At last week’s LeWeb conference in Paris, Matthew Mengerink, Vice President and General Manager of X.commerce, discussed next steps for the open commerce platform. LeWeb is one of the most influential annual gatherings of elite movers and shakers in the online arena. This year’s conference included Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and many other prominent speakers. Noted blogger Robert Scoble interviewed Mengerink on stage at the conference. You can view a video of their discussion here.
"At eBay Inc., we want to make sure merchants get what they need,” Mengerink said, adding that “X.com is a meeting place for both merchants and developers." He announced several technical updates to the X.commerce platform, including an update to its Developer Package and a limited beta program for its Developer Sandbox.
Also in conjunction with the LeWeb conference, Mengerink’s team announced many new global partners in the growing X.commerce ecosystem, and reported that PayPal Access, the trusted commerce identity system, is now freely available to Magento Go merchants. PayPal Access makes it safer and easier for customers to shop across the Web without having to remember multiple passwords or fill out multi-page forms.
“If you look at the storefront, this is a stressful place to be if you’re a merchant,” Mengerink said. “There is a huge threat of online companies coming in, taking your consumers and optimizing the experience.” Announced in October, X.commerce is an open commerce ecosystem designed to make it easy for merchants to reach consumers in the new, multi-channel shopping environment.
Mengerink also emphasized that, through X.commerce, merchants can easily make their inventory available on mobile platforms. He conjured up an image of a shopper looking at a product in a physical storefront. “As someone is walking down the street,” he said, “you can now advertise to them on the phone, and tell them that two blocks down the street the same product is available at a 20 percent discount. Who won’t do that?”
You can learn about the X.commerce announcements at LeWeb here, and find out more about the platform at X.com.