New releases for both the Community and Enterprise versions of Magento were announced in April at the Imagine Conference. Upgrading your Magento store can be a daunting task and one that is easily relegated down the to-do list, but there are a number of features and fixes that make it worthwhile.
EU Cookie Law Compliance
On the 26th May 2011, the EU Cookie Law came into force which says that. You only have until the 26th May 2012 to comply, according to the Law. It is a highly controversial law which is being interpreted differently across the industry but 89% of UK consumers think that it is a step in the right direction. This update sees Magento display a message to customers which asks for their permission to use cookies to improve their experience on the site. Only once this has been accepted does the Google Analytics code get rendered on the page (if enabled).
VAT ID Validation
Improve the tax calculations used on your store by allowing customers to provide their VAT ID. This is then validated automatically.
HTML 5 Mobile Theme
We have come along way from being sat in front of a CRT monitor and hearing the bulky desktop PC connect to the internet with a series of beeps and buzzes. The ubiquity of the internet, especially with the boom of smartphones is resulting in mobile traffic continuing to rise sharply. What are you providing for your customers to keep them engaged while they are on the move? Magento has provided an iPhone theme since 2008. However, the latest update brings a refreshed design and it has been rebuilt in HTML 5. It is now optimised for iPhone, Android and Opera mobile browsers. This is well worth a look to judge it's suitability for your business. It certainly saved Roy Rubin from disaster when he needed some peanuts.
Auto-generation of Coupon Codes
When creating promotions through the use of shopping cart price rules in Magento, it is now possible to specify a format to create unique coupon codes. (Take a look at this article with video for more - Ed)
CAPTCHA
Protect yourself and your customers with the built-in CAPTCHA functionality.
Security
There were a number of security fixes and improvements provided in these releases. While not publicly advertised to avoid risking stores operating on older version of Magento, it is important to consider the importance of upgrading to the latest revision. I would recommend getting in touch with your regular Magento developer to discuss and organise this task.
Multiple Wish Lists (Enterprise only)
While allowing customers to have multiple wish lists is a nice touch. Bigger improvements in this area include the ability to make wish lists publicly searchable and allow you to review to identify what people are wanting. This may enable you to identify trends and give ideas for the type of promotions and offers to run on particular product lines.
Visitor Segmentation (Enterprise only)
There is a huge potential with tracking the intentions of anonymous visitors that do not log in to your store. This feature allows you to target these potential customers with special promotions.
Summary
Magento continues to add new features into both Community and Enterprise edition. In addition to this, there were also over 500 fixes. See the release notes for more detailed information.
