Meet Magento: Open Source Innovation & Community

🌟 Live from Meet Magento Florida! 🌟 

In this Ecommerce edition of Hello Moxie, host Nicole Donnelly speaks with Arron Moss about the importance of diversity in tech, community collaboration, and the resurgence of open source initiatives like Magento. They discuss personal inspirations, the role of women in e-commerce, and how men can be allies to women in the industry. 

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Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:00)
You're listening to the e-commerce edition of Hello Moxie with Nicole Donnelly. In each episode, we speak with leaders in the e-commerce industry on promoting diversity in the tech sector, the latest e-commerce trends, and how B2B brands can innovate through e-commerce. is sponsored by DMG. A woman owned marketing consultancy dedicated to helping B2B companies create exceptional customer experiences.

Speaker 1 (00:14)
Hello Mox. Digital.

Hello, we're back. I'm here with Erin Moss. Erin, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:30)
Very good, thank you very much for asking. A little bit elated from doing our talk.

Speaker 1 (00:35)
It's always great feeling when you're done, Beforehand, it's always a little stressful. then you get up there and I don't know, I love the energy of being up there and on stage.

Speaker 2 (00:45)
and it's processing the adrenaline and just what next and then the rest of the day more talks and some fun.

Speaker 1 (00:48)
us.

Yeah, very good. Why don't you tell our listeners a little about you and your talk today, what you were talking about.

Speaker 2 (00:59)
Okay, yeah, so we presented this time last year our first open source initiative project, which is an open source point of sale for Magento. It was inspired by Meet Magento 2023, in fact, and this amazing community and the collaboration and discussions with the our peers and

other tech companies and the rest of the community at events like this that really gave us the idea to produce a product that we would launch as an open source product. This year we relaunched it version two based on discussions and great feedback we had after our talk in 2024. And we've just been so inspired to, know, with the energy at this event to keep

developing new products as the tech gets easier and more empowering to work with and fantastic tech like Hoover, which I'm sure almost every person knows about and mentions. It feels like we're in a, we're in a, a research. yeah. Well, if was Jacob Winkler wrote a LinkedIn article about and use the Renaissance term six months ago.

Yeah, it's, Magento is alive and back.

Speaker 1 (02:30)
Magenta was alive. Where did it go?

Speaker 2 (02:33)
I think it just took a few years out and just took a little bit of respite as the community readjusted for a second phase as the market and you know the customer demands changed and SaaS products came along and

Speaker 1 (02:48)
Those SaaS products, right? They're taking such a hold in the States.

Speaker 2 (02:52)
Yeah, however, I think now there's there's a maybe a bike back is the wrong term There's there's the open source community now can understand that it can take the the goodness and the success points from the SAS model and actually roll them into this ecosystem Anyway and get the best of both worlds still Absolutely. with with with restraint

Speaker 1 (02:59)
Maybe kind of.

flexibility.

Speaker 2 (03:22)
and more considered decisions not to overoptimize, not to over-customize the platform.

Speaker 1 (03:30)
is

always the challenge, How much to customize versus how much do you want to close that and make it as simple as possible.

Speaker 2 (03:37)
So

ironically, we have more discussions now with prospects. I've spoke to one 10 minutes ago. He said we have 80 extensions. First, we want less. We want to go through a simplification process to reduce and go back to basics to make the most out of the platform and make more considered decisions to customize when it matters and the customer will see the value.

Speaker 1 (04:06)
just have to say, I just love the Magento brand because there's such an ethos of collaboration and open-mindedness. It's like the open source way. It's like, if there's a way to do it better, let's all work together and figure it out. We're going to support each other and we're going to build. And it's just such a beautiful, beautiful thing that will never die. It will never die. There's always going to be a place for it. And it's important to have, like, let's be honest. don't, like, wouldn't it be a terrible world if Shopify was just the only option?

Speaker 2 (04:27)
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (04:36)
I feel very sad.

Speaker 2 (04:37)
be very

very sad and I'll probably say that 50 % of the discussions that I've personally had today with other agencies and providers is actually being about what they're going to do next with open source product development and just actually

Speaker 1 (04:58)
Getting more involved.

Speaker 2 (04:58)
Yeah,

using their successes that we are currently seeing now in this resurgence of interest in the platform, doing their part to deliver additional open source products to broaden the market and the opportunities for merchants that want to consider Magento once again. I would love some tea.

Speaker 1 (05:16)
Very exciting. Would you like some tea?

I love here. Pick your tea. And then while you're picking your tea and I pour your cup, I'd love to talk about. So on our podcast, we talk about women and it's all about the women in history who've inspired them. So I'd love to learn if there's a woman in your life or someone who's inspired you that's a woman. You could share a little bit about her. I'm putting you way on the spot.

Speaker 2 (05:41)
Okay, so... You know?

Well, yeah, it's a very easy answer. There is only one answer. Lucy, my wife, who's just sat over there... So she will be terrified. She's watching us probably now on the phone thinking, my god, please don't come over.

Speaker 1 (05:57)
my gosh, we gotta have her over.

Speaker 2 (06:09)
So she, yeah, she'd probably want to stay in the background. However, yeah, in terms of inspiration for me as a person and... Do you some honey? No, I'm all right. Thank you very much. Yeah. And also my wife has been in retail with her own business for almost 20 years, fashion. And she sold that business last year. However...

Speaker 1 (06:30)
that's so cool!

baller.

Speaker 2 (06:38)
We're in the process of relocating and moving to Orlando. From Manchester in the UK. It's cold and grey, so we fell in love with Orlando in Florida five years ago. lovely place. We bought a Are you Disney people? We are, yeah. It's respite and relaxation from an otherwise very...

Speaker 1 (06:42)
Really? From where?

That's a big move.

right on. He doesn't love Disney,

Speaker 2 (07:06)
technical yeah you know it's

Speaker 1 (07:08)
You need that Disney

magic to break up the challenges sometimes that can happen in e-commerce. It's moving so fast.

Speaker 2 (07:15)
It takes you away from the tech and allows you to reflect sometimes which is really really important and gives you a family time and you you're really busy doing

other things, you know, in the parks. But no, we've just fallen in love with the culture and the sun and everything that Orlando and Florida has to offer. So we're going through the process of the visa applications at the moment. And we got married three weeks ago. Oh, my God. Almost 20 years in order to.

Speaker 1 (07:53)
That's exciting! Congratulations! That's so cool!

Speaker 2 (07:58)
And I was 50 yesterday. Thank you. I'm actually all right. Thank you very much. Yes, going back to the original question. Yeah, Lucy has been my cornerstone in support. She's here to support me with this event, which is something that we...

Speaker 1 (08:02)
people later. Would you like a cookie?

chocolate too.

Speaker 2 (08:29)
step out of our comfort zone as a dedicated development team. It's tough to get up on stage, but it's also very, very rewarding and we get lots of support from everyone else here and it's very encouraging and I'd encourage anyone to do it. I agree. You get so much out of it, so fulfilling, however terrifying in the build-up.

Speaker 1 (08:56)
I

completely agree. It's so, so worth it. So that's been my experience too. Like the first time I ever did a public speaking engagement, it was as a keynote speaker, which was like terrifying. I had like three weeks to prepare my keynote. my gosh, Aaron. I thought I was going to poop my pants. But anyway, it ended up being the most wonderful experience. And that's so, I think that's the thing when you speak, when you do speaking engagement, you meet so many people and you really get to connect with them in a different way. And it just,

I don't know, it's just that connection and the energy that you get from the people. It's really special, the relationships that come from.

Speaker 2 (09:33)
And you learn a lot because you're looking outward at material and content and what other people in the industry are saying. We're learning about new terms in this industry when we're developing the point-of-sale system. We looked out into the retail industry and investigated the marketplace and the opportunities there as we combine these two.

traditionally independent retail channels and we threw e-commerce and the point of sale experience together and it was it was so exciting. We hope so, we hope so. It's certainly very encouraging the conversations we've had and so we will see, we will see what happens in the rest of 2025.

Speaker 1 (10:09)
and such an important innovation.

Yeah, what's lovely to hear about.

just how you and your wife support each other. sounds like just I can hear the just wonderful admiration you have for her and her business and selling her business and how she just shows up for you the same way. What are some what are some things you would advise to and I think the magenta community in general is really good about supporting women and being allies to women. What would your advice be to other men about how they can be allies to women? What have you seen that's really been successful? What do you think they are that's already happening that's going well and maybe areas for

for that to maybe.

Speaker 2 (10:54)
That is a really tough question.

I know there's the initiative that Marsha brings to this event and the Meet Women, Women in E-Commerce. I think we're young at heart as a business and we don't see really any difference. No, don't think, I mean there are obviously efforts by businesses and organizations to ensure that there is.

Speaker 1 (11:23)
that you you don't think about it

Speaker 2 (11:33)
the diversity, you know, with cultures and so on. But we just see beyond that now, I think we almost don't bring the discussion up because we see that things are levelling out in a sense, you know? You know, I think it's about the individual and the values that that individual brings and we just see through it as, you know.

meaningful relationships with other individuals, really regardless of gender and race and culture.

Speaker 1 (12:09)
I love that. That's beautiful. Wonderful. Tough question. I know. I know. I gave you a doozy there and you were totally up for the challenge. okay. So I'm trying to, I've, got it. my gosh. We're live and I've got, and I now I'm like, what question am I going to ask Aaron next? How do you like your teas?

Speaker 2 (12:26)
Lovely, yeah. It

really is lovely. I am a tea drinker, but I don't often traditional British tea. Yes.

Speaker 1 (12:33)
Okay, you're an Earl Grey. Or the, what's the? Oh,

okay. All right, all right. What do they call it? What do they call the tea that you have? Is it breakfast? Something? What's the British tea that you have? It's breakfast tea. It's not Earl Grey, it's something else. No, I'm totally stumped,

Speaker 2 (12:53)
mind is a complete blank.

Speaker 1 (12:55)
It's okay.

It's like the end of a long. it's yeah. Well, anyway, thanks so much for coming on. Thank you. such a pleasure to meet you and connect with you. Congratulations on your wedding. Thank you. And all the work that you're doing. It's very exciting. So yeah, enjoy the rest of the conference and hopefully I'll see you the pool. Maybe we'll see you dancing by the, you know, by the by the band. That'll be awesome. Well, thank you so much. Cheers.

Speaker 2 (13:09)
Thanks for inviting me.

water slide yet.

All right. Thanks. That's a wrap for today's episode of Hello Moxie E-commerce Edition. Thanks for joining us as we bring you the latest news in the e-commerce industry and celebrate diversity and innovation in the tech sector.