Printing industry has been revolutionized by Web to Print, which is being extended to eCommerce for printers.

Magento has been powering eCommerce industry for long and after release of 2.0; it has been more scalable, fast and extendable for better digital customer experience.

Let’s go deep in Magento 2.0 and how it enhances performance for web to print businesses.

Magento 2.0 Timeline

Q4 2014:Magento Developer Beta version was launched which was basically a rough draft, with lots of features unimplemented and pending.

Q1 2015:After Developer Beta version, Developer Release Candidate was launched which was basically a buggy version of Magento 2.0.

July 2015:For Beta testing of the platform, Merchant Beta had been launched which was implemented for few sites with complete support from Magento. This was to test the features and see how customers can adopt the new platform.

December 2015: In December 2015, Merchant General Availability – Magento 2.0 is released worldwide with enhanced performance and scalability, eCommerce features to boost conversion rates and business agility and productivity improvements. With an open source heritage, Magento 2.0 offers unmatched flexibility and innovation opportunity to complete Magento community.

With Magento 2.0 release, eCommerce has evolved to a huge extent giving end-users a seamless digital experience across the brands. With all these features and their implication on web to print technology, Magento 2.0 is indispensable for print commerce.

Magento Features which Support Web to Print Business

Magento 2.0 continued the legacy of previous Magento version by being an open source, flexible and highly scalable eCommerce platform. Magento 2.0 also consists of backend and frontend UI for store admins and users. With improved performance with respect to page loading speeds and quick 2 step check out, let’s see what has Magento 2.0 bring more on plate for web to print customers.

1. Full Page Caching

Magento 2.0 offers full page caching, reducing the page load time from 5 to 8 seconds to 1 to 2 seconds. Full page caching works on the principle of loading the pages from data driven basic website and converting them into direct HTML. The less loading time means more visitors and traffics can be handled by server. This also reduces the infrastructure cost incurred in deploying more servers for handling additional traffic over websites. Faster loading time of website is also useful in optimizing search engine rankings as this is one of the important parameters of how Google rank your sites.

Web to print businesses vary great deal in terms of printing style and product lines, thus full page caching can offer them advantage in terms of Google search engine rankings. Moreover, with more website visitors, there’s no need to deploy more servers as Magento 2.0 has inbuilt capacity to handle good amount of traffic over website. These substantial benefits may sound very less but they add up to great benefits in terms of getting online traffic.

2. Simplified Two-Step-Checkout Process

As online shopping continues to rise, there are number of ways people are attracted to competitor’s website, one such way is simplified check out process. That’s the reason Magento simplified checkout process in its 2.0 version.

According to Baymard report, shopping cart abandonment rate is around 68.07%. It means that only 1 out of 4 customers finish their purchases. Complex checkout process is one of the reason why customers abandon their cart without purchase.

This latest version of Magento offers 2 step checkout process with product overview and shipping and building address in one step. Guest checkout is offered as default way of completing purchase. Registered customers can also continue as guest and can complete their purchase. Shipping address and billing addresses are considered as same by default but can be modified by un-checking the box which specifies if buyer wants to modify their shipping and billing address. Shipping quotes will be calculated and added to main billing based on shipping address.

Printing service providers already struggle in making adoption easier for their customers. Two step checkout process makes it easy for customers to review their product, product quantity, product quality, printing type, material, artwork and shipping and billing address in single page. Otherwise it is very cumbersome for print buyers to review each and every thing at different stages and then place their print orders. This helps web to print stores to provides streamline process for checkout and confirming their orders.

Web to print orders are based on different dimension as mentioned above. Magento 1.0 offers six steps check out process which further adds to the complexity. Thus, Magento 2.0 is perfect for web to print potential buyers.

3. Order Extension

This feature is helpful in managing entire customer journey as per their expectations and providing them with capability to personalize their orders. Complete control for uploading order is given in backend, so admin can decide whether to give rights or not. For customers it allows them to upload files directly on product details page, with capability of uploading multiple files at the same time. Uploaded files are displayed on View Cart page, which again gives a check point to customers for their designs.

Order extension is Magento custom field and thus shop owners can maintain it from admin panel. They can give right on which product or images can be uploaded, maximum file size for the image updated. All images uploaded by customer will be managed in admin panel. Printers/shop owners can know each uploaded file and images with respect to the product, orders and buyers.

Web to print owners can utilize this feature as major marketing distinguish factor if they are switching to Magento 2.0.Majority of time print artworks need cross check at multiple steps regarding content, images , artwork, colour, or whether the right file has been uploaded or not for printing. This reduces to and fro in artwork approval or any mismatch in printing making printing orders as per customer requirements and expectations.

4. Simplified Admin Dashboard

The ultimate goal for Magento is to simplify customer experience and empowering shop owner’s to give their customers a delightful experience contributing to their bottom line. On the same lines a simplified its user panel with vertical menu on the left side with evident click and tap button gives it more user-friendly look. The 2.0 version is more intuitive, with perfect breathing space and displaying the lifetime sales value and average orders which was also there in Magento 1.

The fields and values which are displayed in dashboard for Version 1 and 2are same but the flat icon style has made it more appealing and easy-to-comprehend. Non-technical shop owners are interested in getting sales and orders value that is being displayed at the left side of the screen.

More fields which are added to the screen includes most ordered products, top viewed products, last orders, and top customers which can help in planning and executing targeted marketing campaigns.

Print service providers often struggle with promoting their business and executing right strategies. Web to print owners can plan their marketing campaigns based on most viewed products and most purchased products. Discounts and offers can be pushed for product lines which are not performing up to the mark. Based on customer orders and their average orders, they can be offered customer loyalty programs, credits in their account and more privileges to get recurring sales.

5. Secured Payment Integrations

Secured payments are always priority when it comes to online transactions. Magento 2.0 includes an automatic upgrade installer that keeps all the systems up to date. This also prevents websites against security breaches and potential hacks. As there is always room for improvement, Magento secured payments. Integration with PayPal, BrainTree payments, and the Authorize.net payment gateways make it pretty much CPI-compliant right out of the box and as safe, secure, and unbreachable as an eCommerce site can be.

Web to print businesses like any other eCommerce or online business are also looking for more secured payment options for customers. This is essential to gain trust from customers when businesses are trying to push for online business and digital transactions. Understanding the same mind-set of customers and businesses, Magento 2.0 strives to give most secured payment and online transactions for printing businesses.

6. Easy Migration from Magento 1.9

Version upgrades, installations and getting started on them is always cumbersome when you don’t have core IT or technical team. Magento is one of the widely used eCommerce platform and thus, they came up with migration tool which makes it easy to shift to the latest version 2.0. If you are looking for migration from previous versions to Magento 2.0, read this article to create your plan of migration – Migration Plan.

Web to print businesses are more run by non-technical people and thus upgrades and installations are not very easy to manage. Magento 2.0 version comes with migration tool which enables easy log shop settings, customers, catalogues, and categories. It makes data and settings easy.

7. Improved Customization Process

Magento 2.0 comes with visual design editor, which is easy to use “drag and drop” interface for editing existing Magento layout. Even a non-technical person can easily use and modify the admin panel as per their requirements.

Web to print owners can set their customized pricing charges, their printing and shipping methods easily as per their business offerings.

Apart from the above mentioned benefits and features for Magento 2.0 there are many small but substantial changes which will lead web to print businesses in advanced eCommerce. Magento 2.0 is built on component oriented architecture such as customer, catalog, checkout siites, CMS and marketing. Web to print customers can modify or change them according to their requirements without getting into code base and replacing them.

It will use PHP 5.3 and Zend Framework which increases performance of cache engine, database access layer and translations. Similarly, it supports MSSQL and Oracle that is compatible for Windows Platform Server.

According to the BuiltWith Trends there are more than 10K eCommerce sites which are using Magento 2. Customers are switching from other eCommerce platforms to Magento 2.0 because of high scalability and open source flexibility.

Conclusion

With so many features in and around, Magento 2.0 is the most feature-rich and advanced web to print commerce platform. Magento 2.0 assesses the digital landscape requirements for both end users as well as shop owners and provides solution for each of them. Some of the features like full page caching, easy-to-use and integrated marketing modules are highly appreciated by the users. Magento 2.0 version with its updates and features is catered towards enhancing customer experience and improving customer journey. Web to print service providers can shift from any eCommerce platform to Magento 2.0 to give their best of the digital shopping experience.

Though this change or migration can be hard to execute but a right partner can help printing service providers in implementing Magento 2.0 and adopting it. As mentioned earlier in the article, Magento 2.0 is highly flexible and scalable solution with complete drag and drop modules around. This makes it easy for print owners to customize their online shop according to their offerings and customers’ requirements. Magento 2.0 is undoubtedly the future of eCommerce and those who are likely to shift to it will be able to match up the future eCommerce industry as well.