Life at Inchoo

Welcome to our inside world, where you get an exclusive glimpse into the heart and soul of our company culture!

Explore our blog to learn about our core values, employee experiences, and the initiatives we undertake to foster a supportive and inclusive workplace.

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A 10-Year Milestone: Interview with our CTO

A 10-Year Milestone: Interview with our CTO

As our CTO, Stjepan Udovičić, hits the ten-year mark at Inchoo, we sat down to talk about his career journey. We could learn many things from our Chief Technology Officer, who’s been shaping the Inchoo tech scene for the last decade, but we decided to keep it short and insightful. We’re not going to make this introduction any longer; let’s hear more from Stjepan – the wins, the hurdles, and where things are heading.

Stjepan, on your 10th anniversary, could you reflect on your early aspirations in web development and how Inchoo featured in your journey? Is Inchoo the first IT company where you began your career, or did you have prior experiences in the field?

I had no formal employment in IT before joining Inchoo. However, I was deeply involved in development for many years prior. I explored various branches of software development, including embedded systems, game development, and mobile and desktop applications. Nevertheless, I found that eCommerce was the best fit for me. What appealed to me about it was the immediate real-world impact. The results of every change or feature I built were easily visible and could be directly attributed to that change. This aspect allowed me to better understand the significance of my work on eCommerce sites. And Inchoo was a great fit due to its approach where developers actively engage in discussions with the clients and the whole decision-making process.

Inchoo was the pioneering Magento-focused company in Croatia. How would you compare its current standing with its initial days?

When Inchoo started, there were relatively few competitors in the field. Back then, our influence in the Magento community was notable, with our blog often regarded as unofficial documentation for the platform. However, as Magento’s popularity grew and more agencies entered the scene, the landscape shifted. Today, there are plenty of quality learning sources, including official documentation. However, Inchoo never embraced Magento solely because it was an unexplored territory at the time. We always saw its potential, as a means to facilitate innovation and achieve better things. We saw it as an opportunity to build features we had challenges with on the other platforms and achieve goals more easily as the platform was flexible. It helped us craft solutions that stand out and make a difference. Over the years we had plenty of experience in doing just that. Helping merchants elevate their businesses to a new level. Between then and now, we are still a company that’s a merchant’s best friend. A company that helps them grow by taking care of technical solutions and allows them to achieve their goals. And I believe that our current and future clients still see that in our work.

Could you name a specific year that holds special significance for you at Inchoo and elaborate on why it stands out? (e.g., relocation, team growth, major projects)

If I had to choose a defining moment in my career, it would be the year we transitioned to a new office. However, it wasn’t about the change in workspace. It marked a period when I was a team leader in a growing team that was tackling our most ambitious projects at that time. Working on projects that push beyond conventional boundaries has always been my passion. It inspired me to embrace new challenges, reevaluate conventional approaches, and continuously learn. Handling both team growth and complex projects during that time provided invaluable lessons that have influenced my career.

On the flip side, which year presented the most significant challenges for you? Is it perhaps tied to your transition to the CTO position or something else?

Becoming a CTO certainly was a challenge. The role was completely different from what I was used to before. It required me to learn new skills and adapt to a more strategic, less hands-on role. It was a bit outside my comfort zone at the time, but it was a welcoming change and something I saw as the next step in my career. However, If I were to pinpoint a specific year that presented the most significant challenges for me in my journey, it would be the year leading up to my transition to CTO. During that time, our company underwent a major restructuring, which involved significant changes in leadership, strategy, and organizational culture. That period demanded a lot of flexibility and strategic thinking to maintain stability. Ultimately those experiences helped me prepare for a transition to a CTO position and everything that comes with it.

A ten-year-mark in Inshoo: Interview with our CTO - Stjepan

Reflecting on your time as CTO, what have you learned that you could share with our audience that would be meaningful to them?

During my time as CTO I have learned a lot, but I would like to share three main lessons that I believe are valuable for anyone who wants to grow in their career:

Keep learning. Explore new technologies, reevaluate approaches, keep up with trends and tools, and collaborate with your team and your peers. Technology is constantly evolving, and only by embracing continuous learning can you keep up with it.

Prioritize communication and collaboration. They are essential for success. Organization and teams can only be successful if team members can have open and transparent communication where they feel comfortable giving and receiving feedback, sharing ideas, and working towards common goals.

Focus on customers and values. To develop and deliver a good solution, you need to understand what goals need to be achieved, which pain points need to be addressed and what value should it bring to its end users. Going beyond the technical specification makes the difference.

We discussed the past, but let’s switch to the present now. What challenges do you believe Inchoo is currently facing? Are there any noticeable market changes, and how do we adapt?

Adobe always lacked a proper roadmap for Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce. This has always been a pain for companies such as us and a problem for potential new customers. Mixed with the global economic climate and geopolitical factors currently in the world, it impacted market demand and made clients more uncertain about tomorrow. On the other side, especially new developers find Magento’s default tech stack a bit outdated, and not something they are willing to work with. We counter it by working closely with our clients to understand their goals and challenges. To ensure they have a trusted partner that has a plan and vision for their online shops and has them covered. We work on a series of internal solutions for common problems that we use to enrich our solutions. Those are built based on years of experience and with performance and usability in mind. And of course, we are always on the lookout for what is happening in the community. So when something interesting like Hyva or MageOS shows up that boosts performance and tech stack, we are happy to join in.

What unique value does Inchoo provide to clients who choose us as their partner agency and what to potential employees?

At Inchoo, we always nurtured long-term relationships with clients. Our goal is to take ownership of the technical solution. Maintain it and have a plan on how to grow it according to its vision and goals. This would allow our clients to focus on business and what truly matters to them. Having more than just a development agency, but also a knowledgeable partner to help you grow is what sets us apart, in my opinion. For our employees, I believe it is the opportunity to work on meaningful projects that make a real impact on our clients. Each business is unique, each market is different. And by working closely with clients, there is always something new to learn and it’s an opportunity for professional development.

Looking ahead, what do you envision for Inchoo’s development in the next five years?

Five years is a lot of time in this industry- new things pop up every day. It’s our job to adapt and make new technology work for us. But ultimately the value we bring is what truly matters in our work. Therefore, built on the foundations of change that was made in recent years, I want to see Inchoo grow and expand. Both in the client base and our team. I see us working on projects that would challenge us, but at the same time make us proud of, both how they have been completed and what impact they have made. And through the culture of integrity and excellence be a merchant’s best friend.

A ten-year-mark in Inshoo: Interview with our CTO

Lastly, Stjepan, is there a particular achievement or goal you aspire to personally or collectively in the future in Inchoo?

One achievement I aspire to personally is for Inchoo to be recognized for creating highly optimized websites for our clients. Aside from design and user journey, I believe focusing on optimization for speed, performance, and stability is crucial. I see that by continuously refining our work, leveraging the latest technologies, complying with best practices, and relying on our years of experience we can create shops that are performant and efficient. Ultimately, my goal is for Inchoo to be renowned for stores that deliver exceptional performance and user experience.

Reflecting on his journey, Stjepan shared insightful perspectives on his career path. Looking ahead, he envisions a future where Inchoo continues to push the boundaries of technology and deliver unparalleled value to its clients. With a strong emphasis on optimization, performance, and user experience, he aims to establish our further reputation as a leading provider of eCommerce solutions.

As we conclude this milestone interview, it’s evident that Stjepan’s dedication, vision, and commitment to excellence, alongside the team’s support, will drive the business forward. Here’s to the next decade of innovation, collaboration, and accomplishment for Stjepan and the entire Inchoo team.

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6th Year of Collaboration with Faculty of Economics in Osijek

E-trgovina - odabir pobjednika featured image

Oh my, seeing how many years have passed in our collaboration is incredible. Once again, we are honored to be part of such an amazing journey. It was only possible with the help of our dear colleagues and professors. We greatly thank Antun Biloš, PhD, Full professor,  and Bruno Budimir, mag.oec., Research and teaching assistant, for the given trust in all these years. Before discussing our side of the story and the things we cherish, here is what the professor said.

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Managing Workflows at Inchoo with Kanban Methodology

Inchoo Kanban Methodology

In our blog section, we’ve covered a wide range of topics related to our full-service eCommerce business. However, one area we haven’t explored in depth is project management. In this article, we’re excited to take you behind the scenes at Inchoo and shed light on our project management practices. Specifically, we’ll delve into why we’ve chosen the Kanban methodology as our preferred approach for managing workflows effectively.

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We Came a Long Way: 15 Years Of Inchoo

15 years of Inchoo featured image

Last week, on May 7th, we celebrated our 15th birthday. Choosing the beautiful Orlov Put as our birthday location in nature allowed us to truly relax and enjoy our celebration. You’ll get the details of our birthday celebration, but first, we’d like to reflect on our previous 12 months.

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SEO Health Check Competition

Employees discussing the SEO of the webshop

You probably got a few hints from the headline, but you must have been wondering what’s going on here. The spring served us more energy this year, as some unusual things are going on in the office. Here’s a quick introduction.

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Inchoo celebrating 12th birthday! ?

Inchoo celebrating 12th birthday! ?

Today we are celebrating our 12th birthday! Wow, so many years in which we had a lot of beautiful moments are already behind us!

Tomislav Bilić, founder and CEO of the company, on this day back in 2008, registered the company at the Commercial Court in Osijek as a legal entity. I interviewed Tomislav, and he told us about his entrepreneurial experience, how the eCommerce ecosystem looked like 12 years ago compared to today, and what are his plans for the future.

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And The Winner is… Zee & Co! Best Mobile eCommerce 2019

And The Winner is… Zee & Co! Best Mobile eCommerce 2019

We are proud to share that our lovely client Zee & Co, an independent fashion retailer operating from the UK, but selling globally through their Magento online store, won Best Mobile eCommerce Award 2019 at prestigious eCommerce Expo & Awards ceremony in London this Wednesday (September 25). Read on to find out more about these awards and how we helped our client get there.

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Zee & Co are eCommerce Awards 2019 finalists!

Zee & Co are eCommerce Awards 2019 finalists!

We are delighted to share that our client Zee & Co, a UK independent fashion retailer, made it all the way to the finals at this year’s eCommerce Awards.

Best Fashion eCommerce, Best Mobile eCommerce and Best Use of a Multichannel – those are the 3 categories where they excelled and earned their seat at the table with other amazing UK businesses. Read on to get the details on how they got here and how we helped along the way.

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Inchoo recognized as Top Magento Developers by Clutch

Inchoo recognized as Top Magento Developers by Clutch

We have been named Top Magento Developers in 2019 by Clutch, an independent review and ratings company. While this is a great honour, it is also a recognition of the hard work all of our teams have been putting in.

And it feels great to be acknowledged, especially since the biggest weight in Clutch rankings comes from unbiased interviews with our clients, conducted by Clutch team.

Take a look at how Clutch works and what our clients shared about working with us.

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First designers from Croatia trained by Nielsen Norman Group

Nielsen Norman UX certified designers Inchoo

With great pride, we can announce that our designers Marko and Zoran have earned their UX certification after a demanding and exhausting program with the leaders in user experience, Nielsen Norman Group! And we must state that they are the first designers from Croatia who can proudly wear their NN/g UX certification badge.

Want to know more about the whole training and certification program, and the key benefits it brings to our designers and our clients?

Read on!

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Introducing BrexitCart by Inchoo – a new cart abandonment solution

Introducing BrexitCart by Inchoo – a new cart abandonment solution

We’re happy to announce the pending rollout of the greatest ever cart abandonment solution for your Magento stores, BrexitCart.

Exhaustive testing conducted in controlled environment saw a staggering 96,4% drop in cart and checkout abandonment rates across all desktop and mobile sessions combined. This means in 27 out of 28 cases the customers REMAINed throughout the entire cart and checkout process, with only 1 out of 28 eventually deciding to LEAVE.

Check out the details below.

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Calling out all Magento developers who want to improve their testing skills – visit MageTestFest!

Inchoo Magetestfest testing Magento

Magento. Software Testing. Party. That pretty much sums up 4 crazy days that are expecting developers who’ll go to MageTestFest. Florence (Italy) will host developers who are ready to get blown away by knowledge and expertise of speakers who worked hard to be able to stand in front of us all and share valuable insights! We know the value of this specialized event, that’s why we’re sending our Stjepan Udovicic and Tomislav Nikcevski to get in-depth knowledge and tips & tricks of testing.

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Meet Magento Croatia 2018 recap with presentations and photos

Meet Magento Croatia 2018 recap with presentations and photos

The words, the photos, the video – not even all those things combined could sufficiently convey the incredible atmosphere that was created around Meet Magento Croatia 2018! This year, almost 230 delegates from 17 countries came to Osijek! Developers, agencies, merchants, we all gathered to meet Magento and to meet and greet each other. We at Inchoo are beyond honoured to have had the privilege to welcome everyone in our hometown!

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Sherrie Rohde’s “How to Avoid Burnout While Contributing” presentation will be an eye-opener at Meet Magento Croatia

Sherrie Rohde’s “How to Avoid Burnout While Contributing” presentation will be an eye-opener at Meet Magento Croatia

It is our pleasure to welcome Sherrie Rohde as a keynote speaker at Meet Magento Croatia! Sherrie is the Community Manager at Magento where she is responsible for Magento Masters, the Magento Forums, and Magento Meetups. On a mission to help the Magento community be successful in their own roles, she is focused on improving mental health and creating an inclusive environment.

This passion of hers intertwines with everything she does regarding Magento community, and we’ll have the chance to learn more about it in her “How to Avoid Burnout While Contributing” speech. In the meantime, here’s Sherrie’s story on her Magento beginnings and thoughts about the community.

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6 things to have in mind when accepting the project

6 things to have in mind when accepting the project

As almost in every business, things in eCommerce tend to happen very fast. On a daily level, we need to analyze a lot of things, make a lot of decisions and decide on a bunch of models, approaches etc. Off course, some of those are small things which are a part of our daily routine. But some of those are rather big and tend to have a major effect on us, as well as on our company. I am talking about the projects which are the bread and butter of our business, and the focus of our work. More precisely, I am talking about our efforts to evaluate projects and decide whether to accept the project or not.

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Zvonimir Buric is a speaker at MM18HR with a Case study: Emma Mattress – Magento on the AWS Cloud and he has a piece of advice for Magento developer wannabes

Zvonimir Buric is a speaker at MM18HR with a Case study: Emma Mattress – Magento on the AWS Cloud and he a piece of advice for Magento developer wannabes

Back in the days, Zvonimir was an Inchooer. He was a part of a team that developed one of the Inchoo’s first responsive sites for our clients! It was for Zee & Co. We feel like it was a century ago! Zvonimir found his new home in Germany in 2013, so we were really excited when he contacted us for a speaking position at Meet Magento Croatia.

He always showed a deep understanding of the Magento platform, and with his special skill where he can explain complex matters in a simple way, we’re sure you will enjoy his Case study of Emma Mattress and challenges they had with moving it to the AWS colud.

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eCommerce solutions worldwide: working with local markets

Alexander Kosarau

Alexander Kosarau is a Magento Support Manager at Amasty, as his job involves analyzing stats and collecting product improvement features where some cases are specifically challenging since they are narrowly local based he will be talking about “eCommerce solutions worldwide: working with local markets“. The combination of people-related skills and studying to become Master of Science in Mathematics puts him in his own league. How does he incorporate those two together, what did he want to be when he was young, and why you don’t want to miss his presentation – read in the interview!

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Victoria Yashchuk from Atwix is coming to #MM18HR stage and is ready to discuss “Latest eCommerce trends and popular features for your Magento store”

Victoria Yashchuk

Victoria is a Magento Solution Specialist and a project manager at Atwix whose greatest joy comes from working with others. She is coming to Meet Magento to share her thoughts on the “Latest eCommerce trends and popular features for your Magento store” which is why we are recommending this presentation to both business owners and developers. Before Magento became a big part of her life she tried many different things like singing, dancing, writing, and teaching, but not to reveal everything she said, read it in the interview.

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Magento Master, Óscar Recio from Interactiv4 is coming to #MM18HR and will be talking about “Zero Downtime in Magento 2, It’s Possible?”

Oscar Recio

This year, Óscar Recio got his recognition and award as a Magento Master in the Maker category which makes him the 1st Spanish to receive this prestigious award. Besides being “the Kingfish” in the Magento community, he is also a Magento Technical Director at Interactiv4 which is why his presentation will be “Zero Downtime in Magento 2, It’s Possible?”. During the interview, he talked about his journey to becoming the person he is today, what impact did the Magento Master title had on his life and about the topic that he is going to cover on the Meet Magento stage.

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Mladen Lotar will be joining us on #MM18HR stage with “Production grade PWA”

Mladen Lotar

We are very proud to present one of our ex-coworkers – Mladen Lotar who will be joining us at Meet Magento Croatia 2018 stage with his assessment of the “Production grade PWA”. With a couple years of experience in developing PWA’s, he is more than eligible to talk about its history as well as giving the future overview.

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3 things to know when landed in the middle of the project

3 things to know when landed in the middle of the project

A few months ago, I’ve started working at Inchoo as a project manager.  This eCommerce company serves many different businesses worldwide through 10-year history and I was keen to know which project I will get first. While waiting, I’ve gotten to know my colleagues, learned about some of the key processes, tools and how to tweak the coffee machine. Initially, I expected I’ll have a clean start with a project, and that the whole process will have a linear learning curve for both me and the client. I was wrong.

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Karen Baker from ShipperHQ at Meet Magento Croatia

“I want people to understand the seemingly impossible is possible, and how to take small steps to achieve your goals” Karen Baker from ShipperHQ on #MM18HR stage

This speaker that will join us at Meet Magento Croatia doesn’t need a huge introduction. Almost all of us in Magento community at some point stumbled at something Karen Baker wrote, tweeted or shared in any other form. Last year, she surprised us all with unannounced visit to MM17HR. This year, we are pleased to welcome her at the stage of Meet Magento Croatia with “From a free Extension to a SAAS Product – How you can do it too” presentation in which she’ll share her story about entrepreneurship and eCommerce world in general.

Without further ado, meet Karen!

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At MM18HR, Miguel Balparda will teach us how to effectively communicate with Support

At MM18HR, Miguel Balparda will teach us how to effectively communicate with Support

In our series of articles in which we’re presenting speakers at Meet Magento Croatia event, the time has come to find out more about Miguel Balparda who will join us with “A day in Support” presentation.

As a Magento 2 Maintainer, Core contributor, and avid Magento supporter, Miguel is also known in the community as a passionate traveler. He’s probably on the beach coding, while you’re reading about his career, and his opinion on how important is it for a developer to understand client’s needs from a business perspective, rather than “just” the technical one.

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How I landed a marketing internship, what I learned from it and what makes Inchoo special?

Paula marketing business internship Inchoo

Hi there, I suppose I should make some kind of an introduction. My name is Paula and I’m a Croatian studying at the Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Venlo, the Netherlands. The programme I chose is business related, called International Business and Management Studies. I chose it not just because it contains a ton of projects and teamwork but also because I have this mandatory study abroad semester and two internships with each lasting for at least three and a half months.

The story of how I landed an internship at Inchoo and the story of study abroad are connected, but I’m going to cut to the case, for your sake.

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Jisse Reitsma will be sharing his knowledge on “Connecting GraphQL to your own React project” – MM18HR will be burning from hot PWA topics!

Jisse Reitsma will be sharing his knowledge on “Connecting GraphQL to your own React project” - MM18HR will be burning from hot PWA topics!

For a second year in the row, Jisse will be joining us on the stage of Meet Magento Croatia, this time with “Connecting GraphQL to your own React project”. His expertise in driving innovation throughout the Magento ecosystem and dedication to delivering best-in-class implementations earned him the Mover title in Magento Masters program.

We are lucky his spy career didn’t work out!

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Meet Magento Germany 2018 impressions (or how do Hungarian dogs bark)

Meet Magento Germany 2018 impressions (or how do hungarian dogs bark)

From the very start, this journey was meant to be great and sure it was! We have heard only the best about both Leipzig and previous Meet Magento conferences, and Antun, Aron, Dunja and I made a great trip team. I was given the honor of writing a recap of it so as a Meet Magento first-time-participant I will do my best. 🙂 Just a short overview to make it all clear before we start.

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Meet Magento Italy recap: fantastic time, amazing conference, awesome people!

Meet Magento Italy Inchoo recap

Five of our Inchooers went to support, network and learn something at Meet Magento Italy. Inchooers Hrvoje, Ivan, Zelimir, Nenad, and Tomislav packed their bags and visited the dreamy city of Venice.

Nenad even had a special mission – to get on the #MM18IT’s stage and talk about PWA. He was explaining PWA as a concept in the context of Magento.

In this interview with the guys, you can read about the trip, the takeaways from Nenad’s lecture and about Inchoo’s plans with PWA. For this last matter, if it’s TLDR; we’re dedicating almost the entire development track of Meet Magento Croatia to PWA! 🙂

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