1. B2B Order approval process

B2B sales are a complex beast. They are usually done with more than one decision maker & until now there was no way to handle this in Magento. With the new Order approval process (currently in advanced development) you will be able to create an order, which needs to be verified by the manager before placing the Purchase Order. Adobe focused on making it highly customizable. You have bulk approval options; It will also have API and the rules can be set up from the admin panel. Can’t wait for this feature.

2. Other changes in B2B

Magento did not give any hard promises on when they plan to deliver these features, but the stories in development look as follows:

*Adding quote filtering in My Quotes

*Searching the order history in My Orders

*Exporting the requisition lists to .csv files

*Quick adding items to requisition lists

*Creating the requisition lists from the cart

*Login as Customer to frontend (so-called “ghost-mode”)

*Different shipping methods per company

*Granular ACL for all B2B modules

Last but not least – new Venia PWA B2B theme! Can’t wait to see these features in action!

3. PWA Venia

Progressive Web Apps are the next best thing. We should know – we already implemented 4 projects with this approach. Now Magento is doing “half” of the work for us with a new PWA theme called Venia. It was presented at this year’s Magento Imagine, but they keep adding new features.

In 2019 they added Google Analytics tracking, authoring of catalog and increased the API coverage. For 2020 they plan:

*Content optimization for mobile devices with a preview

*B2B Venia theme

*Full AEM integration (more details below)

*B2B Data Import/Export (including shared catalog)

*100% GraphQL API coverage

4. Manage content better

You all heard of Page Builder. Adobe is now pushing a page-builder on steroids – Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). This tool not only allows you to manage content in the omnichannel environment, but also, it provides you with an AI capable of adapting the experience of every person visiting your store. You can now get so much more from your marketing team. The system was also production-tested with the Venia theme. Get ready for personalization!

5. Better reporting

In 2019 Adobe has already done a lot with Business Intelligence. In 2020, you can expect further development in this field with Role-Specific Dashboards, Adobe Analytics integration & New B2B Reports.

6. Security updates

Starting with the next M2.3.X quarterly release, Magento will offer streamlined “security-only” updates based on the prior quarter’s comprehensive update. This means that instead of having to update the entire system you will be able to only update the Security update, which will keep your store safe. The process gives you more time to install the Quality update.

7. Updated Support Policy

Starting with Magento 2.3, end of support date for a minor release will be based on the General Availability date of the next minor release. The Quality updates will be rolled out via incremental quarterly releases for +12 months. The Security ones, will follow a +18 months roll-out process. This gives you more time to adapt your store. This also means that you can accommodate the releases in the yearly budget better. Please refer to the Magento Imagine summary for more information on this.

8. Azure Early Adopter

As you are aware, Magento Cloud will now allow you to choose between AWS and Microsoft Azure for your servers. What you might not know, is that in Q1 2020 you can expect additional support from Magento for the first 6 Early Adapters. This support is only for the first stores that choose Azure. What they offer is a highly collaborative engagement of their team. If you are interested in working with Azure – contact us at [email protected] (we are official Microsoft Azure partners with years of e-Commerce experience).

9. What’s next?

We can’t wait to hear what Magento has planned for 2021 at Magento Imagine / Adobe Summit. If you want to talk to them sooner, they are planning to attend quite a bit of conferences in 2020:

*EComm Expo UK – Sept 2020

*DMEXCO – Sept 2020

*WWVD – Jan 2020

*Netcom Italy – May 2020

And of course – see you there at Adobe Summit 2020 in May!