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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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.
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.
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As new competitors emerged, it was becoming plain Magento’s frontend was turning outdated.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.
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.
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.
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.
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, 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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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.
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:
Image source: Meta https://about.fb.com/news/2020/05/introducing-facebook-shops/
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.
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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There is no one-size-fits-all approach to choosing your content marketing strategy. However, there are some things we can notice when comparing the strategies of different sizes of the eCommerce business.
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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.
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.
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 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) |
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.
But the list doesn’t stop here. There are many more guidelines to explore, so check out the linked resources.
| Tools | Figma Plugins | Resources |
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!
Welcome, fellow merchants and eCommerce enthusiasts, to our adventure series where we explore the vast realm of online commerce. First stop: Magento – the platform we can’t help but love.
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“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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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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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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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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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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Love it or hate it, today’s online users are all about social media. That’s why, for you as a merchant, every click counts, and every interaction matters. Using it, you gain a valuable marketing channel to connect with your audience, amplify your brand presence, and drive sales. Who would want to miss such an opportunity?
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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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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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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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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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When the name Gorgias first crossed my radar it was in a project for one of our clients. I dismissed it as yet another run-of-the-mill helpdesk tool—a mundane ticketing system. But as I delved deeper, I discovered that Gorgias is anything but ordinary. Let’s dissect its multifaceted approach step by step.
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It’s easy to fall into a creative slump—it happens to everyone. There’s nothing worse than feeling uninspired and unmotivated when all you want to do is create.
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In our previous SEO related article, we’ve established the importance of on-page SEO in eCommerce and the differences between technical and on-page SEO. Next, you need to know the on-page SEO strategies you need to implement in your business to reap its benefits. Here are a few to consider.
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Humans are visual beings, and we process information based on what we see. Studies show that people remember 80% of what they see and 20% of what they read.
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When it comes to eCommerce SEO, technical SEO often grabs the spotlight, especially during the migration or development of new online stores. Although technical SEO is certainly valuable, let’s not forget that on-page SEO is equally important and plays a crucial role in your website’s success.
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On-page SEO refers to optimizing various elements within your website that affect your search engine rankings. The goal of on-page SEO is to make your website more attractive to search engines, which can lead to higher rankings and more traffic. These elements include your website’s content, meta tags, internal links, URL structure, and more.
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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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Over the past several years, particularly since Adobe’s acquisition of Magento, the growth strategy of Magento Open Source has become increasingly ambiguous. Adobe’s focus has predominantly shifted towards enriching its Adobe Commerce + Cloud + B2B offerings, resulting in a limited roadmap for Magento Open Source, primarily encompassing security patches and minor improvements. Merchants and Agencies that invested their energy and time in this platform are not pleased with this path. In response, an initiative has been formed with the aim of establishing a community-driven fork under the umbrella of the Mage-OS Association.
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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.
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In the dynamic world of eCommerce, where every click holds the promise of a transaction, staying ahead of the curve is the key to success. As we said goodbye to 2023, now’s a good time to look back at the trends that shaped the eCommerce world in that year. What lessons can we glean for a successful path in 2024? Let’s explore!
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When it comes to eCommerce, the performance of your PPC campaigns heavily relies on the quality of your landing pages. Assessing their quality is important to ensure they effectively convert visitors into customers. That is a key factor in every PPC audit for an eCommerce business. Regular optimization of your landing pages boosts conversions and improves user experience, leading to a better return on investment. Here is a short guide on how to assess the quality of your landing pages.
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After the most significant sales days and the madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we haven’t even had time to take a breather, and the Holiday season is already upon us. Numerous brands release colorful new ads during Christmas, offering users products and special deals. If you’re worried that you won’t know how to stand out from the crowd, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. The following article contains valuable tips we have prepared to help you stay on top of your game during this hectic period.
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We already talked about the main reasons to prioritize PPC Audit, and we also published a quick guide for PPC Audit. Sometimes, one of the most valuable lessons, along with the previously mentioned ones, is also what to avoid. That leads us to today’s topic, where we dive into the most commonly found PPC mistakes while auditing clients’ campaigns. Having done many of them, we decided to detect the mistakes we see repeating among clients, for which we did a PPC audit. And also to help you avoid making the same with your campaigns.
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