Adobe Summit: Adobe Commerce 2024 Roadmap Session Recap & Takeaways
I'm over in Las Vegas representing Hyv? at Adobe Summit and the key session of interest on day 1 of the conference for anyone in the Adobe Commerce / Magento space was the roadmap session presented by the Adobe Commerce team.
There was an incredible amount of content packed into a 1 hour session, so this recap aims to condense this down to the key announcements, plus my opinion on what this means for the future of Magento, as objectively as possible, but of course with some natural bias and considerations, given my role at not just Hyv? , but my involvement with Mage-OS and the Magento Association too.
Session Recap
First, let's dive into the key announcements made.
The future Adobe has mapped out for Commerce is:
Adobe Commerce Storefront
New tools for creating storefronts with Adobe Commerce were announced. These are powered by:
The above are not mutually exclusive (i.e. Commerce Dropins, for example, can be used without EDS/AEM), but when utilised together, promise lightning-fast storefronts, and there is also built-in A-B testing.
Sites are composed using multiple micro components (the Dropins), each with a dedicated purpose. For Commerce, this currently includes only PDP (Product Detail Page) and PLP (Product Listing Pages, e.g. category/search). Cart, Checkout, Account and Custom components are not expected till the second half of 2024, and there was no mention of support for other specific core features, such as the B2B suite. Components can also be dropped into existing storefronts, such as Luma (without requiring AEM).
Docs are here (but not 100% complete) if you want to learn more: https://experienceleague.adobe.com/developer/commerce/storefront/
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Assets Integration
An integration for AEM Assets was also announced, with a demo showing a product gallery image being edited with generative AI (in this instance, a bottle being added to an existing backpack image) and then automatically being updated in the Magento admin panel.
New B2B Features
There are 2 areas getting new features added in the B2B Suite for version 1.5.0, which is currently targeting a June release.
First, is the ability to create parent/child company accounts, of which a customer can belong to multiple, each with their own unique catalogs, pricing structure, payment options and more. On the storefront, customers can switch between companies, which updates the catalog and products/prices available to them.
Secondly, there is a multitude of enhancements to the negotiable quote functionality, including:
Adobe Payment Services
On the Payment Services side, better GraphQL support has been added, and additional pricing options are now available. Support for Google Pay and B2B L2/L3 is coming later this year.
The solution will also be bundled with Magento Open Source / Adobe Commerce, rather than being installed via the marketplace, from the 2.4.7 release in April.
Order Management with IBM Sterling
Adobe has partnered with IBM Sterling to integrate with their Order Management solution. Available now in beta.
Data Connection for Adobe Commerce
The next features announced were all focused on integrating with Adobe Experience Platform (AEP), to provide a two-way data sync to leverage the power of solutions such as Real-Time CDP, which is essentially Adobe's expanded and more powerful version of Commerce's Customer Segmentation.
In addition, this integrates with Dynamic Blocks, Promotions and Related Product Rules in Commerce.
A demo provided more details on the data tracked and how it can be viewed from the admin panel
App Builder
App Builder, along with API Mesh (a tool for orchestrating/combining APIs), is now pitched at building backend solutions, rather than storefront ones, for both integrations with external systems (such as ERPs etc.), but also as an alternative to building admin UIs as React applications, rather than using the native Magento approach (i.e. grids/forms/configuration pages).
Pre-built integrations are also going to be offered from Adobe, including SAP and Microsoft Dynamics.
Catalog Services
New features are coming to Adobe's SaaS-based drop-in replacement for the Magento indexers, including an ingestion API and support for enhanced product types (it wasn't clear if this is new product types for Magento / Adobe Commerce itself, or just support for existing ones in the SaaS services - see the note about 'bundles of bundles' below).
HIPPA-ready
Adobe Commerce Cloud is now compliant with HIPPA, meaning it is now a viable hosting solution for US healthcare companies.
Core Platform Updates
i.e. updates to the main Magento application. These additions are focused on the performance of APIs and other areas of Magento to help to scale sites with large datasets/traffic.
Summary
As noted at the outset, there were a lot of updates, but if you're a user of the traditional Magento-monolith (PHP application), and whether you use Hyv? or not, you may be wondering what of the above is relevant to you/your merchants/your partners, which segues nicely in the next section below...
The Future of Magento Open Source & The Monolith
This is a bold topic to take on for sure, but it's been no secret that Adobe's long-term plan is to transition away from the traditional Magento-monolith (PHP application) towards a SaaS-based micro/distributed-services approach for all their products, but this is the first real signal of intent that the process is underway on the storefront side with the rollout of Commerce Dropins, Edge Delivery Services and Document Based Authoring.
Aside from B2B and Payment Services, all the other features mentioned in the roadmap session (such as App Builder, and the AEM, AEP and IBM Sterling integrations) are backend-focused and work regardless of the frontend used (including Hyv? , of course!) In fact, almost all of the features demoed during the presentation were done so using a Luma storefront.
Adobe Commerce Storefront is the first new storefront solution to come from Adobe since PWA Studio (which has essentially been placed in a 'support-only' mode, along with Luma), so let's start there first.
Adobe Commerce Storefont
There's no denying the raw performance that can be achieved using Commerce Dropins and Edge Delivery Services (EDS) is impressive. While the dropins can be used standalone by connecting directly to an Adobe Commerce backend instance, the overall solution is designed for use with AEM (EDS/document based authoring requires AEM). To further unlock its full potential, it is most powerful when used in conjunction with the entire suite of products in the Adobe Experience Cloud (AEC), such as Analytics, Real-Time CDP and Journey Optimizer. These services can also be used without EDS/AEM, such as Luma or Hyv?, but they'll offer much tighter integration when used together.
These products mentioned, dropins aside, are not ones that the majority of the current Adobe Commerce customer base can afford or justify, and are not available for Magento Open Source.
Adobe's future for Commerce, delivered using Commerce Dropins, Edge Delivery Services and AEM combined, is a platform for their existing and prospective AEC customers. It does not feel suitable for many of the existing Adobe Commerce merchants, but for those it is, it is no doubt going to be a game-changer in the higher end of the market.
Commerce Dropins, however, can be utilised standalone by any merchant running Adobe Commerce, so there may be some good use cases for using these in conjunction with other frontend stacks, such as the Luma, PWA Studio or other headless frameworks, or even Hyv?! They could also be used to aid an incremental migration from an existing stack to the EDS/AEM approach.
So Where Does This Leave Magento Open Source?
In my opinion, it leaves Magento Open Source in exactly the same place it has been since the day Adobe rebranded 'Magento Commerce' to 'Adobe Commerce'.
Adobe Commerce, even when used with Edge Delivery Services and Adobe Experience Manager, still depends on Magento Open Source and this is not going to change for some time, so the platform is not going away any time soon. It will continue to receive security, performance and other quality improvement updates from Adobe, even if there are no new merchant focused features.
As noted, the arrival of these new storefront tools, or any of the other AEP integrations, does not impact a large portion of the Magento ecosystem. Therefore, the biggest challenge for the ecosystem remains the fact that Magento Open Source as a product, or a platform, is not marketed by Adobe in any way, shape or form.
Some may also point to a lack of new features in Magento Open Source itself as an area of concern, and while it is an area that is being focused on at Mage-OS , the overall innovation that is fostered throughout the community, shows the strength of the ecosystem and underlying platform.
Hyv? is just one example of this, offering a modern storefront experience that provides performance, reduced costs and shorter development time merchants demand, but there are many others too, from agencies and developers, through to service and extension providers.
Focus On The Mid-Market
With Adobe aiming upmarket and a lack of other solid open source contenders in the mid-market, it leaves a big opportunity. The mid-market has always been the key demographic for Magento Open Source, and even the current monolithic version of Adobe Commerce, and they are still in prime position to be the platform of choice when a SaaS-based solution is unable to meet the complexities of a merchant's needs.
However, with the continuing rise of SaaS-based solutions, led by Shopify, and their seemingly exponential marketing budgets, the lack of vendor-backed marketing for Magento is an area that needs to be addressed.
Marketing Is Key
Thankfully, things are already well underway, including the joint efforts of the Magento Association and Mage-OS to collaborate on multiple initiatives to promote and raise brand awareness of Magento, such as plans to create a magento-opensource.com site and create a library of content that can be shared and reused by agencies and providers to promote the benefits of Magento and open source in general via social media, in pitch decks and other mediums.
Hyv? Perspective
At Hyv? we support both Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce, and we continue to plan to support all Commerce features Adobe releases to offer a complimentary offering to those who are either not ready or not suitable for the new Adobe Commerce Storefont offering, including all the SaaS-based services. The market is certainly big enough for both solutions to co-exist, especially given the difference in key target demographics, and we have a great working relationship with many at Adobe who have been gracious enough to provide guidance and assistance. Long may it continue.
Wrapping Up
In summary, Adobe's push for Commerce towards the higher end of the market with their new storefront offerings will be a game changer for merchants in that space, but it has little impact on the majority of the Magento ecosystem, and in my humble opinion, both Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce (via the monolith), are still the best solution for the mid-market and have a very bright future.
However, we need to come together as a community - agencies, extension builders, technology vendors, hosting providers and more - to ensure merchants know this too.
Your Thoughts
That's enough words from me, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so please add them in the comments.
eCommerce Development Expert | E-Commerce Consulting
11 个月Thank you for your summary. Two days ago i made a few reports of Adobe Commerce and Magento OpenSource shops. The number of Adobe Commerce shops is going down drastically this year. It would be a really interesting to see if its technological changes will increase the market share in future. Shopify, Wix and Woocommerce took the leadership.
Solution Architect | Search Engine & Email Marketer
11 个月Builder.io + Hyva + Magento ??
Ecommerce Problem-Solver | Adoption Advocate | Helped 500+ Businesses Succeed Online | CEO of Creatuity, Your Next Ecommerce Agency
11 个月Great summary, and some really exciting news in here. Thanks for writing this up, John!
VP, Solution Architecture at Blue Acorn iCi
11 个月Great perspective. I noticed that you were careful to call out that this new type of storefront, powered by drop-ins and EDS, is probably not for the majority. I agree with that now, and would go on to say it may also be true for the long-term future. This movement feels similar to Shopify’s Commerce Components, which seem to have gotten mixed adoption. Most notably, these composable part-based solutions seem to be more boilerplate and inspiration than the E2E solutions with which we’ve been so accustomed. And that I think is on purpose. Adobe is taking a position to assume less ownership of the storefront experience and leaving that up to the merchant to dictate. My only hope is that the marketing and sales collateral will tell it so honestly; ie: you must also invest development. I see a future where more burden is put on the merchant, or the partner, to define the frontend technology stack. This is certainly plain enough to see in the simplicity of the drop-ins themselves. And I’m OK with that!
Founder of Foundation Commerce, The Leading Hyv? + Magento Agency. Magento, done properly!
11 个月A fantastic summary John Hughes! Thanks for sharing! Completely agree and support everything you’ve said here. Edge delivery services is only a viable solution for merchants doing ￡100millon+ GMV and even then I think it’s got to mature a lot before it becomes a viable solution. For now, the storefront solution for the vast majority of Adobe Commerce merchant’s remains Hyv? in my opinion.