Welcome to our eCommerce post category, where we share our general eCommerce knowledge, industry insights, expert advice, and the latest trends.
We’ll help you navigate the intricacies of running a successful online business. Covering a wide range of, you will have the needed insights to thrive in the digital marketplace.
Ready to take your eCommerce journey to new heights? Join our awesome community.
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
Did you know it’s illegal to have an inaccessible site in Norway – that is, a web site that did not invest in accessibility? As technology improves and new legislation that manages accessibility is put into action, accessible design is no longer optional.
Read more
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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?
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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!
Read more
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.
Read more
In the fast-paced world of eCommerce, where every click and conversion counts, ensuring your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns are performing at their best is critical. Before we jump into the ‘why,’ let’s take a moment to understand the ‘what.’ A PPC audit is an in-depth analysis of your PPC campaigns. It’s the equivalent of examining a high-performance engine, ensuring it runs at peak efficiency. Achieving success with your digital advertising goes hand in hand with it.
Read more
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.
Read more
Some webshops cannot use Google Merchant Center due to the specifics of the site structure or the market in which they are located. Regardless, they can still have dynamic remarketing campaigns by creating a custom feed. If you are one of them, here is how to set them up.
Read more
Magento merchants (and other eCommerce business owners) all over the world are starting the holiday season with one big (probably red) mark on their calendar – THE Black Friday. Here are a bunch of helpful tips on setting up your eCommerce store, SEO & PPC strategy, and making important hosting adjustments in order to go through this period as smoothly as possible.
Read more
We have been getting so many questions on how much an online store cost? Let us give you a short overview of all factors influencing online store pricing to clarify things.
First of all, there is no one size fits all solution. So be aware there is no short answer to the question. How come?
Read more
If you are a business owner who has decided to start an online business, one of the most important things you need to decide on which platform you will begin your eCommerce store.
Every business is a story for itself, and the beauty of eCommerce is that almost everybody can find the best solution and platform for themselves. Every merchant has their preferences regarding the choice of software to set up their store.
Before choosing the right platform, you need to take a step back and understand the fundamental differences between the SaaS and Open-source models.
Read more
At this moment, in all corners of the world, someone is either buying something online for the first time or casually scrolling through a product feed, doing the research before making a purchase in a brick and mortar shop, or completing their third order of the day. We have come to a long way, customers and merchants alike, from the beginning of online shopping and selling in 1995.
Read more
While optimizing my clients’ campaigns, I often find myself browsing other people’s blog posts and researching their campaign optimization tactics.
One of my recent hybrid tactics proved to work pretty well on some of my accounts, so I wanted to share it with you. It’s about scaling the shopping campaigns with automated bidding while keeping the same ROAS. I hope some of you will find it helpful to create your own hybrid tactic.
Read more
So you’ve decided to do a complete site redesign or came to a conclusion your metrics don’t behave as you thought they would? Have you finally decided to implement that feature you’re sure will skyrocket your conversions?
Here are some common eCommerce design pitfalls we often see in the wild you think about when considering taking the next step in growing your eCommerce business.
Read more
2020 was a year that brought significant changes to retail. The coronavirus pandemic spread across the world, and most countries introduced lockdowns to combat the spread of COVID-19. Due to lockdown and in order to survive the pandemic’s economic impact, many retailers decided to move their business online.
Along with that, there’s been a major shift in consumer behavior, where even people who never considered online shopping started to buy online. To make their purchasing journey as smooth as possible, It became more important than ever to provide accurate and detailed information that answers all their questions. The easiest way to do so is through the FAQ page.
Read more
There are some things all successful eCommerce websites have in common. From our 12 years of experience on the market and hundreds of eCommerce websites developed, we’ve identified 5 key elements that lead to eCommerce domination.
What is it that you need to do to build a successful eCommerce website? We suggest these 5 key elements.
Read more
What are the essential skills needed to run an eCommerce business? Starting, and then managing a business of any kind, is a dream for many people out there. But, how do you start? What do you need to know before starting an online business, and how can you build a team to help you grow? Read on to find out.
Read more
Returns can be a major headache for eCommerce retailers. While in-store purchases don’t get returned so often, there are estimates that customers return up to 40% of goods bought online.
This is especially the case in the Fashion & Apparel industry. Online store customers can’t touch the product, hold it nor feel it during online shopping.
Some customers deliberately resort to the practice of over-ordering. This increases the quantity of returns and their negative environmental footprint.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic turned the online store into the only sales channel for many retailers, the problem with returns is more critical than ever.
In this blog post, we’ll demonstrate how one of our clients improved their returns management by developing a custom Returns Portal on the Magento platform.
Read moreDrop us a line. We'd love to know more about your project.
