To wrap up the Magento Imagine eCommerce conference, we must first start by saying thank you to the Magento staff, speakers, and other sponsors that made this event such a success. The Simple Helix team enjoyed networking, learning, collaborating, and gaining insight & inspiration with rest of the Magento community.

While there are too many highlights to recount each and every one, we still wanted to show you some of the more defining moments of the event:

Day 1 of the conference started off with a developer BarCamp – a series of rapid-fire presentations on Magento and X.commerce, followed by a #Preimagine event at the M Resort Pool, which proved to be one of many successful networking events of the conference. Many thanks go out to the sponsors for the drinks, especially to Kimberley Thomas for organizing.

On Day 2 of Magento Imagine, Magento Community 1.7 and Enterprise 1.12 were announced! Both new releases include REST API, developer productivity, different base pricing for customer groups and more. In addition, Enterprise 1.12 also now includes multiple wish lists, segmentation including personalized coupons based on a visitor’s interaction with the site and Mobile! (HTML 5 capabilities)

Magento 2 will be available within the first half of 2013 and includes modularity and an incredible new visual design editor with drag and drop functionality.

A notable moment of the morning General Sessions and Keynotes from Roy Rubin, Bob Schwartz and Matthew Mengerink, was a parody of “The Artist,” the pool-side to show some of the highlights and features of Magento’s new HTML 5 themes.

On Day 3 of Magento Imagine, Jim FitzGibbon, the former president of the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts  shared some inspirational messages about how to live by a service-oriented culture. Five contestants were selected  to compete for the chance to win a  7 night stay at the Four Seasons Hotel in Bora Bora. Krister Lenman from Sweden emerged as the winner after answering questions about Magento from content presented during the conference. Congrats!

Shane Blandford with Orange Collar Media, was the lucky winner of our iPad giveaway! Steve Shickles, President of Simple Helix, presented Shane with his winnings:

Be sure to check out Magento’s 2012 Wrap Up Video to experience more highlights from this year’s event.

According to the Magento blog, “The recent enhancements to our powerful eCommerce offerings help merchants provide a more personalized shopping experience for their customers. These enhancements give merchants greater potential to boost consumer engagement, increase conversions and transaction size, and foster brand loyalty.”

Here are some of the key features of Magento Community 1.7 and how they can benefit your eCommerce store:

Mobile HTML
Magento Enterprise 1.12 is now optimized for mobile devices so merchants can quickly create a store for mobile devices. The interface supports iPhone, Android, and Mobile Opera browsers. Feature included are:

•    Device-specific media capabilities for audio and video
•    User-friendly search and results display
•    Clean display of product detail pages
•    Pinch, multi-touch and scaling images
•    Easy swipe between product images
•    Zoom capabilities
•    Cross-sell and up-sell capabilities
•    Drag-and-drop of products to the shopping cart

Auto-Generation of Coupon Codes
This aspect of Magento Enterprise 1.12 creates the ability to have a unique set of codes to run for each promotion to more easily manage coupon usage and create detailed reports.

Layered Navigation Pricing Enhancement
Magento has developed a way for merchants to have more flexibility by giving you better control of a customers search results and displaying products based on the customer having products in a similar price range.

Customer Group Pricing
Magento has developed a tool to create different price points for different customer groups. This tool also supports determining both base price and tiered price levels.

REST APIs Support
Magento has an API, called REST, that allows applications to safely access Magento services. Merchants can manage customers, customer addresses, sales orders, inventories, and products using HTTP verbs (i.e., GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).  Data requests and responses can be in XML or JSON format.

The REST API supports the following functions:
•    Create/Retrieve/Update/Delete a simple product
•    Retrieve a list of orders and specific order information
•    Update/Retrieve catalog inventory
•    Create/Retrieve/Update/Delete complete customer information

European Union VAT-ID Validation
This feature simplifies B2B transactions and facilitates the tax collection process for online businesses in the EU.

EU Cookie Restriction
In response to the recent EU Privacy Directive, Magento developed a new cookie notification feature that simplifies the compliance process.

Backup and Rollback
Magento Enterprise 1.12 gives you the ability to manage and schedule back-ups which is especially helpful when testing new customizations to your Magento application.

Three types of backup are supported:
•    System Backup
•    Database Backup
•    Database and Media Backup

CAPTCHA
Now you can enable CAPTCHA functionality on your site to help prevent automated software from attempting fake logins. This auto-generated test ensures that the login is being attempted by a person and can be enabled in both the admin and customer login areas.

Developers can access the new Community edition by clicking here.

For more information about Magento Community 1.7, visit the Magento blog here.

According to the Magento blog, “The recent enhancements to our powerful eCommerce offerings help merchants provide a more personalized shopping experience for their customers. These enhancements give merchants greater potential to boost consumer engagement, increase conversions and transaction size, and foster brand loyalty.”

Here are some of the key features of Magento Enterprise 1.12 and how they can benefit your eCommerce store:

Mobile HTML
Magento Enterprise 1.12 is now optimized for mobile devices so merchants can quickly create a store for mobile devices. The interface supports iPhone, Android, and Mobile Opera browsers. Feature included are:

•    Device-specific media capabilities for audio and video
•    User-friendly search and results display
•    Clean display of product detail pages
•    Pinch, multi-touch and scaling images
•    Easy swipe between product images
•    Zoom capabilities
•    Cross-sell and up-sell capabilities
•    Drag-and-drop of products to the shopping cart

Visitor Segmentation
With Magento Enterprise 1.12 merchants will be able to identify and target customers with special promotions whether they’re new customers or returning customers who have yet to log in.

Expanded Rule-Based Product Relations
This functionality allows merchants to target a specific customer segment with specific product recommendations. This will create a more relevant and significant shopping experience for the user and increase probability of up-sells and cross-sells.

Auto-Generation of Coupon Codes
This aspect of Magento Enterprise 1.12 creates the ability to have a unique set of codes to run for each promotion to more easily manage coupon usage and create detailed reports.

Multiple Wish Lists
Now, customers can save items and rearrange them to different lists. Merchants can review these lists and get insight into their customer wants and needs to better serve their shopping experience.

Layered Navigation Pricing Enhancement
Magento has developed a way for merchants to have more flexibility by giving you better control of a customers search results and displaying products based on the customer having products in a similar price range.

Customer Group Pricing
Magento has developed a tool to create different price points for different customer groups. This tool also supports determining both base price and tiered price levels.

Add to Cart by SKU
In order to aide B2B customers, this function allows products to to enter a list of SKUs without having to go to each product’s individual page.

REST APIs Support
Magento has an API, called REST, that allows applications to safely access Magento services. Merchants can manage customers, customer addresses, sales orders, inventories, and products using HTTP verbs (i.e., GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).  Data requests and responses can be in XML or JSON format.

The REST API supports the following functions:
•    Create/Retrieve/Update/Delete a simple product
•    Retrieve a list of orders and specific order information
•    Update/Retrieve catalog inventory
•    Create/Retrieve/Update/Delete complete customer information

European Union VAT-ID Validation
This feature simplifies B2B transactions and facilitates the tax collection process for online businesses in the EU.

EU Cookie Restriction
In response to the recent EU Privacy Directive, Magento developed a new cookie notification feature that simplifies the compliance process.

CMS Page Hierarchy Enhancements
With Magento Enterprise 1.12, you can now add CMS pages to the navigation menu without custom development.

Backup and Rollback
Magento Enterprise 1.12 gives you the ability to manage and schedule back-ups which is especially helpful when testing new customizations to your Magento application.

Three types of backup are supported:
•    System Backup
•    Database Backup
•    Database and Media Backup

Payment Bridge 1.1 Updates
The Magento Secure Payment Bridge, adds a number of new payment methods.  In addition to the currently supported gateways (PayPal, Authorize.net, and Payflow Pro), the Bridge now supports the following payment gateways:
•    Psi Gate
•    RBS Worldpay
•    Braintree
•    First Data
•    Card Gate Plus
•    DIBS
•    eWay Direct
•    Ogone Directlink
•    Paybox
•    Payone
•    Sage Pay
•    CCAvenue

CAPTCHA
Now you can enable CAPTCHA functionality on your site to help prevent automated software from attempting fake logins. This auto-generated test ensures that the login is being attempted by a person and can be enabled in both the admin and customer login areas.

If you’re already a Magento Enterprise customer, you can immediately access the new 1.12 release in the My Account section.

For more information about Magento Enterprise 1.12, visit the Magento blog here.

If you’re attending the conference, make sure to stop by and meet with Simple Helix experts for a free on-the-spot quote. All conference attendees will receive 15% off and a free SSL! *Orders must be placed by May 25th to redeem.

Simple Helix is a gold sponsor of the event this year and we are excited to meet the whole Magento community and learn about the latest in Magento technology from the industry’s experts. Stay tuned to our blog for updates post-conference as we share all that we learn. To learn more about the Magento Imagine eCommerce conference visit http://www.imagineecommerce.com/

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