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Imagine 2019, Magento’s global e-commerce customer/developer/partner conference is taking place this week in Las Vegas, with Adobe’s strategy for its commerce platform play in the spotlight. 

According to Gary Specter, VP Commerce Sales and Customer Success, Experience Business, Adobe is providing two distinct go-to-market options: one for the small and mid-market and one for the enterprise market.

Magento Commerce is the engine under the Adobe Commerce Cloud, but as part of the latter, users also get integrated Analytics, Target, AEM Sites and more to make it a big enterprise package. 

But the driving point that Specter says Adobe is making at Imagine is that Magento Commerce as a standalone offering is going nowhere for those that don’t need the built-in extra capabilities. Smaller customers can have one without the other, and for those  who are so inclined, they can grow into the enterprise Commerce Cloud when they are ready.

With a continued focus on the small to mid-market, Magento Commerce has picked up some new capabilities:

Omni-channel Sales on Amazon: Magento synchronizes product catalog, inventory and order information across Magento and Amazon so you can manage both from an admin perspective within Magento. The integration enables you to reprice your products differently on Amazon to compete with others in the marketplace, and it makes fulfillment easier to handle because you can use Fulfillment by Amazon.

Omni-channel Advertising on Google Shopping: There is now a free end-to-end integration with Google Advertising. Customers can use Google ad types, smart shopping campaigns that leverage Google’s AI – all from within the Magento UI framework. Specter told me that they are asked a lot about this integration and that a lot of companies partner with Google, particularly in the mid-market.

Adobe Experience Platform Launch Extension: For those that want the full Adobe Commerce Cloud, the launch extension enables them to deploy Magento and Adobe solutions faster. Web and SDK management, a common data layer, and common identity are part of the integration, along with real-time insights and real-time personalization. Specter said that this extension was built by the Magento community (#axp-connector) and integrates Magento and Adobe Analytics.

Progressive Web Apps (PWA): This one Specter was most excited about saying it is going to really change the mobile shopping experience. PWA is the future of mobile shopping, even better than responsive design. The Progressive Web Apps Studio integrates Braintree/Paypal enabling debit and credit transactions through a trusted gateway. PWAs offer a modern architecture that includes Google GraphQL, React and Webpack.

I asked Specter how the Magento community was adapting to its role under the Adobe umbrella. He told me that the community has been positive and has embraced Magento’s growth. Most are waiting to learn exactly how things will change – or not – at the Imagine 2019 conference but what Specter says they will hear is that Adobe is “all in.â€�

But Magento is no stranger to the enterprise market. Specter said they had enterprise customers long before the Adobe acquisition; they just didn’t promote that market to the extent they promoted the mid-market. Now customers have access to the best of both worlds, and the new capabilities can help any customer grow their commerce platform.

My take

With the acquisition of Magento finalized in June of last year, many things have still been up in the air, and Magento customers must have been a little unsure of what the future would bring (even if Adobe was saying nothing will change). Flash forward to today and it looks like there’s a bit more meat on the bones when it comes to strategic direction.