At commercetools, innovation is in our DNA — and it moves so fast that even our newly launched commercetools Compilations can barely keep up! While October’s showcase highlighted groundbreaking advancements, the momentum hasn’t stopped. In this blog, we’re unveiling the latest game-changing innovations we’ve developed since the release and revisiting a few fan favorites you won’t want to miss.
In digital commerce, staying ahead of the curve means embracing innovation at every opportunity. Enter commercetools Compilations, our semi-annual showcase of cutting-edge capabilities designed to empower businesses to meet — and exceed — modern customer expectations. Whether you’re a B2B practitioner, a UX-focused visionary or a platform architect with an eye on scalability, our Fall 2024 lineup offers something for everyone. Think of it as your commerce toolkit to get smarter, leaner and more future-ready every six months.
Innovations that cut technical debt
Technical debt is the silent profit killer. It’s the accumulation of outdated systems, inefficient processes and hard-to-maintain code that drags businesses down, stifling innovation and flexibility. That’s where our innovations, featured in commercetools Compilations, come in — which are designed specifically to help you avoid falling into a technical debt trap.
This Fall 2024 edition focuses on enhanced CX, UX and platform capabilities, equipping businesses with modular, scalable tools to stay agile in a competitive market. Plus, with commercetools’ composable commerce approach, you can future-proof your commerce strategy while minimizing the costs of technical debt.
The features highlighted in commercetools Compilations are designed with one goal in mind: To help businesses stay innovative while minimizing the risks of falling behind. Each enhancement addresses a key area where technical debt tends to accumulate, offering scalable, forward-thinking solutions that empower growth.
Take, for example, our improvements in customer experience (CX). B2B features like Approval Flows and Company Search streamline processes for business buyers, ensuring smoother transactions and reducing the inefficiencies that often plague outdated B2B systems. Similarly, enhancements to the checkout process minimize cart abandonment rates, while personalized discounts and promotions boost customer loyalty by offering meaningful, tailored experiences.
In the world of user experience (UX), technical debt often manifests as limited personalization or clunky interfaces. That’s why we’ve introduced features like Product Information Tailoring, enabling businesses to display hyper-relevant product details that drive better decision-making. These features don’t just enhance the shopping journey; they also ensure businesses can easily adapt to unique customer needs without complex, time-consuming rewrites.
Our platform innovations go even further in combating technical debt. The introduction of GCP Private Service Connect, for instance, allows businesses to securely integrate commercetools with Google Cloud, ensuring high-performance scalability without the usual risks associated with cloud transitions. Meanwhile, API Extensions for Shopping Lists and commercetools Healthcare, our healthcare-focused solution, showcase our commitment to cater to diverse industries.
Must-know new capabilities
These features may not have made it to the official commercetools Compilations, but they’re equally transformative:
As one of the checkout enhancements, the store-based data fencing feature gives you greater control over sensitive data by providing permissions that limit access based on store locations. This feature ensures that quotes and other customer data are only accessible by authorized users, enhancing privacy and data security.
Accelerators for B2B and UX allow your business to fast-track its commerce implementations by providing pre-built templates and customizable frameworks for common use cases. Using accelerators enables quicker time-to-market and gives your team more flexibility to build out tailored solutions.
With the AI Cookbook, you gain access to a set of practical, ready-to-use AI tools and “recipes” to quickly implement machine learning and artificial intelligence into your commerce solutions. This feature simplifies the process of integrating AI capabilities, allowing you to deliver smarter, more personalized experiences for customers.
The Merchant Center import/export functionality will enable you to manage your product catalog, customer data and more with ease. Import and export capabilities ensure seamless data synchronization, streamlining operations and reducing manual entry errors.
Integrate Google Cloud’s powerful Vertex AI capabilities directly into your commerce platform. This plugin will enhance personalization, predictive analytics and recommendation engines, giving you the tools you need to stay competitive in a data-driven world.
Each innovation that we launch at commercetools, whether showcased in commercetools Compilations or not, is designed to support businesses in their journey to overcome the challenges of modern commerce. From reducing technical debt to enhancing customer and user experiences, these innovations provide the tools needed to stay agile, secure and future-ready.
By embracing a composable, modular approach, commercetools ensures that businesses can seamlessly adopt new features as they’re released — without disrupting their operations or accumulating unnecessary technical debt.
Ready to experience more about these breakthroughs firsthand? Explore the commercetools Compilations Fall 2024 as well as our Release Notes to explore all the latest capabilities and discover how they can help your business thrive.
Michael Scholz is the VP of Product & Customer Marketing for commercetools. With two decades of experience in retail & software at SAP, Hybris, SuccessFactors and Sift, he has been leading software development, presales, consulting, marketing & strategic alliances.