It was a wonderful event, which truly showed that eBay is dedicated to Magento and is betting on its growth. The line up of speakers and the venue were great, as reflected by many people in the audience. The organizers have really put up a great show, but it's time to actually look back and analyze what happened in Vegas and learn more about the latest trends in eCommerce and Magento development. Our CEO, Paul, stayed for the whole duration of the conference and shared some of his insights with us. 

Now that it's been 2 weeks since Imagine 2015, we can check out the feedback from other attendees and find those important bits of information and universal ideas, which Imagine introduced to its visitors. Here are the trends and ideas that will orbit the world of eCommerce and Magento in the nearest future: 

Magento Is Going Strong

Despite of certain negativity towards Magento by some developers and competitors, Imagine 2015 showed that big businesses and big brands are actively using the platforms to their advantage. Many successful companies embraced the versatility of Magento and use it for their advantage. 

With the talks about the future of Magento 2 and its better scalability, we can be certain that not only big businesses with better resources will be eager to join the platform. 

Scalability: Yes - We Can!

As mentioned above - Magento 2 will be more scalable than its predecessor. At the same time, some of the conference atendees and speakers have actually proven that the current version of Magento is also a scalable solution that can work for businesses, geared towards explosive growth.

If you're still not sure, if Magento is the right choice for your growing and expanding online store, then companies like Saraiva should serve as a great example of Magento scalability success.

Customer Experience Matters

We went through a number of Imagine 2015 takeaway posts and one theme comes up all the time - it's all about the customers. Yes, this does sound a bit too general and pretentious. After all, what does it mean to be 'customer-centric'? What exactly do you have to do, in order to actually make the customer experience matter? For us, it's quite simple. Go through your product experience, like you're a customer. Don't assume that your product is useful, just because you can see all of it's benefits. Don't assume that the customer is willing to go through anything in order to obtain your product and/or service. Use customer feedback to your advantage, build on that and be ready to face the truth - your product might not be perfect.

People Matter More

Steve Wynn was headlining the event. His speech was great and inspiring. Here's someone, who embodies entrepreneurship and the whole 'American dream' (sorry for the cliche). While his speech was filled with tons of great tips for young entrepreneurs, there was a little idea that actually has great implications.

Mr. Wynn said that the biggest capital that a company/business might have are people. Any people, really. Customers, employees, partners, etc. It all goes down to cherishing the type of people, you try to focus on. If you're a customer-centered business, don't let the technology stand in the way. Invest in your clients, invest in your employees. Don't get caught up in the technology that drives your business. Don't think that your success was primarily driven by the tech that you use. It was all about the people that interact with the said technology. What does it mean? Be customer-centric (as mentioned above). Be employee-centric. This could be greatly described by a quote from Thomas J. Watson (former CEO of IBM): “Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him.”

Partnerships

Imagine 2015 was a great event to meet new people and reaffirm previous partnerships. It was fun to meet guys from dotMailer, DCKAP, aheadWorks and others. We're proud to feature their extensions in our marketplace, along with thousands of others from hundreds of providers, some of which we were also able to meet at the conference.

We're thankful for the opportunity to discuss partnerships with guys from Zerolag, Rackspace and Softlayer. Cooperation with big brands like these can only make our services better, more reliable and flexible.

It was also great to meet new people like guys from Shoplogiq, Madia.nl and Fruition.net, etc.

We're hoping that all of these connections with results-driven and innovative Magento companies will add even more value to our services. Events like Imagine create unprecendented opportunities for small businesses like ours and we're glad to be able to participate in them.

Some Wisdom from Paul

This is a quote from our CEO, Paul, about Imagine 2015 and his experience there: ”Imagine opened a lot of opportunities for us and the kind of revelations that you could get during an event like this are priceless. I learned a lot more about our product within these 3 days, then I did for the past couple of months. The feedback that people gave me will always stay with me and is definitely going to help us make our product even better. It was amazing to meet all these people that care about the same things as you do, in one place. I can't wait for Imagine 2016!”

In the End

Imagine Commerce 2015 has shown that eBay is investing heavily into Magento. We're not just talking about money here. We're talking about the potential that Magento and all of it's future versions will have. You can get more great takeaways from Imagine here.

If you're tired of reading then definitely check out this pumped highlights video from Magento:

What's your biggest takeaway from Imagine 2015? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below!