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The Ultimate Guide on How NOT to Write a Blog Post

The Ultimate Guide on How NOT to Write a Blog Post

“A good blog offers high-quality, well-written content that is regularly updated, focused on a specific niche, and effectively engages and provides value to its audience.”

No, ChatGPT! Today, we’re flipping the script and shifting on how to craft poorly written content. By understanding what not to do, you’re better equipped to create engaging, impactful content that resonates with your audience. And also, in this scenario, have fun with it.

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We Released the First Mage-OS Website

We Released the First Mage-OS Website

At the beginning of this year, we started familiarizing ourselves with Mage-OS after recognizing its potential. A small team within the company began exploring what Mage-OS has to offer, identifying differences between Magento and Mage-OS, and determining what needs to be done to adapt the platform to our internal development processes. We could not possibly imagine these actions would lead to making the first Mage-OS project ever released.

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The Carbon Footprint of a Click

The Carbon Footprint of a Click

A single click might feel as light as a feather. But have you ever considered the carbon footprint behind that simple action? Every online search, purchase, or scroll comes with a hidden environmental cost. As eCommerce continues to boom, understanding and mitigating this impact is more crucial than ever. 

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Speed, Sustainability, and Networking – at Meet Magento Poland!

Speed, Sustainability, and Networking – at Meet Magento Poland!

Meet Magento Poland 2024 is just around the corner, and it will bring together Magento experts from around the world. This year’s conference is centered around one crucial theme: performance, with the motto “Need for Speed—Edition on Magento Performance.” It will be a perfect opportunity to connect and discuss how we can keep our eCommerce projects moving at top speed, with no limits!

Stjepan Udovičić, Tihomir Vranješ, Josip Ouzecky, and Tomislav Bilic will be representing us at the event and will be more than happy to connect with community members and network with other agencies that will attend the conference.

Our CEO, Tomislav Bilić, will also contribute to an interesting panel discussion exploring the delicate balance between optimizing eCommerce platforms and reducing their carbon footprint. As we measured this exact metric at one of our previous projects, Tomislav will gladly present some of our findings. I asked him to share his thoughts with us before the conference.

Tomislav: I’m happy to announce that I’ll be a panelist speaker at Meet Magento Poland. This will be my fourth time attending the event – after two previous ones in Warsaw and one in Kraków. The fourth Time’s a Charm!This year, I’ll be joining a panel led by Łukasz Bajsarowicz on Sustainable Commerce: Do We Need to Choose Between Environment and Performance?

We’ll be exploring the challenge of balancing environmental responsibility, including carbon footprint in web development, with the demand for high-performing eCommerce solutions. I’ll be joined by Mateusz Krzeszowiak and Kamil Porembiński, who will be sharing their own unique perspectives on the topic. I look forward to connecting with everyone in Poznań and diving into a conversation that’s not only timely but essential for the future of our industry. Hope to see you there!

While this is Tomislav’s fourth time attending this event in Poland, our backend developer team lead, Tihomir Vranješ, is going to his first Meet Magento conference. I used this opportunity to talk to him and ask him about his expectations from the event and what he is most excited about.

Tihomir: As a backend developer, it is in my nature to think about, talk about, and get my hands dirty on performance improvements, so I am thrilled and can’t wait to hear the experiences of people who face the same problems. Also, as an early adopter of Mage-OS and a member of the Mage-OS community, I am happy to finally meet in person the team I’ve been talking to over the screen this year on weekly tech meets on Discord. It is a great opportunity for all of us to share experiences and have a great time doing so!


In the end, we’d like to thank the organizers for putting together this event! And to all attendees—enjoy the conference and make the most of the opportunity to learn and network! Also, feel free to get in touch! Whether through email, LinkedIn, or any other platform, we’re eager to connect.

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Magento vs. Shopify: Battle of the Titans

Magento vs. Shopify: Battle of the Titans

Business owners are constantly exposed to decision-making. However, few carry as much weight as choosing the right eCommerce platform for your online store. Making the right decision requires one crucial thing—knowing what your business needs from the platform.

While you (obviously) know a lot about your business, understanding the technical aspects and requirements is completely different. With these in hand, we’ll move forward to a detailed comparison of Magento and Shopify, helping you discover which platform best aligns with your business goals and technical needs.

Finding the Perfect Technical Fit

On the one hand, we have the glorious Shopify, the most popular eCommerce platform in the world, with over 4.7 million stores worldwide. On the other hand, Magento, a highly customizable platform capable of handling complex, large-scale eCommerce operations. Both offer great but very different possibilities for online stores. Let’s dive deeper.

Shopify

Shopify is a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform. In the context of eCommerce, a SaaS platform is a cloud-based solution where the provider hosts and maintains the software, servers, and infrastructure. Shopify, as well as other SaaS platforms, charges a monthly fee for platform use and offers different plan options to meet the needs of different business sizes.

The basic plan is suitable for solo entrepreneurs, the Shopify plan is intended for small businesses with fairly straightforward needs, the Advanced plan offers increased customization options and more support, and the Plus plan is designed to power large businesses. Additional costs include transaction fees (unless you use Shopify Payments), premium themes, and third-party apps. However, in general, the costs of this solution can be very predictable.

As mentioned before, Shopify is highly scalable, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes. Whether you’re just starting or running a large enterprise, Shopify can handle your needs. However, as you scale, costs can increase due to higher-tier plans and app fees. This means that replatforming might become the logical solution at some point.

Shopify also provides a wide range of themes and apps that allow for customization, but these are typically limited to the options provided by the platform. Advanced customization is possible through Shopify’s Liquid templating language, though it is not as flexible as with open-source platforms. As long as your needs don’t require highly customizable solutions, Shopify can make a solid solution for your business needs.

Shopify provides hosting and 24/7 customer support via phone, email, and live chat. The platform also has an extensive knowledge base and community forums. This makes it easy to get help whenever you need it. Regarding SEO and marketing, Shopify comes with built-in SEO features and marketing tools, such as customizable meta tags, automatic sitemaps, and easy integration with social media platforms. Although these are all great, you have to remember that the same SEO setup you have is given to all of the other 4.7 million users (even though some may not use it at all), and the chances to stand out by doing something different in that segment is very tight.

Magento

Magento is an open-source and self-hosted eCommerce platform, meaning it’s software you download, install, and maintain on your own server or hosting environment. The business owner (or partnering development agency) is responsible for managing everything from software installation to security, updates, and performance optimization.

Regarding your options when it comes to Magento, it comes down to Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce. While Magento Open Source is free to download, Magento Commerce (now Adobe Commerce) offers additional enterprise features, though it comes with a high price tag, starting in the tens of thousands annually. In general, the costs associated with using Magento can vary widely depending on several factors, including the version of Magento you choose, your hosting needs, the level of customization, and ongoing maintenance. Depending on the complexity of your store, development costs can range from $50 to $200 per hour. A basic setup might cost a few thousand dollars, while highly customized stores can run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Regarding Magento Open Source, support is typically community-based, and you will need to hire internal or external developers or an agency for ongoing support. With Adobe Commerce, support is included, but you might still incur additional costs for specialized support or, at least, consulting.

Like Shopify, Magento’s marketplace offers a wide range of paid extensions and themes, and prices vary depending on complexity and customization. These extensions further enhance the platform’s flexibility, allowing you to add features and integrations as needed. No matter the growth your business reaches, Magento can support your needs along the way, but at a price. This is one of the main reasons Magento isn’t the right solution for every merchant.

Why Merchants Prefer Magento

Magento shines in customization. It is an open-source platform, meaning you have full access to the code and can modify every aspect of your store. This allows for deep customization of the storefront, backend processes, and integrations. For businesses with unique requirements, this level of control is essential. You can implement custom workflows, product pages, and checkout processes to suit your business model. Its architecture is built to support high traffic volumes and large-scale operations. Enterprises or rapidly growing businesses that require a platform capable of scaling with their growth might prefer Magento for its robust infrastructure. It’s particularly strong in the B2B eCommerce space, offering features like custom pricing, bulk ordering, quote management, and complex product catalogs tailored for B2B customers.

Magento is known for its superior SEO capabilities, making it a favorite among SEO professionals. It offers advanced features like custom URLs, metadata, sitemaps, and more. It also supports a range of marketing tools, though these may require more configuration. Magento is built to support large and complex product catalogs, making it ideal for businesses with a wide range of products or those expecting significant growth. It can be optimized for high performance, capable of handling high traffic volumes and large transaction loads.

Magento also allows you to manage multiple stores from a single backend, each with its own domain, language, and pricing structure. This is particularly beneficial for businesses operating in multiple regions or targeting different customer segments. Generally, Magento is designed for businesses with a global footprint.

In the end, while the upfront costs of setting up and maintaining a Magento store can be higher, especially with development and hosting, large enterprises might find that Magento’s flexibility and lack of ongoing SaaS fees make it a more cost-effective solution in the long run, particularly for complex or high-volume stores.

The Final Verdict

While Shopify is favored for its simplicity and ease of use, Magento stands out for businesses that require complete control, adaptability, and the ability to scale without limitations.

Merchants choose Magento over Shopify when their business demands a high level of customization, flexibility, and scalability. Merchants choose Shopify over Magento when they prioritize ease of use, quick setup, and lower upfront costs, as Shopify’s hosted platform provides an all-in-one solution without the need for technical expertise. It all comes down to what your business needs are, and which platform suits you best.

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Micro-Interactions in eCommerce

Micro-Interactions in eCommerce

In the ever-evolving world of eCommerce, the devil is truly in the details. While major elements like layout, color schemes, and navigation play significant roles in shaping the user experience, it’s often the smaller, seemingly minor details that make the biggest impact. One such element is micro-interactions. As a UX/UI designer, understanding and implementing effective micro-interactions can elevate an eCommerce platform from good to exceptional.

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Group your Shipping Methods by Carrier on Checkout

Group your Shipping Methods by Carrier on Checkout

Having several different shipping providers on your site improves the user experience, which is crucial for converting customers into buyers. This article will show you how to group the shipping methods by carrier provider and allow your users to choose their preferred shipping method.

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Back to the Future with Hyvä: Developers’ Perspective

Back to the Future with Hyvä: Developers’ Perspective

It’s become more and more obvious to everyone in the Magento sphere – Hyvä is the future. This cutting-edge frontend theme solves some of Magento’s long-standing issues while achieving stunning results when it comes to speed and performance. It’s true: just take a look at the core web vitals of any Hyvä store.

Hyvä has changed how we work with Magento, and no one can better attest to this than our own frontend team, wrestling with Magento at the front lines. We’ve already written at length about the benefits of Hyvä, but hearing our frontend developers’ first-hand experiences can give even more weight to these advantages.

Magento Before Hyvä

Previously, Magento 2 stores have relied on default themes such as Blank or Luma that load a lot of unnecessary frontend elements. This tended to result in a slower online store, adversely affecting SEO ranking and conversion rates. In short, there was too much bloat.

Josip, our frontend developer, can explain in more detail what the issues with Magento 2 were.

Josip Oužecky

Hyvä is well-known as a frontend theme that helps resolve some long-standing issues with Magento. What were some common obstacles you faced in working with Magento before Hyvä?

The main problem with developing the default Magento 2 theme was performance issues. The default Magento frontend uses heavy JavaScript libraries, leading to sluggish page load times that negatively impact user experience and SEO.

As a developer, it was sometimes impossible to improve the website further due to the limitations of the tech stack. Additionally, the default Magento frontend lacked flexibility, making customizations to meet specific business requirements often cumbersome and time-consuming.

For me, the most frustrating aspect of developing the default Magento 2 theme was the poor developer experience, as I did not find the process enjoyable. These problems caused frustration for merchants because they needed to invest more to see only a small improvement in performance or to obtain functionality that was crucial for their business.

As new competitors emerged, it was becoming plain Magento’s frontend was turning outdated. Despite its robust functionalities, slow and stagnant stores in this day and age were becoming unacceptable. Magento wasn’t cool anymore.

Thankfully, Hyvä appeared as a community initiative intended to resolve this issue. As some say, the frontend theme everyone wished Magento had long had.

Hyvä Developer Experience

Developer experience has become an important topic over the years. A lot of eCommerce projects require solutions that may not be there right out of the box, but need developers to build and maintain.

It is underestimated how much good code can contribute to a project. It makes the developers’ experience easier and more enjoyable, saves time, and enables them to have greater focus on other areas of the project. Additionally, it ensures any future developers will have an easier time delving into the project and getting versed in its code.

The same is true for any project; if you have a good experience working on it, you will be better motivated and deliver better results. Frustration is rarely a good motivator.

Josip Oužecky

How did Hyvä help resolve Magento’s issues? Did it improve your experience?

Working with Hyvä is more enjoyable because you can use technologies that are widely adopted beyond just the Magento 2 world. Additionally, when someone asks how long a task will take, I can provide a more accurate estimate compared to the old Magento 2 theme development.

Additionally, developers find it more enjoyable to create new themes and functionality with Hyvä compared to the default Magento 2 theme. They also structure the code much better than in the old Magento 2.

An additional testament to the experience of working with Hyva comes from Karlo, our junior frontend developer.

Karlo, how was your onboarding experience with both Magento and Hyvä?

Since I haven’t worked with Magento before, I was expecting a complicated platform. I couldn’t have imagined how many different options and possibilities exist, and how truly complex and intricate everything is.

Onboarding initially seemed difficult, and it took several months to get a rough understanding of how things work. However, thanks to great colleagues who were always ready to help, it wasn’t as daunting in the end, and the implementation of Hyvä made working with Magento much easier.

As Josip explains, Hyvä is a great starting point because it addresses many of Magento’s problems related to performance issues. It solves them by replacing heavy JavaScript libraries with vanilla JavaScript and a small framework called Alpine.js. by using Tailwind CSS for styling.

With reduced complexity, as well as better speed and performance, online stores built with Hyvä can breeze through core web vitals with flying colors, making Magento cool again.

The Future of Hyvä

Hyvä is still growing, updates are common, and new features continue to be rolled out. What anyone who chooses Hyvä can expect can be best explained by Josip.

Josip Oužecky

What benefits does Hyvä offer to merchants? How does a Hyvä-Powered Magento product compare to a Magento product?

If a merchant decides to go with a new theme on Hyvä, they can be confident their new theme will perform better than one developed on the default Magento 2 stack. New customizations and functionalities will also be implemented faster.

Though Hyvä doesn’t have as many modules readily available compared to the default Magento 2 theme, many companies that create modules now support Hyvä and are working on making them compatible. Even if some modules are not compatible with Hyvä, the long-term benefits of additional adjustments make the investment worth it.

Additionally, one of the most significant features they offer is Hyvä Checkout, which can effectively replace the default Magento 2 checkout and also reduce complexity and the time required to create a better checkout process.

Here in Inchoo, the frontend theme has already become the future. Our HNK Hajduk project, utilizing Hyvä Themes, was a great success, and we have continued working with the platform ever since.

Josip Oužecky

Josip, how do you see future work with Hyvä?

I believe Hyvä is well suited as a long term solution and that they will continue to optimize the theme further in the future. While the initial cost of creating a new webshop with Hyvä might be similar, it provides superior UI and UX.

At Inchoo, we always strive to ensure the new site excels by delivering the best possible result. Additionally, any customizations and new features after the initial launch can be implemented much faster with Hyvä due to its efficient code structure.

And you, Karlo?

I believe it will take some time to transfer all the functionalities we used on Magento to Hyvä, but once that is done, the work will be faster and easier.

And there you have it: a first-hand perspective from those who are putting Hyvä to use. Hyvä makes Magento projects easier for our developers, allowing them greater time and creativity to get any project done even better.

Visit our Hyvä-Powered Magento page to learn even more about all of Hyvä’s benefits and how they can help your eCommerce business, whether that means building a whole new online storefront, or migrating from another platform.

It’s worth it, we promise.

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What is the Meta Commerce Manager and Why is It Important for Your eCommerce Business?

What is the Meta Commerce Manager and Why is It Important for Your eCommerce Business?

Facebook and Instagram play a significant role in today’s society. Social media platforms have become an integral part of people’s lives, enabling individuals of all ages to connect with others, share updates, and express their opinions. With the rise of mobile phones and tablets, these platforms have also ventured into eCommerce, offering unique shopping experiences through platforms like the Meta Commerce Manager.

In this article, we’ll explore what Meta Commerce Manager is, the opportunities it opens up by allowing you to connect your eCommerce business with Facebook and Instagram, and whether it’s the right fit for your business.

What can the Meta Commerce Manager do for you?

The Meta Commerce Manager is a key component of the Meta Business Suite, serving as a central tool for organizing eCommerce activities on Facebook and Instagram. It enables business owners to effectively engage with customers and sell products across the two mentioned platforms. Some of its key features include:

  1. The catalog management option enables you to create and manage a product catalog. It is a list of all items you want to promote on Facebook and Instagram.
  2. Stock inventory and management enables you to utilize and track stock levels in real-time to preserve overselling and out-of-stock situations.
  3. With order and pay management, you can handle pending orders, returns, disputes, and payouts. Using the platform, you can securely process payments and manage transactions.
  4. Advertising and promotional tools can help you create targeted ad campaigns, promote products, make special offers, boost sales, and analyze the market.
  5. Education: Get answers to your questions, learn about seller responsibilities, and access support resources.
  6. Customize your shop, featured collections, and additional commerce settings.

Image source: Meta https://about.fb.com/news/2020/05/introducing-facebook-shops/

Will the Shopping Experience on Magento Translate to Facebook & Instagram?

To begin using the Meta Commerce Manager, one needs to have a Facebook or Instagram account and then create a business account. This process ensures that private accounts remain private. Once the business account is set up, users can customize their shop, create a product catalog, and initiate marketing efforts.

Additionally, those who have a Magento online store can seamlessly integrate it with Facebook and Instagram, enabling them to centralize product management and streamline the sales process across different platforms. You can manage your sales, products, and delivery terms in Magento – which remains the central place for product and sales management.

When comparing the shopping experience between Facebook and Instagram to a traditional online store, there are distinct differences. For instance, users can make direct purchases on Facebook and Instagram and finish the transaction, but this feature is currently only available in the US. You cannot funnel visitors to your website. On the other side, when you come from outside of the US, you can see all the products, prices, and info, but you cannot buy them, and you get the message to visit the store’s web page.

While traditional eCommerce involves a step-by-step process of browsing, adding to the cart, and checking out, shopping on Facebook and Instagram provides a seamless experience by allowing users to browse and purchase products from multiple platforms at once.

Furthermore, sellers can tap into a larger customer base through Facebook and Instagram. These platforms offer a personalized and convenient shopping experience. While these channels are ideal for selling clothing, jewelry, electronics, and other typical consumer products, customers often turn to traditional online stores for more detailed product information and a broader range of offerings. However, Meta Commerce can be challenging for businesses that have a very customized checkout. Businesses with a highly customized checkout process may find that the Meta Commerce Manager’s standardized approach does not meet their specific needs, making it a less optimal solution for their eCommerce operations.

Final Thoughts

As a merchant, you’re always looking for ways to enhance your business – and Meta offers the ideal solution. A compelling opportunity for online store owners to expand their reach and tap into the vast user bases of Facebook and Instagram.

For businesses with a Magento webshop, utilizing Facebook and Instagram as sales channels can enhance customer engagement and provide an innovative way to connect with potential buyers – a new, personalized, and interesting way of shopping.

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How to Design in eCommerce with Accessibility in Mind

How to Design in eCommerce with Accessibility in Mind

In our last accessibility blog, we discussed the fundamentals of accessibility, its legal requirements, and why it’s essential for creating inclusive digital experiences. Accessibility goes beyond merely accommodating users with disabilities; it involves designing inclusive and functional experiences for everyone, including those with situational or temporary impairments. In this blog post, we’ll dive deeper into implementing these accessibility principles and exploring best practices and strategies to create both compliant and user-friendly designs.

Accessibility & Usability – What’s the Difference?

Both are integral to an excellent User Experience (UX) process, yet they are distinct concepts. Usability focuses on ensuring designs are effective and satisfying to use. Accessibility, however, ensures that all users can access an equivalent user experience, regardless of any disabilities.

How to Adhere to Accessibility Guidelines?

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are the international standard for building accessible sites and applications on the web. They were developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative, a W3C initiative.
You can learn more about the WCAG here.

It’s important to address accessibility from the very beginning of your project, starting at the research stage rather than waiting until the design phase. By considering accessibility early on, you can reduce the need for extensive modifications during development. Delaying attention to accessibility makes it significantly more challenging to address issues later in the project.

WCAG Principles

WCAG principles are four principles that ensure web content is accessible to everyone. These principles — Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR) — focus on making content visible, usable, clear, and reliable across different technologies and user needs. By adhering to these guidelines, designers and developers can create web experiences that are inclusive and functional for all users, including those with disabilities.

Perceivable – Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive. This means that users must be able to perceive the information being presented (it can’t be invisible to all of their senses)
Operable – User interface components and navigation must be operable. This means that users must be able to operate the interface (the interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform)
Understandable – Information and the operation of the user interface must be understandable. This means that users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface (the content or operation cannot be beyond their understanding)
Robust – Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies. This means that users must be able to access the content as technologies advance (as technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible)

Three WCAG Levels

WCAG has three levels of requirements, increasing in their scope and difficulty to support, with Level A being the lowest level and Level AAA being the highest. Each level includes the success criteria from the lower levels.

Level A guidelines

This level includes providing text alternatives for non-text content, making sure that the site is usable when stylesheets are turned off, and ensuring that the site is keyboard accessible. Support for TalkBack/VoiceOver is also included.

Level AA guidelines

On top of the Level A guidelines, this level takes additional steps to ensure that content is accessible to users in a wider range of scenarios. Most accessibility regulations require this level at the moment.

Level AAA guidelines

Represents the highest level of conformance and the strictest set of guidelines. It aims to make information and user interfaces accessible to all users, including those with severe disabilities. This level is recommended for tools that have elderly and disabled people as a target group.

How to Make Your Design More Accessible

1. Maintain consistency

  • Do: Ensure that repeated components follow the same design, as well as maintaining consistency through your components that have the same functionality.
  • Don’t: Avoid recreating the same things in a different style, this will lead to unnecessary confusion and difficulty in use.

2. Scalable text

  • Do: Ensure that text can be resized up to 200% without losing functionality or readability. This accommodates users with visual impairments who need larger text.
  • Don’t: Use fixed text sizes that the user cannot adjust, making your content inaccessible to those with low vision.

3. Use various elements to convey a message

  • Do: Combine text, colors, and shapes to effectively share information and convey a message.
  • Don’t: Rely solely on one method, as this may exclude many users.

4. Alt text for images

  • Do: Actionable elements must have an appropriate ID name. At the same time, images need to be provided with a brief description of what is on the image so the users who use screen readers can understand the meaning and intent behind the read elements. Make sure that you don’t just label it as “picture”; give it some context, describe what is happening in the image, and what the image is trying to convey.
  • Don’t: Label image elements as “picture” without context, as this benefits no one.

5. Color contrast

  • Do: Use high-contrast color schemes to ensure the text is readable against its background. Small text needs to pass the 4:5:1 color contrast ratio in order to achieve maximum readability. Large text needs to pass the 3:1 color contrast ratio in order to achieve maximum readability. There are various plugins to help you with this, such as Contrast and A11y Color Contrast
  • Don’t: Release designs without checking element contrast, as it can lead to more work later. It’s better to address this in the design stage.

6. Keyboard navigation

  • Do: Ensure all interactive elements (links, buttons, forms) are accessible via keyboard. Users should be able to navigate and interact with your site using their keyboard keys.
  • Don’t: Rely solely on mouse-based navigation, as many users with motor disabilities depend on keyboard navigation.

7. Avoid image and color dependency

  • Do: Include important information as regular text and additionally in image format. Adding visual cues will help visually impaired or color-blind users distinguish between the elements they are looking at.
  • Don’t: Avoid placing important information only inside an image. Images can be stretched; the right color contrast may not be met, and the content inside can become blurred or pixelated, making it harder for users to perceive.

8. Clear and descriptive labels for inputs, buttons, form fields, and links

  • Do: Make sure inputs, buttons, form fields, and links have a label that will help users make decisions. That label should complement the body of the dialog. This benefits all users since we’re not wasting anybody’s time and energy on clicks that are not valuable to them.
  • Don’t: Avoid the same generic labels for a wide array of options, as they are not precise enough.

9. Identify Errors

  • Do: Clearly indicate where and what type of error has taken place. Focus on the element in question, provide an error text next to it, use color, and describe the issue. The message should be specific and to the point.
  • Don’t: Avoid using color or text alone; using them together makes the message you’re trying to convey much easier to understand.

Tools and Resources

But the list doesn’t stop here. There are many more guidelines to explore, so check out the linked resources.

Tools Figma Plugins Resources

Next Steps

Designing with accessibility in mind is not just a good practice; it’s a necessity. By following these guidelines, you’ll create an inclusive, user-friendly eCommerce site that benefits all users, including those with disabilities. Remember, accessibility is an ongoing process. Continually test, iterate, and improve to ensure your site remains accessible to everyone. Your efforts will not only comply with legal standards but also create a more inclusive and welcoming online shopping experience for all.

Stay tuned for the next installment in this blog series, where we’ll discuss the business requirements of accessibility and how you can achieve them with Hyvä!

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Heroes and Villains of eCommerce Storytelling

Heroes and Villains of eCommerce Storytelling

“I don’t care for stories, only cold, hard facts”, the eCommerce Man said. Then scowled.

But what gets people interested? There is no singular answer – we all have our own motivations – but in every aspect of our lives, stories take hold of us and keep us close. Novels, films, TV, video games, websites: there is a narrative in everything we consume that creates an emotional attachment and keeps us coming for more.

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Inbox Olympics: eCommerce Email Marketing for Beginners 

Inbox Olympics: eCommerce Email Marketing for Beginners 

Entering eCommerce email marketing can feel like stepping into an Olympic arena, with countless competitors seeking the attention of a global audience. If you feel like a sprinter without a track, don’t worry – think of this guide as your training montage (just with less sweat and more coffee). Now, lace up your running shoes and let’s hit the ground running!

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Data-Driven Decision Making for Project Managers

Data-Driven Decision Making for Project Managers

The eCommerce world is constantly changing, and making informed decisions is crucial to the success of any project. Leveraging data analytics can significantly enhance decision-making processes, leading to better project outcomes and higher client satisfaction. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of data analytics in project management and how we can use those data in our leverage.

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Accessibility: What Is It & Why It’s Important

Accessibility: What Is It & Why It’s Important

In today’s digital world, ensuring that your eCommerce site is accessible should be a moral imperative and will soon also be a legal requirement. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) that comes into force on June 28th, 2025, will require most digital products to conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, level AA. This Act covers a broad spectrum of digital content and emphasizes the need for accessible online experiences for everyone, including those with disabilities. Let’s take a closer look at accessibility as a whole.

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Atomic UX Measurement Plan

Atomic UX Measurement Plan

Data has revolutionized how eCommerce works today and, more importantly, significantly impacted decision-making. Nowadays, we (business owners, eCommerce managers, and development teams) turn to data for decision-making. However, we often struggle with data interpretation because we’re unsure how to define success.

Given the complexity and volume of data in eCommerce, this is not a surprise.

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5 Step SEO Self-Assessment Guide

5 Step SEO Self-Assessment Guide

SEO can be overwhelming and challenging to navigate, but the right tools can provide clear direction and assistance. Google Search Console is a great tool for web owners to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their website’s presence in Google search results. Everyone can use it, including developers, experienced web owners, and those who are not entirely sure what it is used for.

If you identify yourself as part of the latter group, don’t worry. This SEO self-assessment guide is specifically tailored for users unfamiliar with this tool’s capabilities. Here are five steps you can easily take to address any potential issues with your organic performance.

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A Brief Overview of Magento’s History

A Brief Overview of Magento’s History

Anyone who is in the Magento world knows the open-source eCommerce platform has had an interesting journey – both tumultuous and exciting – through its almost two decade long existence. Not only have the reports of its death been greatly exaggerated, it has a thriving community around it that is furthering the development of the platform in new and exciting ways.

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Mastering Magento Site Search: Strategies for Enhanced User Experience

Magento 2 search strategies for improved UX

In addition to the main navigation, search is typically the second most popular strategy for finding products on eCommerce websites. Customers often use the search function when they know exactly what they are looking for or when the main navigation does not yield the expected results.

How do you design and configure the search engine of your Magento site for the best usability? Keep on reading!

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Forging a Successful Partnership with Your eCommerce Agency

Forging a Successful Partnership with Your eCommerce Agency

Successful partnerships are based on trust and good communication. Whether you are on one side (merchant) or another (eCommerce agency), we all look for these traits in our partnerships.

Not every relationship is meant for success, and that is something every business must contend with – us included. In those cases, it’s important to reflect and learn, which is likely why we are both here – me writing this article and you reading it.

From an agency’s perspective, here are some tips for building successful partnerships.

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Inchoo & Magento in 2024 and Beyond

Inchoo & Magento in 2024 and Beyond

As we step into 2024, the stage is set for another year of growth and evolution of eCommerce. With statistics projecting staggering revenue figures and an exponential increase in user penetration, the online market is evidently not just a trend but a fundamental aspect of modern consumer behavior.

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