Here is a breakdown of v2.3.1 and our take on the developments:
Page Builder
Only available for Magento Commerce, Page Builder provides an easy-to-use interface for drag-and-drop content management. This means quick creation of content-rich commerce experiences.
With Page Builder, non-technical users can see any changes on the frontend before publishing them. And the reusable content blocks can be targeted by customer segment, creating an important level of personalization.
Our take: This removes dependencies on designers and developers. And while this democratises website updates, it is still critical to make sure your brand standards and eCommerce best practices are in use.
Customer address books now 30x larger
B2B and hybrid businesses can now support larger customers with address books that are 30 times larger.
Our take: Magento is courting the big B2B and hybrid businesses and looking to show its B2B muscle at every turn.
PayPal Express Checkout and Venmo
The newest version introduces:
- Faster checkout performance.
- New payment options like Venmo (not accepted in Canada) and PayPal Credit. With this integration, no need for updates each time a new payment method becomes available.
Our take: With lots of players (we see you Apple) trying to offer or even”revolutionize” payment options, your customers will thank you for being flexible.
Shipping and Multi-source Inventory Management
Magento Shipping now covers 37 countries via DHL Express, Fedex & UPS.
With Multi-Source Inventory Management, you can ship orders intelligently from the inventory location closest to the shopper. Release notes here.
Our take: Fast shipping is a make-or-break it eCommerce requirement. Anything that helps merchants use data to better manage their inventory and fulfillment process is a win.
PWA Studio
The latest release gives even more tools to merchants and developers building Progressive Web Apps, including a complete checkout implementation.
Our take: We are so enamored with PWAs that we wrote about them in our 10 eCommerce Trends impacting merchants in 2019.
Substantial Security Enhancements
This release includes over 30 security enhancements for:
- closing cross-site scripting,
- arbitrary code execution,
- and sensitive data disclosure vulnerabilities as well as other security issues.
While no confirmed attacks related to these issues have occurred to date, certain vulnerabilities could be exploited to access customer information or take over administrator sessions. See Magento Security Center for a comprehensive discussion of these issues.
Reminder: For merchants using Magento 1, support will end in 2020.
We will be repeating this over the next twelve months: After June 2020, Magento Commerce 1.X software will be unsupported by Magento. Sites using unsupported Magento versions will no longer be PCI compliant. Without the latest software security features, merchants on Magento Commerce 1.X will be at increased risk. All merchants are advised to upgrade to the latest versions of Magento Commerce.
Start planning as soon as possible and work with partners who have deep experience with Magento upgrades!
Review all of the release notes here.
Got questions? Talk to one of our Magento experts.
