The Biggest eCommerce Announcements of Adobe Summit 2021
Last week we were excited to be in attendance at Adobe Summit – the flagship conference was a goldmine of learning, announcements and industry knowledge, covering 100s of topics and sessions with some of technology’s greatest minds.
Unsurprisingly, eCommerce was a huge focus – and with 400+ sessions to get through, we wouldn’t blame you if you’d missed a few announcements. So we’ve rounded up the most exciting ones to share in this post – so you can prepare for what’s coming to Adobe, Magento and the wider eCommerce industry in 2021 and beyond.
“We predict 2022 will be the first trillion-dollar year for eCommerce spend.” – Shantanu Narayen #AdobeSummit 2021
Magento Commerce is now Adobe Commerce
Almost 3 years after acquiring Magento, Adobe have consolidated the naming of Magento Commerce and Adobe Commerce Cloud licensed products into simply Adobe Commerce, streamlining the different brands and levels of licenses. This was technically announced a few days prior to Adobe Summit, but we thought it was still worth a mention here!
It’s certainly not the end of Magento as we know it – we’ve had confirmation that Magento Open Source, the Magento Association, and Meet Magento will all continue to exist, and as you’ll see through the rest of this round-up, the Magento branding is actually extending to other areas of the eCommerce ecosystem.
Instant, AI-powered Live Search
“Search is such an integral part of websites, users know what they want and they want it fast! By having a search that is integrated into the core, it allows Adobe Sensei to leverage existing data and use the intelligence engine to enrich these results even more. We are super excited to integrate this with product recommendations which will improve merchandising overall.”
Janak Kika, Account Manager at JH
Making sure your customers can find what they need quickly and easily puts you head and shoulders above your competitors – so this is definitely one to add to your eCommerce arsenal. This super-fast search engine will deliver results as fast as your customers can type – and over time, it will get even smarter, learning from every customer who uses it and evolving the results it delivers.
“Powered by Adobe Sensei, our AI and machine learning technology, Live Search grants our merchants “searchandising” capabilities to provide their customers with fast, personalized search-as-you-type results that become smarter over time, based on ongoing AI-driven analysis.” – Adobe
There’s also robust reporting on Live Search – giving merchants even more data at their fingertips. Whether you want to analyse the top search queries to make more informed decisions on bundling or future product development, or see the searches with few or zero results and update the algorithm to recommend products that might fit the bill – Live Search can help.
Plus, there’s even better news for merchants who already use Adobe’s Product Recommendations – as the two systems run on the same product catalogue metadata, it’s easy to switch on (and benefit from) this additional feature.
Magento Payments
One of the great things about the Magento ecosystem is the breadth of third party integrations merchants can take advantage of to grow their business – but the more you add, the more they add up, both in integration cost, development time, provider fees and even against your site performance.
So it’s exceptionally exciting to see Adobe developing their very own payment solution – one that is fully integrated, accepts local currencies, and offers powerful insights into the end-to-end transaction lifestyle. For some merchants, this new system may replace several other providers – fantastic news for your site speed.
“Magento Payments is an interesting avenue that Magento is exploring, as it could remove a fair amount of that stress and worry some merchants may have about implementing a third party payment solution – or several, depending on their needs – into their initial website build.” – Tom Jenkins, Solutions Specialist at JH
Even Better Product Recommendations
“Product recommendations have evolved over time and users are becoming more demanding and selective on what products and services we are upselling and cross-selling. We are looking forward to presenting this to our clients so they can continue to enhance their customer journey and continue to grow.”
Janak Kika, Account Manager at JH
Product Recommendations in Adobe Commerce are already a widely used service, and it’s fantastic to see Adobe bringing further features and upgrades to this system. Earlier this year, Adobe introduced technology that combined visual AI with product recommendations, to allow merchants to automatically recommend visually similar products to their customers – a total game-changer for fashion and interiors brands in particular.
However, we’re pleased to see the updates aren’t stopping there! One of the upcoming features is a live preview, meaning merchants making changes to their Product Recommendations within Adobe Commerce can see exactly what results will appear to customers before turning changes live – perfect for peace of mind.
There will also be new options particularly to benefit B2B businesses – merchants will be able to set up recommendations with varying rules, enabling them to adapt the products B2B customers are recommended depending on their role or area of focus.
And lastly – but certainly not least – this feature will now be available to be embedded in a PWA Studio-based storefront for the first time!
Adobe Sign Integration
While simple on the surface, this update looks to be incredibly powerful – especially when it comes to B2B businesses. It will soon be possible to fully integrate Adobe Sign into the Adobe Commerce system – meaning e-signing can natively be part of the checkout flow. No more interruptions to the checkout process when your customers need to provide a signature – ideal for businesses who use purchase agreements, waivers, terms and conditions, warranty or service agreements and much more.
This is of course a great update particularly for B2B businesses, who will be able to automate this traditionally staffing-resource-heavy element of doing business with other companies. But as more and more of our day-to-day tasks move into the digital space, we’re sure we’ll see some creative and clever uses of this technology!
“This is a great example of improving the end-to-end customer experience by eliminating an off-site step. Why let a big sale get mired in email chains when it can be done and dusted at the checkout? Plus using a recognisable service like Adobe Sign provides a trust factor that’ll give B2B customers added confidence to commit. Some VIP sales will still benefit from the human touch, and these can be given extra attention by freeing up sales managers from smaller accounts which can sail through the self-serve process.” – Joseph Russell, Head of Product Design at JH
More from Adobe Summit
As we are every year – we were amazed by the breadth and depth of learning available at Adobe Summit. With over 400 sessions available on-demand now, there’s still a ton of information to get your teeth into, covering the Magento and Adobe Commerce ecosystem but also the wider Adobe platforms and how they can help grow your business. Check out the full catalogue of sessions here.