The 5th annual MagentoLive UK event took place on June 20-21, 2016, at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London. Last year, the event drew nearly 700 retailers and partners, and this year saw over 800 Magento enthusiasts gather for more than 20 merchant-led best practice sessions, as well as keynotes by leading experts from Magento and Magento partners. The industry leaders that attended MagentoLive UK learned and collaborated together and in small ways, shaped the future of eCommerce.

Steve Yankovich, Magento’s Chief Product Officer, shared some statistics that have changed drastically over the last 5 years:

  • Earth’s total population was under 6 billion in 2012, compared to 7.395 billion today. 
  • In 2012, there were 2.224 billion internet users, compared to 3.419 billion today. 
  • Active social users online came in at 1.22 billion in 2012, and 2.307 billion in 2016.

Steve also talked about shrinking technology adoption, where it took over 40 years for 25% of the US population to adopt electricity, while adopting the internet took less than 10 years, and smartphones less than 5 years. Steve also spoke about transformed consumer expectations, how the modern consumer first browses, then discovers, and searches for inspiration.

Mark Lavelle, Magento’s CEO, gave an overview of Permira Funds, the owner of Magento Commerce, and also shared that Magento is the number one platform in the Internet Retailer 500 list, where Magento also has twice as many clients as the closest competitor, like Demandware, SAP Hybris, IBM WebSphere, or Oracle’s ATG Web Commerce. Mark also said that there is immense opportunity for growth, and shared that there has been a 16.8% increase in web sales growth in Europe, and that 57% of European internet users shop online and 16% of SMBs sell online.

According to Mark, there are 250,000 merchants on Magento, 3,100 Enterprise customers, and 150,000 developers, out of whom over 5,900 are Magento certified.

Our CCO, PJ Utsi, gave a whopping three presentations at MagentoLive UK. During the General Session, Magento premiered the Jack Daniel’s video about their brand, their story, and their eCommerce project, and afterwards, Martin Hjalm, Global eCommerce Manager at Brown-Forman (Jack Daniel’s) and PJ did a Q&A session with Steve Yankovich on stage about the Jack Daniel’s project.

PJ also gave a presentation entitled “International Expansion: Lessons Learnt from Going Global with Big Brands,” where he spoke about Vaimo clients such as Fjällräven, Björn Borg, Filippa K, and BAUHAUS, and the key takeaways we have gathered from opening up new markets and sites all over the world (view slides).

During “Winning with Omnichannel Retailing,” Karen Taylor, eCommerce Manager for Brown-Forman UK,Kian Gould, Founder and CEO of AOE, and PJ participated in a long Q&A session on stage with Michael Sonier, Head of Omnichannel Products at Magento. Both Vaimo and AOE shared key insights on integrating and implementing Magento Commerce Order Management to rapidly expand business into new markets and apply intelligent sourcing logic to leverage full inventory. PJ brought up a different take on omnichannel and spoke about the customer perspective and the role of mobile on the customer journey. He also emphasised the importance of the web in the mobile era and the challenges of delivering an optimised user experience on small screens and mobile devices. Karen shared the challenges and opportunities of managing inventory across increasingly complex fulfilment networks, while Kian spoke about how the Fraport Group is bringing an omnichannel experience to international travellers in Frankfurt Airport.

Noelia Guinón, Ecommerce Manager at Björn Borg, together with Saima Alibhai, Practice Manager for Professional Services at Bronto Software, talked about how Björn Borg uses data driven messaging to reach customers during their presentation entitled “Björn Bjorg Hits a Grand Slam with Data-Driven Messaging.”  

Saima spoke about personalisation, who is the customer, and how and when to reach that customer with specific content. Saima shared that 94% of companies say that personalisation is critical to both current and future success, while 72% say that they understand the importance of personalisation, yet lack the resources and know-how (source: Econsultancy: The Realities of Online Personalisation Report).

Since customers want contextually relevant messages, it’s vital to reach the right customer at the right place, and at the right time. It’s essential to build meaningful relationships with customers, and encourage ongoing dialogue and continuous engagement, while using the right technology to interest customers directly.

Saima from Björn Borg also spoke about their project goals with improving personalisation by utilising Bronto, such as:

  • leveraging customer data effectively, 
  • ensuring repeat customers, and 
  • providing personalised shopping and experience.

After implementing Bronto’s services, Björn Borg’s weekly newsletter’s results improved greatly, with deliverability up to 75%, the click rate at 83%, and revenue at 66%. Björn Borg also implemented transactional emails and welcome series emails. Compared to average marketing emails, the welcome series performance showed the following increases:

  • 137% increase in open rate, 
  • 232% increase in click rate, 
  • 21%   increase in conversion, 
  • 217% increase in revenue.
 

After Björn Borg implemented the post purchase series, they saw an increase in opening rate of 49.7%, and a conversion rate increase of 10.5%. Watch the video and presentation for more information.

The two-day MagentoLive event was a huge success, and certainly the largest Magento event on this side of Europe. Including Vaimo, there were 4 other Magento partners from Sweden present and many Magento partners from the UK, Europe, and from all over the world, including India and Uruguay. The entire Magento management team was present, and the 4 Vaimoers who attended felt immersed in Magento knowledge-sharing.

“MagentoLive UK was a tremendous event; it was inspirational to be present amongst the entire Magento executive team, and to hear about everything from Magento 2.1 to the Magento Commerce Order Management during presentations. It was exciting to learn about the current state of the platform and the road ahead, and I have no doubt that the vibrant energy from MagentoLive UK will spread like wildfire across the Magento ecosystem.” -PJ Utsi, CCO