As a business person, you’re used to factoring costs. Materials, packaging costs, shipping, services, marketing and labor costs – the list goes on. Opportunity cost doesn’t show up on balance sheets, but that doesn’t make it any less real. Poorly directed or half-hearted investment in your product data feeds can miss the mark on a stream of revenues – lost opportunity. How can you know if you’re missing out?

First off, let’s define what we mean by investment. We’re talking about money you spend on outside feed services and subscriptions, of course, but equally you should consider your time – even if your team size is limited and you consider those costs “built-in.” 

Deceptively Simple

Product data feeds can seem like an easy win – a fairly simple and relatively low-cost way to tap into the biggest marketplaces – Amazon, WalMart, Google, Facebook. Like pay-per-click, you can put it on simmer or crank it up to boil, right? Not really. In reality, your market sector and your catalog size are the two biggest determinants of how you might best approach a product data feed strategy. All-in looks very different for a mass-market merchant versus B2B and niche merchants.

Although your platform might promote it this way, your eCommerce platform also does not determine your product data feed approach. It can make things easier or harder, but it shouldn’t set you on a path. Defaulting, and limiting yourself, to your platform’s way of connecting to channels might be leaving a lot of opportunity on the table.

Also contrary to the impression you might get, spend is not the biggest determining factor of success. Neither is picking the “right” feed platform. The single biggest indicator of future success is the state of your catalog data: Is it complete and richly attributed? Do you have the tools in place to improve and create new variants? This is where you need to invest.

Strategies for exploiting product data feeds can be grouped into three categories – one of which will probably be a best fit for your particular business and market position.

Manual Feeds

Manual product feeds work just like they sound – you choose the channels and upload a file. A manual feed can be absolutely the best tactic if your catalog is small, static, or unusual in some other way that precludes you from automating.

The main advantage can be transparency – you know exactly what’s being fed because you’re doing it. You also determine where and when you feed your data, affording you full control. Generally done in house, manual feeds also can convey a cost advantage.

The disadvantages of manual feeds are easy to identify. You will encounter a higher cost or investment in time if you have a larger catalog. Any desired or necessary change to the catalog – even small changes – will require re-feeding the data manually. 

It’s a narrow slice, but if you have a mostly unchanging catalog of manageable size, relatively sheltered product pricing and focused in-house or retained catalog/merchandising resources, don’t dismiss manual feeds.

API Data Feeds

This might be the most alluring but potentially underperforming choice. Your catalog feeds directly to your selected channels by way of an application programming interface (API) that is built into your eCommerce software. You don’t have to schedule or execute uploads or maintain data outside of your catalog. Changes to your catalog are reflected automatically in your product data feeds. Guaranteed accuracy. Assuming you have a healthy catalog and a clean code base – the API approach is easy.

Disadvantage –  API data feeds are designed to be a hands-off approach but it might not be prudent to think of them that way. Your products are submitted to your channels exactly as they are found on your site – no customizing or optimization for the particular platform. Multi-feeds can get complex (negating one of the advantages). If your catalog doesn’t have all of the attributes that your competitors are showing on the different channels, you can have a lot of behind-the-scenes work to do to catch up. 

Product Feed Platforms

Product feed platforms such as Feedonomics or Godatafeed offer pinpoint control and flexibility over how your products will appear on each selected channel. This is potentially the most powerful path to multi-channel selling, provided you invest in continually fine-tuning your catalog. The platforms allow advanced techniques that change your product data based on conditions and rules you define, such as inserting keywords into product titles and/or descriptions on the fly. Merchants who dedicate themselves to maximizing the tool’s capabilities find they are able to convert customers they might have otherwise missed.

Analysis is critical here. Does the market for your products have the upside to warrant such an investment of resources? Or will a less intensive effort be sufficient to bring you adequate results? How competitive is your space? Managing a product feed platform has costs you’ll want to understand in context with the possible benefits.

Product Feed Apps

Product feed apps such as Xtento or Simprosys are bolt ons to platforms such as Adobe Commerce (aka Magento) and Shopify.  These apps allow you to feed major markets like the feed platforms while also providing the ability to customize your feed per channel.  While not as easy to use as the feed platforms, these apps can provide a lot of custom functionality for a fraction of the cost of using a feed platform like Feedonomic or Godatafeed.

Is Your Feed Optimized?

Whether you choose manual feeds, a product feed platform or product feed apps, you’ll strive for “optimization.”

But what does an “optimized” Product Data Feed even mean? Everybody says it, and there are plenty of services that you can pay to “get” optimization. But how do you know when your product data feeds are optimized? … when you reach your sales goal? … when you subscribe to an optimization service and pay the bill?

One element of optimization is alignment. Whether you create your product data or you get it from a manufacturer or a third party, it will rarely match up with all the fields you need for all of your channels. Your selling platform will have one set of required and optional data, Facebook will have another and Walmart yet another. Channels use your product data to award you an ad rank or quality score, which you don’t have to look at but you do have to live with! You’ll get an error message if you don’t supply the required fields, but not for the optional data. If your competitors are diligently supplying high-performing optional fields, you won’t know you’re missing out.

Quality and Currency

Another shade of meaning to “optimization” is quality and currency. Simply having data in the required fields might get you past the gatekeeper, but the content itself needs to be accurate, up-to-date and appealing to the customer. Scan your data and make sure those outlier fields – those which you don’t use on your site, but Pinterest requires, for instance – aren’t filled with placeholders or bland data. Platform-specific attributes and fields are an opportunity for you to fine-tune that specific content to that specific audience. Capitalize on these unique fields to gain a competitive advantage on each platform.

These distinctions are key when you’re deciding which route to take. If you are willing to invest in optimization, then you’ll want the flexibility that a platform, feed app or separate managed manual feeds provide. When managing your product data feeds, however, you don’t want anything coming at the consumer out of left field – remember that your products are going to be seen side by side with competing products so it’s best to hew close to standard practices. In other words, sometimes, less can be optimal.

Avoid Paralysis – Steps You Can Take Now

Whatever your situation and whatever your choice, your product data – and thus any product data feed – will benefit from a few common product feed optimization tactics:

• Build your product titles for the feed using several key attributes (color, size, gender). Not just branded terms from your catalog.
• If you sell brand name products, feature the brand name at the beginning of the product title (ie. Nike – Men’s Impact 4 Basketball Shoes …)
• Utilize existing catalog attributes to populate missing channel fields when appropriate.
• Promotional language and ALL CAPS, even if they are part of your successful branding, aren’t typically allowed in feeds and should be removed.
• The same goes for symbols or HTML artifacts that sometimes fall out of style sheets after an import.
• Save yourself some time and know which attributes/fields are and are not required for the particular channel. Know which are basic, customizable and semi-customizable and decide on a strategy before you finalize the data.

The other thing feed management providers rarely mention is data integrity. We’ve seen instances where a company subscribes to a feed platform, only to find out that their product database doesn’t play nice with the importer or feed utility. Often, this is because of core hacks and customizations on the eCommerce platform that compromise or straightjacket product data control and need to be solved first.

InteractOne approaches managing your data feed optimization the same way we approach development: One step at a time and with a close eye on the data. Small changes can make a big difference – the Pareto Principle (aka 80/20 rule) applies here – spend your resources where they’ll count most!

Contact us to learn more about how to optimize your eCommerce site.

Content generation and social commerce can be an Achilles heel for mid-market merchants. Until recently, ecommerce businesses in this bracket could get away with a heavier emphasis on advertising and more “technical” or methodical means of promotion, while maybe throwing a bone to social media. The most visible social commerce tactics were being waged only by the biggest brands. Changes are afoot that increase the relevance of User-Generated Content (UGC) for merchants of all sizes, whether consumer-focused or even in the B2B space.

The Rise of the Micro-Influencer

Remember influencers? While celebrities and their attendant sponsorships and endorsements will always be with us, their grip on consumer trust has waned in recent years.  Like media, the influence marketplace has fragmented and brought along an influx of sponsored and incentivized posting by “regular” people. Because consumer trust in traditional influencers has weakened, consumers are  showing a growing desire  for genuine content generated by relatable creators.

The content creation space is being broadened and revolutionized by consumers who are now looking for authentic content that resonates with their lives.

What is UGC? 

In short, UGC is content (ie. videos, images, podcasts, etc.) created by people instead of brands. Consumers see this type of content as more authentic and trustworthy. Think of it this way; instead of seeing an obviously scripted skincare commercial or endorsement, consumers can scroll on Tiktok or Instagram and stumble across a person who looks just like them sharing their skincare products used in their morning routine. In short, there is power in relatability that UGC is able to harness and turn into consumer trust.

How To Generate User-Generated Content

Ideally, your brand receives positive reviews without doing anything to encourage it.  But in most cases, User Generated Content is paid or incentivized. If a brand works with a great creator to produce endorsements for their products and that content is well received (it receives a high level of engagement), more people may want to try the product and make their own reviews.

When UGC is done well, your brand could get hundreds of free reviews through a sort of social media “word of mouth”. Good UGC can help fuel more UGC.

This is one of the tricky parts – merchants have to create an amazing experience that creators will want to share with their audience. Customers may do a lot of the work for you, but you still have to prime the pump. 

A few different options exist for incentivizing and encouraging your brand’s users or customers to create positive content. 

Platforms like Upwork or Fiverr allow you to hire creators. The market for user generated content is booming and there are now plenty of options for content creators who have portfolios sharing brands they have previously worked with.

Selecting UGC Creators

When selecting UGC creators, it is important to choose people who align with your brand. Plan this deliberately and clearly, or you’ll risk falling into micromanagement, which will kill the campaign.  Establish clear guidelines explaining the desired content. Specific hashtags, language, imagery and goal KPI metrics for the content should be specified and should be a major part of the conversation when hiring. You will also want to specify where this content can be posted. Is this something you would like the creator to post on their personal social media channels, or will this be used only for your brand to post? Relatability and authenticity is the most important component of great UGC, so you will want to work with creators that emulate the kind of customer you hope to attract. 

Another option for generating content is to offer incentives such as discounts or giveaways to customers if they produce a positive review. This method will allow actual customers to share their experiences with your product, however it is less controllable so the specificity of the content generated can be a bit of a wild card. If this method is chosen, it is smart to monitor the content being created to ensure it stays positive and continues to align with the vision you have for your brand.

Social Commerce for B2B?

Traditional social media – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and others  – isn’t always the first thought for B2B merchants. After all, you’re not selling to everyone, right? Not so fast.

The built-in community development tools on these platforms mean you can sculpt a place for your customers and attract more, drawing from their wide audience pools. Even if your products are highly specialized or technical, you might be surprised how many of your customers are looking for crowd affirmation when they’re shopping or searching for a solution. Another plus – a community doesn’t have to be enormous in order to be helpful for your business and the support required for these channels is usually minimal. 

Google my Business – Don’t neglect your Google profile because you don’t consider yourself a localized business. A pile of 5-star Google reviews will get you more mileage than that old static testimonial page on your site. In addition to Google, 3rd party review platforms like TrustPilot can provide a great space for collecting additional reviews and building customer trust. 

Consider a user/customer forum if you don’t have one already. Use crowd support to verify, augment and prove information you get from your sales and customer service groups. Even if you don’t host the forum, you should participate anywhere your products are applicable or being discussed (ie. Reddit, for sure). The information you can glean from these interactions will be super valuable – it’s like having a continuous focus group session. Businesses of all types monitor forums for product development tips, discovering problems, identifying new markets and unmet product niches. 

What to do once you have UGC? 

Once your brand receives user generated content, it should be showcased! Engage with and respond to the content that has been created. Share or link to content on your company website, social media, reviews and any other marketing channels. Leverage user reviews in advertising and marketing campaigns, and continue to foster a community of user generated content by interacting with users’ posts. 

PRO TIP: Tools like Gorgias can be incredibly helpful when it comes to monitoring your social content.

Analyze content created for your brand and do not be afraid to learn and adjust based on its feedback. Social media is constantly evolving and trends can last seconds or months. Going “viral” is many brands’ dream, but for many brands, building consumer trust through time and consistent effort is much more impactful for actual sales and conversion. When executed well, UGC can create a community of loyal customers who not only trust your brand, but actively promote it to others through their content and recommendations.m

Contact us to learn more about how to optimize your eCommerce site.

It’s not eMail yet, but SMS marketing is getting closer

What is the best way to engage with and promote your business to current and prospective customers? Your first thoughts might be direct mail, broadcast advertising and eMail. Each of these channels carry industry-accepted and expected conversion rates between .5 and 3%. There’s a reason for those low numbers: The targets of these vehicles know what to expect and their filter is on. By repeated exposure, we have all been trained to recognize (and often reject) promotional material on these channels. 

In search of lower noise tactics, many merchants have turned to SMS (simple message service or text messaging) and are seeing much higher engagement and conversion. For example, one of our  clients from the apparel space generates as much as 40% of their revenue via SMS marketing promotions. If you aren’t already using text messaging/SMS to communicate with your customers, you might be missing out. 

Why is SMS Different?

What are the active threads in your text app? Working out the details of life, meetings, events and meals with family or co-workers probably makes up the bulk of your texts. People engage with texting actively, briefly and more casually than with other communication channels. It’s a pattern of use and behavior that can only work for the most targeted, most relevant and least obnoxious promotions.

Because of how we like to use texting on our smartphones, it used to be almost taboo or below the belt to market to people via text. For a long time, SMS marketing was the domain of low quality, sometimes hilariously bad spam messages. Now, although a lot of merchants are promoting this way, it’s far from saturated, and best practices can help maintain SMS as fertile ground. 

What Should It Say?

What’s the best way to successfully run an SMS marketing campaign?

An email sometimes tells a story, promotes a brand image or is an entry point to some bigger task (like shopping, deciding and purchasing).

Text messaging your prospects or existing customers should be a lot like text messaging a person you know. You don’t (or shouldn’t) text paragraphs or lists, you text them very specific things you think they ought to know right now. A promotional SMS shouldn’t lead them into a funnel of activity, but to a very quick purchase or engagement.

Are you clearing out a limited number of a certain item that goes with another item they already bought? Let them know. Is there a deadline approaching? Remind them. This is not the medium for promoting every minor markdown or new news from your brand.  If you create too much noise (especially irrelevant noise) you’ll get canceled.

Getting around the “Promotions” Folder

The two poles of phone technology (Android and Apple) are both scurrying to make your phone’s SMS app work a lot more like your email app. Recognizing the inrush of promotional material, Apple was first to actively filter messages by default, using machine learning tech to filter texts from unknown senders into transaction and promotional folders. It remains to be seen how this will evolve, both in terms of the installed technology and on how phone users will accept or reject those settings and filters. There are still some advantages to SMS marketing if your goals and tactics are aligned.

The best way to ensure your message is seen is to get your subscribers to save your contact information. This is a crucial step and unlike with email, your recipients won’t know who is sending. Easier said than done, of course! We can’t add ourselves by default or passively; the receiver has to actively do something.

Sending a contact card makes it easier for your customer to add you, and it allows consistent brand reinforcement (you’ll spell your name correctly). The client still has to open/accept the contact card, so you’ll have to ask … but before you ask, make sure there is a simple, clear and undeniably good reason for them to do so. The messaging for this must flow from your purchase funnel, through the confirmation and follow-up emails. That’s why we always hesitate to put artificial barriers between transactional communication and promotional communication; especially with SMS marketing, they should be planned seamlessly.

A good approach won’t feel like a trap, or pointless. Weave subscription or enrollment into any other legitimate points where you could collect a customer’s or prospect’s phone number. Did they engage with your chat function? Ask them then. Did they add an item to the cart? Even before they check out, tell them you’d like to keep them informed about flash sales on other items like this one. Of course, if the customer completes a transaction, help them through the enrollment process so they can hear about new products, warranty info, offers or group buys. For B2B merchants, texting reminders, delivery updates, order alerts can make customers feel like insiders.

“Yes, send me updates.”

Once your customer has allowed you to text them, whatever you do, don’t make this a thinly-veiled proxy for “ok, spam me.” SMS calls for different tactics than other channels. If you approach your message development and CTA as if you’re broadcasting to your audience, you won’t benefit. Don’t think of this as an abbreviated email, or a billboard. This is not the vehicle for accumulating ad impressions. If your goal is a clicked link, you’re not employing the medium fully.

Personalization is more than populating their name into a field. Some SMS platforms (like Yotpo) allow merchants to develop very granular triggers and flows through the funnel, using simple prompts or even conversational automation. B2B clients especially can use these tools to great advantage, since customers generally will purchase on a predictable cycle. Further, they’ll often have complex specifications that lend themselves to guided filtering. With SMS, the interaction is the message.

All of these interactions are part of your segmentation data. The more you tailor your message, the more segments you’ll need so the tailoring fits the audience. The more tailored the message, the more relevant, actionable and effective your campaign will be. Monitor everything and react quickly. Isolate variables so you’ll know what elements led to which changes. Segmentation signals can also be collected from analytics, purchase data, demographics, geographic location and more. 

Same Phone, Different Message

You’re familiar with that button in your Meta for Business that allows you to share the same post on Facebook and Instagram. Convenient, huh? This is not the case with email (or any other vehicle) and SMS. A successful text campaign will not be a shorthand version of something else. Our advice would be don’t use it at all if your approach is not dedicated to the platform!

Approaching SMS with the amount of planning and care we’ve hinted at above might seem crazy. It’s a text, right?! The thing to remember is that SMS is a much more intimate and personal channel, so additional caution and care is needed to retain engagement. Call us when you’re ready to use that to your advantage.

Contact us to learn more about how to optimize your eCommerce site.

If content is infinite, does content matter?

We’re not there yet.

It’s somewhat comforting to say that, isn’t it? But is it true? Right now, the tools exist to create 7,000-word blog posts with just a few instructions. They’re not great reads, but neither are the blog-factory posts businesses have been deploying for years; just good enough that Google can see them as semantically valid.

If that sounds bleak, that’s only an indication we are neck deep in the change stream. AI is going to affect the way we do SEO, but we don’t yet know exactly how.

Optimization Curveballs

The biggest change will be to our assumptions around SEO.

Keywords/phrases that we could effectively capitalize have always been limited. Generative AI now removes those limitations almost entirely. For early adopters, this could translate to a windfall; but in the longer term, doesn’t it just define a new base or entry point? What is missing from this conversation is how Google (or whatever comes after Google) will eventually respond to a hyper-inflated content environment. Will Google expect to see a page optimized for every variant on every imaginable longtail on every site in a market, or will it learn to ignore the background noise?

Another wildcard with unknown effects on SEO is Google’s experimentation with leveraging AI (Search Generative Experience) to transform how it provides search results. Although currently positioned as a late-comer, chasing Bing AI and ChatGPT, this trial technology looks more like Google’s future.  Will SERPs become less like a directory where we compete for top spot, and more like a committee meeting where the boss pulls your idea and puts it in their presentation? Right now, it seems that way, but we can’t really imagine Google shaking their own tree this vigorously.

What is certain is that your return on effort applied to keyword-based SEO activities will go down, as your competitive space becomes more and more saturated with AI-generated content. Said another way: You will need more content but you will get less out of it.

Adaptation in the Works

How will Google react to ensure SERPs stay relevant?  We have some hints in place already. Unsurprisingly, they are based on what SEO practitioners already know about building websites for humans.

In addition to the well-known acronym EAT (Expertise, Authority, Trust) Google has signaled increasing emphasis on a new E: Experience. When they crawl this page, before they give us a pile of gold traffic tokens, they’ll look around and decide if InteractOne should even be talking about SEO. Google will need to find other content signals on our site that indicate we’ve been involved in the strange science of internet traffic for more than a minute.

Another Google-centered bit of technology is something they’re calling “information gain.” This is a twist on the idea that content should be unique – as in not using manufacturer descriptions for your item descriptions. Information gain takes it a step further; did you bring something new to the topic? This will mean less emphasis on aggregation or “skyscrapering” tactics for your brand or for your most important keywords and phrases. Instead, this means building completely new and unique content around the products you sell. (Pssst … AI doesn’t do “new” well.)

For eCommerce merchants, information gain won’t be all about blog posts. Category and item descriptions should also get special attention to fit users’ specific, ultra-longtail searches – and their individual search history.

Off-page SEO should also make a resurgence, says Google, as AI content forces SERPs to look elsewhere for uniqueness. Off-page refers to SEO tactics found outside of a website to improve its ranking – chiefly links. Links to your site from other authoritative sites have always been a great traffic conduit; they’re going to get even more emphasis. Guest posting is another off-site tactic, but it’s also one of the most direct ways to build strong links. Social media marketing is tough to execute well, but look out because AI is making it even more cluttered.

Same Old Same Old?

Google’s reactions so far to how they and SEO can adapt to AI feels a lot like older advice from Google, promising rewards for good behavior and good user-centered pages. In the past, however, Google has fallen short of these noble goals. Instead, their algorithm awarded the traffic to gigantic pages cobbled together by the biggest brands. Skepticism aside, this time might be different because AI represents an abrupt and enormous shift in scale, not a loophole or weakness in Google’s algorithm. 

Brass Tacks

At the detail level, we still need our meta data in tidy shape, page titles that make sense, category descriptions that match what we sell. The basics may sound simple, but eCommerce businesses are fast moving and clarity isn’t always the top priority.

Google will continue to identify and “ding” obvious AI-generated content, so think of it as a first step, not a finished product. Apps already exist for Magento and Shopify that will take base info from your existing product detail page: attributions, size, color, etc. and generate description content. You still need to tweak it!

Companies who use AI to create content will risk a ranking penalty in the same way as content stuffing “always” has. If the content is junk, i.e. if it doesn’t make sense, is not at all unique, or sounds like AI, then both human visitors and Google will penalize it in their own ways. At the same time, Google says that good content that happened to start as AI-generated content won’t be penalized, and why should it be? The key difference is human involvement; always check AI-generated content, even for simple tasks. More and more, Google will be looking for unique and authoritative/expert elements in the content. 

So, What Should You Do?

Should you explore or deploy AI as an SEO tactic? In short, yes. We think it’s inevitable and probably a good thing, overall. Perhaps ironically, AI’s presence in the room could serve to clear out some of the lingering half-truths and contradictions that the practice of SEO has abided for years.

InteractOne provides internet marketing services to our clients – we have for many years – and our emphasis has always been on the techniques that you won’t have to disown three years down the road. That part won’t change, at least.

AI will always be artificial. In a competitive space like eCommerce SEO, you can use these tools for productivity, but you’ll always need human brains monitoring and managing quality, and fostering creativity.

Contact us to learn more about how to optimize your eCommerce site.

Alternative to Luma?

First released in 2021 and with more than 1,500 Magento sites now using it, Hyvä Themes is often positioned as an alternative to the default Luma theme. We think this is an oversimplification.

For one, Luma is still very much a viable option, mostly since Hyvä doesn’t yet have the wide range of module and plugin compatibility Luma offers.

The default Luma Magento theme has helped InteractOne solve a lot of problems for our clients over the years. When developed with discipline and expertise, Magento and Luma provide a migration path away from buggy, crippled customized themes. Luma also provides a viable performance path for small and new Magento merchants who can live with the standard design theme and want to minimize or eliminate developer involvement. Luma starts out acceptably light/fast, but it is not immune to bloat and compatibility issues that accumulate along with customizations, modifications, bug fixes and the layered technologies that accompany these actions. Ironically, given the wide scope of its use for many years, Luma is best when mostly left alone. It is this conundrum that motivated the Hyvä Themes’ creators. 

OK, The PWA Alternative?

Hyva is touted as an alternative to the PWA approach. PWA stands for Progressive Web Apps, which are web applications optimized to work on mobile and desktop devices. PWA for eCommerce helps you generate a more user-friendly site by allowing customers to access information regardless of their location or device. However, realizing the benefits of PWA can be fussy and expensive – involving lots of setup, testing, tweaking, monitoring and more tweaking. Hyvä employs Alpine JS to allow a flexible presentation on all platforms while clocking super fast page load, right out of the box.

Thinking About Going Headless?

Headless commerce detaches the front-end architecture and interface from the back-end commerce functionality and database. A key benefit of headless should be that changes can be made to the user experience without fear of introducing bugs to the core functionality. In reality, it’s not so much like a CMS, since most changes still require developer involvement. Because of this headless tends to be rather expensive, sometimes buggy and often difficult to maintain, leaving many marketing departments to regret going headless. 

Less is More

While they are powerful technologies, the limitations of PWA and Headless make the case for a solution like Hyvä. The vastly simpler structure of the Hyvä theme means it is an alternative to Headless and PWA – approaches that merchants adopt to solve problems around speed, flexibility and compatibility. The big difference is that both headless and PWA involve adding technology to make good things happen, whereas Hyvä Themes opts for subtraction.

Much lighter than a standard Magento theme

Hyvä Themes is based on a blank Magento 2 theme, not using the Luma code.  Most Magento theme developers start with the Luma code, so the finished product is – in most cases – slower than Luma.

The developers of Hyvä left out all layout.xml, .phtml files and JavaScript files. While Hyvä uses the PHP-templating system that is built into Magento, it departs from standard theme architecture, using newer lighter-weight components, such as a Javascript framework that is only ⅓ of the weight of Jquery.

Does it Cost More?

As of this writing, Hyvä charges 1,000 Euro for a one-time license. No limits are placed on the number of domains or storeviews.

While the simpler architecture of Hyvä themes should ultimately reduce programming costs, customizations and demand for favorite modules and plug-ins will impact initial build cost. Already though, Hyvä has incorporated compatibility with more than 100 popular modules and plugins and we expect 3rd party module compatibility  to grow.

One key affordability benefit of Hyvä Themes is that templates can be implemented one at a time – start with the product page and category pages, leave the checkout for later. This is where Hyvä excels.

What’s the catch?

If omnichannel drives your volume, a headless commerce approach might still be the way to go. You’ll have to balance those benefit calculations with the cost of development and ongoing maintenance.

Further, Hyvä’s checkout is still pretty young, lacking documentation at this writing. Hyvä Themes  offer the Magento One-Step checkout (based on Luma) as the preferred path for most.

So, despite a fast-growing pace of adoption, Hyvä still carries a whiff of the bleeding edge.

What does this all mean for you? 

For most of InteractOne’s clients, and most midsize e-Commerce retailers, chasing cutting edge technology can be a risky bet. Most retailers don’t have large IT teams that can research, manage and maintain the most fussy tools to keep you at full optimization. You already know that improving page load speed is beneficial, but you also have your eye on diminishing returns. Granted, twelve second page-loads were killing you. Getting to six seconds made a big improvement and dropping that to three seconds was excellent for conversion. Is your traffic and volume big enough to make the needed investment to get to 1.5 or .75 seconds justifiable?

The point is, a lot of Magento retailers haven’t made the leap to headless or PWA either because of cost or because they didn’t feel confident in managing it. Hyvä changes that decision in that it cures the speed problem with simplicity, not with another layer of technology. Hyvä Themes  isn’t a cure-all, but it sure looks like a start.

Contact us to learn more about how to optimize your eCommerce site.

Spend is Performance

AI Developer Tools Today

Looking Ahead

• The development of more “code-less” themes. These are themes for platforms like Shopify, Adobe Commerce (aka Magento) and BigCommerce that permit speedy modification and customization of the content, design and layout while no longer allowing users to edit the code. Instead, all CSS/design code changes are managed by AI. This should allow for cleaner, less bloated and more stable code because the AI will be able to quickly handle debugging and testing and won’t be relying on patching or shoehorn approaches that human developers often use to effect a change.
• Development of easier-to-use and faster design tools. Drag and drop has been around for a while, but imagine that the software will be able to anticipate and implement consistent-looking changes across the theme elements. Then, you can clean up any changes that AI didn’t get quite right on its first pass.

The Likely Path 

If You Want a Job Done…

What should eCommerce managers do in order to use AI to their advantage?

How Mobile is Your Site? 

Streamline Checkout

Maintain Consistent Navigation

Establish Trust Through Images

Product Descriptions

Building a Better eCommerce Website

Fighting Fraud with Fire

Recognizing A Broken Pattern

Emerging Threats

Bringing It All Together