Session at eBay Innovate 2011 Conference
Session Digital were very honoured to be invited to present at PayPal’s global conference - Innovate 2011 - held in San Francisco in Oct. The conference was the first public event following the official acquisition of Magento by eBay Inc, and saw a number of high profile announcements, not least the launch of eBay’s vision for the future of commerce - X.commerce.
Session Director Dominic Feenan
As Magento is being positioned at the heart of this exciting new initiative, we were asked (and gladly) gave our thoughts on Magento in the UK - focusing on the role of brand within commerce.
Session Digital launch Dreams PLC online store
The UK’s largest retailer of beds and bedding products, Dreams PLC appointed Session Digital to replatform their UK online store. Launched pre-Xmas, the store aims to intelligently respond to customers’ different buying habits, recognising the impact of their location on decisions to purchase online or in-store.
A key part of the process required enhanced integration with Dreams’ back-office systems and alignment with Dreams’ ongoing social media strategy to provide increased merchandising opportunities across multiple channels.
Gary Robinson, e-commerce director, Dreams, explains: “Our new website is an extension of our in-store experience, reflecting our brand values of expertise, customer service and professional advice. The key to achieving this didn’t just lie in clever design but in providing a user experience that treats customers as truly individual. Session Digital has the proven track record and the Magento expertise we needed to make this a reality.”
The site is supported by an on-going program of TV/Online advertising, direct marketing, press and social campaigns, and can be seen at http://www.dreams.co.uk
Homepage: includes filtered navigation in top level drop down menus and personalised product recommendations
Category pages: Personalised product recommendations and flexible product filters
Product pages: Clean, simple and directional. Integration with delivery systems to provide real-time delivery date estimations
Store locator: Google maps integration with additional filters
London Magento Meetup
Yesterday’s London Magento Meetup gathered a whopping 20 attendees last night at Session Towers.
The evening kicked off with general introductions, after which Mike Whitby shared some of his experiences about how his team at Made.com uses Magento.
We also had a ‘lightning talks’ forum of quick topics, including hosting, caching on the Community Edition and migrating from Community to Enterprise, plus brainstorming on setting up products that are considered sub-components (e.g. products sold by the metre).
Thanks to everyone who joined us and shared their Magento stories!
The next Meetup will be held on Wednesday 7th December, sponsored by our friends at WebShopApps. Don’t miss out - keep an eye on the Meetup page to sign up.
Ecommerce Expo 2011
Two busy days at Olympia, lots of buzz around the Magento ecosystem, and many interesting discussions - Ecommerce Expo 2011 once again proved to be the event of the year in any ecommerce professional’s calendar.
A lot of you came to see our seminar presentation on Enterprise Ecommerce and Magento:
If you missed the seminar, check out this presentation that we recently gave at a Figaro Digital seminar on the same topic.
Kristel Verhasselt has recently joined Magento’s European team as Sales Manager North Europe, and will be working closely with Magento partners and merchants alike on this side of the pond (pictured here with Dominic & Richard from Session).
News just in: Magento launching Magento Developer Certification
Magento have recently announced that they are launching a qualification for Magento developers. For the first time, Magento developers will be able to get recognition for their skills.
Ed van Beinum, Software Engineer at Session comments: “Having a certification scheme is a positive step for the Magento community. For employers it will provide a useful yardstick with which to rate a developer’s experience with Magento, and it will be fun for nerdy developer types, like me, who enjoy taking tests!”
What we know so far…
- The exam has been written by Magento Gurus (nice of Magento to describe us in those terms!) from across the globe
- The exam will last two hours and contain multiple choice questions
- There will be two versions of the exam: Magento Certified Developer and Magento Certified Developer Plus
At the X Commerce Innovate developer conference in San Francisco next month developers will be able to sit the exam. This exam will be in beta form, with results taking 4-6 weeks. Once the certification exam has been tried and tested it will roll out to 10,000 test centres across the globe.
Andy Todd, Session’s Professional Services Director, is pleased with the announcement of the certification program. “One of the biggest challenges we face at the moment is in the recruitment process - basically getting enough quality candidates - as the leading UK implementer of Magento we have exacting standards and whilst potential developers often claim to have experience with Magento, the reality is this can vary hugely.
“We establish a candidates experience level using our own entrance exams, but we are confident that the certification will help drive standards higher. We look forward to seeing it in action - it can only be a good thing for Session and the wider Magento Community.”
CSS3 techniques used for Kookai.co.uk Magento site
Kookai has over 25yrs of heritage as both a fashion and advertising brand. Its personality is internationally renowned, based on its creative collections, high quality products and heritage.
In July 2010 Session were engaged to create and develop the UK online store, which for the first time allows UK customers to purchase Kookai clothing online directly from this globally recognised French brand.
In this article, we outline some of the CSS3 techniques we used in the site as well as applying fallback methods for browsers which currently don’t support these properties.
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Private Sales Site: ilovebrands.net
Ilovebrands.net has appointed Session to deliver a new private sales Enterprise Magento site. Due for launch in Summer 2010 the site will support high end designer brands and goods available to consumers within a private sales environment to compliment their expanding high street retail presence.
Session Digital Appointed to Football League
Session Digital have been appointed to design, build, deliver and manage an Enterprise Magento deployment on behalf of the Football League’s “Football in the Community” scheme, a Nationwide program to promote football training and development for children and young adults of all ability and skill levels.
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Adding Static Blocks in Magento
Static blocks are blocks of content which are created and modified through the Magento Admin. Their main purpose is to act as a dynamic piece of content which can be placed on one or multiple pages, highly customisable and allows clients to modify the content through the admin area. They’re ideal for sections of you site where you need to display a piece of content which is likely to change throughout the course of the site’s lifetime and the piece of content doesn’t require its own page like About Us or Terms and Conditions pages.
