbial Wild West, online shoppers continue to grow in number and rapidly developing technologies have given retailers good reason to direct their efforts towards the digital domain.

The second main boon to Ecommerce growth is attributable to the rise of mobile. Smart phones and tablets have combined to give consumers easier access to stores, product information, and ultimately buying power. Phones now help users on the go quickly search out products and are even beginning to proactively ping them when their proximity to certain locations trigger various promotions. For others tablets allow for leisurely shopping and a growing number of online retailers report spikes from tablet shoppers during prime-time hours.

So no surprises; online is where you want to be if you want to maximize your retail operation’s sales.

The Commative Team

Magento’s New Privacy Policy

Posted on March 9, 2013 by admin

Most people tend to pass on reading through long boring legal documents whenever they’re installing new software, filling out forms, and especially hearing about changes to their privacy policies. It may not always be the most pressing information to stay on top of, but Magento recently updated their privacy policy and it’s good to know what kinds of changes may affect you…

Cookies – There have been changes to how Magento tracks users on its site with cookies and other tracking technologies.
Collecting Personal Information – Updates have been made both to how Magento describes your personal information and an expansion of what they collect (mostly through calls and text messages)
Sharing Personal Information – Magento will not share personal information with any third parties, but note this doesn’t preclude them from giving information to parent company eBay.
Privacy Disputes – Magento now works with privacy dispute resolution provider TRUSTe

The changes are immediate for new users of Magento and will apply to all customers starting on April 6th, 2013.

Stay informed!

The Commative Team

Get Your Magento Site Ready for IE10

Posted on February 26, 2013 by admin

The two words that scare web developers the most are often “Internet Explorer”. While version 9 of Microsoft’s flagship browser ushered in a new era of stability and speed, earlier versions of IE are almost universally derided for incompatibilities and poor performance.

Unlike Chrome and Firefox, the biggest problem with IE has always been the fact that it can’t upgrade itself. No browser is perfect, but without the ability to go get updates behind the scenes most users end up using software that is sometimes years old. This all changed with Internet Explorer 10 which supports automatic upgrades, but unfortunately IE 10 was only available on Windows 8. Until now…

Microsoft has just announced the availability of IE 10 on Windows 7, making their newest browser available to the largest audience of Windows users. You should soon see a majority of users move over allowing developers to begin standardizing their projects across modern browsers. For online shop owners, especially the Magento ones, this is vital to simplifying testing, feature roll outs, and general compatibility. If you haven’t gotten IE 10 on your own computers now is the time!

The Commative Team

Amazon Leads the Way, You Should Follow

Posted on February 15, 2013 by admin

One of the most important factors in being a successful retailer, online or otherwise, is keeping customers happy. It’s hard enough just getting customers that once you have them you need to ensure they come back again. If you want a lesson on how best to appeal to your customer base look no farther than Amazon.com.

According to the latest Harris Interactive Poll, Amazon is the most well respected corporation in America, beating out the likes of Apple, Disney, and Google among others. Amazon led the way in a number of categories including “emotional appeal”. For an online company that avoids call support whenever possible that’s quite a feat.

Amazon also leads the pack in the American Customer Satisfaction Index utilizing easy returns, clear product information, quick shipping, and great selection to simplify the entire shopping experience. Such customer-centric policies have helped Amazon collect over 180 million active customers and keep them coming back for more.

Amazon may have size at its advantage, but retailers can learn an important lesson. Think about the customer first. Do what makes the customer’s shopping experience easier and they’ll come back again and again.

The Commative Team

Facebook Steals the World’s Traffic

Posted on February 9, 2013 by admin

For nearly thirty minutes on February 8th Facebook “borrowed” some websites. Lots and lots of websites. Users logged in to their Facebook account while on sites that are integrated with the social giant’s network found themselves redirected to Facebook.com.

The issue was corrected quickly and far more annoying than damaging, but the precedent such a bug presents is disconcerting. With the ever increasing interconnections among websites one can quickly see how mistakes can lead to cascading events that can affect thousands and millions of sites.

There can be a trade off for the functionality site integrations bring so make sure you only partner with companies you trust. If the companies you trust still have problems just hope that they fix them quickly!

So if you were on an Ultimento-powered site on Thursday and suddenly found yourself on Facebook, don’t worry, we didn’t break anything!

The Commative Team

Ecommerce Sales Top $1 Trillion in 2012!

Posted on February 7, 2013 by admin

$1,000,000,000,000! That’s a whole lot of zeros!

According to global sales estimates from eMarketer, worldwide sales of goods online surpassed the $1 trillion mark for the first time ever in 2012. That’s an amazing number and sign not just of an improvement in the worldwide economy, but further evidence of the growing power and influence of online retail.

Among some of the more interesting facts from the 2012 sales figures…

2013 sales are expected to be up 18.3% to $1.298 trillion!
The Asia-Pacific region will surpass North America as the largest world market
The United States had more than three times the sales of any other country at $343 billion
China leads the world in online buyers with 220 million
UK buyers spend the most with an average of $3,585 purchased per person

It’s incredible to see the acceleration and size of the online market. In a decade the industry has transformed from a blip on the radar to one of the preeminent channels for retail. Surely there will be a slowdown in growth as online penetration saturates, but for now its a fun roller coaster to ride!

The Commative Team