Magento is one of the most powerful e-commerce platforms, enabling businesses in the beauty and health industry to create attractive, functional, and flexible online stores. With additional extensions, the platform allows businesses to create unique and appealing online stores that not only attract customers but also enable easy navigation and shopping. In this post, I will showcase various creative approaches and options developed on the Magento platform using some custom-made online stores as examples.

Custom Product Attributes

Magento offers advanced functionalities for customizing product pages, which are particularly beneficial for the beauty and health industry. These functionalities enable companies to better showcase their products and enhance the user experience.

Advanced Filtering and Product Search

By using custom attributes, customers can easily filter products based on their specific needs. For example, they can search for allergen-free products or choose the form of dietary supplements (capsules, liquid, tablets, powder, tinctures). This enables quick and precise searching, improving the user experience. With a little creativity, you can make the entire display more engaging and dynamic. Full of information yet still clear and usable.

Magento allows the creation and display of specific attributes for different product categories, such as medicines, medical devices, dietary supplements, and cosmetics. This means that attributes relevant to a particular category are automatically displayed on product pages and as filters in categories, making it easier for customers to find relevant information.

Dynamic Attribute Display

Attributes, such as ingredients, can include graphical elements that display information in an attractive and easily understandable way. Additionally, you can link products containing certain ingredients, allowing customers to explore and compare products.

It also enables businesses to use custom attributes to target specific customer segments in their marketing campaigns. For example, you can promote gluten-free products on your own custom attribute page to the target group looking for allergen-free products, increasing the effectiveness of marketing efforts. With precise advertising, we can show everyone looking for gluten-free products a page where all such items are available. Visitors can more easily find the items they are looking for among all items, as they quickly find suitable items through filtering and searching. Through organic search, we can gain quite a bit of free traffic to this specific page.

Enhanced Product Page Presentation

Expanding the presentation of a product with a longer description and additional graphical elements is crucial, as more detailed descriptions enable better understanding of the product, while graphical elements visually support the information, increasing persuasiveness. This makes it easier for customers to find all the necessary information in one place, improving their experience and the likelihood of purchase.

The presentation can be expanded in various ways, either by preparing preset fields for entering product information, which are then graphically displayed on the product page, or by a larger descriptive section where customers create extended content according to their preferences through interfaces such as Page Builder for Magento 2.

Custom Graphic Template Display

In custom graphic display, before starting the creation of an online store, we discuss which information we want to display for the items, based on past best practices. We graphically prepare displays of various sections, and then we program it so that the customer can easily edit and supplement each of the sections. Data entered through administration at the item is then graphically displayed differently in individual parts of the product presentation.

For example, at Hemptouch, we created various sections, such as:

1. brief description,
2. benefits,
3. video presentation,
4. certificates,
5. longer description with operation description,
6. dynamic gif showing usage,
7. additional explanation of operation,
8. display of additional products for complementary care,
9. some of the most suitable comments,
10. key ingredients,
11. remaining ingredients,
12. use and routine with products,
13. video presentation,
14. related items,
15. related user stories,
16. Related blog posts,
17. Frequently Asked Questions,
18. All remaining user reviews.

Editing Content with Page Builder Tool

At Arspharmae, however, we approached it differently. We didn't divide the presentation of product pages into such detail; instead, we added some broader input fields, where customers can create an expanded content display using the Page Builder content editor according to their preferences for the selected item. In both cases, the visitor gains better insight into the product, as it is presented in much more detail than offering only dry, short descriptions, which are most common in online stores.

Additional Information with Related Blog Posts

Every expert in a specific field knows they could write endlessly on a certain topic. However, it's essential to set limits so that the information doesn't become too overwhelming for the reader, which can confuse their purchasing decision.

In such cases, it's incredibly useful to add content that isn't necessarily vital to the product itself as a separate blog post and link it to the product. This allows the online store to have more content and useful information, while additional blog posts contribute to increasing organic traffic. I've noticed that related blog posts significantly contributed to gaining organic traffic. The trend was clear: a person would find a blog post on a topic they were interested in via Google, read it, and then come to the product page through the blog post and make a purchase.

Linking to blog posts is also useful when we're limited in the information we can present in the product description.

Customer Reviews

In addition to the product presentation itself, it's important for the visitor, when making a purchase decision, to see reviews from other customers, as these provide the buyer with an independent opinion, which can further inform them. Usually, this also serves as additional confirmation before making a purchase.

The system itself already has a built-in review system, which can be graphically customized as desired. Another option is to integrate advanced review systems, such as Stamped.io and Yotpo.com. Such systems have additional functionalities built-in, allowing reviews to be expanded with additional visual or video displays per review and display functionalities, such as more detailed review statistics, filtering, and search. They also take care of obtaining reviews, with options to activate emails or SMS messages sent to the customer after a purchase, ensuring that we receive customer feedback.

Integration with Advanced Marketing Tools

In today's digital environment, good analytics and relevant data are crucial for successful online sales. Without them, it's difficult to track success and optimize sales strategies. Therefore, integration of online stores with advanced marketing tools, such as Google Analytics 4, Facebook Pixel, Google DataLayer, and others, is indispensable.

Google Analytics 4 provides a comprehensive insight into the traffic of the online store, user behavior, conversions, and other key metrics that help understand how visitors behave and what influences their purchase decisions. Facebook Pixel and Google DataLayer enable tracking and analysis of the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and targeting the right audience.

In addition, it is crucial to implement marketing actions to increase sales. Automated email campaigns, such as those provided by Klaviyo, and SMS promotions through tools like Cartfox, are an excellent way to stay in touch with customers, encourage repeat purchases, and increase customer loyalty.

By integrating advanced marketing tools, online merchants can better understand their customers, optimize sales processes, and increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, leading to greater success and growth of their business.

Customizing the online store based on customer feedback is the key to success. I regularly develop new modules for the Magento system and I'm always open to new ideas and approaches to best meet all customer needs.

What is WebP and Why Are WebP Images Important for Your Online Store?

WebP is a modern image format developed by Google to enhance web experience efficiency. It represents an upgrade over traditional formats like JPEG, PNG, and GIF, allowing for minimal quality loss image compression, resulting in smaller file sizes and faster webpage loading times.

So why is WebP important for your online store? Primarily for three key reasons:

1. Faster Page Loading: Images constitute one of the largest components of webpages, but large image files slow down their loading. WebP image formats enable significant reduction in image file sizes without loss of quality, leading to faster page loading and improved user experience.
2. Bandwidth Savings: Smaller image files also mean less bandwidth consumption. This is especially crucial for mobile users with limited data plans. By using WebP image formats, you can attract more visitors as your website loads faster and consumes less data.
3. Search Engine Optimization: Page loading speed is crucial for search engine optimization. Google and other search engines prioritize fast-loading websites, so using WebP image formats can contribute to better rankings for your online store in search results.

Concrete Example of Using WebP Images on a Website

Let's consider a concrete example of using WebP images on a website. Let's analyze two cases: firstly, the website was tested with standard image formats commonly used. The page loading time for mobile devices was a lengthy 7.5 seconds. Then, we reanalyzed the website, this time using WebP image formats. The result? The loading time was reduced to just 4.3 seconds. That's nearly half the loading time, which is incredibly important for enhancing user experience and retaining visitors on the website. This example illustrates the power and effectiveness of using WebP image formats in optimizing webpage loading speed.

Page with images in standard formats (png, jpg,..):

https://pagespeed.web.dev/analysis/https-www-degriz-net-reference/ka5ncbdudt?form_factor=mobile

Loading time: 7.5 seconds

Page with images in modern format (webp):

https://pagespeed.web.dev/analysis/https-www-degriz-net-reference/n9x02hgmz9?form_factor=mobile

Loading time: 4.3 seconds

The degriz.net website operates on the OpenMage platform (Magento 1.x).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Different Image Formats

While WebP brings many advantages, it's also important to understand how it compares to other image formats like JPEG, PNG, and GIF:

Advantages of WebP:

• Faster page loading compared to JPEG and PNG.
• Less bandwidth consumption compared to traditional formats.
• Support for transparency and animation.
• Better optimization for search engines.

Disadvantages of WebP:

• Not supported in all browsers, which may require additional work to ensure compatibility.
• Minimal quality loss may occur in some images compared to PNG or JPEG.

How to Enable WebP Format Usage in Your Online Store?

Now that you understand the advantages of using WebP formats, you're probably wondering how to easily integrate them into your online store. There are two main ways:

1. Manually Adding WebP Images: If you have full control over your online store, you can manually convert existing images to WebP format and add them to your website. This requires some technical knowledge but gives you complete control over the process.
2. Using an Additional Module: For those using platforms like Magento, there are modules or plugins available that enable automatic conversion of images to WebP format. These modules streamline the process and ensure that all images on your website are automatically converted to WebP format.

On the degriz.eu website, images are automatically converted using a custom-developed image conversion module, as manually editing images would take too much time. If you wish to add images to your store manually, check if the online store already supports uploading images in WebP format. If your store is Magento 2 or OpenMage (Magento 1.x) and does not have support, this can be added with a free module.

WebP image formats represent a significant innovation for online stores, enabling faster page loading, bandwidth savings, and better optimization for search engines. By easily integrating them into your online store, you can enhance user experience and attract more visitors. So don't hesitate, start leveraging the benefits of WebP formats today!

Why is loading a web store over 3 seconds problematic?

Various analyses have shown that anything above this time significantly reduces the number of visited pages and shortens the time visitors spend on the site. Consequently, this also affects conversion rates or the number of purchases.

Why do slow loading issues occur?

Merchants always want to add additional modules and services to their stores to improve sales, ranging from services for visitor traffic statistics to advertising optimization, as well as modules for displaying user reviews, benefits, etc. These additional services often add code to the page obtained from an external source, causing the page to always wait for a response from this external source when loading. This can cause delays or a large volume of additional code, prolonging the time it takes to display the page. The more code there is, the longer it will take to display the page.

While some modules that display basic benefits on the page do not consider the impact on page speed, the images they add may be large and unoptimized. For example, in one case, a benefit image was nearly 3 MB, which increased execution time by a whole second just because of that image. Most merchants don't care about controlling each individual image, which is almost impossible with a large amount of content. The problem also lies in the fact that most merchants, when adding functionalities, view the page on a fast connection or already cached page in the browser.

How can we ensure that additional functionalities do not negatively affect store performance?

For example, regarding images, the only smart solution is well-optimized functionality. For instance, automatic image resizing and conversion to a modern format, such as WebP, can be applied when displaying images. Images can also be loaded only when they are in the visible area. If we have benefits below the product description, this part of the page is often not immediately visible when the page is opened, so we could trigger loading only when the visitor scrolls down to where this part is visible.

This means that in the development of functionalities, we must always check how they affect the operation of the site, even if it's just a simple thing like displaying benefits.

Many might think it's better not to engage in functionality development but to buy a module that already has everything done and thousands of users with excellent ratings. However, this often presents an even bigger problem.

Pre-made functionalities usually come with lots of additional features to meet various needs and allow for flexibility. The problem with this is that many functionalities need to be developed to cover numerous needs, which can result in additional code volume, prolonging page load times. The issue lies not only in the backend code being executed but also in the styles and libraries being included. Sometimes, instead of a few lines of styles, thousands of lines of code are loaded. If we have a subscription to functionalities in a store, it can be difficult to change anything to improve performance. A developer might not change the entire module just for one client.

What if we buy a module that improves the speed of the online store?

If the store is poorly made from the start, such a module will certainly help, but the improvement is often temporary. The module can improve one part of the site but may worsen another. Improving the speed of the store may not be perfect. It may only alleviate the problem.

Ideal performance is only possible if we focus on each basic functionality and organize it separately to work as it should. If you want to save costs on your store, carefully check the performance with each change so you won't be disappointed later.

For the past month, I've dedicated most of my time to optimizing store speed, and I managed to achieve a perfect mobile score of 100/100 through Google Page Speed for both systems I work on: Magento 2 and OpenMage (Magento 1.9). For this purpose, I will soon release affordable store packages and some additional modules. Some will certainly be free and almost necessary for use by customers.

Speed tests are conducted via Google PageSpeed site: https://pagespeed.web.dev/

1. Rich and Powerful Platform

Magento 2 boasts exceptional functionality and performance. It offers numerous built-in features that facilitate the management of an online store. For example, the platform enables inventory management, order tracking, sales of various types of products, and the use of advanced attributes for product filtering. It also allows for easy integration of various payment processors and shipping services.

Example: With Magento 2, you can create a rich and powerful online store with various functionalities, such as selling products in different markets, automatically calculating shipping costs, and offering a wide range of payment options. On one platform, you can manage multiple different stores with different payment and shipping methods, different displays, and more. For example, we set up a store that used over 30 different domains, each with its own customized content and displays. This simplified management and reduced maintenance costs.

2. SEO-Friendly Platform

Magento 2 is designed with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. It offers friendly URLs, customizable meta descriptions, sitemaps, and other tools that help improve the visibility of the online store on search engines.

Example: By properly utilizing SEO features in Magento 2, you can increase organic traffic and improve the ranking of your store in search engines, thereby increasing visits and sales.

3. Flexible Content Management

Magento 2 allows for easy content management on the online store. With its intuitive text editing interface, you can quickly and easily update the content of web pages.

Example: When using Magento 2, you can easily update texts, images, and other content on the online store without needing special technical knowledge. Additionally, when you have a large number of products, it offers features such as bulk editing of items, allowing you to change a specific attribute value for multiple items at once.

Product Attribute Creation and Customization

Magento 2 enables easy creation and customization of product attributes, which is crucial for better product filtering and organization in the store. This allows customers to easily find the desired products.

Example: For example, if you have a clothing online store, you can create attributes such as "size," "color," and "material," allowing customers to select relevant filters and quickly find the products they are looking for.

4. High Customizability and Scalability

Magento 2 is highly customizable, allowing businesses to design the store according to their preferences. With numerous themes and extensions, you can create a unique and attractive online store.

Example: For instance, if you are a specialized clothing store, you can use Magento 2 to design a store that perfectly fits your brand and offers functionalities that are important to your customers, such as product filtering by size, color, and other attributes.

5. Online Store Performance

Magento 2 is designed for business growth. This means it can adapt to increasing business volume. With proper configuration, Magento 2 can easily support large online stores with hundreds of thousands of products and thousands of daily orders.

Example: If you start with an online store that has a few hundred products, you can easily expand with Magento 2 and add thousands of products as your business grows. Even when you receive thousands of orders daily, the store, with the appropriate server environment, can easily handle this load.

Multi-Store and Multi-Currency Support

Magento 2 allows for easy management of multiple stores and currencies on a single platform. This is extremely useful for businesses looking to sell in multiple markets.

Example: With Magento 2, you can create multiple stores for different geographic regions or target customer groups and customize prices and currencies for each market. You can start with a Slovenian store and then easily expand your presence to new markets, such as Slovakia, Poland, the United Kingdom, and many others.

6. Community and Modules

Magento 2 has an active community of developers and a wide range of extensions (modules) that enable adding functionality and improving the store. Many of these modules are free and allow for adding specific features.

Example: If you want to connect your online store with advanced advertising systems like Klaviyo, all you need to do is install a free module and set up the connection between the store and Klaviyo. Then, you can carry out automated email sending through Klaviyo, display sign-up forms on the website, and much more.

In conclusion, we can say that Magento 2 is one of the best choices for online stores that want to offer an excellent user experience, good search engine optimization, flexibility, scalability, and much more. The platform allows for easy content management, supports multiple stores and currencies, and is enriched with an active community of developers who contribute to its development. If you want to create a successful online store, Magento 2 is a strong choice.

1. Complexity of the Online Store

Magento 2 is a complex platform that requires a steep learning curve for users who are not familiar with it. Setting up and customizing your online store can be challenging, especially for beginners.

If your online store does not have complex requirements and features, Magento 2 may be too complex of a choice. There are simpler platforms available that are equally effective for less intricate needs.

However, if you have ambitions for multiple languages, extensive order volumes, numerous products, and advanced marketing modules, then Magento is one of the few systems that can cover all of this on one platform.

Learning the system and using its features should not be a cause for concern, as there is extensive documentation available, and I have also prepared video tutorials for clients to facilitate easy learning with minimal effort.

2. Costs of Building an Online Store

While Magento 2 offers a free version with an open-source license (Magento Open Source), there are additional costs associated with running a Magento 2 store. You will need to pay for hosting, development, extensions, and maintenance, which can add up quickly.

The most significant monthly cost is typically the hosting of the online store, depending on its scale and functionality. Smaller stores with a few hundred products can enjoy moderate hosting costs, so it's essential to choose the right hosting plan.

The cost of a domain is approximately €14 per year, and maintenance depends on the quality of implementation and the need for additional functionalities.

3. Expertise Required for Development

To fully leverage Magento 2 and customize your store, you may need to hire experienced developers familiar with this platform. This can represent a cost and require long-term support.

A developer needs not only programming knowledge but also experience with the system to properly integrate functionalities. Poorly executed stores that we have to fix due to errors often result from a lack of system knowledge.

4. Extension Costs

While Magento 2 offers an extensive range of extensions, many of the most useful ones are not free. Purchasing and maintaining these extensions can increase your operational costs. Always be mindful of the quality of modules, as malfunction or lack of upgrades can incur additional costs.

5. Slow Performance

Magento 2 can be slower out of the box compared to some other e-commerce platforms. It requires additional efforts for performance optimization, which is crucial for the responsiveness of your online store.

Speed issues are often caused by system operation errors, the use of unnecessary modules, unoptimized images, and inadequate hosting. Proper planning and maintenance of the system can address these issues.

6. Updates and Maintenance

Magento regularly releases updates and security patches. Updating to the latest version can take a lot of time, especially if the store's foundation was not prepared correctly.

System updates bring security enhancements and additional features. Proper planning, testing, and implementing updates are crucial to maintaining security and the efficient operation of the online store.

Are you considering a new online store or an upgrade to an existing one and not sure which solution is right for you? Feel free to contact me; I would be happy to assist you in making a decision.

In the past week, I reviewed at least twenty stores and I was quite disappointed to find that most of these stores had serious operational issues manifesting in various errors. Most surprisingly, it took more than 10 seconds for the website to load on mobile devices, a result that greatly concerned me.

Many store owners might not even notice this issue since it might have been a while since their last visit, and the page probably already cached in their browser. However, for new visitors, these slow load times can cause significant inconvenience. You might wonder what Google says about this?

Google states:

• 53% of visits are likely abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load.
• Half of the people expect a site to load in less than 2 seconds.
• 46% of people say waiting for pages to load is what they dislike the most about browsing the internet on mobile devices.

(Source: https://blog.google/products/admanager/the-need-for-mobile-speed/)

Therefore, I have prepared some basic guidelines to help ordinary users and online store owners check the performance of their Magento online stores.

Store Performance Speed

Let's start with the speed, as mentioned earlier. The easiest way to check your store's performance is by using the Google PageSpeed Insight tool. This tool not only rates your store's state on a scale from 0 to 100 but also provides detailed instructions to fix issues and focus on key aspects. You might not need to understand all technical details, as you'll find enough information on this page for your web store administrator to enhance its performance.

To get scores for mobile and desktop devices, input your store's link in the following website and click "Analyze":

https://pagespeed.web.dev/

Achieving a perfect score of 100/100 is often a challenging task, requiring specific changes and compromises. For instance, your store's performance might be highly optimized, but services like Google Analytics, Captcha, Facebook pixel, which load from external sources, might affect loading speed. In such cases, a balance between optimization and functionality is necessary.

Store performance speed can also heavily depend on hosting, as it can vary significantly based on configuration and optimization. For example, I recently migrated a client's online store from a virtual server with different caches (Redis, Varnish, etc.) to Neoserv's shared Turbo hosting package, improving speed by about 4 seconds on mobile devices. Although it still took about 10 seconds, this improvement was substantial. I plan further optimizations in the coming days to achieve a green score (above 90 out of 100).

Store Security

Another crucial aspect is your online store's security against attacks and abuses. In a previous case, I encountered a situation where dangerous code was running on the checkout through Google Tag Manager, which could have exploited visitor data. This can be a very serious problem, as an automatic form for entering credit card information could be created, even though the online store doesn't have credit card payment options. These data were then sent to a remote server.

During the period when official support for Magento 1.9 ended, I heard about 24 data breaches in just one month. Thus, I recommend updating your store at least once a year or at least patching the most well-known security holes. You might not know, but Magento 1.9 can still be upgraded, as there is an unofficial development called Openmage.

How to check if you have an updated store? It's simple. When you're logged into the administration, check the store version mentioned in the website's footer. Additionally, you can verify your Magento store's security using the following link. Input your store's URL in the field and click "Scan"

https://www.magereport.com/

Store Operation Errors

Sometimes, errors in the store occur despite having everything updated and the store loading quickly. These errors can hinder or even prevent users from completing purchases or accessing all information. A simple way to check these errors is to test the store's operation on various devices, such as mobile phones and desktop computers, and perform some test purchases.

Check if all information is understandable and translated, if all elements are clickable, and if functionalities work as they should. For those with more technical knowledge, errors in the website's execution can also be checked in the browser console. I believe that by regularly checking the above-mentioned aspects, you shouldn't have major issues with your online store.

If you want a more detailed analysis with improvement recommendations, feel free to contact me, and I will be happy to provide you with a report with suggestions. I am also available to help improve the situation free of charge.

In this post, I will focus on product pages and highlight some key elements that could inspire improvements on your store.

1. Featured Discounts and Quantity Discounts

Each product prominently displays the percentage of discount, immediately capturing visitors' attention. It also shows how much discount you can expect when purchasing multiple items. The price for 1, 2, and 3 pieces is clearly indicated for each quantity. The best choice is also highlighted, encouraging customers to buy in larger quantities, thereby increasing the cart value.

In addition to quantity options, they offer a monthly subscription for products with even greater discounts and free delivery. While subscription systems are not as common in Slovenia, they have become a significant trend abroad, transforming one-time purchases into regular monthly orders.

2. Detailed Product Content

Product content goes beyond short, dry descriptions; it's broken down into various elements. It starts with a brief description and a list of product benefits. Additionally, various attributes like "gluten-free," "made in the EU," "non-GMO," etc., are highlighted, along with emphasizing a 30-day guarantee and a free gift.

It continues with an extensive description divided into multiple sections covering various product advantages. On the right, there's a list of ingredients, instructions for use, and various warnings.

3. Prominent Add-Ons

You'll quickly notice that this is not your typical product page; the "Add to Cart" banner moves along with the screen, making it hard to miss. At the bottom of the page, there's an additional option for ordering products.

4. Customer Reviews

The focus on customer reviews is excellent, as it aids in purchase decisions. Sensilab has a wide collection of reviews for all products, which is quite rare for our market since obtaining customer reviews without additional incentives can be challenging.

The website incorporates the Yotpo system, enabling the display of reviews in an extended manner, collecting reviews, and allowing notifications via email and SMS.

5. Value-Boosting Add-Ons to the Cart

When you add a product to your cart, you'll quickly see a special offer with discounted products and information on how much is left to qualify for free delivery.

This page has many fascinating elements, and browsing it is a real pleasure due to the abundance of different ideas. Right on the product page, you can see that there are plenty of them.

Do you also know an online store that has inspired you? Please share it with us. The more ideas we have at our disposal, the more solutions we can offer to our customers. If you haven't noticed yet, I've also added some Magento modules to the website. Check them out [here](insert link). I plan to add more, and some of them will be completely free.