We’re excited to announce that Magento 2.2 is entering its final stages of development and the code will be released soon. Magento 2.2 has the ambition to lead B2B eCommerce, and brings significant innovations and new functionality to market. This includes a full suite of native B2B features, performance and deployment enhancements, advanced reporting, completely new shipping module, and more. To help you prepare for the release, we have summarized in this paper the main Magento 2.2 pillars – B2B, Business Intelligence, and Shipping - as well as the estimated release in September 2017!

First Pillar: Magento B2B

B2B eCommerce is large and rapidly growing. It is today twice the size of the global B2C business, and is expected to reach (by 2020) $6.7 trillion globally. There is no reason why traditional B2B model shall not be upended by digitalization. Magento, which is presently used by some of the leading corporations such as P&G, Ford, Xerox and Firmenich, is willing to apply its entire eCommerce expertise and revolutionize the B2B eCommerce. Here are the main tensions and related features that will be addressed in this field:

Empower B2B Customers with Self-Service Account Tools

• Add new companies and keep information up-to-date
• Tailor the account summary view for efficient management
• Use search and filtering to quickly find specific accounts
• Import and export customer lists
• Assign a sales reps to each account

Easy Management of Company accounts by Merchants

• Submit a request for a company account
• Designate a “Super User” to manage the company’s account
• Drag-and-drop buyers into a hierarchy that matches the business structure
• View orders and quotes for direct report

Provide an Easy Quote Request System to Encourage Sales

• Quick-start quotes from the cart or previous quotes or orders
• Add comments and documents to justify requested discounts
• Track quote status as it is processed
• Correspond with the merchant as needed to close the deal
• Track all quotes with a summary “My Quotes” view

Provide and efficient Quote management solution

• Merchants can track all their quotes in a summary view that they can customize, filter, and search
• Access quote details with a history log of all updates and communications
• Save drafts of the quote proposals until they are ready to send

Clear and easy communication tool for merchants to Negotiate with B2B Customers

• Discount calculation tools using total cost of optimized proposal
• Negotiate both product and shipping prices as a whole
• Communicate their proposals by adding comments and attachments
• Suggest additional SKUs or make substitutions to increase their AOV
• Close deals quickly by setting quote expiration dates 

Order by SKU to Speed Up Purchases

B2B customers will now be enabled to order by:

• Entering individual or multiple SKUs 
• Uploading CSV files 

Instantaneous Magento confirmation of SKUs availability

Accelerate Ordering with Requisition Lists

• Create lists of frequently purchased products for easy re-ordering
• Set up as many lists as needed and assign lists to specific buyers
• Easily add products to lists by:

  • Entering product SKUs

  • Copying previous orders

  • Selecting “Add to Requisition List” from product and category pages

• Simply select products and choose “Add to Cart” to initiate a purchase

Account Roles and Permissions

• Account Roles and Permissions:
  • Create and assign roles and permissions to each buyer
  • Set what users can view and edit
• Purchase on credit with My Account
  • Offer payment on credit as payment option 
  • Manage company credit in the Magento Admin

Second Pillar: Magento Business Intelligence

Magento Business Intelligence gives you access to advanced analytics of your business figures, without needing external expensive experts. Magento 2.2 will integrate a new version of this service, also adapted to B2B, to help merchants Acquire, Convert, and Retain More Customers. 

The Magento developers have worked a new and more performant way for you to manage your business figures and allow you to:

• Connect, consolidate & transform your data. 
• Visualize, analyze and get deep and actionable insights into your business’ data. 
• Create ad-hoc analysis & automate your reporting process: transform the way you make business decisions & collaborate across teams. 

Here are below the new features of the MBI 2.2 platform.

Magento Business Intelligence 2.2 Essentials

• Integrate Magento & Google Analytics data
• Give access to 75 Best Practice Reports that you can read and use
• Custom Report Creation Capabilities
• Available for all Magento Merchants (no special subscription needed)
• Included with Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition
• Advanced Reports; 12 reports using MBI UX to help you manage and track the actions and results

Third Pillar: Magento Shipping

Shipping and shipping options are a crucial piece your eCommerce business. It can definitely act as a business catalyst when understood and done right. 

Research show that:

• 50% of carts are abandoned due to shipping related issues
• 86% Consumers expect shipping options in the shopping cart
• 34% Enterprise retailers take 1-2 days to ship an order

It is clear that there is a big deal behind shipping. Typically, Merchants report positive business impacts with providing shipping options at checkout:

• 75% see a reduction of cart abandonment
• 78% are able to ship to wider geographical area
• 84% have better ability to meet shipping deadlines
• 86% report increased sales, and better ability to meet customer expectations

We have summarized the various changes and business oriented-features that are included in the Magento 2.2 Shipping module, an intelligent, multi-carrier solution to turn shipping and fulfillment into a profit machine.

Magento Shipping essentials

• Easily connect with global carriers
• Drive cart conversion and revenue 
• Automate fulfillment processes
• Reduce shipping-related costs

Magento Shipping: powered by Temando

• Temando will be a strategic partner for Magento. It gives access to:
  • Premier Technology Partner 
  • Multi-carrier shipping and fulfillment software specialists
  • 60K global customers generating billions of transactions
  • Highly scalable, best-in-class micro service oriented platform 
• Temando is a Neopost company
  • A global leader in mailing, shipping and supply chain solutions 
  • €1.2 B Revenue
  • Active in 31 Countries

Easy Connection solution with Global Carriers

• Instantly access the world’s leading carrier networks
• Intuitive and integrated Magento Admin experience
• Quote, book and generate compliant labels and documents
• No more rate tables
• Streamline operations as you grow your business.

Drive Conversion, Revenue, and Loyalty: Provide superior cart-to-door service.

• Display relevant shipping experiences
• Use dynamic rules to control shipping options and price
• Give customers full visibility
• Match shipping services to your brand

Reduce Shipping-Related Costs: Intelligent rules & processes to shrink your costs.

• Automate carrier selection
• Pack and dispatch from any location
• Apply order allocation rules by location
• Use built-in intelligent rules for accurate quoting and rating

A Bundled Extension: The Magento Shipping approach benefits both merchants and partners.

• Single, pre-integrated end-to-end shipping solution
• Seamless availability and easy setup and activation 
• Magento verification
• New carriers and carrier features without extension updates
• Built-in conflict checks

In a nutshell: The shipping module no longer needs to be completely updated to add new mail service providers or new features. In addition, the module contains functions for the automation of processes and promises better conversion rates through additional shopping cart functions.