Ecommerce Product Releases: May 16, 2019

Here is a list of product releases and updates for mid-May from companies that offer services to online merchants. There are updates on subscription platforms, help desk ticketing, inventory management, selling on Amazon, and selling on Instagram.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

Ecommerce Product Releases

Magento Commerce adds features for small and mid-market businesses. At its Imagine 2019 conference this week, Adobe announced updates to Magento Commerce, the commerce platform in Adobe Experience Cloud. With “Amazon Sales Channels” and “Google Shopping Ads Channels,” merchants can target new audiences. With “PageBuilder,” merchants can easily update the content on their websites. And merchants are now able to tap the broader capabilities of Adobe Analytics, part of Adobe Analytics Cloud in Adobe Experience Cloud through the Adobe Experience Platform connector.

Adobe Experience Platform

Adobe collaborates with Amazon to accelerate growth for third-party merchants. Adobe has announced Magento Commerce branded stores for Amazon sellers, a new offering available through Magento, part of Adobe Experience Cloud, which runs on Amazon Web Services. The service is designed to give sellers a seamless way to grow their business and manage their online presence across Amazon and the sellers’ own storefront, including the native integration of Amazon merchant tools such as Amazon Pay and Fulfillment by Amazon.

Bank of America Merchant Services and Recurly team up to help merchants boost subscription revenue. Bank of America Merchant Services and Recurly, a subscription management platform, are teaming up to help merchants generate revenue from subscribers and better measure subscriber engagement and customer loyalty. Businesses that use Bank of America Merchant Services’ payments processing and Recurly’s subscription management platform can benefit from accepting payments on a global scale, increased flexibility with a variety of customer subscription plans and billing options, management of the full subscriber lifecycle from acquisition through retention, and in-depth analytics and insights.

LiveChat launches HelpDesk, an online ticketing system. LiveChat, a player in the online business communication space, has launched HelpDesk, an application that enables companies to simplify customer service via email. The HelpDesk solution enables customers to leave a message for a company by using dedicated email addresses. Team members can also create a ticket if a customer’s query came from other communication channels, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or a phone call. All inquiries are collected as tickets and assigned with the appropriate statuses and categories within the application.

HelpDesk

Instagram lets creators and influencers sell items directly. People can now shop looks from creators without leaving Instagram. With the ability to tag products in their posts, creators can make it easy for people to shop on the spot. Businesses must be part of the checkout beta for creators to tag their products. Both creators and the brands they tag will receive shared insights within Instagram so they can better understand the performance of shopping posts. Instagram is testing the shop the look function with a small group of creators.

Profitero launches analytics service for Amazon brand sellers. Profitero has launched AMZ Maximizer, an analytics service for Amazon sales. AMZ Maximizer provides brands with granular, daily-updated traffic and conversion estimates for all their products. It also allows brands to correlate their traffic, conversion, and sales performance with changes in search ranking, pricing, out-of-stock rates, content, and reviews — leading to better optimization, according to Profitero.

LimeLight launches Mastercard compliance tool to protect ecommerce sellers and subscribers. LimeLight, an ecommerce engine for subscription businesses, has launched a new tool to help online merchants operate within Mastercard’s new continuity rules. Mastercard’s new rules are designed to protect against unfair “negative option billing,” where consumers are not fully aware of what they are agreeing to when signing up for a free or discounted trial and are automatically billed full price when the trial period ends. Subscription-based businesses accepting payment through Mastercard must now adopt a host of new procedures to ensure transparency and billing consent.

LimeLight

Vend and BigCommerce partner for independent retailers. Vend, a retail management software company, has announced a new partnership with ecommerce platform BigCommerce, giving independent retailers greater choice about how they run their business. Key benefits to retailers of this new partnership include opening new sales channels through social media and online marketplaces, greater insight into what’s selling best and where, quick identification of sales trends, and centralized operations for managing sales, customers, and inventory while physical and online stores update in real-time.

Facebook launches the Facebook Developer Community Forum. Facebook has announced the launch of its Developer Community Forum for developers to ask and answer questions relating to apps and app development on Facebook. Facebook hopes to foster and encourage a community where people can utilize their acquired expertise and support one another to overcome mutual challenges. To recognize developer contributions, the platform will have a points and badging system.

Amazon launches “Build Your Business with Amazon” website. To support small-to-midsize businesses, content creators, and developers, Amazon has created a new “Build Your Business with Amazon” website to provide information on how to achieve success with help from Amazon.

Build Your Business with Amazon