The Future of E-commerce: Exploring Magento 2.4.X Features

The Magento possibilities are well-known to all the e-commerce business store owners. 

Why not? 

Magento web development services drive almost 1.2% of the online industry. The web development platform has empowered business owners and entrepreneurs to expand their operations. 

After looking at the recent updates regarding Magento, we came across Magento 2.4.x or 2.4.6, the powerful version of Magento e-commerce and the Open-Source network. The update came into existence in March 2023. Magento 2.4.x update will improve e-commerce web development by adding several features and functionalities that do not add to the e-commerce store venture and build the business revenue. 

Therefore, this write-up will let you explore the latest features of the Magento 2.4.x update and provide you an insight into- 

• Magento 2.4.x Fixed Issues
• Know About Magento 2.4.7 Beta
• Official Release of Magento 2.4.x
• Magento 2.4.x Requirements
• How to Upgrade to Magento 2.4.x

So, read the blog further to learn more about the latest Magento 2.4.x update and how to install it for your online business store.

Reach out to an Adobe Commerce development company in Banglore and get your Magento 2.4.x upgrade according to your business requirements. 

Displaying Magento 2.4.x: The Release Note Highlights 

With the release date of Magento 2.4.x this year, there were several anticipations about it. The latest version of the e-commerce platform includes functionalities that add to the existing features for e-commerce web users. 

The new version has PHP 8.2 functionality to take your e-commerce web experience to a new level. Also, scalability and speed improvements ensure the smooth functioning of the online store. 

Here is an overview of the release note highlighting the Magento 2.4.x upgrade. 

• Product updates and filtering in the grid are now error-free with API. 
• The full-page cache is not flushed if any product is out of stock. 
• Data is cached successfully after the L2 cache is enabled. 
• The button workflow in the ‘Review’ and ‘Checkout’ order process is available over keyboard inputs. 
• Administrators can easily add as many items as they want to personalize a product. 
• Business merchants can now select their external SMTP provider. 
• Outdated JavaScript libraries are updated. 
• Customers exceeding the maximum number of unsuccessful logins can now log in with a password reset.
• Users can add unlimited items to an existing personalized product. 
• Adobe Commerce cannot send unwanted e-mails to the customer when an order gets generated from admin. 

Now we know about Magento 2.4.x, let us look at its features for e-commerce business and how to upgrade to the latest version. 

Want to know more about Magento 2.4.x in detail? Meet our Magento web development service providers in Bangalore as soon as possible. 

Magento 2.4.x Features 

The new Magento 2.4.x provides a lot of changes, such as: 

• 98 new features
• 68 bugs fixed
• 7 test cycles
• 12 new extensions
• PHP 7.4 support
• 50 security changes
• An external beta programs
• 12 packages. 

Apart from these features, several new functionalities cater to the e-commerce website’s needs, which are as follows. 

New Magento 2.4.x Features for E-commerce Sites 

The Magento platform is one of the flagship offerings that provides several updates to improve the e-commerce websites available for merchants and customers. Here are some of the latest additions to the Magento e-commerce platform that accompany the new 2.4.x update. 

1. Improvement in Default Search 

For an e-commerce platform, search is an essential tool that a customer will use. In Magento 2.4.x, Elasticsearch replaces the search engine powered by MySQL. The tool is necessary for the new Magento update to improve the search engine experience for the customers. 

2. Two-Factor Authorisation for Better Security 

Security is crucial for business owners as e-commerce websites become more complex and deal with money and users. Magento 2.4.x has two-factor authentication for admin users. Same as other procedures, the user gets a code that acts as an additional layer of authentication.

3. In-Store Pickup 

Delays in shipping dates and high shipping costs annoy the customers. In the past two years, there has been a rapid rise in the demand for online pick-up in-store orders, also known as BOPIS. 

With Magento 2.4.x, you can extend the BOPIS option to the customers to improve conversions, encourage fast purchasing, and increase the chances of upselling and cross-selling when users visit the online business store.

4. Seller-Assisting Shop 

Helping customers when required is necessary and with Magento 2.4.x, you can do that with the shop-assisting process. With this feature, your customer can use the Magento Admin to log on to the website. They can directly guide users without depending on vague user responses. It helps speed up the overall process to impress people and save the employee time. 

5. Fast and Easy PWA Development 

The latest websites offer customers Progressive Web App or PWA experiences. Therefore, Magento offers PWA Studio along with the new Magento 2.4.x upgrade. It has a Venia storefront experience, a cart, and a checkout workflow to speed up business transactions. With these improvements, it becomes easy to launch PWA storefronts.

Magento 2.4.x Features for B2B E-Commerce Business

With more and more B2B sellers moving to an online selling mode, e-commerce business platforms offer functionalities and features for websites. The Magento 2.4.x update includes new features for business sites to improve spending control, sales and customer service, and performance. The features are as follows- 

1. New Purchase Workflow Approval 

B2B businesses are dependent on the purchasing protocols and policies of the company. There are rules when product purchases require approval for corporate spending policies. Magento 2.4.x provides a new approval workflow functionality that provides B2B organizations with a form to customize their approval process. 

These approval workflows help sellers use simple purchasing policies to attract new businesses. The workflow approval streamlines the pre-purchase process for B2B buyers. 

2. New Search Feature 

Apart from the new catalog search function, you will get a new and improved search feature to check for previous purchase orders. You can search for past orders by the SKU, product name, order name, buyer name who created the order, order status, or data. Through past order tracking, buyers manage their shopping using B2B sellers that boost buyer confidence.

3. New Seller Assisting Shop 

Similar to the new seller-assisted shopping feature with the Magento 2.4.x update for B2C e-commerce, you also get a version available for B2B businesses. With the shopping feature, you can access the buyer’s interface. It helps with several problems and placing orders on the customer’s behalf. Also, you can find products, manage permissions, set up rules, and develop quotations.

4. New Security and Control 

The Magento 2.4.x update enhances the security and control of B2B e-commerce websites. You can regulate account access for business owners and log actions and orders. Good security for the customers as the sellers cannot access customer passwords. Each session gets destroyed when the admin logs out. 

5. New Streamlined Purchases 

Magento 2.4.x helps streamline B2B purchases using e-mail notifications at every step, order history, and tracking the approval flow. All these orders are managed in the ‘My Purchase Orders’ area and seen at a company and personal level.

There is also an automated approval process when the order value does not need approval. According to a threshold found by the buyer, automatic approval for the product orders and e-mail notifications are delivered to the approvers.

Benefits of Magento 2.4.x E-commerce Platform 

Since its release, Magento 2.4.x has been impressing web developers and merchants due to its top benefits. The benefits involve better security, platform upgrades, quick deployments and changes, and improved performance. Here are some of them- 

1. Upgrades  

Various platform upgrades increase the security of the site and enhance its performance. The desired support came into existence for PHP 7.4. Zend Framework changed to the Linux Foundation’s Laminas Project.  

There is support for Elastic Search 7.6, replacing MySQL as the default catalog search engine. Although support for MySQL 8.0 is there. Also, you will need support for Internet Explorer 11. x browser.

2. Security

There are around 30 security improvements and fixes with Magento 2.4.x to offer protection against XSS vulnerabilities. The filter strict mode is enabled to protect the website against RCE attacks. A two-factor authentication protocol and a multi-factor authentication secure access to the Cloud SSH. 

A security.txt file is supported to let security researchers report potential security concerns to the administration team. Also, default data rendering for UI data providers is disabled to prevent the execution of arbitrary JavaScript.

3. Customer and Sales Service 

Hectic shopping experiences and lengthy checkout processes discourage users, B2B, and B2C organizations. The seller-assisted shopping feature allows business merchants to view the e-commerce storefront as seen by the customer. Admin access can directly view the customer’s shopping interface and the problems the customer faces conveniently. 

4. Improvement in Performance 

The Magento 2.4.x release enhances the Redis performance with several optimization ways. You get a new process to invalidate the customer data by avoiding a known issue. Using PHP 7.4, PHP Unit 9 support, and the MFTF helper, create a custom action with schema updates, static checks, and nested assertion syntax.

The add-to-cart and quick order performance features improved by 25-30%. The results caching upgrade to allow merchants to load images using the lazy loading feature. The ability of GraphQL has enhanced significantly.

5. Infrastructure 

The new Magento 2.4.x update improved the infrastructure for B2B business, customer accounts, catalogs, imports, and checkouts. The e-commerce platform also removed the core integration of third-party payments. The Express PayPal checkout has been updated to the JavaScript SDK PayPal to improve security and support new features without changes. The default Elasticsearch catalog search engine supports partial words during product search.

Magento 2.4.x System Requirements 

Are you now planning a system upgrade from Magento 2 to Magento 2.4.x? 

In that case, be prepared for an extensive range of changes in your system. Here is a list of the requirements. 

• MySQL 8.0 
• MariaDB 10.6
• AWS OpenSearch 1.2 
• AWS MQ 3.9.13 
• Varnish 7.1 
• Apache 2.4 
• Redis 7.0
• Composer 2.2
•  Elasticsearch 7. x or 8.x 
• Ngnix 1.18
• AWS Aurora 8.0 
• RabbitMQ 3.9 

Knowing these requirements, you get the option to upgrade to Magento 2.4.x. So, let us scroll further and find out how to upgrade to the latest update. 

Let us discuss your project requirements using our free consultation services. Connect with the best team at the leading Magento website development company in Bangalore. Book an appointment today, 

How to Upgrade to Magento 2.4.x? 

Before you shift to Magento 2.4.x, know that you meet all the upgrade requirements and prepare your system. Move to a staging site and back to the Magento application. It will also downgrade the Magento version easily. 

Here is an insight into how to upgrade to the latest Magento version. 

Step 1- Switch to Maintenance Mode 

Enable the maintenance mode to prevent access to your system to update to the latest Magento version. The command to switch to the maintenance mode is- 

“Php bin/magento maintenance: enable.”

Step 2- Build the Backup of ‘composer.json’ file 

The next step is to create a backup of the Magento store and its database. To create one, you can- 

• Develop a staging environment for the update. 
• Deploy all the settings in the production part with

“Cp composer.json  composer.json.bak” 

Step 3- Update the Package 

Install all the essential package requirements added to the system before you upgrade to Magento 2.4.x or 2.4.6. 

Step 4-Magento Upgrade Using Composer  

Composer can update the Adobe Commerce platform from version 2.4.5 to version 2.4.x. So, note that Adobe Commerce 2.4.2 adds Composer 2 functionality essential for upgrading to versions more than 2.4.2.

The Last Lines   

Magento 2.4.x is the new and latest version of the popular e-commerce platform released in the market. The upgrade provides a range of updates to boost security and add functionality for B2B and B2C business websites. Updating the Magento software is the right way to stay updated with the latest trends and technologies so that your online website is the best.

With the release, Magento has started offering excellent services, simplifying and streamlining various processes so that the platform works even better than before. The top features provided by Magento 2.4.x offer are considered valuable tools for e-commerce websites.

Therefore, it is time to reach our skilled Magento web developers in Bangalore team at Indglobal Digital Private Limited to discuss your organizational requirements to help you design a customized online business solution developed for your business niche.