It’s hard to decide whether it was the keynote speech by Magic Johnson, the energy and excitement of the event itself, or just the amazing group of creators and innovators in attendance that inspired me the most at the recent
Magento Imagine conference. But one thing is certain as we reflect on our sixth participation in this important event – at PayPal, we have come to learn a very important reason for why we are all here.
One word: community.
This is what makes
Magento so special and so unique. In fact, throughout the conference, Mark Lavelle, CEO of Magento, used the words “We Are Magento” to acknowledge the community of developers, system integrators, merchants, and partners that make up this powerful ecosystem.
And, there were no shortage of announcements for the community to be excited about. Congratulations to the Magento team on the release of Magento 2.1 and the announcement of the Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition. Both are examples of exciting new tools for the hundreds of thousands of Magento merchants across the globe.
At
PayPal, we were excited to feature our PayPal and
Braintree enhancements to these platforms, including the elimination of friction with in-context checkout, faster and more seamless purchases with
OneTouch™, and simplified PCI Compliance.
I was truly inspired by the level of creativity of the people I met at Imagine. In many cases, these were visionary entrepreneurs and technologists who were using Magento’s open platform to push the boundaries of what is possible with commerce. Time and again, I heard that this was one of the things that people loved about PayPal – the flexibility to use the world’s most powerful payments tools to create innovative customer experiences. This is why at PayPal, we offer solutions, services, and products that can help any business or developer manage payments regardless of size, industry or stage.
During my talk to an audience that consisted of merchants, agencies, and technology providers from around the world, I highlighted three key takeaways:
- Mobile is reality. Businesses must plan with a “mobile first” mindset. With 28 percent of all PayPal transactions going through mobile devices today, payments strategy on mobile has become essential to any successful business.
- Experience is everything. People today expect beauty and elegance when shopping online, and will move on to other sellers if your business doesn’t have a seamless and simple experience. I also discussed how One Touch with PayPal is enabling our merchants to offer faster and more seamless buying experiences.
- Contextual shopping experiences are the future. We must challenge the convention of buying through websites, apps, or stores. It is no longer enough to draw your customers to your business. Increasingly, sellers will need to be there for their customers at the moment a buying opportunity materializes – wherever that may be.
We are now in a period of major disruption, where money is digitizing and cash is slowly fading away. At PayPal, we view this as an opportunity to reimagine money and create powerful tools for the incredible community of innovators and trailblazers we met at Imagine. Because that, after all, is how we can help them change the world.
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