Looking back at MagentoLive Europe 2018
We’d been looking forward to MagentoLive for a long time. Around 1,800 e-commerce specialists from all over the world came together to attend sessions and share ideas. This year, the event took place in Barcelona on October 9 and 10.
This edition focused mainly on the changes coming in Magento 2.3, Magento Commerce Cloud, PWA, and a lineup of interesting sessions for merchants.
Magento 2.3 is on its way
There’s already been plenty of talk about the next version of Magento. Version 2.3 is expected in November 2018 and will bring a host of new features. Several sessions at the event explored those features in depth.
So what’s new in version 2.3?
Progressive Web Apps (PWA): The future of modern websites. Magento built PWA Studio together with Google and the Magento community. It’s a set of tools that lets developers bring PWA to Magento online stores. With PWA, stores will be many times faster, can be cached for offline use, and can send push notifications. The result is an online store that feels more like an app than a website.
Multi-Source Inventory (MSI): Magento can now handle online stores with multiple inventory locations. This new module, built into version 2.3, keeps track of combined stock for your products.
Page Builder: A drag-and-drop system that makes building pages easy. For merchants who don’t write HTML and CSS, this new feature takes a lot of stress and tinkering out of the process. You can create a CMS page or CMS block simply by clicking the layout you want to use, then build it from a set of different elements. That way, you see right away what will appear on the page.
GraphQL: Magento 2.3 uses GraphQL to retrieve the data an online store needs in a smarter and more targeted way. Because less unnecessary data is fetched, stores will be many times faster.
The keynote
The keynote featured not only Magento CEO Mark Lavelle but also Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Together, they covered a range of topics.
Adobe’s main focus is on personalized experiences, helping customers find exactly what they’re looking for in an online store so they can make a purchase faster.
Adobe also offers online store owners a variety of tools, including tools for analyzing data more effectively, so they can respond better to their customers’ needs.
Once Magento and Adobe wrapped up the keynote, Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of the rock band Iron Maiden, took the stage to give a motivational speech. Singing is only part of what he does: he’s also a pilot, presenter, actor, and entrepreneur.
Summing it up
It was a fantastic event: well organized and highly informative. Magento’s future looks bright. The event made us even more excited about Magento 2.3, and we can’t wait to bring its many new features to our clients.
