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Omnishopper insights are about to get real. A partnership between Nielsen and The NPD Group is set to build a large-scale omnishopper consumer panel that pairs Nielsen’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) consumer measurements with The NPD Group’s general merchandise consumer measurements. The partnership, announced in late February, will provide retailers with additional insight into shoppers across all channels, as well as products across all categories.

The omnishopper panel will connect to multiple consumer data
sources to comprehensively track behavior across both digital and physical
touchpoints. The panel also will leverage Nielsen’s and NPD’s deep product
reference data and retail market measurement truth sets to deliver accurate
omnishopper insights and increase data granularity.

According to Karyn Schonbart, CEO of The NPD Group,  “Brands and retailers need to see the total
picture as purchasing options and shoppers’ habits continue to evolve.” The
ultimate goal of the

My Road to Imagine has become a yearly post, and with just under a month to go. Here are some of my tips, recommendations and a few predictions to make sure your #RoadtoImagine doesn’t hit a road block.  With 800+ technology partners, 350 systems integrators, a community of over 315k developers, and over 4,400 extensions in the marketplace, proper navigation has become a necessity.

Each year, the hype gets bigger, the anticipation erupts and the road to Imagine takes on a life of its own. Twitter feeds will soon be filled with #MagentoImagine and #RoadToImagine posts, so make sure you follow and take part in those conversations. ParadoxLabs has attended Imagine since its inaugural event nine years ago, and we are thrilled to see the excitement hasn’t wavered.

Road to Imagine Tips

• Arrive early and get registration out of the way. The line can get backed up if you wait until the last minute.
• Plan and know what sessions you want to attend.
• Arrive at sessions early. The seats fill up quickly.

Updated Monday, February 25th

Authorize.Net recently announced plans to phase out MD5 based hashes used for transaction response verification. Phase 1 of that plan is now complete, and as such merchants are no longer able to configure or update their MD5 Hash settings in the Merchant Interface. Phase 2 will be complete March 14th, and at that time Authorize.Net will stop populating the MD5 Hash Value altogether. This will have severe impacts on merchants who use Authorize.Net Direct Post method in Magento, as they will no longer be able to process payments.

ParadoxLabs Authorize.Net CIM extensions for Magento 1 and Magento 2 are reliable alternatives to Direct Post and are not impacted by the recently announced MD5 Hash changes.

What is Authorize.Net Direct Post?

Authorize.Net Direct Post is a payment processing method that is built in to Magento 1 and Magento 2 and requires no payment extension to set up.

Why isn’t Authorize.Net Direct Post working?

To use the Direct Post Method in Magento,

It's time to go Social for Super Bowl 2019. Take a look at some Social Media Stats from last year's Super Bowl.

• Facebook IQ reported that 62 million people worldwide joined the Super Bowl conversation on Facebook to the tune of 270 million interactions, 30,000 more than 2017. Facebook also notes that roughly 90% of Facebook interactions took place on mobile devices.
• There were 2.1 billion impressions generated on Twitter during the broadcast of the Super Bowl, per Kantar Media. Some 39% of Super Bowl-related tweets were shared by women, down from 42% from 2017.
• Super Bowl ads were viewed 16% more times on YouTube this year than 2017, revealed YouTube. Viewership of these ads on living room devices (such as Roku, Chromecast, etc.) grew by 52%, with 1 in every 8 Super Bowl ads on YouTube viewed on such a device.

Of course, advertising for the Super Bowl comes at a hefty price, but you can get into the spirit and use social media to your advantage. Below are some suggestions to make

With 2018 quickly becoming a memory, it is time to shift focus to what's on the horizon. Here are our predictions for the top 2019 Ecommerce Trends.

Once again, the ecommerce industry has experienced growth and has surpassed expectations. According to Statista,  global retail ecommerce revenue is on a path to hit $4.88 trillion by 2021.

As ecommerce continues to soar, competition will follow as
more businesses realize it is time to get on board. This means there is no time
like right now to bring you’re A game to the field.

It is time to ensure you are informed and knowledgeable in
the latest ecommerce trends. Don’t ignore advancements in technology and stay
up-to-date on your customers preferences and shopping behaviors.

In order to be successful, we recommend becoming familiar
trends that will emerge in 2019. Use this overview to make 2019 your year!  

2019 Ecommerce Trend #1: Multi-Channel Selling

The last few years have shown us that people are using more
than one channel to make

It is time to dig deep and make an impact on the community. The Extraordinary Give is Lancaster County's largest single day of giving of the year, raising over $31 million for more than 500 organizations over the last 6 years. I want to repeat that, because it’s staggering: in just 6 days TOTAL the Extraordinary Give has raised more than $31,000,000!

This Friday, November 16th, 2018, Lancaster is poised to make this the biggest Extraordinary Give to date, and every dollar donated will be stretched by a pool of cash and prizes from the Lancaster County Community Foundation, Rodgers & Associates, the High Foundation, and the community sponsors!

This year, ParadoxLabs will be supporting the Lancaster Science Factory, who is partnered with Thaddeus Stevens College for a FREE Night of STEM & EXTRAORDINARY FUN. Throughout the year we support the Lancaster Science Factory’s Girls Code Club, that brings young girls into the world of computer programing; opening doors that would otherwise be closed.

At ParadoxLabs, we are committed to our Nation’s Veterans. We strive to support our Nation’s heroes each, and every day. However, today as we all observe Veterans Day, we invite all of you to take a moment to honor our veterans and to show appreciation for their courage and patriotism. We ask you to put aside all your differences and stand united in respect for those men and women who put their lives on hold to protect our freedom.

From the fields and forests of war-torn Europe to the jungles of Southeast Asia, from the deserts of Iraq to the mountains of Afghanistan, brave patriots have protected our nation’s ideals, rescued millions from tyranny, and helped spread freedom around the globe. America’s veterans answered the call when asked to protect our nation from some of the most brutal oppression the world has ever known.

Military service demands a special kind of sacrifice. The places where our men and women are sent to live and serve bring risk every day. From the time you put on that

In the vast forest of ecommerce, website security is important to every aspect of a company's operations. One of the most iconic symbols of trust between a store and its clients is HTTPS. The once fabled “green lock” now sets the basis of whether or not a customer trusts a store to handle their confidential information. In recent years Let’s Encrypt has completely changed the SSL landscape, with free and legitimate security certificates (SSL). Understanding the current state of SSL could save you time and money.

HTTPS is the modern standard for websites and is a requirement to be PCI compliant (something every ecommerce store should prioritize). For a site to use SSL, an encrypted connection, the website must purchase an SSL certificate which allows the use of the HTTPS protocol. Given this, most sites have bought and setup various types of certificates on their websites from certificate authorities such as DigiCert, GoDaddy, or GeoTrust, to name a few. These can range in price from a

Typically, the summer months for many ecommerce sites and bloggers takes a hit. Engagement is low, revenue plateaus, and businesses become frustrated. The days get shorter, and soon the warmth and sunshine of the summer months will be long gone. Kids will go back to school and you can rejoice because the summer slump is ending. Fall is on the horizon and opportunity is knocking.

So that begs the question: Are you ready for an increase in traffic?

In case you’re not sure and fear a potential traffic jam, we’ve got you covered. Here are a few tips to ensure things keep moving smoothly.

Comprehensive Website Audit

The performance of your website is the result of many variables working together. That’s why you need a truly robust audit that looks at SEO, Paid Campaigns, Technical, Backlink Profile, Competitors, and Analytics. Combined, these audits give you a clear idea of how your site is performing, and where it can be improved.

A comprehensive website audit identifies issues and fixes that

I think if you asked me this question five years ago, I would have said it’s not the right time for such a large investment. However, B2B e-commerce has evolved and continues to experience rapid growth. drastically. Google explains that a major reason for this trend is millennials and their influence within the buying process. Industries, like manufacturing, continue to recognize the financial impact that allowing customers to buy online can have. According to Forbes, Spending on B2B e-commerce platform technologies, systems and services continue to outpace the B2C e-commerce market by over 200%.

B2B buyers identify the ease that comes from making their daily B2C purchases online. They are starting to expect this same experience while shopping for their business needs as well.

To further elaborate why now is the time to make the commitment and invest in B2B e-commerce take a look at some of the predictions for growth:

• Internet Retailer predicts that by 2019 the U.S B2B e-Commerce market