Popular ecommerce platform Magento released a new version of its Enterprise edition software yesterday, including new email modules, assisted shopping, and order archiving, to boost performance.
Magento's free, open source Community edition is, perhaps, the most popular ecommerce platform, with more than 1.5 million downloads and considerably more than 50,000 online stores up and running. The company's Enterprise edition is a licensed solution starting at about $8,000, and aimed at large ecommerce ventures.
Version 1.8 adds three important features to the Enterprise edition.
Better Email Reminders
The first of these new features is a significantly improved email marketing reminder module. While ecommerce businesses still may wish to secure a third-party email marketing specialist for email newsletters and other marketing emails, the new Magento module can be used to send automated reminders about abandoned shopping carts or wishlists.
Improved Customer Service
This most recent version of the Magento Enterprise edition also allows customer service representatives to manage coupon codes, products, and customer data from the customer account section of the administration panel. This means that representatives in call centers or on a live chat with a customer can easily act on that customer's behalf, potentially improving customer experience.
Improved Performance
Other new features, such as order archiving and a new flat database structure, should help boost site performance. In previous editions, Magento had received some criticism for its load times. These changes are likely an effort to address those concerns.
For Developers
The changes in Version 1.8 will only help web developers. The new modules are said to be extremely easy to integrate (or, in some cases just upgrade), and the performance boost requires few changes.
