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On mid-October 2011, the X.commerce Innovate Developer Conference was organized by the eBay Ltd. in the Moscone Center, San Francisco. This year’s conference is all about the launch of the new E-Commerce platform: X.commerce, which brings together a whole set of commerce products and technologies from eBay, PayPal and Magento. Read more »

The Challenge

The Etam Group is a French clothing retailer company active in Europe and in China with a total yearly turnover of 1 134.5 million Euros in 2010. During the past few years, the business of Etam has greatly progressed in China. Counting more than 3000 points of sale solely in China, presenting 6 major brands and with a strong investment in the company’s image, Etam has become one of the most reckoned companies focusing in the popular, young and fashionable clothing and apparels in Chinese market. Etam has established its E-Commerce platform in 2006, and hopes to build today a new official website, hoping to enter into the new era in the Chinese E-Commerce market with a brand new look.

After several communications, Etam appoints BysoftChina to build this new E-Commerce platform. Read more »

Varnish Cache is a web application accelerator, also known as a caching HTTP reverse proxy, which is designed for content-heavy dynamic web sites. And today, we have tried Varnish on a Magento default sample shop, to see how well Varnish helps on the loading speed, compared to the bare Magento install.

1          Varnish Features for Magento

1.1         Enable full page caching using Varnish.

For a sample Magento website, Varnish is enabled to cache most of the pages, like Home Page, and other Page Categories.

1.2         Varnish servers are configurable in Admin, under System / Configuration / General – Varnish Options

You can specify which Varnish server Magento website is using. If just use one server for hosting Magento website, we can install varnish on the same server and input the blank as 127.0.0.1:80 which is by default.

1.3         Automatically clears (only) cached pages when products, categories and CMS pages are saved.

For example, if you add a new product or update the parameters of the products, when you click the save button in the admin page, the website data which stored in Varnish will be automatically purged, so that you won’t read the old data in the Varnish Cache.

In the figure below, I modified the price of HTC Touch Diamond, when I click ‘Save’, the Data in the Varnish Cache is purged, so you can see the price of the product is up-to-date. Read more »

The Challenge

KAISER + KRAFT is one of the leading suppliers of office, workshop and warehouse equipment in the world with 44 subsidiaries in 27 countries throughout Europe, North America and Asia. KAISER + KRAFT China and KAISER + KRAFT Japan entrusted BysoftChina, a Magento Professional Partner, to deploy a new eCommerce system that supports their business goals in Asia-Pacific. This project required servers in Hong Kong, China Mainland and Japan, all of which demand a rigorous level of data synchronization and data security.

With multiple servers and multiple instances of Enterprise, KAISER + KRAFT takes full advantage of the Magento Enterprise content staging feature.

The Solution

BysoftChina introduced the idea of applying three separate Magento Enterprise systems into each server with data synchronization among the different servers using the Magento API. A backend tool allows the administrator to automatically synchronize product pricing and inventory data with the information on KAISER + KRAFT’s AS400 ERP system. With multiple servers and multiple instances of Enterprise, KAISER + KRAFT takes full advantage of the Magento Enterprise content staging feature. KAISER + KRAFT China and KAISER + KRAFT Japan are able to share a common backend with different administrators who are able to manage data on the Chinese and Japanese websites.

Managing Thousands & Thousands of Products

BysoftChina developed a complete and reliable data import module which saved significantly on data entry. With so many products (and sub-categories of products), Bysoft developed a grouped product structure for KAISER + KRAFT that allows the administrators to quickly and easily create and manage products at all levels. Bysoft and Magento made it easy for users to find any product among thousands of choices with intelligent search functionality and a multi-option filter in the product category page that helps direct users to requested product pages. Products are clearly displayed in tables that make it very intuitive for consumers to understand the product choices. The administrator can easily define which property to use in the filter and the order to display the products on the frontend.

Bysoft and Magento made it easy for users to find any product among thousands of choices with intelligent search functionality and a multi-option filter.

Bysoft designed the KAISER + KRAFT websites so that their completely localized online stores match the color scheme of their popular print catalogs, making adoption of the online stores easy and seamless for even the most loyal of catalog customers. Additional functional such as the ability to input a six digit product code to directly add the product into the shopping cart makes the shopping and purchasing process easier for consumers.

“We are happy that we chose BysoftChina as our partner because of their detailed planning, high quality standards and outstanding service. We are very pleased that Bysoft used Magento because we now have localized online stores with all of the functionality we need and backend integration that makes our system administrators happy,” said Liu Yang, Chief Marketing Office, KAISER + KRAFT China. With such a large product catalog, performance is critical to help ensure consumer satisfaction. Bysoft implemented the full-page caching and Solr search capabilities of Magento along with Layered Navigation Pro from Aitoc for the product list page.

“The flexibility of Magento Enterprise was a very large benefit for this implementation,” said Cyril Drouin, CEO of BysoftChina. “KAISER + KRAFT has around 100 attributes for each attribute set. This could have been very problematic, but not with Magento. The multistore capabilities of Magento allowed us to code once and implement twice (for China and Japan), saving time and money.”

Although a very complex implementation, Bysoft was able to launch both the China and Japan sites within a four month time frame. KAISER + KRAFT were pleased with the speed and quality of the implementation as well as the user friendly frontend and enriched backend features.

To download the full PDF version of this Case Study
Please click Here.

BysoftChina has just won the SME Excellency Award 2010 awarded each year by the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

This award is given to a French SME for its highly successful presence in China for many years. The selection of the winner is done according to various criteria such as: the market approach, business results and finally the prospects for growth.

It is for BysoftChina an important recognition of work achieved by its teams since the last five years as well in the approach of the Chinese market with a differentiated marketing positioning as the quality and expertise of the services provided.

BysoftChina is the only company in China certified with all leading Open Source Web technologies (Magento, eZ Publish, Drupal, PHP) and has the largest number of certified engineers on PHP technology, among its employees.

Our ambition for the next years is to offer our customers more comprehensive services around our four offers:

• The implementation of platform and e-commerce site
• The creation of inter/intra/extranet portal
• The technology consulting around the PHP technology
• The establishment of foreign brands and companies on the Chinese Web

BysoftChina has three offices (Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan) and one hundred employees in all web business: Consulting, Web Design, Technology, and E-Marketing.

The tags in Magento  is basically a description of the keyword. They can be assigned to the product through the login customer. Tags help clients to organize and remember the products that they have viewed , provide fast navigation options in your shop and optimize search engine optimization process.

The front product page of each product has an ‘Add Your Tags’ button.

When customers enter a word and click Add Tags, the tag will be sent to the Pending Tags queue (if they have not logged in, they will first login or create an account before they can submit tag). If they add many words, each word will be used as a single tag into the queue. Unless the words are included in single quotation marks, in this case, they would be classified as a tag. If you prefer, you can enable customers to get new tags reminder through RSS.

To access the Pending Tags queue, browse Catalog> Tags> Pending Tags, you can click on Edit in the Action column to edit. Select Approved to remove the Tag in this list and displayed in the foreground. Select Not Approved to remove the Tag in this list and will not appear in the foreground. You can also edit the tag’s name. Click Save Tag to Save when you finish.

If you do not need to change the tag’s name, you can batch updates to the audit Tag in order to save time. In the Tag list, select the comments you want to update. In the top of the list, you can select all tags or select all visible tags (tags in current page list). Or you can simply select the check box for each Tag option. You can see the number of options above the list, and to keep it updated. When you choose all tags that you want to modify, you may select your preferred action in the Action drop-down menu.
• Delete – This will delete all the selected Tag.
• Change Status – Select this option, the Status drop-down menu will appear on the right and you can choose Approved, Pending, or Disable. Click the Submit button and the status will be updated.

In Pending Tags queue, you can view all the products lists that the tag was applied to them, find the tag in the list, and select View Products in the Action column. For each product, you can see the frequency of the tag that applies to the product. By clicking the product you will be redirected to the product background page of this product. In Pending Tags queue, you can also view the customer list of the tag that applied to the product to find your needed tag, and select View Customers of Action column. For each customer, you can see customers using this Tag’s Store View and the products, and product SKU. Click customers, and you will redirect yourself to the customer’s background account page.

Once the mark has been approved, it will be displayed in the foreground. When adding to a new product or other customers, it no longer needs to be reviewed. It will automatically appear in the foreground, above the Add Your Tags area, and show the number of times this tag is applied to the product in parentheses.

Click the tag, you will see all products with this tag. In addition, hot tags will appear in the site’s left column, which lists the most common tag cloud.

Although Approved and Disabled Tags are not showed in the Pending Tags queue, they can still be edited. Simply go to Catalog> Tags> All Tags, you can modify them as the same in Pending Tags queue.

From 100magento

In the web technical industry, the engineers are the crucial part for the domain, and the certified engineers become more and more important for a web construction company. Here we will introduce the main international web technical certifications; they represent a symbol of high level web engineer.

Zend PHP 5:

Becoming PHP certified is a measure of your experience in the world of PHP. The goal of the Zend PHP Certification program is to allow PHP professionals to attain the “Zend Certified Engineer” designation. This is identical in concept to other well know certification programs such as “Microsoft’s Certified Professionals (MCP)” and the “Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP)” programs. The Zend PHP Certification program aims at creating a measure of distinction that employers can use to evaluate prospective employees. Becoming a Zend Certified Engineer will help you to be a better programmer, and it will most likely improve the chances of your resume standing out from among other applicants vying for the same position.
The exam is created by an Advisory Board made up of thought leaders in the PHP community. Because the exam is created with specific skills, knowledge and competencies that are matched to real-world job functions, Zend Certifications provide a measure of technical distinction that employers use to evaluate prospective employees.

Flex certification:

An Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) is a person who has demonstrated a professional level in proficiency with one or more Adobe software products. To become an ACE, you must pass one or more product-specific proficiency exams and agree to the ACE terms and conditions.

Zend Framework certification:

The Zend Framework Certification is an industry-wide standard that recognizes the attainment of a professional level of expertise in using Zend Framework . This certification is also a measure of distinction that employers use to evaluate prospective employees.
The exam is created by an Advisory Board made up of thought leaders in the PHP community. Because the exam is created with specific skills, knowledge and competencies that are matched to real-world job functions, Zend Certifications provide a measure of technical distinction that employers use to evaluate prospective employees.

eZ Publish certification:

The eZ certification program expands the services offered by eZ Systems by providing a suite of exams that can be taken by individuals to verify their skills with various aspects of eZ Publish.

My SQL certification:

MySQL certification lays the foundation for becoming a trusted and valuable resource for your company and customers. MySQL certifications are available for Developers, DBAs and for those specializing in MySQL Cluster technologies.

Bysoft is very proud to announce that more than half of its engineers are certified in Bysoft key technologies, we have until now more than 20 Zend PHP 5 certified engineers, and 3 eZ Publish certified engineers and 1 for each of Flex certification, Zend Framework and My SQL certifications, only in month of August, we have 8 more new certified colleagues:

Zend PHP 5?Lincoln, Tony, Jachie, Dean, Mickael, Joshua
EZ Publish: Cavin
My SQL: Chad

With the talent and professional skill of our technical team, Bysoft’s products stand out in the market, and Bysoft grow strongly with the engineers’ growth. We realized the management, operations, and technology’s improvement finally achieved a higher service quality.

To make a good B2C website that can stand out in China, we must to pay attention to two aspects: one is to make sure that your website uses correctly the basic technique for the web marketing, another is to choose an efficient supportive website platform for your business.

Maintain and change Key words, matching your website’s content, on time.
We all know that the higher ranking your e-commerce platform will have from a search engine, the more visitors your e-commerce platform will have. But the traffic is not our ultimate goal, our ultimate goal is to convert prospect into customer. If your key words and website’s content present a large difference, the prospects will be disappointed. They will visit your website without consuming, but you will still pay for a useless promotion.

Choose a good eCommerce (e-commerce) platform
Nowadays, we can find many types of online service development for your eCommerce platform. However, not all the methods can solve your problem. To ensure that your online business does the best exhibition of your products, the Magento platform is one of the most professional and most efficient solutions. Many successful entrepreneurs begin to use Magento platform to develop their online business, because Magento really brings them the advantages which cannot be ignored.
You can check the advantages of Magento in our blog of July 15th, 2010:

http://blogen.bysoftchina.com/technologies/magento/web-application-development-magento-ecommerce/161

Edit simply your website’s content to make it understandable
We may encounter such a situation: we chose to go to the one website and decided to buy something, but due to the website’s content structure, it was difficult to find out the payment procedure, so we gave it up. This loss of conversion is really regrettable. Therefore, make your website be attractive and simple. This is one of the most common drawbacks of Chinese websites. So, if your website in China did this point well, it will be fresh air.

Update in time your website
The update process is required to increase the dynamic of your website. This work can not only allow your customers to see your latest news, but also give you more chance for your search engines ranking.

Do not display excessive information
Sometimes we see some online shopping platform displaying some very attractive advertising, especially about prices, such as “From 10 rmb”. Then, the customers come in and discover later that only a few products are at that price. So they leave without purchasing. In China, the consumers like to buy things in promotion; they may be attracted by your promotion slogan. So if you give them wrong information, it will require a duplication of efforts without any results.

Have a good knowledge about the different characteristics of search engines
In China, both foreign and local search engines are used, such as Google and Baidu. Google has never given you a good ranking even if you have paid for, so check with Baidu since it’s not the same situation. So you should know more about this domain to ensure that your web advertising is enough efficient.

Magento support different product types by default. But sometimes, in order to meet customer’s requirements, you may ask yourself “Do I have to create a new dedicated product type to handle this?”
It is of course possible to define new product types in order to customize the logic of your product. For example, different price rules or cart logic, product view detail page, etc…
Here are some clues, to make sure you won’t forget any important step.

1. what are the critical steps to not forget:
a. First, define the differences between the new product’s type compare to simple product’s type (in order to not code something that Magento already handles, we are not here to re-invent the wheel!)
b. Define the new type (app/code/local///etc/config.xml)
c. Custom product model inherited from abstract product model
d. Custom price model inherited from abstract product price model

2. Problems you might meet:
a. Don’t forget to define the model of catalog data index, else the products that come from this new type won’t be indexed (searchable)
b. Sometimes you may have to modify the mage_catalog module comparing the product type code (some logic can’t be defined at the module level).

3. Is Magento really “module oriented” to implement such a modification:
a. You must always put all the code into one module because the modifications might affect the standard product types (be carefull while rewriting mage_catalog..) (Rewrite the blocks and model of mage_catalog module in the custom module).

Finally, here are some important tips:
a. Make sure the customer really needs a new product type. Usually they want to keep the standard catalog functionalities on front and backend, and still wants some specific behavior. If the specific part can not be handled with attributes system (or slight modifications..), then developing your own product type may be the solution.

b. Create new product type is not that complex. But you will have to customize a lot of logic in new product’s model according to the differences between the different product types.

c. There is not that much documentation about product type on Magento wiki. Having a deep look at the bundle module (Magento core module) is a really good start to understand what you ll have to face. Also, have a look at the really usefull example on Inchoo blog: http://inchoo.net/ecommerce/magento/how-to-create-a-new-product-type-in-magento/.

In today’s world, commercial transactions take place mainly online and an apt answer to these requirements are the e-commerce platforms that have become so common. There are still the challenge to develop bigger and better e-commerce applications that simplify the processes of web application development. Magento e-commerce and web application development platform have already offered solutions to these problems’. Here we can see some basic points about Magento e-commerce’s advantages.

Integration of content and new features

Magento integrates third-party vendor solutions easily, so a Magento website can save you a lot of time and resources.
The functions such as product labels, shipping address, or multi-product comparison system, are included in the existing Magento system, you can find out more.

Professional and Community Support

Unlike other open source solutions, Magento offers professional, reliable support, you can also ask the communities for assistance. They use all the feedback to improve its operation. The platform’s open system allows you to easily upgrade the service.

Better advertising

Raising your conversion rate and having more traffic, you can use a better search engine optimization advantages. Your customer’s feedback and recommendation is your biggest potential customers, so to have a platform to receive more opportunity for reach your target is important. And word of mouth advertising on the strength of the text is a free and effective way to sell products.

Complete scalability

After a time regardless of site or year of growth, you do not need to worry about you system having problems. Magento offers complete scalability. It allows customers to understand software engineering. With specific hosting plan, customers get more knowledge about the system, thereby enabling them to repair and add new features, as the case may require them.

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction should be the top priority in e-commerce. Shopping cart through the provision of effective, comprehensive search and easy clearing functions, user-friendly web site can guarantee your customers’ satisfaction. Magento e-commerce payment and accept a wide range of international currencies to help your customers to purchase abroad easy.