Are you an undecided Magento 1 customer feeling the pressure to upgrade to Magento 2 or find another website platform? Choosing the right e-commerce platform to support and grow your business is critical, but if you’ve been procrastinating, you’re racing against a ticking clock.

Magento 1 loses all service and support to the platform in June 2020, leaving thousands of businesses with the choice to either rebuild on a new platform, or risk security breaches.

If you’re considering a platform switch, first compare the complete suite offering against your near- and long-term goals. Does the platform offer features and flexibility to scale alongside your company and withstand the test of time?

Originally published in Retail Customer Experience.

Keeping up with all the emerging trends and technology in the e-commerce world is no easy feat. AI, machine learning, chatbots, micro feedback… a lot of e-commerce managers tell me they’re not sure where or how they should invest their time and resources. My advice is simple: focus wholly on your customer.

Today’s consumers want engaging and memorable brand experiences. How can your e-commerce website help your brand meet those expectations? If we consider all investments through that lens, below are the five most important things e-commerce managers need to know.

Unless you live with a disability, noticing when business websites don’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) may not be on your radar. But for the one in four Americans with some type of disability, ADA compliance determines which companies they can and can’t do business with – in-store and online.

The ADA turns 30 this year. Since it took effect, Americans with disabilities have brought staggering numbers of lawsuits against businesses for violations like employment discrimination and lack of customer accommodation. Because many of those suits focused on noncompliance in the workplace and in physical stores, it’s been easy for online merchants to forget that the ADA applies to their websites. But recent litigation is changing that.

Late last year, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of a blind customer who sued popular pizza chain Domino’s because the company’s website and app didn’t accommodate screen-reading software used by many people with vision impairments. The case put ecommerce on notice: it’s time to make your online stores accessible.

Eliminating liability for noncompliance is incentive enough to comply, but maintaining an accessible website or app offers other benefits, too. Accessibility improvements can boost site performance and deliver a positive user experience (UX) to customers of all abilities.

To help you achieve ADA compliance with ease, we’re breaking down the benefits and best practices for making accessibility a top priority for your ecommerce site in 2020.

Between time with their families, festive errands, and the hypnotizing distraction of perpetual holiday music, trying to capture the attention of holiday shoppers can be daunting for independent retailers. With 42% of consumers planning on shopping with Amazon, you may be wondering how you can stand out against the competition.

Our partners at Episerver just released their Online Shopping Trends of 2019 Report, and we took an in depth look to find easy-to-implement solutions that will help you stay ahead of the herd.

Trend #1: Searching for Deals

As the days tick down to Christmas, customers switch into goal-oriented shopping mode. It becomes a subconscious game, and completing the mission is the main objective. Shoppers adamantly search for the best deals online, scouring the web in hopes of finding something special.

This week, we welcome a guest post from our Senior Digital Strategist, Brittany Moreland.

Brittany helps our e-commerce clients utilize data to deliver omni channel marketing automation experiences. She specializes in combining data analytics, customer journey mapping, and research-based insights to develop scalable and profitable digital marketing solutions.

Personalization is vital to the success of any marketing strategy. As e-commerce becomes more and more competitive, it’s essential that brands engage existing and potential customers with hyper-relevant personalized experiences.

One way to provide a memorable personalized customer journey is through user-specific product recommendations. According to Accenture, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who provide relevant offers and recommendations.

Today, we’re digging in on how Episerver Product Recommendations helps enhance product discovery and increase cart value with smart product recommendations. Learn how Episerver Product Recommendations helps you achieve a 24/7 personalized buying experience across all channels.

One of the biggest frustrations web users face is waiting for a page to load (ain’t nobody got time for that!). With so many alternative sites available at their fingertips, online shoppers don’t have the patience to suffer slow websites. Today’s digital world moves fast, and your website should too.

If your pages don’t load like lightning, users move on and you lose the opportunity to convert clicks into sales. In fact, according to top web influencer Neil Patel, 47% of consumers expect pages to load in two seconds or less. Every second counts – 40% of visitors will abandon a page that takes over three seconds to display.

Don’t leave your visitors waiting! Follow our four steps for identifying performance issues and optimizing your website.