The Shopware Community Day 2024 took place in mid-May. Several innovative and brand-new Shopware features were introduced at the event. Learn about these new developments and the benefits they offer to online retailers and their customers in this blog post.
In this post:
What you should know about the Shopware Community Day
The Shopware Community Day is our annual highlight where the community of ecommerce enthusiasts, retailers, developers, and Shopware partners gather to exchange ideas on the latest trends, features, technologies, and developments.
This year's event took place on May 15th and 16th at Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. It welcomed over 1,500 international visitors and featured 42 speakers across two days (Tech Day and Merchant Day) and three stages.
The Shopware Community Day is traditionally used to announce major updates, and this year was no exception with the unveiling of our new features. Read on to learn more about these innovations.
Overview of the four new features
1) AI Copilot | Text to Image
With "Text to Image," Shopware users can generate atmospheric images through text input, which can then be embedded as backgrounds for products in the Shopware Shopping Experiences. This allows for quick adaptation of backgrounds to seasonal conditions, new trends, or various moods, creating new impressions or thematic focuses in the online store.
With "AI Copilot | Text to Image" you can:
Quickly and efficiently change image backgrounds
Create appealing product images and environments
Do flexible testing and enhance the personalization of the shopping experience
The video shows how quickly you can create an appealing new background.
"Text to Image" was released with Shopware 6.6.1 and is the twelfth function of the Shopware AI Copilot. It offers numerous practical AI-driven features for daily use and is available to all users of a commercial Shopware plan at no extra cost. Learn more about the other functions in our blog post on our AI Copilot.
2) Scene Editor
The new Scene Editor from Shopware is part of the Spatial Commerce feature set, natively integrated into Shopware. This innovative tool offers online retailers a way to transform the use of 3D models, allowing the creation of dynamic, tailor-made scenes that serve as an economical and superior alternative to conventional photography. In addition to creating images and backgrounds, it focuses on combining these with 3D models of products. The standout feature is the ability to adjust backgrounds, lighting, colors, and renderings to create high-quality representations, allowing customers to experience products in a spatial context and enhancing their purchase confidence. With digital shoppers expecting up to 8 images per product (Salsify), this is a cost-effective and easy way to meet that expectation.
The "Shopware Scene Editor" offers:
Intuitive operation, saving time and money
Enhanced customer experience
Potentially increased purchase confidence and conversion rate, with reduced return rates
Faster go-to-market process for new products
The Scene Editor will be released this summer, initially as a blueprint feature through Insider Previews before being fully integrated into Shopware Rise, Evolve, and Beyond.
3) Immersive Elements
The future of ecommerce lies in creating emotional experiences, and the best way to evoke emotions is through storytelling. How can we best deliver compelling stories online in 2024 and beyond? By creating immersive digital experiences.
To address this need, we've developed an innovative app in collaboration with Instorier, a pioneering Norwegian tech company at the forefront of digital storytelling. This app is designed to transform ecommerce into a captivating, immersive experience, integrating spatial and immersive effects, as well as interactive galleries, into Shopware Shopping Experiences. Featuring 3D spotmarks, parallax effects, and augmented reality and virtual reality, the app, Immersive Elements, launches with five dynamic components. These components are engineered to engage customers, amplify brand loyalty, and boost conversions – all without requiring technical expertise.
Key benefits of the "Immersive Elements" app:
Enhanced visual product presentation and customer experience at a new innovative level
Captivate your customers and stand out with immersive storytelling
Fully optimized for mobile, desktops, and spatial devices like Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest 3
Cost-effective and easy to implement as it is integrated seamlessly within the Shopware infrastructure
The app is available to those across all paid plans and can be purchased through the app store for those using the Community Edition. Try it out now!
4) Sales Agent
In the rapidly evolving landscape of B2B commerce, the conventional method of managing sales relies on disjointed systems, leading to inefficiencies and scattered processes. Sales personnel navigate through multiple platforms, resulting in a lack of coherence and hindering effective customer engagement. This fragmented approach slows down operations and limits revenue growth potential.
Shopware's Sales Agent addresses the complexity of fragmented sales processes by consolidating various activities into a unified platform. With this solution, B2B online retailers can streamline their sales operations, establishing a single source of truth for all sales-related data. This includes a custom overview, assigned customers, previous interactions, scheduling, and the creation of orders, quotes, and order lists for customers. Importantly, CRM systems or communication tools like Outlook are not replaced by the Sales Agent but are more deeply integrated into the commerce platform, creating a centralized hub. By offering a customizable interface tailored to individual sales processes and user needs, the Sales Agent simplifies the management of sales activities and ensures easy onboarding for sales employees allowing for quick adoption.
The advantages of the "Shopware Sales Agent":
Comprehensive overview of all data in one place
Customizable to each B2B sales process and user needs
Easy onboarding for sales employees
Quicker and more effective customer engagement ultimately driving revenue growth
Like the Scene Editor, the Sales Agent will be released this summer, initially through Insider Previews for Shopware Evolve and Beyond. It will be further expanded with additional functions, such as B2B Analytics, and integration points with B2B Components.
Conclusion and further information
From practical AI features to immersive Spatial Commerce capabilities and enhanced B2B sales tools, we hope this overview has provided valuable insights for your business. Be sure to check out our keynote from the Shopware Community Day. Here we provide detailed insights into all the new features.
PS: Have you already been to our Release Hub page? It's also all about the new features. Feel free to drop by!
