Aussie partners SPEQS and Netstarter recognised by Magento for e-commerce innovations

Software vendor Magento Commerce has commended Perth-based optician SPEQS and Sydney-based e-commerce agency Netstarter for their innovations with its e-commerce platform.

SPEQS developed an augmented reality (AR) smartphone app that allows customers to virtually "try on" eyewear before purchasing, while Netstarter was recognised for its Tappy voice-activated shopping assistant.

The two companies join five other Magento partners selected for Magento’s Innovations Lab Showcase, a program recognising innovations that “advance Magento merchant digital experiences”.

“The opportunities for our Magento merchants to drive compelling experiences and great relationships are limitless,” Magento Commerce chief marketing officer Andrea Ward said.

"We kicked off the Innovations Lab as a way to highlight the outstanding contributions happening across the global ecosystem and to showcase how these innovations drive real value to businesses today.

“The imagination and inventiveness among this group not only benefits their customers, but the Magento community as a whole.”

SPEQS co-founder and optometrist Bjorn Russell came up with the idea for the AR solution after finding that its online sales were lower partly due to customers wanting to see how eyewear looked on them before purchasing.

The app measures eye segment height and pupillary distance by mapping the customer's face and fitting their selected eyewear, wherein the measurements can help personalise the lenses for the chosen frames.

“Magento is a powerful platform that allows us to tailor and differentiate our customer experience,” said SPEQS lead developer Erfan Imani.

“We are always inspired by the ingenuity our Magento team brings to market, and we’re excited to share our own development with the rest of the ecosystem.”

The app and the website are both powered by Magento 2, with the former currently available in both iOS and Android in Australia.

Meanwhile, Netstarter developed Tappy with the aim of “reshaping” the shopping experience by making it “more natural” than conventional browsing, while also potentially improving the experience for differently abled individuals.

Tappy is integrated with Google Home, Google chatbot services and Magento.

“The future of Tappy is to learn more about the customers’ interests through their buying behaviors and search patterns to present customized content, products, and offer discounts or promotional deals to increase their intent to purchase, and hence increase the conversion rates in both online and in-store shopping,” Netstarter stated in its Innovations Lab entry.

Other partners Magento recognised were Latvia-based web development company Scandiweb and US-based e-commerce providers Classy Llama, Perficient Digital and Creatuity.