Today, Varien released the latest version of its popular Magento Enterprise Edition ecommerce platform, including a much-anticipated customer loyalty feature that allows merchants to reward consistent customers.
Reward Points Program
First introduced in grocery stores several years ago, customer loyalty programs have become a widely used and very effective marketing campaigns that encourage shoppers to make repeated purchases or to complete desired actions, like registering for newsletters or signing up for a coupon club. Recently, many enterprise level online merchants, particularly those with a brick-and-mortar channel, have extended these loyalty programs to online customers.
The new Magento reward points system meets user expectations and gives merchants an effective way implement loyalty programs. According to Varien, in the Magento rewards feature, "Points are awarded based on purchases as well as actions, such as registering on the site, inviting others to register, submitting product reviews, and more. Points are managed by customers through their account and are redeemable at checkout time towards the price of a purchase."
Roy Rubin, CEO of Varien, in an official statement about the release, said, "Magento Enterprise Edition version 1.7 continues to deliver innovative new features that aim to improve overall performance and augment merchants’ capabilities when managing their operations. We’ve also added functionality to enhance customers’ relationships with merchants through our easily configurable, yet sophisticated reward point system."
Full Page Cache
"Magento Enterprise Edition version 1.7 also places a focus on highly tuned page performance by making use of Full Page Caching," the company said, adding that "Forrester Research has recently hailed caching as the 'best practice' behind some of the internet’s fastest sites and new performance optimizations included in this version of Magento Enterprise Edition provide significant benefits for merchants of all sizes through a new Full Page Caching module. The optimizations, which together with other performance- enhancing functionality already in Magento, significantly reduce page load times, increase conversions, and enhance the customer browsing experience."
What it Means for Developers
For developers and online merchants already working with Magento, the new features in version 1.7 help the platform continue to advance, and make it an ever more competitive solution in the market.
The features could also provide motivation to migrate from the free Magento Community Edition to the Magento Enterprise Edition, which may cost approximately $8,900 - $11,125 per yearh, according to the company. And, as the platform grows in popularity, there may be more opportunities for developers seeking new jobs or projects related to ecommerce.
