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Managing Multiple Store Fronts on Magento
Magento's multi-store capabilities allow businesses to run multiple storefronts from a single Magento installation. This reduces costs and overhead compared to running separate sites. Key benefits include reusable catalog and customer data, centralized order management, and shared marketing and admin tools. The presentation provides examples of how Magento's architecture supports multi-site implementations and discusses additional partners that can help with hosting, tax compliance, and training.
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Managing Multiple Store Fronts on Magento
- 1. How Magento’s Multi-Store CapabilitiesWill Help You Grow Your Business February, 2013
- 2. Introduction • Derek Jacobson– Vice President of Ecommerce Solutions at Levementum • Levementum – 2011 Magento Emerging Partner of the Year Award Winner – Levementum is a leading implementer of Magento Enterprise Edition and the leading implementer of Open Source and Cloud Based Applications – We specialize in solutions that feature • Cloud based technology • Multiple Store Fronts • Call Center, Inside Sales, Customer Service Solutions • System Integration to CRM, ERP, Telephony and Order Management Solutions • B2B solutions including reseller, distribution and channel support systems
- 3. With Me TodayFrom Magento • Brian Lavorini– Territory Sales Manager – brianlavorini@ebay.com – 872.588.0071
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- 6. What’s your eCommercestory?
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- 9. Magento Enterprise: MerchantsOverview
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- 11. Magento Enterprise Features Marketing Tools Product Catalog Consumer Experience Performance & Design Infrastructure & Security & Standards Easy-to-use, Back-end Integration Compliance Permission Based Admin Panel
- 12. Untamed Creativity withMagento
- 13. Managing the ProductCatalog • Easy to use admin tools – Content Management System • No technical knowledge necessary • Version Control – Attribute Management – Personalized content based on user profiles – Content staging - merge to the live site on-demand or scheduled – Admin controls of publishing privileges
- 14. Marketing Tools •Turn browsers to buyers – Promotions – Product Suggestions – Consumer Generated Product Reviews and Ratings – Upsell and Cross-sell Tools – Email marketing
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- 16. Turning Buyers intoRepeat Buyers • Targeted marketing campaigns • Promotions • Wish Lists and Gift Registries • Loyalty and Rewards Points programs
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- 18. Taking Full Advantageof Magento • Private Sales/Flash Sales • Product and catalog management • Innovative customization
- 19. Performance and Security • Performance Features • Security / Compliance – Full Page Caching for All Users – PA-DSS Compliant – Caching of Content for Category, • Aids Merchants in Product and CMS Pages Achieving PCI – Solr Search Compliance – PHP Accelerator – Order Archiving • Strong Data Encryption
- 20. Scalable Performance Over 1,000 page 1 Million Orders per Hour Over 10,000 Skus views/day 1,000,000 unique SKUS 5,000 orders/day
- 21. Multiple Sites withOne Magento Flexibility • B2B with B2C Instance • Multi-brand / multi-sites • Special VIP sites •Multi-national sites (localized language/currency)
- 22. eCommerce with Magento Magento Training Learn how to leverage eCommerce to enhance your business. This class is specifically designed for merchants . After attending this class you will be able to: • Recognize and understand the state of eCommerce and trends for the future • Analyze, plan and design your Magento site based on your specific requirements • Leverage the many features included in the Magento platform to attract consumers, increase conversion rates, grow revenue, foster customer satisfaction and maximize the return on your Magento investment. Online, instructor-led course (4 two-hour sessions) $950 value Give your business card to me and you’ll be entered to win a free “eCommerce with Magento” class
- 23. Why Levementum Chose Magento Enterprise, Why You • Should Too Ecommerce is no longer a luxury, it’s expected by your customers • Ecommerce has changed – consider the impact of social media • Capital funding is too precious to waste – Stop spending $ to build what should be present from the beginning • We wanted a mature platform that would be enhanced intelligently • We wanted to find a partner that let us focus on our business • We wanted the same things as you – Predictability – Quality – Features – A roadmap that was real – A stable, but expanding architecture – Value for the investment and a sensible way to grow our business
- 24. With Us FromPeer 1, Our Premier Hosting Partner • Travis Eiland, teiland@peer1.com – Peer 1 is a global, Enterprise class hosting and infrastructure provider that can support customers of all sizes – Peer 1 provides fully managed services including server, firewall, intrusion detection / prevention, PCI compliance, and pre-configured / pre-tuned Magento systems – Levementum exclusively recommends Peer 1 based on its superior delivery capabilities, industry best support and SLA models, with competitive pricing in every scenario – Peer 1 ‘Wrote the Book’ on Scaling with Magento
- 25. With Us FromAvalara • Jesse Bornfreund, Channel Partner Manager – Jesse.bornfreund@avalara.com • Pop Quiz: – You are in New York, buying a running suit. The cost is $100. Is it taxable? • What if it costs $120? – You’re in California, you buy software which is downloaded? Is it taxable? • What if you have it shipped to you? • What if it’s downloadable and shipped? – You’re buying bagels in New York, taxable? • What if they put cream cheese on it for you?
- 26. Agenda • Why leveragemultiple store fronts? • Discuss key areas to plan around to support multiple store fronts • Magento’s solutions to areas that cause operational overhead and increased costs • Additional reference material and case studies for future use
- 27. Why Should YouCreate Multiple Store Fronts? • Market and brand your company to different demographic groups • Highlight subsets of your catalog in sites that cater to niche markets • Provide multiple price points to different groups without eroding your core margin • Set up cobranded or partner affiliated sites • Enable different levels of customer service and support programs to different audiences (B2B)
- 28. What are theRisks? • Operational impacts – Multiple locations for inventory management – Branding, marketing, and content management activities can increase faster than sales – Customer service and support may have to learn and manage multiple tools or sites – Tax, compliance and filing effort will grow unexpectedly • Traditionally, time to setup, brand and configure each store front takes as long as the original base store – Total setup costs exceeded expected value from each additional store
- 29. What Drives Operational Overhead? • Catalog management • User Interface (theme, skin, layout) • Managing order intake and integration to your order management system • Customer service and customer management for support, sales, and responding to inquiries
- 30. Catalog Management • Challenges: • Solution: Magento’s – Maintaining the addition of products in virtual catalog model multiple sites – Establish one base catalog – Keeping inventory and and ‘inherit’ all or portions to pricing up to date in each site you setup each site – Overrides are available site – Managing images, by site attributes, and other marketing content by – Changes to the base can manually coding replicate automatically changes on each site’s – Inventory can be synced and pages maintained from your back office tools for all sites at once
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- 32. User Interface andDesign • Challenge • Solution: Magento’s – How to take a base theme model – Allows you to extract the user design and modify it interface and to create a new site – Apply to each additional site like with a new look and a ‘plug-in’ feel without going – Within each site you can then change color, font, logos, banner through the entire adds, etc. process from • Magento’s CMS tool allows scratch? you to add and manage content in all or select sites without writing code
- 33. 2 Sites, 2Brands, 1 eCommerce Instance
- 34. Order Management and Integration • Challenge • Solution: Magento – If you’ve managed provides out of the box multiple stores on integration APIs (along with Volusion, Yahoo many prebuilt extensions) Carts or other to take order activity from platforms, you all your sites and sync with appreciate the your ERP or Order challenge of getting Management Solution orders into your – You can also integrate and Order Management automate shipping System notifications from ERP to Magento
- 35. A Note onInfrastructure • Magento’s architecture provides a platform approach to scale multiple store fronts functionally • Peer 1’s infrastructure approach and model lets you scale effectively, and in a cost effective manner without having to dedicate and hire full time system administration tasks • We have instances of customers running 15 sites, for high volumes of activity on each site, off of two server footprints – Peer 1’s model provides stability not just for visitor traffic, but for the processes and workflows (integration) which add over head to your system
- 36. Process Standardization andControl • Challenge • Solution: One Application – Multiple tools means Base in Magento multiple training requirements for customer Enterprise service – By default, your sites will act – Multiple cycles of and behave the same maintenance, upgrades and revisions – Logic and integration changes – Adding new functionality are made available to all sites means programmatic – Customer Service manages changes to each tool or return inquiries and support site separately requests in one place for all – Creating promotional sites campaigns requires repeated steps and – Customer notifications for intense manual effort shipments, change orders, and inventory notifications are all triggered automatically and in a consistent method
- 37. With Growth ComesOperational and Financial Complexity • Without question, state and local governments are making enforcing of sales tax laws a focal point • For growing merchants, compliance is not an option • Avalara provides a real time, integrated tax calculation service AND… – They provide tax data, financial filings (one click)
- 38. Avalara – AMust If… • You are… – You are in a state where local municipalities are charging their own sales taxes – Your state is financing a sports stadium now or in the past 10 years (or talking about it) – You have or participate in an affiliate / referral / commissioning program with parties in other states – Paying taxes in more than 1 state (multi-state nexus) – Paying taxes in Home Rule and/or Mixed Sourcing states such as CA, TX, OH, AL, AK, AZ, CO, ID, IL,LA – Switching or upgrading your ERP or accounting system – Selling tax-exempt products or services, or working with customers who work with do deal in exempt transactions. – Preparing for or recovering from a recent audit – Working with a new controller or CFO – Working with a dedicated, in-house tax department – Employing a remote work force – Managing multiple order entry systems
- 39. What Can YouExpect When you Expand with Magento? • We have seen secondary sites ‘go live’ in as little as 7days following the release of the primary site (typical is closer to 2 or 3 weeks) – Magento is about reuse and standardization – Magento provides you a greater set of tools to be self sufficient and reduce programming requirements • Designing your primary site with the expectation of potential reuse is a key factor to achieving great results • We are all here to help
- 40. Additional Resources • Be sure to visit our site and blog: – http://www.levementum.com – http://www.levementum.com/blog • Here you’ll find – Solution summaries – Packaged offerings – White papers – More • We’ll be sending you a full copy of this presentation to keep as well as materials from each of our partners • You can contact us at 480-320-2500 or sales@levementum.com at anytime to discuss your site(s) and needs or to see a live demonstration of a multi-store front Magento instance
Editor's Notes
- #5 Greeting. Thanks for coming, etc. Magento has a clear mission: to be the eCommerce platform for growth. We enable merchant success by giving you what you need to you to run your online business your way. We pursue this mission by • developing flexible products that meet the needs of merchants • focusing on meeting customer needs through innovation • partnering with world-class solution providers for implementation • actively engaging with the community for third party extensions and applications At the center of all that we do – merchant success. None of us – Magento, our Solution, Industry and Hosting Partners - are anything without the success of our merchants.
- #7 Engage the audience. Ask by a raise of hands who they are and what type of eCommerce presence they have today. This will give you an idea of areas you may want to emphasize or let them know that you can discuss separately. Merchants come to us with a variety online situations: Website – informative only, no eCommerce Simple shopping cart Proprietary or home grown online store Magento Community site
- #8 To help address the challenges facing online merchants we offer our open source eCommerce platform which is the foundation for all of our products. Magento Enterprise is our flagship commercial offering, and the cornerstone of our business. We’ll focus on Enterprise during out presentation today. Magento Mobile offers mobile web or native apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices. And in March of last year, we introduced Magento Go, our SaaS solution for very small businesses.
- #9 The Magento Ecosystem is one of most powerful aspects of the Magento story. The eCommerce platform is only one piece of a successful eCommerce strategy. And our tremendous Ecosystem, gives merchants the options and flexibility they need to maximize revenue. Whether that’s technology partners…. Solutions integrators…. Magento technical support, training and consulting…. Or supplemental software found in Magento Connect While the core of our vision may be our products – our partners help make your success a reality.
- #10 Here are some of the merchants using Magento Enterprise… We’re adding an average of 100 new customers / month You can see a wide range of verticals represented: from apparel, footwear, accessories, electronics, food and beverage, publishing, home goods and more Geographically our strongest presence is NA and Europe, but we’re experiencing organic growth in Asia, Brazil, and Australia
- #11 I’m going to spend the rest of my time here giving you a very high level overview of Magento Enterprise. In the time allotted I will only be able to touch on a few of the most popular features of Magento Enterprise but anyone who is interested in getting more in-depth information on the product should contact me or PARTNER directly. This is our leading commercial solution, and the offering that has been such a disruptive force in the market, providing a robust, supported, enterprise–class eCommerce solution at a price that makes it accessible to businesses of every size. Our sales were up 60% last year and our merchant base doubled.
- #12 In developing Magento we leverage our thorough understanding of how an eCommerce business works and what it needs to succeed. Magento Enterprise is designed so that companies can have complete control over the look and feel of their site ; they can easily integrate their online store front with their backend business processes ; and there are extensive marketing and sales features . Enterprise features include things like customer targeted and rule-based promotions, integrated email marketing, performance enhancements like full-page caching and Solr Search and sales boosters like persistent shopping, automated emails to reduce cart abandonment, gift options and a number of desirable admin controls. We also provide an easy-to-use content management system that enables the creation of custom Landing Pages, personalized content based on user profiles and content staging capabilities that requires no IT involvement or development knowledge.
- #13 NOTE: THIS SLIDE IS AN AUTO BUILD WITH SEVERAL EXAMPLES. CLICK TO START Enterprise is extremely flexible and completely customizable . Here are a few examples of what some have done to uniquely brand their store. Your business is unique – your online store should be too .
- #14 Magento makes it easy to manage your product catalog . Anyone can learn to manage the catalog and Magento provides admin controls over publishing privileges for quality control . We provide an easy-to-use content management system that enables the creation of custom Landing Pages, personalized content based on user profiles and content staging capabilities that require no IT involvement or development knowledge. We offer free ondemand training for people to easily learn how to work with the product catalog.
- #15 Marketing Tools is quite broad and actually encompasses a large number of features including the ability to integrate Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing capabilities (getting customers to you) plus Marketing tools that help turn browsers to buyers such as: Promotions Product suggestions Consumer generated product reviews and ratings Upsell and cross-sell tools And so much more! On this site we see that the merchant provides cross sell and product reviews right on the product page to not only help the consumer make a decision but to also help increase the average order value.
- #16 Here ’s a great example of how Toms shoes uses upsell and cross sell techniques throughout the shopping experience to increase conversion rates and revenue. Toms doesn’t just show the customer what they came to find – they present the customer with an added selection of products based on the consumers behavior and shopping patterns . Upsell and cross-sell tools such as these not only help increase the size of the order but they also increase brand loyalty and these features are available with Magento out-of-the-box.
- #17 Once you begin building your online clientele you want to make sure to turn them in to loyal, repeat customers . Magento Enterprise helps you do this with the ability to customize campaigns for target customer segments; employ loyalty and rewards points programs and encourage friends and families to shop with wish lists and gift registries.
- #18 Furniture retailer BluDot has used Magento Enterprise to create their highly customized furniture ordering system . Blu Dot’s product catalog is completely integrated with Magento and their back-end ERP system to handle all site updates and orders in real-time . This was a distinctly complex endeavor because each component of Blu Dot’s modular furniture is treated as a separate item. For example, each door color for a cabinet has to be treated individually. Each cabinet is a composite of unique items. This “composite product” functionality is another out-of-the-box feature of Magento Enterprise.
- #19 Private sales site, Exclusively. In, manages a complex multi-vendor environment with Magento’s built-in levels of administrative control and strong backend integration. Magento also has built-in features specifically designed for private sales sites. As a private sales site Exclusively. In is constantly adding new vendors and products ; sometimes up to dozens each day and they have a wide breadth of products – clothing, jewelry, travel, home décor and more. Their heavily customized Magento Enterprise site allows administrators to add vendors and their products on a constant basis . They are able to manage all backend processing including reporting, payments, returns and real-time inventory management within Magento . The system relies on a barcode application that uses product photos to ensure the correct items are picked for orders , and it integrates seamlessly with a unique ERP system. This is a complicated environment that Magento made possible .
- #20 Performance: Enterprise SEO integration capabilities can help you get people to your store and then highly tuned page performance will help ensure their experience is satisfying. Enterprise supports full page caching for all users, which means once a customer visits your site Enterprise can cache the contents of an entire page. For example: the homepage is typically accessed most frequently and full-page caching allows the web server to significantly increase the performance for this page. Bandwidth is therefore not effected by frequent visitors and thus maximum performance is maintainted for customers. The Enterprise architecture is designed to support thousands - tens of thousands - of transactions per hour. Security/Compliance When it comes to transferring customer data – especially payment data – strong security is a must – for your business and for your customers ’ peace of mind. Magento Enterprise is PA-DSS compliant platform and supports strong data encryption.
- #21 NOTE: THIS SLIDE BUILDS FOR EACH EXAMPLE. There are several metrics commonly used to describe performance of online stores – page views per second; orders per hour or day and concurrent site visitors. Enterprise scales well even with sites that have large catalog sizes. Some of our customers have catalogs as large as several million products. With Magento’s full page caching all static elements are cached while dynamic elements are cached separately so that product information like price and availability can be updated without a negative impact on performance . Some examples of performance include (click) Toms with over 1,000 orders / hour (click) Harbor Freight with about 1Million page views / day and 1Million SKUs and 5,000 orders /day (click) Lockerz – a flash sales site which has dramatic peaks in page views and orders depending on when sales are happening – Magento can scale to handle these peak loads Magento is publishing a white paper that details optimal configurations for performance. In one example using a setup with two web nodes and one database server, Magento Enterprise is supporting 4,300 requests per second and more than half a million orders per day. if you configure Magento correctly, it will scale and it will perform.
- #22 With one Magento Enterprise license you can create multiple independent sites . Many companies have multiple brands that they manage separately. Magento allows you to create customized sites for each brand with one Magento instance. The nice things is that all of the backend integration is done just once and integrated for all sites. There are many examples of what can be done with multi-site instances. Ten Thousand Villages has 70 brick-n-mortar stores around the country each with their own online “storefront” supported from the primary online store all on one Magento Enterprise instance. Another nice example of what can be done with multi-sites is incorporating a B2B site with a B2C. We have a number of retail merchants who manage their distribution channel with a B2B site that can be tightly integrated with their B2C site in regards to managing the back-end for tracking inventory, for accounting purposes and more.