Virtual Reality in Retail: Growing the Potential

The growth of Virtual reality in retail has exploded in recent years. The impact of this technological development on the gaming industry is clear. Perhaps more surprising is the dramatic impact it is having on commerce. Commerce is steadily evolving. The only way to stay competitive is to bring virtual and augmented reality into the business.

With VR and AR, customers can interface with products on a whole new level. Many retail stores are using AR to gamify the customer experience. VR makes shopping more entertaining, engaging, and educational. These technologies are reshaping how we operate as consumers.

The Growth of Virtual Reality in eCommerce

Businesses that rely only on electronic transactions face some disadvantages. Their stores can be open day and night and need no store permits, maintenance, or leasing. Despite this, they still face a lower conversion rate than physical stores. More than ¾ of online shoppers leave a site before finalizing their sale. A recent Retail Dive Consumer Survey found that 62% of consumers prefer physical stores to e-shops. With eCommerce, consumers experience a “touch-feel gap.” Before, online shoppers had to base their decisions upon product descriptions and 2D images. This is limited exposure to the product. It leaves customers without the trust they get from traditional brick-and-mortar shops.

Customers have access to a broader range of products that would be available in physical shops. VR systems can also make product suggestions based on previous selections, streamlining customer experience based on personal preferences. With VR, users can create and customize product combinations. This immersive VR retail experience provides an engaging, distraction-free shopping atmosphere. Best of all, users can shop from anywhere in the world.

Virtual Reality Shopping Experience

VR can make online stores more like physical shops and help to bridge the “trust gap.” Providers in the eCommerce industry rely on current innovation and technology to stay competitive. Virtual reality and Augmented reality are the height of this new technology.

Lowe’s is one company at the forefront of the virtual revolution. The Lowe’s Holoroom is a virtual feature that allows customers to visualize home improvement projects. Users can design and customize the interior of any room in their home with a tablet. After they design the room, they can view it in the Holoroom with a VR headset. Once the design is finalized, customers are given a Google Cardboard VR headset which can link to any smartphone.

Virtual Reality Fashion

Virtual reality has been big in the world of fashion. Charlotte Tilbury created a sensation with the first ever VR perfume ad. Tommy Hilfiger and other brands are offering another immersive fashion experience. These fashion retailers use VR to give customers a virtual runway experience. This brings more customers into physical shops and heightens interest in their products. As we can see, there are countless ways that VR can enhance the retail fashion experience.

NYT VR

The New York Times brought Virtual reality into journalism when it launched Daily 360 VR News. It is accessible through NYTimes.com and mobile and VR apps. This app was massively well received. More than 700 users shared their personal virtual experience via Instagram. The average viewing time was 14.7 minutes, and 92% of videos were viewed in Cardboard mode. An added benefit to this approach is that the experience is compelling even without a Cardboard viewer. This makes it more accessible to those that haven’t caught up with the trend.

Dior

Dior is another company providing an innovative virtual experience. Rather than offering a traditional runway show, Dior has created a backstage virtual experience. Users can go behind the scenes at a fashion show and observe a professional makeup artist at work, getting cosmetic tips and techniques. Dior teamed with DigitasLBi Labs in France to create a proprietary VR headset, Dior Eyes. The brand has introduced this technology to select stores worldwide in June.

How to Use Augmented Reality in eCommerce?

Augmented Reality is simpler than VR and more accessible with current technology. This technology shows users an image of the world around them, but with virtual elements added to it. Rather than creating an entire immersive world, Augmented reality is used to enhance existing reality.

Augmented Commerce

AR is already being used to enhance the traditional retail experience in many ways. Major clothing retailers offer AR fitting rooms. Customers can try virtual makeup, accessories, clothing, and hairstyles before making a selection. This offers customers “try before you buy” appeal, as well as a bit of engagement and fun. Many retailers use AR to increase product visualization. Customers can get extra information about products with these systems. AR can also provide customers with promotions, contests, and targeted product selection. Let’s see who is implementing AR to attract customers and expand the business.

IKEA Solution

IKEA is another company that has taken advantage of the VR/AR revolution. On the Virtual Reality level, VR pop-up booths allow customers to browse a digital showroom. Users can explore furniture combinations and virtual design rooms. They can also explore different wall colors, fabrics, color schemes, and light levels. IKEA has featured this virtual experience in-store in Berlin and pop-up booths in Kuwait, Morocco, and Jordan. These are intended to enhance customer engagement and boost foot traffic to their physical shops. The Kuwait IKEA store has seen a 19% increase in foot traffic since the installation.

Alibaba VR Shopping

Alibaba is another retailer on top of the VR trend. Alibaba offers inexpensive ($0.15) Cardboard VR viewers which pair with any smartphone. These give access to a virtual mall with thousands of products. One benefit of this approach is that the VR mall can feature products without physical stores at a customer’s location. This allows retailers to reach a wider audience. Users can make real-time purchases with a look using AliPay. Customers can also use the VR interface to pick up objects and examine them with a 360-degree view. Alibaba has used this technology to gamify shopping. Customers receive virtual promotions and contests available only to AR users.

Sephora’s Augmented Reality

Sephora has become yet another leader in the AR world. They offer iPhone-accessible technology that allows users to test makeup digitally. Sephora’s Visual Arts App uses real-time facial recognition software to allow customers to try out a wide range of cosmetics. Visual Arts transforms an iPhone or iPad into an AR mirror that shows the effect of cosmetic products. It also offers product recommendations and makeup tutorials.

Product Visualization

Product visualization is one huge benefit of VR for eCommerce. It helps to boost marketing, improve brand recognition, and grow the business itself. VR is the new generation of product visualization. With it, customers can explore the interior of a device, design the interior of their home, or showcase their merchandise for a client. Let’s have a look at some companies who have implemented it with great success.

eBay

eBay has taken an innovative step into the realm of VR commerce. They have paired with Myer to create the first immersive VR department store app. This app lets users view an extensive selection of products from anywhere in the world. It also offers smart product recommendation. The app observes your choices and adapts future recommendations to your preference. It works with Samsung’s Gear VR. However, eBay has made it accessible to those without an expensive viewer. They offer Google Cardboard viewers called “shopticals” which can be paired with any smartphone. eBay has given out more than 20,000 free shopticals to customers, making their virtual store more accessible. To top it off, shopticals sell for $0.15, so customers face little to no barrier by hardware.

ARkit Apple

Another recent development in AR is Apple’s recent release of ARkit Apple. This software development tool allows developers to make AR apps for iPads and iPhones. These apps can allow users to place virtual objects in the physical world and interact with them by looking at them in the device display. The app works with Apple’s visual odometry sensors to track the orientation and relative position of the device. With a new tool, it is easier than ever to create AR technologies which are accessible to anyone with an iPhone or iPad.

Are AR and VR Thing for the Future?

The growth of Virtual reality has been steadily increasing. There is no doubt that this technology will become mainstream soon. AR/VR technology attracts more customers into the store. It provides greater immersion for shoppers and makes brands available to a wider customer base. In the coming years, anyone trying to sell without virtual technology will be at a less advantage.

Hardware is the largest challenge currently faced by Virtual and Augmented reality. Though the industry is estimated at 4$ billion by the end of 2018, only about 5% of North Americans own VR viewers. This trend is likely to change in the coming years. Virtual reality headsets and technology are now more popular than tablets. Experts expect the virtual technology market to reach 143$ billion within the next two years.

Perhaps Jeff Booth said it best: “Interaction leads to immersion, and immersion leads to conversion.” In a digital market, brands that offer the most interaction will see the highest payoff. The takeaway? Virtual and augmented technology will be to the next generation what smartphones have been to this one. The wise retailer will explore the best ways to make use of VR and AR in their business.

Resolving Magento 2 Extension Conflict Between Amasty_Shopby and Amasty_Scroll

Magento® 2 developers usually try to choose extensions from a single creator so no conflicts arise between them. But what should you do if a conflict still arises where it shouldn’t? Today we will consider this situation as we have experienced it. We will show how to resolve Magento 2 extension conflict between two Amasty modules. Navigate using the list below:

Suppose there’s a site on Magento 2. It should support the AJAX filtration and infinite scrolling on products listing using AJAX (henceforth referred to as Infinite Scroll).

Amasty Modules Chosen

We chose extensions from Amasty to implement both functionalities: Improved Layered Navigation (Amasty_Shopby) and Infinite Scroll (Amasty_Scroll). We chose these extensions from the same developer on the basis of minimizing conflicts between them, since they affect the same pages: product listings.

Magento Extension Conflict Issues

When testing the site, a problem was identified in the listing. The Amasty Ajax Scroll extension places the following block in the footer:

<div class="amscroll-navbar" id="amscroll-navbar" style="background: #3A4F62;"><span class="amscroll-navbar-text">PAGE <span id="amscroll-navbar-current">1</span> of 15</span><a class="amscroll-navbar-link"></a></div>

This block has a fixed position and lets users know how many pages of products were loaded. If the category or search result returns only one page, the block shouldn’t be shown.

If the aforementioned situation occurred when a filter was applied using AJAX (for example, if a customer wanted to browse only products that are the color black and the results fit on just one page), then this block remained in the browser window, which confused users.

This had to be fixed, and we set out analyzing the code of both modules. Both modules for calling and processing Ajax requests implement jQuery widgets. jQuery widgets are Javascript objects with Function() type. The modules are synchronized in the following way.

mage.amScrollScript widget from Amasty_Scroll has the following constructor:

_create: function (options) {
    var self = this;
    $(document).on( "amscroll_refresh", function() {
        self._initialize();//run jQuery(document).trigger('amscroll_refresh');
    });
    this._initialize();
}

In Amasty_Shopby extension widgets, the”amscroll_refresh” event is called when processing AJAX response, but in Amasty_Scroll this event is processed by reinitialization of the whole widget.

So why doesn’t deleting the block from the footer take place when processing this event?

We got the answer to this question after carrying out the analysis of _initialize() method and the widget code.

_initialize: function () {
    this.next_data_cache = "";
    this.pagesLoaded = [];
    this._initPagesCount();
    this.disabled = 1;
    var isValidConfiguration = this._validate();
    if (!isValidConfiguration) {
        return;
    }
    this.disabled = 0;
    this.type = this.options['actionMode'];
    this._preloadPages();
    this._hideToolbars();
    var self = this;
    $(window).scroll(function() {
        self._initPaginator();
    });
    setTimeout(function(){
        self._initPaginator();
    }, 7000);
    this._initProgressBar();
},
….
_validate: function () {
    if(!this.options['product_container']
        || $(this.options['product_container']).length === 0
    ){
        console.log('Please specify "Products Group" Dom selector in module settings.');
        return false;
    }
    if (this.pagesCount <= 1) {
        return false;
    }
    return true;
},
...
_initProgressBar: function () {
    if (this.options['progressbar'] && this.options['progressbar']['enabled'] == '1') {
        var progressbar = jQuery('<div/>', {
            class: 'amscroll-navbar',
            id   : 'amscroll-navbar',
            style: this.options['progressbar']['styles']
        });
        var text = this.options['progressbarText'];
        text = text.replace('%1', '<span id="amscroll-navbar-current">'   this.currentPage   '</span>');
        text = text.replace('%2', this.pagesCount);
        progressbar.append('<span class="amscroll-navbar-text">'   text   '</span>');
        var linkElement = jQuery('<a/>', {
            class: 'amscroll-navbar-link'
        });
        linkElement.click(function(){
            $('body, html').animate({
                scrollTop: 0
            }, 300);
        });
        progressbar.append(linkElement);
        $("body").append(progressbar);
    }
}<

As you can see, the _initProgressBar method generates the aforementioned block and is called from the _initialize() method. However, _initProgressBar will not be called if the number of pages is equal to 1. This is verified in the _validate() method. The code for deleting the block created when applying an Ajax filter from Amasty_Shopby was not provided in the mage.amScrollScript widget. Amasty must correct this mistake.

Solving Amasty Module Conflicts in Magento 2

Mixin should be used for customizing Magento 2 jQuery widgets without rewriting the original widgets. We will declare it in the requirejs-config.js module file.

var config = {
    config:{
            mixins:{
                "Amasty_Scroll/js/amscroll":{
                    "Web4pro_Ajax/js/amscroll":true,
            }
        }
    },
...
}

Then we implement the mixin. We think it should be done as follows:

define([
    "jquery"
], function ($){
    return function (widget) {
        widget.prototype._initialize =function(){
                this.next_data_cache = "";
                this.pagesLoaded = [];
                this._initPagesCount();
                this.disabled = 1;
                var isValidConfiguration = this._validate();
                if (!isValidConfiguration) {
                    $('.amscroll-navbar').each(function(){
                        this.parentElement.removeChild(this);
                    })
                    return;
                }
                this.disabled = 0;
                this.type = this.options['actionMode'];
                this._preloadPages();
                this._hideToolbars();
                var self = this;
                $(window).scroll(function() {
                    self._initPaginator();
                });
                setTimeout(function(){
                    self._initPaginator();
                }, 7000);
                this._initProgressBar();
            };
    }
});

If the number of pages is equal to 1, all blocks with the amscroll-navbar class will be deleted from the DOM page. But this mixin won’t work, since the widget always has the NULL value. This is because Amasty implemented the mage.amScrollScript widget based on jQuery standards, not Magento 2 standards. If the widget was implemented based on Magento 2 standards, it would return a self-pointer using:

return $.mage.amScrollScript;

This is not seen in the code of the mage.amScrollScript widget. But a solution to this problem does exist, and it looks as follows:

define([
    "jquery"
], function ($){
    return function (widget) {
        $.mage.amScrollScript.prototype._initialize =function(){
                this.next_data_cache = "";
                this.pagesLoaded = [];
                this._initPagesCount();
                this.disabled = 1;
                var isValidConfiguration = this._validate();
                if (!isValidConfiguration) {
                    $('.amscroll-navbar').each(function(){
                        this.parentElement.removeChild(this);
                    })
                    return;
                }
                this.disabled = 0;
                this.type = this.options['actionMode'];
                this._preloadPages();
                this._hideToolbars();
                var self = this;
                $(window).scroll(function() {
                    self._initPaginator();
                });
                setTimeout(function(){
                    self._initPaginator();
                }, 7000);
                this._initProgressBar();
            };
    }

This alteration successfully deletes the block with the page number from the DOM page when it’s needed.

Magento 2 Issues: Detected and Solved

Magento® 2 claims to be one of the best eCommerce solutions on the market, as far as the company decided to stop the support of the first Magento version. But what about the changes? Is Magento still powerful or even became much better?

Well, opinions differ. Someone will tell you that Magento 2 is the best eCommerce platform they have ever worked with. Someone will say with a pinch of salt that this platform lacks lots of available functionalities, and its new architecture is odd. Both sides are right partly.

We are here to reveal some technical Magento 2 issues. We’ll discuss how you can cope with them as our team has already done. Sit back, make a cup of tea, and run PhpStorm.

Let’s take control of Magento 2 code together!

Magento 2 Configuration Issues

Before we start criticizing Magento 2, we should admit that it’s still very flexible and powerful. As it has the new architecture, it calls for new approaches in web development. For example, some customization features that were included out-of-box in the first version now are not available. So we, web developers, need to come up with creative ideas and implement customizations in Magento 2 admin panel ourselves. Let’s look into some of them we’ve already faced.

Navigate to the issue:

Displaying Swatch Attribute of Dropdown Type in Magento 2.2
Configuring Adding Items to Admin Panel Menu in Magento 2.2.0
Displaying the Shopping Cart Content on the Customer View Page in Magento 2 CE
Dealing with Ineffective addAttribute() Method for Customizing Product Listings

Displaying Swatch Attribute of Dropdown Type in Magento 2.2

Problem: We detected the issue with displaying swatch attribute of drop-down type on the product listing page in Magento 2.2. It happens when the attribute of this type configures the configurable product. The issue arises because Magento\Swatches\Block\Product\Renderer\Listing\Configurable block will be output if only the product contains swatch attributes.

  protected function _toHtml()
    {
        $output = '';
        if ($this->isProductHasSwatchAttribute()) {
            $output = parent::_toHtml();
        }

        return $output;
    }

<type name="Magento\Swatches\Block\Product\Renderer\Listing\Configurable">
        <arguments>
            <argument name="swatchAttributesProvider" xsi:type="object">Web4pro\ExtendedSwatch\Model\SwatchAttributesProvider</argument>
        </arguments>
    </type>

/**
     * @param Product $product
     * @return bool
     */
    public function provide(Product $product)
    {
        $result = parent::provide($product);
        if (empty($result)) {
            $attributes = $this->typeConfigurable->getConfigurableAttributes($product)->getItems();
            $result = count($attributes) > 0;
        };
        return $result;
    }

This approach helps to avoid changes in the whole Magento\Swatches\Block\Product\Renderer\Listing\Configurable class.

Configuring Adding Items to Admin Panel Menu in Magento 2.2.0

Problem: In Magento 2, you can configure adding items to the admin panel menu. In a nutshell, you can add items depending on specific configurations or modules. Here is how it looks like:

<menu>
   <add id="Web4pro_Extended::invoice" title="Invoices" module="Web4pro_Extended" sortOrder="20"
        parent="”
action="web4pro_extended/invoice/index"
        resource="Web4pro_Extended::invoice"
        dependsOnConfig="web4pro_extended/general_settings/enable"
        dependsOnModule=””
/>
</menu>

So that, dependsOnConfig sets the dependency on the configuration, and
dependsOnModule sets dependency on the module. But in Magento 2.2.0, this functionality doesn’t work.

Solution: Implement afterRead() plugin for \Magento\Backend\Model\Menu\Config\Reade class and run necessary checks in this method.

Displaying the Shopping Cart Content on the Customer View Page in Magento 2 CE

Problem: In Magento 2 Commerce, the content of the user’s shopping cart is not displayed on the customer view page.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/page_configuration.xsd">
    <body>
        <referenceBlock name="customer_form">
            <block class="Web4pro\Login\Block\Cart" name="shopping_cart" />
        </referenceBlock>
    </body>
</page>

class Cart extends TabWrapper implements TabInterface {

    /**
     * Core registry
     *
     * @var Registry
     */
    protected $coreRegistry = null;

    /**
     * @var bool
     */
    protected $isAjaxLoaded = true;

    /**
     * Constructor
     *
     * @param Context $context
     * @param Registry $registry
     * @param array $data
     */
    public function __construct(Context $context, Registry $registry, array $data = [])
    {
        $this->coreRegistry = $registry;
        parent::__construct($context, $data);
    }

    /**
     * @inheritdoc
     */
    public function canShowTab()
    {
        return $this->coreRegistry->registry(RegistryConstants::CURRENT_CUSTOMER_ID);
    }

    /**
     * Return Tab label
     *
     * @return \Magento\Framework\Phrase
     */
    public function getTabLabel()
    {
        return __('Manage Shopping Cart');
    }

    /**
     * Return URL link to Tab content
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getTabUrl()
    {
        return $this->getUrl('customer/*/carts', ['_current' => true]);
    }
}

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<layout xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/layout_generic.xsd">
    <referenceContainer name="root">
        <block class="Magento\Catalog\Block\Adminhtml\Product\Composite\Configure" name="customer.carts.product.configure" before="admin.customer.carts"/>
    </referenceContainer>
</layout>

Dealing with Ineffective addAttribute() Method for Customizing Product Listings

Problem: When customizing Magento, you often need to add a custom product attribute to a product listing. With Magento 1, you do this by using the addAttribute method of the Mage_Catalog_Block_Product_List class. Its equivalent in Magento 2 to add product custom attribute, use \Magento\Catalog\Block\Product\ListProduct\, inherited this method, and its implementation is simple enough.

public function addAttribute($code)
{
    $this->_getProductCollection()->addAttributeToSelect($code);
    return $this;
}

In Magento 1, the primary way of customizing outputs was to insert your code blocks using layout. Its only shortcoming was that if using flat index tables for a collection of products on the frontend, the required field could be unavailable if the attribute visibility was not set in the product listing.

In Magento 2.0 and Magento 2.1, you could continue using this method, but it’s strongly discouraged starting with version 2.2.

protected function _getProductCollection()
{
    if ($this->_productCollection === null) {
        $this->_productCollection = $this->initializeProductCollection();
    }
    return $this->_productCollection;
}

private function initializeProductCollection()
{
    $layer = $this->getLayer();
    /* @var $layer \Magento\Catalog\Model\Layer */
    if ($this->getShowRootCategory()) {
        $this->setCategoryId($this->_storeManager->getStore()->getRootCategoryId());
    }
    // if this is a product view page
    if ($this->_coreRegistry->registry('product')) {
        // get collection of categories this product is associated with
        $categories = $this->_coreRegistry->registry('product')
            ->getCategoryCollection()->setPage(1, 1)
            ->load();
        // if the product is associated with any category
        if ($categories->count()) {
            // show products from this category
            $this->setCategoryId(current($categories->getIterator())->getId());
        }
    }
    $origCategory = null;
    if ($this->getCategoryId()) {
        try {
            $category = $this->categoryRepository->get($this->getCategoryId());
        } catch (NoSuchEntityException $e) {
            $category = null;
        }
        if ($category) {
            $origCategory = $layer->getCurrentCategory();
            $layer->setCurrentCategory($category);
        }
    }
    $collection = $layer->getProductCollection();
    $this->prepareSortableFieldsByCategory($layer->getCurrentCategory());
    if ($origCategory) {
        $layer->setCurrentCategory($origCategory);
    }
    $toolbar = $this->getToolbarBlock();
    $this->configureToolbar($toolbar, $collection);
    $this->_eventManager->dispatch(
        'catalog_block_product_list_collection',
        ['collection' => $collection]
    );
    return $collection;
}

In this case, the collection is loaded, but layered navigation filters, for example, cannot be applied to it, and the filter blocks themselves won’t be displayed on the frontend. Of course, the attribute will not be added to select, since the collection is already loaded. The method has become not only useless but quite harmful.

Why didn’t Magento declare it deprecated in version 2.2?

Problem: Our theory is that Magento left it for the case when a product collection is not taken from the $layer object but is set to the block by the setCollection method. This doesn’t happen on category pages or regular search pages, but at the moment it’s still on advanced search pages. However, the advanced search wasn’t prevalent on the majority of live Magento 1 sites, and it’s practically not used at all on Magento 2. Note that this problem didn’t exist until version 2.2 since the event mentioned above was dispatched in the block’s _beforeToHteml method, and this didn’t cause any problems.

We will now examine alternative solutions that we can apply in Magento 2.2.

public function beforeFilter($model,$collection,$category){
    if(!$collection->isEnabledFlat()){
        $collection->addExpressionAttributeToSelect('seo_name',
            'IF({{seo_product_name}} is NULL,{{name}},{{seo_product_name}}',
            array('name','seo_product_name'));
    }else{
        $collection->getSelect()->columns(array('seo_name'=>'IF(seo_product_name is NULL,name,seo_product_name)'));
    }
    return array($collection,$category);
}

    $toolbar = $this->getToolbarBlock();
    $this->configureToolbar($toolbar, $collection);
    $this->_eventManager->dispatch(
        'catalog_block_product_list_collection',
        ['collection' => $collection]
    );
    return $collection;

public function beforeSetOrder($subject,$field,$direction){
     if($field == 'name'){
        $field = 'seo_name';
    }
    return array($field,$direction);
}
public function beforeAddAttributeToSort($collection,$attribute,$dir){
    if($attribute == 'seo_name'){
        $collection->getSelect()->order($attribute.' '.$dir);
    }
    return array($attribute,$dir);
}

If someone should decide to use the advanced search, then you can customize the collection for them the same way, only using the plugin in the Magento\CatalogSearch\Model\Advanced class. You will need to implement the beforePrepareProductCollection($model,$collection) method in this plugin, in which you will be able to carry out any available operation with the collection besides loading it. True, you will have to keep in mind that advanced search uses the collection Magento\Catalog\Model\ResourceModel\Product\Collection.

Plugins for it should only be set on the scope frontend so as not to break the administrator panel, and they should be set accounting for the use of the collection in cart and checkout functionalities, as well as in other places where it can be used. You may also need to obtain additional information about the environment to ensure that the advanced search product collection is being used. We will not examine this matter in detail in this article since advanced search is rarely used on live sites.

Now let’s move on to the next section with migration issues.

Migration is quite essential since you won’t lose your previous data and analytics and start with the new version of the store keeping everything that you were working on before. Use our navigation plan below and find the answer that you need.

Problems of Migrating Data from Magento 1 to Magento 2

When switching from the first Magento to the second, the issue arises of transferring already existing data from Magento 1 to Magento 2. The data storage format in a Magento 2 database is different from the storage format in Magento 1. Also, the storage format can differ slightly across different versions of Magento 2. We will be examining problems encountered during migration and ways to solve them.

Tool: UberTheme Migration Tool

UberTheme has implemented a special tool for transferring the built-in entities of Magento 1 to Magento 2, which is called the UberTheme Migration Tool. This tool is a Magento 2 module, which has a part implemented using Yii, including a graphic web interface and data-transfer functionality.

This part is located in the module’s lib directory and during installation will be transferred to the pub/ub_tool directory. Initial versions of this expansion used an SQLite database to store temporary data, but later versions create the particular tables right in the Magento database. This allows for the transferring from Magento 1 to Magento 2 the information about:

• sites, stores, and store views (except configuration parameters);
• EAV entities and attributes, attribute sets, etc.;
• categories and products;
• users, including saved addresses;
• users’ carts, orders placed, payments, invoices, deliveries, and returns, as well as pricing rules for carts and aggregated information about purchases (for reporting);
• core entities (reviews, wishlists).

Process: working with UberTheme Migration Tool

To work with this module, you must configure the Magento 2 database in the pub/ub-tool/protected/config/db.php file and open the module page in the admin panel. There, you can configure access to the Magento 1 database and the specifics of migration at various stages.

After initiating migration, you can address discrepancies at any stage. It is especially pertinent to information about users or orders.

When the data storage format is changed by a Magento 2 version update, UberTheme Migration Tool updates, too. For example, before Magento 2.2, options for products in orders were stored as a serialized array. This information is stored in JSON starting with version 2.2.

Requirements: You must use the version of the UberTheme Migration Tool that is compatible with your version of Magento 2 (for Magento 2.2, this is UberTheme Migration Tool version 3.1.2). Even so, problems could arise, which are examined below.

Navigate to the issue:

Migration of Magento Using Composer and Set up 2.2 Version
Migration with Ubertheme Migration Tool 3.1.2 and Magento 2.1
Rollback of Changes in the Magento 2 Database After Migration
Migration When It Is Combined with the Merging of Different Sites
Migration of Configurable Products with Custom Attributes
Merging Sites on the Same Host
Migration in a Local Environment with Transfer to Stage or Pre-Production Using Git
Problems with Categories in the Database When Migration Errors Occur

Migration of Magento from an Earlier Version Using Composer and Set up 2.2 Version Using Migration Tool 3.1.2.

Problem: Options for a product in an order may be incorrectly copied during migration (for example, in JSON instead of as a serialized array). This causes the pages for viewing orders in the admin panel to crash.

Cause: During the update, only the version of the core, and not the variable “version,” was updated in the composer.json file.

public static function getM2Version()
{
    $version = '';
    $composerFile = Yii::app()->basePath . "/../../../composer.json";
    if (file_exists($composerFile)) {
        $data = @file_get_contents($composerFile);
        $data = json_decode($data);
        if (isset($data->version)) {
            $version = trim($data->version);
        }
    }
    return $version;
}

Migration with UberTheme Migration Tool 3.1.2 and Magento 2.1

Problem: Existing users’ carts may be broken.

Cause: During migration, product options info_buyRequest are serialized into JSON without checking the Magento 2 version. It is a mistake on the part of UberTheme developers.

private function _convertQuoteItemOptionCodeValue($productId2, &$optCode, &$optValue, $keepProductId)
{
    //convert to Magento 2 code and value
    if ($optCode == 'info_buyRequest') {
        $buyRequest = unserialize($optValue);
        //simple
        if (!$keepProductId AND isset($buyRequest['product']) AND $buyRequest['product']) {
            $buyRequest['product'] = UBMigrate::getM2EntityId(5, 'catalog_product_entity', $buyRequest['product']);
        }
        //bundle
        if (!$keepProductId AND isset($buyRequest['bundle_option']) AND $buyRequest['bundle_option']) {
            $bundleOption = [];
            $bundleOptionQty = [];
            foreach ($buyRequest['bundle_option'] as $optionId => $selectionId) {
                $optionId2 = UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_bundle_option', $optionId);
                if (is_array($selectionId)) {
                    foreach ($selectionId as $key => $sltId) {
                        if ($sltId) {
                            $bundleOption[$optionId2][$key] =  UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_bundle_selection', $sltId);
                        }
                    }
                } else {
                    if ($selectionId) {
                        $bundleOption[$optionId2] = UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_bundle_selection', $selectionId);
                    }
                    if (isset($buyRequest['bundle_option_qty'][$optionId])) {
                        $bundleOptionQty[$optionId2] = $buyRequest['bundle_option_qty'][$optionId];
                    }
                }
            }
            $buyRequest['bundle_option'] = $bundleOption;
            $buyRequest['bundle_option_qty'] = $bundleOptionQty;
        }
        //downloadable
        if (!$keepProductId AND isset($buyRequest['links']) AND $buyRequest['links']) {
            $links2 = [];
            foreach ($buyRequest['links'] as $key => $linkId) {
                $links2[$key] = UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_download', 'downloadable_link', $linkId);
            }
            $buyRequest['links'] = $links2;
        }
        //configurable
        if (isset($buyRequest['super_attribute']) AND $buyRequest['super_attribute']) {
            $superAttribute = [];
            foreach ($buyRequest['super_attribute'] as $attributeId => $attributeOptionId) {
                $attributeId2 = isset($mappingAttributes[$attributeId]) ? $mappingAttributes[$attributeId] : null;
                $superAttribute[$attributeId2] = UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('3_attribute_option', 'eav_attribute_option', $attributeOptionId);
            }
            $buyRequest['super_attribute'] = $superAttribute;
        }
        //virtual
        if (!$keepProductId AND isset($buyRequest['options']) AND $buyRequest['options']) {
            $options2 = [];
            foreach ($buyRequest['options'] as $productOptionId => $value) {
                if (is_numeric($productOptionId)) {
                    $productOptionId2 = UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_option', $productOptionId);
                    $options2[$productOptionId2] = $value;
                } else {
                    $options2[$productOptionId] = $value;
                }
            }
            //re-update
            $buyRequest['options'] = $options2;
        }
        //re-update value
        //$optValue = serialize($buyRequest);
        $optValue = UBMigrate::encodeJson($buyRequest); // this was changed from Magento ver.2.2.0
    } elseif ($optCode == 'attributes') {
        $values = unserialize($optValue);
        foreach ($values as $attributeId => $attributeOptionId) {
            $attributeId2 = isset($mappingAttributes[$attributeId]) ? $mappingAttributes[$attributeId] : null;
            $values[$attributeId2] = UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('3_attribute_option', 'eav_attribute_option', $attributeOptionId);
        }
        //$optValue = serialize($values);
        $optValue = UBMigrate::encodeJson($values); // this was changed from Magento ver.2.2.0
    } elseif (substr($optCode, 0, 12) == 'product_qty_') {
        $optCode = "product_qty_{$productId2}";
    } elseif ($optCode == 'simple_product') {
        $optValue = $productId2;
    } elseif ($optCode == 'parent_product_id') {
        $optValue = (!$keepProductId) ? UBMigrate::getM2EntityId(5, 'catalog_product_entity', $optValue) : $optValue;
    } elseif (substr($optCode, 0, 14) == 'selection_qty_') {
        $selectionId = substr($optCode, 14);
        if (is_numeric($selectionId)) {
            $selectionId = (!$keepProductId) ? UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_bundle_selection', $selectionId) : $selectionId;
            $optCode = "selection_qty_{$selectionId}";
        }
    } elseif (!$keepProductId AND $optCode == 'bundle_identity') {
        $values = explode('_', $optValue);
        $values[0] = $productId2;
        foreach ($values as $key => $value) {
            if ($value AND ($key % 2 == 1)) {
                $values[$key] = UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_bundle_selection', $value);
            }
        }
        $optValue = implode('_', $values);
    } elseif ($optCode == 'bundle_option_ids') {
        $values = unserialize($optValue);
        foreach ($values as $key => $bundleOptionId) {
            $bundleOptionId = (!$keepProductId) ? UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_bundle_option', $bundleOptionId) : $bundleOptionId;
            $values[$key] = $bundleOptionId;
        }
        //$optValue = serialize($values);
        $optValue = UBMigrate::encodeJson($values); // this was changed from Magento ver.2.2.0
    } elseif ($optCode == 'bundle_selection_ids') {
        $values = unserialize($optValue);
        foreach ($values as $key => $bundleSelectionId) {
            if ($bundleSelectionId) {
                $bundleSelectionId = (!$keepProductId) ? UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_bundle_selection', $bundleSelectionId) : $bundleSelectionId;
                $values[$key] = $bundleSelectionId;
            }
        }
        //$optValue = serialize($values);
        $optValue = UBMigrate::encodeJson($values); // this was changed from Magento ver.2.2.0
    } elseif (!$keepProductId AND $optCode == 'selection_id') {
        if ($optValue) {
            $optValue = UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_bundle_selection', $optValue);
        }
    } elseif ($optCode == 'bundle_selection_attributes') {
        $values = unserialize($optValue);
        if (isset($values['option_id']) AND $values['option_id']) {
            $values['option_id'] = (!$keepProductId) ? UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_bundle_option', $values['option_id']) : $values['option_id'];
        }
        //$optValue = serialize($values);
        $optValue = UBMigrate::encodeJson($values); // this was changed from Magento ver.2.2.0
    } elseif ($optCode == 'downloadable_link_ids') {
        $values = explode(',', $optValue);
        if ($values) {
            foreach ($values as $key => $value) {
                if (is_numeric($value)) {
                    $values[$key] = (!$keepProductId) ? UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_download', 'downloadable_link', $value) : $value;
                }
            }
            //$optValue = implode(',', $values);
            $optValue = UBMigrate::encodeJson($values); // this was changed from Magento ver.2.2.0
        }
    } elseif ($optCode == 'option_ids') {
        $values = preg_split('/,\s*/', $optValue);
        if ($values) {
            foreach ($values as $key => $value) {
                if (is_numeric($value)) {
                    $values[$key] = (!$keepProductId) ? UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_option', $value) : $value;
                }
            }
            //$optValue = implode(',', $values);
            $optValue = UBMigrate::encodeJson($values); // this was changed from Magento ver.2.2.0
        }
    } elseif (!$keepProductId AND substr($optCode, 0, 7) == 'option_') {
        $productOptionId = (int)substr($optCode, 7);
        $optCode = "option_" . UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_option', $productOptionId);
        if (is_numeric($optValue)) {
            $optValue = UBMigrate::getM2EntityId('5_product_option', 'catalog_product_option_type_price', $optValue);
        }
    }
    return true;
}

Rollback of Changes in the Magento 2 Database After Migration

Problem: In some cases, dependent entities (for example, product attributes) are incorrectly assigned, or you can get the 500 internal server error during migration requests.

Solution: contents of the directory pub/ub-tool/protected/runtime/cache must be deleted. The cache of dependencies is stored in this directory.

Migration When It Is Combined with the Merging of Different Sites

Problem: Attributes will be incorrectly assigned if data has been migrated from site A and you would like to migrate data from site B on the same Magento 2 host, but the websites are different.

Solution: not only must the cache be cleared, but the Ubertheme tables in Magento 2 must also be cleared, so that the entities from site B do not get mixed up with the objects from site A due to overlapping numeric identifiers in tables.

However, there are several issues with dependencies that UberTheme migration module cannot solve.

Migration of Configurable Products with Custom Attributes

Problem: Magento 1 has configurable products with the custom attribute default_product_id. By default, it stores the identifier of the product option. During migration, the value of this attribute will be transferred “as is,” but the identifiers of the products in the Magento 2 database will be different. This leads to inconsistencies in the data.

Solution: Dependencies between products of the form SKU=>SKU must be exported from the Magento 1 database to a CSV file, and then imported using the Magento 2 API.

Merging Sites on the Same Host

Problem: Products on sites A and B have identical SKU but different attribute values. For example, suppose site A is a retail store, while site B is wholesale, and the prices for the same products differ on sites A and B. In this case, the prices are specified in Magento 1 for the default site. In this instance, after migrating data from site A, migration from site B will cause product attributes, including price, to be overwritten.

Solution: The scope of the price attribute must first be set in the website value in the Magento 2 configuration, by using a standard export to export product prices to a CSV file after migrating from site A. Then they must be imported using a standard import. To do this, we re-write the code for the default store view of site A using a standard import.

Limitations of the UberTheme Migration Tool

The UberTheme Migration Tool cannot transfer:

• custom entities;
• images from the media directory of Magento 1 to pub/media in Magento 2;
• static pages and blocks.

These elements will have to be transferred manually.

UberTheme can transfer custom attributes of EAV entities.

If it’s a category, user, or user address, then to implement the output of a custom attribute in the admin panel, you will need to implement the corresponding changes in the UI component.

If the attribute has a custom backend, frontend, or source module, then the developer is required to implement the corresponding attributes in Magento 2 and write them into the metadata attributes, so their logic is not violated.

Migration in a Local Environment with Transfer to Stage or Pre-Production Using Git

Problem: Yii classes don’t support the standards of Magento 2, but if they are located in the module directory, Magento will try to include them in the di compilation, which will result in a bin/magento setup:di:compile command error.

Solution: Since the part based on Yii will be copied to pub/ub_tool when it is installed or updated, to successfully transfer it, it needs to be added to the repository before the command bin/magento setup:upgrade is executed.

If the part based on Yii is transferred to pub/ub_tool, there will be no issues.

Saving Categories in the Database When Migration Errors Occur

Problem: In the event of migration errors, categories in the database could be cut off from the tree. It means that there could be identifiers for categories that do not exist in the “path” field of the catalog_category_entity table when being transferred to the category. These non-existent categories aren’t displayed in the category tree in the admin panel, but they can break the standard import of products.

Solution: These categories must be removed from the catalog_category_entity table, and the problem will be solved.

In general, the best method for transferring data from Magento 1 to Magento 2 doesn’t currently exist, though there will be a need for it until Magento 1 becomes a thing of the past. Remember to keep up with updates and choose the UberTheme version that’s compatible with your current version of Magento 2. Also, be prepared for the fact that after migration you may have to reconcile some errors in the data.

Next, we move into the topic on how to work with Magento 2 using UI components.

Issues Related to UI Components in Magento 2

There is a new feature in Magento 2 used for output on both admin and frontend parts. This feature is the UI Component. Magento 2 UI Component has browser part and the server-side part that generates data by using the special object. This object is called Data Provider. Often this object’s class extends from \Magento\Ui\DataProvider\AbstractDataProvider as it should support Magento\Framework\View\Element\UiComponent\DataProvider\DataProviderInterface. The browser part is a JavaScript knockout component and template, that is downloaded asynchronously after the page has been downloaded. Then JavaScript will bind data to template elements by using knockout javascript framework.

UI components are used in most admin pages from the core, sidebar mini cart. Some elements on the cart page and checkout are also implemented with their use. We can define Magento UI Component with XML. They can be customized simpler than blocks, but developers should know, how to do that. Often developers without experience in use and customization of UI Components have difficulties with customizing some grid, product edit form or customer edit form in admin. Below, we will examine the most common questions and how to solve them.

Navigate to the issue:

Displaying an Image from a UI Grid Column in the Administrator Panel
Custom Product Attribute Renderer on the Product Editing Page
Adding UI Element After Outputting Shipping Methods

Displaying an Image from a UI Grid Column in the Administrator Panel

Problem: We need to display the image from the UI Grid column in the admin panel.

<column name="image" class="Web4pro\Socialprofile\Ui\Component\Listing\Column\Thumbnail">
    <argument name="data" xsi:type="array">
        <item name="config" xsi:type="array">
            <item name="component" xsi:type="string">Magento_Ui/js/grid/columns/thumbnail</item>
            <item name="sortable" xsi:type="boolean">false</item>
            <item name="altField" xsi:type="string">title</item>
            <item name="has_preview" xsi:type="string">1</item>
            <item name="label" xsi:type="string" translate="true">Thumbnail</item>
        </item>
    </argument>
</column>

class Thumbnail extends \Magento\Ui\Component\Listing\Columns\Column {

   public function prepareDataSource(array $dataSource)
    {
        if(isset($dataSource['data']['items'])) {
            $fieldName = $this->getData('name');
            foreach($dataSource['data']['items'] as &$item) {

               $item[$fieldName . '_src'] = $item['instagram_link'];
                $item[$fieldName . '_alt'] = '';
                $item[$fieldName . '_link'] = '';
                $item[$fieldName . '_orig_src'] = $item['instagram_link'];
            }
        }
       return $dataSource;
    }
}

Custom Product Attribute Renderer on the Product Editing Page

Problem: Suppose there is a product attribute of the type Multiselect, each option of which is associated with a particular image that should be shown after the attribute (on the right) when you hover over an option in the element.

di.xml (create only in the adminhtml section)

<?xml version="1.0" ?>

<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:ObjectManager/etc/config.xsd">

    <virtualType name="Magento\Catalog\Ui\DataProvider\Product\Form\Modifier\Pool">
        <arguments>
            <argument name="modifiers" xsi:type="array">
                <item name="instagram_link" xsi:type="array">
                    <item name="class" xsi:type="string">Web4pro\Socialprofile\Ui\DataProvider\Product\Form\Modifier\Link</item>
                    <item name="sortOrder" xsi:type="number">160</item>
                </item>
            </argument>
        </arguments>
    </virtualType>
</config>

class Link extends \Magento\Catalog\Ui\DataProvider\Product\Form\Modifier\AbstractModifier
{

   protected $arrayManager;
   protected $opts;

   public function __construct(\Magento\Framework\Stdlib\ArrayManager $arrayManager,
                                \Web4pro\Socialprofile\Model\Link $opts)
    {
        $this->arrayManager = $arrayManager;
        $this->opts = $opts;
    }

   /**

* @param array $data
* @return array
*/
public function modifyData(array $data)

{
       return $data;
    }

   /**

* @param array $meta
* @return array
*/
public function modifyMeta(array $meta){

       $fieldCode = 'instagram_link'; //your custom attribute code

$elementPath = $this->arrayManager->findPath($fieldCode, $meta, null, 'children');

       $containerPath = $this->arrayManager->findPath(static::CONTAINER_PREFIX . $fieldCode, $meta, null, 'children');
        if (!$elementPath) {
            return $meta;
        }

       $meta = $this->arrayManager->merge(
            $containerPath,
            $meta,
            [
                'children'  => [
                    $fieldCode.'_img' => [
                        'arguments' => [
                            'data' => [
                                'config' => [
                                    'component' => 'Web4pro_Socialprofile/js/product_links',
                                    'componentType' => 'component',
                                    'disableLabel'  => true,
                                    'multiple'      => false,
                                    'options'       => $this->getOptions()
                                ],
                            ],
                        ],
                    ]
                ]
            ]
        );
        $meta=$this->arrayManager->merge($elementPath,$meta,
            ['arguments'=>
                ['data'=>
                    ['config'=>
                        ['service'=>
                            [ 'template'      => 'Web4pro_Socialprofile/image.html']
                        ]
                    ]
                ]
            ]);
        return $meta;
    }

<div class="admin__field"
     visible="visible"
     css="$data.additionalClasses"
     attr="'data-index': index">
    <label class="admin__field-label" if="$data.label" visible="$data.labelVisible" attr="for: uid">
        <span text="label" attr="'data-config-scope': $data.scopeLabel"/>
    </label>
    <div class="admin__field-control"
         css="'_with-tooltip': $data.tooltip, '_with-reset': $data.showFallbackReset && $data.isDifferedFromDefault">
        <render args="elementTmpl" ifnot="hasAddons()"/>

       <div class="admin__control-addon" if="hasAddons()">
            <render args="elementTmpl"/>
           <label class="admin__addon-prefix" if="$data.addbefore" attr="for: uid">
                <span text="addbefore"/>
            </label>
            <label class="admin__addon-suffix" if="$data.addafter" attr="for: uid">
                <span text="addafter"/>
            </label>
        </div>

       <render args="tooltipTpl" if="$data.tooltip"/>
       <render args="fallbackResetTpl" if="$data.showFallbackReset && $data.isDifferedFromDefault"/>

       <label class="admin__field-error" if="error" attr="for: uid" text="error"/>
       <div class="admin__field-note" if="$data.notice" attr="id: noticeId">
            <span text="notice"/>
        </div>

       <div class="admin__additional-info" if="$data.additionalInfo" html="$data.additionalInfo"></div>
       <render args="$data.service.template" if="$data.hasService()"/>
    </div>
</div>

<img id="instagram_img"/>

define(['jquery','uiComponent','jquery/ui'],function($,Component){

   return Component.extend({
        initialize: function () {
            this._super();
            var self = this;
            $(document).on('mouseenter',this.options.element,function(){self.changeOption(this)});
        },
       changeOption:function(opt){
            for(var i in this.options){
                if(parseInt(i)&&this.options[i].value==opt.value){
                    var img=$('#instagram_img');
                    img[0].src = this.options[i]['image'];
                }
            }
        }

   });
});

Adding the UI Element After Outputting Shipping Methods

Problem: Additional UI elements must be added after the standard output of shipping methods on one-page checkout.

<item name="component" xsi:type="string">JohnnySk_Additional/js/view/shipping/newmail/form</item>

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" layout="checkout" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:View/Layout/etc/page_configuration.xsd">
    <body>
        <referenceBlock name="checkout.root">
            <arguments>
                <argument name="jsLayout" xsi:type="array">
                    <item name="components" xsi:type="array">
                        <item name="checkout" xsi:type="array">
                            <item name="children" xsi:type="array">
                                <item name="steps" xsi:type="array">
                                    <item name="children" xsi:type="array">
                                        <item name="shipping-step" xsi:type="array">
                                            <item name="children" xsi:type="array">
                                                <item name="shippingAddress" xsi:type="array">
                                                    <item name="config" xsi:type="array">
                                                        <item name="shippingMethodNewMailItemTemplate" xsi:type="string">Beautywave_NewMail/shipping-address/shipping-method-item</item>
                                                        <item name="shippingMethodListTemplate" xsi:type="string">Beautywave_NewMail/shipping-address/shipping-method-list</item>
                                                    </item>
                                                    <!-- Add additional shipping component -->
                                                    <item name="children" xsi:type="array">
                                                        <item name="shippingAdditional" xsi:type="array">
                                                            <item name="component" xsi:type="string">uiComponent</item>
                                                            <item name="displayArea" xsi:type="string">shippingAdditional</item>
                                                            <item name="children" xsi:type="array">
                                                                <item name="newmail_carrier_form" xsi:type="array">
                                                                    <item name="component" xsi:type="string">JohnnySk_Additional/js/view/shipping/newmail/form</item>
                                                                </item>
                                                            </item>
                                                        </item>
                                                    </item>
                                                </item>
                                            </item>
                                        </item>
                                    </item>
                                </item>
                            </item>
                        </item>
                    </item>
                </argument>
            </arguments>
        </referenceBlock>
    </body>
</page>

JohnnySk_Additional/js/view/shipping/newmail/form

/** * Created by JohnnySk. Don't touch this if you don't understand what's going on here ;)
 */
define([    'jquery',
    'ko',
    'uiComponent',
    'Magento_Checkout/js/model/quote',
    'Magento_Checkout/js/model/shipping-service',
    'mage/translate'
], function ($, ko, Component, quote, shippingService, t) {
    'use strict';
    return Component.extend({
        defaults: { template: 'JohnnySk_Additional/shipping/newmail/form'
 },
    initialize: function (config) {
            this.someObsarvableItems    = ko.observableArray();
           this.selectedObsarvableItem = ko.observable();console.log('JohnnySk was here!!!');            this._super();
        }
    });
});

Bonus: How to Create an Alias for Console Commands

Problem: Linux console is slow when running Magento 2

alias m2tom1="sudo a2dismod php7.1&&sudo a2enmod php5.6&&sudo service apache2 restart"
alias m1tom2="sudo a2dismod php5.6&&sudo a2enmod php7.1&&sudo service apache2 restart"

alias m2perm="sudo find . -type d -exec chmod 775 {} \; && sudo find . -type f -exec chmod 664 {} \; && sudo chmod u x bin/magento"

alias m2pall="sudo chmod -R 777 ."

alias m2="bin/magento"
alias m2 s:u="m2 setup:upgrade"
alias m2 c:f="m2 cache:flush"
alias m2 i:r="m2 indexer:reindex"
alias m2 c:f="m2 setup:static-content:deploy"

Magento 2 issues we discussed are just a part of all the things that you can face. What conclusions can we make? What does all this mean for us? For web developers, Magento 2 is still a powerful tool. But it requires additional technical knowledge, new creative approaches, and learning a lot of skills from scratch regarding the platform’s changed architecture. Also, we should keep in mind that first of all, Magento 2 is a tool. We, Magento developers, and its large community are the masters who can make this product better day by day. For businesses, Magento 2 is a complex solution that allows them to extend and change their online stores flexibly.

Top eCommerce Email Marketing Trends of 2018

If you have an eCommerce business, you already know the benefits of email marketing. For one thing, this tool will increase the traffic that flows to your website; thereby, increasing sales, generating leads, and improving conversions. Still, it’s important that you keep up with the latest trends available. In our below guide, you can read all about email marketing trends of 2018.

Direct Marketing by New GDPR Law

It should be noted that because of the new GDPR law, companies and organizations have to consider data protection and data processing. This is in response to several security crises throughout the internet, and protecting your visitors is a sure way to make them keep coming back to your site.

According to the new law, you should control what data you collect and process. As well as that, customers should be aware of how you do it and for which purposes. The individuals can prohibit to use their data for the direct marketing. It is mentioned in Article 21.

But you also can use email marketing to send messages to your existed and potential customers with a reasonable interest in sale or negotiations. Just include an opt-in box, to give a choice to receive or decline messages.

eCommerce Email Marketing and Its Trends

To start off with, let’s discuss eCommerce email marketing and the various trends that we can observe from it.

Customer Retention

Customer retention is a major goal of most organizations and companies. This term refers to measures that are taken to keep customers as possible, for as long as possible. Still, times are changing, so what used to work no longer does.

Customer retention allows companies to increase sales through social media, like emails and Facebook, and through loyalty programs. Personalization is a key in email marketing to make all customers stay loyal to the company.

New Technologies

The world of online marketing is changing drastically, as are the latest trends in email marketing. We have better software than ever before; our marketing practices are more efficient as the valuable content is being produced. More and more, we’re becoming intrigued by artificial intelligence and predictive marketing.

AI is predicted to change the marketing field in 2018; however, you can use predictive marketing to determine your customer lifetime value and prepare for these changes. This will help you learn what works and what doesn’t, so you’re more likely to get lifelong customers.

As technology evolves, we see more targeted emails. With Artificial Intelligence and predictive marketing, companies can determine trends in their customers’ spending habits; subsequently, allowing them to personalize emails and create more valuable content.

The new GDPR law is expected to affect the world of Artificial Intelligence as well. This is because the law demands certain transparency that is uncommon with Artificial Intelligence; more specifically, it aims to protect individuals from being judged solely on the decisions of AI, such as profiling or processing.

With this law, people reserve the right to demand that their point of view is heard by a legitimate human being so that they aren’t simply added to a pile of data. This might affect your company because you have to place your customers into better consideration when marketing.

Welcome Email Series

Welcome emails are already popular. The idea behind this tool is then when someone new subscribes to your service; you send them an email to welcome them to your business.

Most of these “welcome emails” provide the new customer with some advantage; for example, a 10% discount on their next or first purchase. Using welcome emails is one of the most vital tools in eCommerce and email marketing.

Less Is More

You’ve already heard this saying before, and it remains true for email marketing campaigns. Quite simply, your customers don’t want to read long emails about every event you’re hosting this month.

Visualization

Visualization is one of the key aspects of email marketing nowadays. People don’t want to hear about the great things going on with your business; they want to see your products for themselves. That’s why you should try to add as many visuals as you can in your emails. When customers look at what you have to sell, and they see that your products look good, they’re more likely to buy.

There are a few other visualizations that you can use to attract customers, though. You can include gifs and memes to make your content not only advertising or educational, but fun. You can also send them screenshots, pictures, and more.

Mobile-Friendly Emails

Everyone is on the move. That means that people need to have access to their emails every time. For this reason, you need to keep your content mobile-friendly. If people have a hard time viewing your content, they’re less likely to look at your emails in the future.

Magento eCommerce Email Marketing Templates

Now you know about some of the eCommerce email marketing best practices. Getting the right one is vital in setting the atmosphere of your store. We will provide you with the best sources of email templates for your Magento® stores.

ThemeForest

Themeforest is home to some of the best email templates that the digital world has to offer; in fact, there are even some WEB4PRO templates that you can download from the website.
At WEB4PRO portfolio section, you can find our best templates available for you.

UberTheme

UberTheme comes to a countless number of email marketing templates. You have the option of having templates for free, as well as fashion, digital, sport, and food templates. Depending on your needs, UberTheme is an excellent option for eCommerce and email marketing.

TemplateMonster

TemplateMonster is host to hundreds of templates for Magento users. While they do cost money, you can ask to try a live demo to know if the template is best for your individual needs.

To Conclude

Email marketing is important for anyone who needs to increase their conversions, sales, and website traffic. Old methods of email marketing are simply not working anymore, which is why we’ve mentioned all new or great working methods for your outstanding email marketing campaigns.

In top email marketing trends of 2018, you can find only the best trends and tools to make your emails as effective and as efficient as possible. In short, here is a list of the tools you can use to improve your email campaign efforts.

• Customer Retention
• New technologies
• Welcome email series
• Less is more
• Visualization
• Mobile-friendly emails

GDPR Compliance and Guide for Companies Working with EU

If you are looking for the information to prepare your company for GDPR compliance, we are right here to provide you with an example. As we are working with clients around the globe, some of them are from European Union countries. That is why we want to share general information about the law, its statements, principles, etc.

GDPR compliance means that you understand the law principles and prepare all documentation basis which complies with all GDPR statements. You should make your EU customers aware of how you collect and process their data.

What Is GDPR?

GDPR is a regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016. It stands for the protection of people’s personal data within the European Union. According to this regulation, the data processing is carried out by a controller (company) or processor (company’s workers or representatives) not established in the Union and processing EU residents personal data. They do so if they offer goods or services to their EU clients even if the company located outside the European Union. The law extends the scope to all foreign companies processing data of EU citizens and residents.

Before it was a Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC) of 1995, and now this is a regulation that means it will be spread out to all EUMS, when it will come into force on May 25th, 2018. The regulation doesn’t need the implementation of the national law of the EU Member States.

The law consists of an enacting clause with 173 points and 99 Articles. It is based on three main ideas: personal data protection, protection of rights and freedom of people in their data protection, and restriction for the displacement of personal data within EU.

GDPR Overview

It is important to define how your company should act under the GDPR law, and what should be taken into account to become GDPR compliant. The regulation is applied not only to the EU residents but for non-EU residents, who are processing personal data of natural persons due to selling and offering goods or services and monitoring of actions/ behavior of the data subjects in European Union.

From other the main factors related to websites and other sources that are published online, we can take into account the following:

• one of the languages from the EU is used at the website;
• the site accept payments in euro;
• clients from EU are mentioned on the website.

If your company deal with one or more points that are described above, then you should follow the new law and protect your customer’s data according to it.

To complete the preparation of your GDPR compliance you need to define or assign the roles from Article 5. GDPR includes two key definitions of controller and processor.

A controller means that an individual (natural or legal person), agency, public authority or other body defines the goal and purpose of personal data processing.

A processor is also an individual (natural or legal person), agency, public authority or another body that works strictly with a controller’s request, maintaining records of personal data and processing activities.

If you process a significant amount of data, your company has more than 250 employees, and you are processing the data of more than 5000 data subjects, GDPR obliges you to assign Data Protection Officer who will be responsible for GDPR compliance.

From your company side, you should understand which roles you take in means of data processing

As an example, we suggest you check H&M Privacy notice as they described in details who take the roles of controller and processor, mentioning DPO for their company. If you have such a company, you can pay attention to the description of all fields where a company operates and how it interacts with customers and process their information.

GDPR Personal Data Definition

One more important note is about personal data categories. There are personal data and sensitive personal data that could be processed.

Personal data is any information about a person that will identify him directly or indirectly or by reference to an identifier. It could be a name, an identification number, location data and other factors that will identify the person.

Sensitive personal data is a special category of personal data that is described in Article 9. It includes biometric, generic data, political or religious views, and philosophical beliefs, or other specific information to identify individual uniquely. Some additional information about personal data you can check in Article 10.

One more important thing about sensitive personal data is that even if an individual permits you to process such kind of information, but the country’s law doesn’t allow you to do it, you can’t perform data processing. If you deal with such type of sensitive data, please review the international law of countries that don’t allow to process such kind of information. You should also this information to your Privacy Policy.

As well as to assign the roles and define types of data to control its collection and processing according to new rules, you should follow the principles to do it.

Principles of Data Storage and Processing

Personal data should be processed according to the following principles:

• Processing. It should be carried out lawfully, fairly and transparently relating to the person.
• Limitation. Data should be collected for specific, precise, and legitimate purposes and not be processed incompatibly with goals above.
• Minimization. You should have explicit purposes for processing personal data.
• Accuracy. Data should be processed where needed, and it should be clear that all incorrect data must be removed or changed without delay.
• Storage limitation. Data should be kept in a way that is required to identify data subjects for no longer than it is necessary to collect those data.
• Integrity and Confidentiality. Data processing should ensure the proper defense of the personal data against unauthorized or unlawful processing and accidental loss, destruction or damage using technical and organizational measures.

Those principles are described in details in Chapter 2 (Articles 5-11). Also, you should pay your attention to entities who are involved in processing, carrying and usage of the personal data.

GDPR Requirements

GDPR stands for regulation of a natural person’s data protection to simplify understanding and management of that information for people to control how companies use their details.

The Lawful Base for Data Processing

Firstly, you must act on a lawful basis for data processing, and you should define yours one from six existed. Each of them is equal to each other, and most of them require to substantiate the necessity of information processing. By having a lawful basis, you correspond to the first principle of transparency, lawfulness, and appropriate data processing.

To identify your lawful basis for processing the data check the Article 6. There are six GDPR Lawfuls Bases available. You should choose your one by defining the purposes for the data processing.

Consent means that an individual gives their permission (consent) for you to process their data for a specific goal.

Contract means that agreement is necessary because you’ve been asked to take specific steps before signing the contract.

Legal Obligation means that the processing is needed for you to comply with the law.

Vital Interests mean that by processing the data, you will protect someone’s life.

Public Task means that you need to perform a task for your official functions in the public interest and this task has a clear basis in law.

Legitimate Interests means that data processing is needed for your or third-party legitimate interests to protect the individual’s data which could override those legitimate interests. (but please take into account that this couldn’t be applied if you are a public authority processing data to perform your official duties and tasks).

However, if your goals change, you may go on and process the information under your previously chosen lawful basis if your new purpose is compatible with the initial one.

You can use a helpful ICO Lawful basis interactive guidance tool to come up with a lawful basis for your company. If you are processing a special category of data (sensitive personal data, criminal conviction data), you need to identify the lawful basis and additional condition of handling the specific type of data.

After you define a lawful basis that is suitable for your company and purposes of processing, you need to write or revise a Privacy policy and Cookie policy to confirm that your company is ready to act according to the lawful base, type of your company, and the way you collect all the information from individuals.

GDPR Key Points

As we mentioned before it is important to understand which information is protected by the law. Let’s look at GDPR key points that will help you to prepare your official documents, website, and the channels of communication with customers.

Individual Rights

Before you describe to your customers how you collect their information and document all the actions that you take with the information processing, you should understand the natural persons’ rights according to the law.

These are the eight rights that individuals have:

• the right to be informed,
• the right of access,
• the right to rectification,
• the right to erasure,
• the right to restrict processing,
• the right to data portability,
• the right to object,
• rights about automated decision making and profiling.

You can familiarize yourself with all these rights in detail by reading the Chapter 3 (Articles 12-23) of GDPR law.

Right to Be Informed

Let’s start with the first statement. The right to be informed means that person has a right to have the information about the collection and use of their personal data (Articles 13 and 14, GDPR). This could be achieved through explanation it to users in your Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

Right of Access

The second right is right for individuals to access the information you have about them. That means that a person could ask you to provide the information, i.e., to make a subject access request. In the law, there is no strict rule about how a person is supposed to ask the information. Therefore, your employees or representatives that deal with the information gathering and processing should define when the request of information happens and provide a person with the data.

You can collect information electronically, and you should provide information in standard electronic format. The information you will send as a response to the request when you deal with an individual about the personal data should be understandable and accessible, using clear and plain language.

Right to Rectification

Article 16 describes the right to rectification. In this case, if you receive the request that you have incomplete data, you should be able to complete it and solve the argument provided by the data subject.

Right to Erasure

The next one is the right to get the personal information deleted from the database (right to erasure individual personal data). You can solve the request no later than one month, and it will apply only in certain circumstances.

The information should be erased if it is no longer necessary for the purposes you’ve collected it or if you are relying on consent as your lawful basis to hold the data, but user withdraws their consent. Also, you need to erase data if it is not processed lawfully, and if you want to use data for some purposes, but it is not compliant with a legal obligation, or you have processed the personal data to offer some information society services to a child.

Right to Restrict Processing

Individuals have the right to restrict the processing of their data. It has close links to the right to rectification (Article 16) and the right to object (Article 21). You have to solve the request in one calendar month. People control the accuracy of their personal data and if the data has been unlawfully processed or you no longer need it than you might be dealing with a request to restrict processing it.

Right to Data Portability

The next right is data portability, and it allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes. Usually, it happens across different services. It will enable them to copy, transfer or move their personal data in a secure way. It helps to interact with applications and services that can use this data to understand user habits.

The right only applies to information provided by an individual to a controller. However, not just personal, but pseudonymous data can be linked back to an individual within the scope of the right. The data should be structured, commonly used, and machine-readable.

The Right to Object

Article 21 gives individuals the right to object to the processing of their data. This allows individuals to ask you to stop processing their personal data. The request should be solved within one calendar month.

It is about direct marketing, specific public task, why you process the information and legitimate interests. If you use personal information for the research, you also can notify individuals of this action. It is about direct marketing, specific public task, why you process the information and legitimate interests. If you use personal information for the research, you also can notify individuals of this action.

Rights in Relation to Automated Decision Making and Profiling

Article 22 has additional rights to protect individuals if you are carrying out automated decision-making including profiling that has legal or similarly significant effects on them.

For something that is solely automated there must be no human involvement in the decision-making process, and you can use the information if you have the individual’s explicit consent or it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

It is important to read and understand all the individual’s rights to write your Privacy and Cookie Policy according to statements above. After all, a user could read policies, and it could be proof that their personal data is safe and you are acting under the new GDPR law.

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy is a document (and a section on your website) which describes how you collect, process, and protect the Personal Data and for what purposes.

For example, Google collects lots of information from its users that is why there is a full guide describes all types of data it receives, why they do it and privacy controls along with user’s rights to give and restrict the amount of information and the kind of info that they provide. You can check Google’s Privacy Policy for the details. You can make a video description along with a text. Let’s take a look at the awesome video on Google’s Youtube channel:

If you receive the information from other sources, you must provide your users with privacy information within an appropriate period of obtaining the data and no later than one month. You don’t need to give the data when the individual already has it, or it would be disproportionate forces to give it to them.

As well as the example above, there are several types of presenting the privacy policy to people.

It could be a layered approach as Google made. It includes general information and additional layers of the detailed information. We also used this approach to present all of our policies on the main page. You can check our Data Protection Policy by following the link.

The second approach is a dashboard. Mostly, these are management tools that inform people of how you use their data and allow them to operate what happens with it.

Just-in-time notices – there could be some parts of focused privacy information delivered at the time you gather individual pieces of data about people.

Icons – meaning symbols that define the existence of a specific type of processing the data.

You can choose any option you find appropriate, and update your Privacy Policy statements according to GDPR. Also, don’t forget to notify your clients and partners about these changes.

Cookies Requirements

Cookie policy

At your online store or website, you can place notification messages, such as pop-ups, voice alerts, and mobile device gestures. It is related to mobile and smart device functionality and how you can access people through them.

We at WEB4PRO have a pop-up reminding that we use cookies, and the information is collected to them. As well as that, we wrote everything regarding collecting the data by cookies in our Cookie Policy.

Let’s move further to the Cookie requirements question. Not all people know that cookie is a small file that is downloaded from the user computer when he visits a website. Cookies are used for user identification, storage of personal preferences, settings, and analytics. Websites with limited access require cookies, so you can use the site by accepting them. They could be dangerous in the way of deanonymization and tracking user actions.

The most important thing to consider is that a user must have a choice. Even if you have a cookie at your website, users should have an option to agree with cookies usage or by settings to revoke their consent. You also should mention that declining cookies could cause limited or restricted access to your site if it requires cookies. In this case, people will know cookies requirements. It’s a great idea to describe all this information in the Cookie Policy section on your website and include a link to this section to all notification messages.

As well as just understanding of the right to be informed of your goals of collecting and processing the data could differ from the actions you perform with these data. If you sell, buy, obtain personal data from publicly accessible sources or, for example, you apply AI to personal data; you need to tell people the specific information according to what you are doing with their data.

Consider all the sides of the law and your clients’ interaction and use a blended approach to deliver the information to individuals in a transparent way.

Children’s Data Protection

If you deal with processing information of children who is under 16 or less, it should be particular protection for them. According to the Data Protection Bill, only children aged 13 or over can provide their consent.

Privacy by Design

It is an approach to projects that promote data protection and privacy from the beginning. It means that before even start to create a particular product, you should think about privacy policy and how to meet legal obligations. Technical security measures should support all development processes. Learn more about this GDPR requirement in ICO guide.

Data Processing for Marketing Purposes

An important part for all businesses is the restriction of data processing for marketing purposes. Article 21 says that individuals have a right to refuse to process their data for direct marketing and profiling. However, processing could have a place, that is mentioned in Recital 47 of the GDPR when it preserves the justified interests of the person.

Email marketing is allowed only if a person gives you permission to the data processing. However, there are some exceptions regarding this type of marketing. You can send emails to your existing customers or have a reasonable interest in sale or negotiations for a sale of product/services through email marketing to your potential clients.

In general, you need to provide an opt-in box, to give a choice to receive or refuse to receive messages or emails. As well as that you should ask for consent to pass details to third parties and write when and how people should agree or disagree with receiving your emails or other materials by emails, phone or another way to perform your marketing goals.

Documentation

Controllers and processors each have their documentation obligations. If you have 250 or more employees, you must document all your processing activities. If you have less than 250 employees, you need to record information that is not occasional or could cause a risk to the rights and freedom of individuals.

One more important part of the GDPR law is Article 30 that describe what information you need to document your company’s actions in your Privacy Policy, and official documents to work with data:

• The name and contact details of your organization and of other controllers, representatives, and data protection officer, where applicable.
• The purposes of processing the information.
• Description of types of personal data and categories of individuals.
• The categories of recipients of personal data.
• Your Lawful basis.
• Description of your technical and organizational security measures.
• Retention Schedules.
• Transfer details to third countries if you have them, including documenting the transfer path safeguards in place.

Fines for Violation

If data breach happened, by the law you should report to the special authority about this issue within 72 hours from the moment it arrived.

Article 83 covered conditions for administrative fines. You should remember that by a violation of the law from your representatives (controller, processor) side you will pay up to € 10 million, or, in the case of a company, up to 2% of the global turnover of the previous fiscal year.

In case of violation of the controller or processor according to the law obligations for these parties you can lose up to € 20 million and 4% of the global turnover of the previous fiscal year. This will help you to build your work transparently and lawfully.

How WEB4PRO Prepared to GDPR

First of all, we went to the official source with GDPR law. It has 99 Articles and covers all the questions regarding personal data protection and how companies should proceed the information from users.

If you find the official document as a quite complex and you won’t have enough time to go deep into it, we suggest you one more professional source that covers up GDPR aspects. The Information Commissioner’s Office is the UK’s independent authority that posts relevant information about the information rights in the public interest. There you also will find checklists and preparation guide to GDPR.

We defined our lawful basis as Contract and described how we collect data and what do we use to communicate with our clients. We only collect name; email; Skype ID; and as it is a contact form we have a question/request field as optional.

However, please notice that you could have a different type of information you collect from your site visitors according to the initial settings, windows you have. An average eCommerce store collects lots of personal data, so you need to make sure that you’ve mentioned all of the points in your Privacy Policy.

These are the features we implemented on our website to comply with GDPR:

Data Protection Policy. We revised our Data Protection Policy. It includes the Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Compliance & Security, and Terms of Use. You can find this section here. Now this section contains all the necessary information about our data protection measures, individual rights, and our law base for data processing.

Pop-up notification about the collection of cookies. We implemented the pop-up window which notifies our website users that we collect cookies. The guest of the site has the right to accept our Cookie Policy or use browser settings to decline cookies. The user can also use some programs to clear cookie history from their browser.

Checkboxes for contact forms. We added a checkbox to our Contact form to notify website visitors that he could send us his data only if he reads and accept our Privacy Policy.

All the notes in checkboxes should be put by a user manually. Please note, that you can’t set the configuration of the checkbox by default.

The same we added to our Subscribe form. If you have more ways where you collect personal data, you should add a checkbox with a link to your policies to it.

GDPR Summary

As we mentioned before it is important to make several vital steps:

• understand which information is protected by the law;
• assign the roles to control the process of processing;
• define the purpose of personal data processing;
• choose a lawful basis of corresponding the law;
• respect individual rights regarding their personal data;
• implement data security measures in your company;
• assign the roles for personal data processing;
• revise and update Privacy Policy notes, Cookies policy, Terms of Use;
• include the information about the purpose for personal data processing and lawful basis to contracts and official documents;
• add some data protection features to your company website;
• inform your clients, customers, and subscribers about the changes in your Data Protection Policies.

You should never:

• Sell Personal Data to third-party companies;
• Offer services to children under the age of 16;
• Send marketing newsletter to people who didn’t subscribe to it;
• Violate Individuals Rights described in GDPR.

As you can see the new GDPR law has covered all the main points regarding an individual’s personal data protection. We tried to describe the main aspects of each company to perform the right documentation and follow all principles of collecting and processing the information safely and transparently. We hope that our company completely meets GDPR requirements and this guide will be helpful for you as well. Please remember that GDPR law comes into force on May 25th, 2018, so make sure that you’ve covered all the points highlighted above.

Also, there are great additional sources for you to check:

• ICO Guide to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• General Data Protection Regulation GDPR (official law in electronic format)
• GDPR Overview

Tips to Improve Conversion Rate in Your Magento 2 Store

Any eCommerce business relies on high leads and visitors’ activity that buys products or chooses services you offer, increasing sales and generating more traffic to better the visibility of your site. That said, many wonders exactly how they can improve the conversion rate for the store. In the below guide, we’re going to detail exactly how you can do this. From improving user experience to improving customer engagement, we have the solutions that will help you to improve conversion rate.

How to Improve Conversion Rate in Magento® 2

Now, you can read all about the tools at your disposal which will aid you with conversion optimization.

Improve User Experience

One of the major things that you can do to improve your conversions is to enhance customer experience. To do so, you can improve your pages loading time. Sites that take a lot of time to load aggravate customers, so they’re less likely to return to your site. For this reason, improving your loading time will increase the number of people that come back to your site and your conversion rates.

You should also consider hiring a graphic designer to update your website’s design. Make it easy to use so that it would be more attention-grabbing and increase the awareness of your brand and store.

Elasticsearch As an Advanced Search Engine

This feature is exclusive to Magento 2’s Enterprise Edition. Elasticsearch improves your site’s conversion rates because it provides them with weighted search results, synonyms, etc. Move it after the last sentence and shorten this sentence by removing watery words. Remember, efficiency is the key to higher conversion rates.

Instant Checkout Feature

By using an Instant Checkout Feature, you can attract more people to by having their orders and checkouts processed as quickly as possible. Magento has a variety of checkout features; however, some eCommerce stores still do not offer the option of guest checkout.

Some customers just want to buy products and checkout as soon as possible without having to sign up for weekly emails and newsletters. Preventing them from being able to do this might lower your conversions rather than increase them.

User-Friendly Product Pages

User-friendly product pages are essential if you want your customers to keep coming back. User-friendly essentially means that anyone can use your pages with ease. They won’t be confused about which steps to take and which subcategories to click on. A part of this is your website’s design, but it’s also about how fast and responsive your web pages are.

Product Videos

You’ve probably already heard of product photos, but you might not know about product videos, which are equally as beneficial regarding conversion optimization.

Product videos can be anything from overviews to unboxing videos. The benefit of these videos is that they allow customers to see products in real time; thereby, having a positive effect on your sales. Magento 2 has a tool called Video Tab that will enable you to add these videos to your eCommerce site.

Reviews

Product reviews are some of the essential features that customers look for when they select a product. It gives them the opportunity to have another person’s opinion on the quality of materials, on sizing, and be aware of the success of your purchase without a necessity to return it or exchange it on something else.

Return Policy

Return policies are a useful tool for companies and organizations alike. The majority of Magento stores offer people free returns for a period. Of course, you shouldn’t offer your clients a lifetime return because unfortunately, it would be taken to their unfair advantage. Define your return policies with your customers when they complete their orders.

Free Shipping and Other Bonuses

Free shipping is highly underrated. While the prices of your products matter, you’d be surprised by how many people don’t want to go online shopping because they don’t want to pay for shipping prices.

Many customers are willing to pay slightly higher prices for free shipping. By having this feature, your customers and clients will be more willing to buy items frequently; thereby, giving you one-up on your competitors.

Full Range of Delivery and Payment Methods

You can have all of the products in the world, but it doesn’t matter if your clients can’t pay for them. They aren’t going to open a new bank account or get a credit card to shop from a single store. Luckily, Magento offers a variety of payment methods: from credit cards to Paypal, Braintree or others your customers will be able to pay as they please.

Increase Customer Engagement

Social Media, Blog and Customers Interaction

You can increase customer engagement by sending them newsletters, hosting contests, and providing them with great deals. Another way to increase customer engagement is to ask them to review your products.

By increasing customer engagement, your chances of other people hearing about you will be improved. To get your customers engaged, however, you should produce products and content that they care about. You could also think about starting a blog and sending newsletters whenever a new post is released.

If you want to improve your conversion rate, there are some tools that you can use at your disposal. Here are short infographics of the tools we suggest you use:

How to Write a Request for Proposal to Get a Clear Quote?

As you may already deal with RFP, you know that you need it to find a service provider who will perform your project and meet your expectations by price, quality and time. To understand the whole process at the first stage, we suggest you our insight on how to write a request for proposal and have the best communication and decision process.

Define RFP

A request for proposal is a document needed to describe project specifics such as price and scope and ask potential service providers to come back with their bid for the work. Generally, it will help you to save your time, finding the right specialists, compare them and define the best one.

Usually, we receive a request from clients with their task on the project assessment. We are happy to get an RFP from our potential clients as we can move further and discuss the project. However, the most common situation is when we get a request, but we can’t define the concrete description to assess the project.

What Is Going on Next?

After we’ve received a request, we make a review on it and give it back with questions for each part of the project. In the end, this assessment, as well as the project scope, will have a gap with the final version. This will case lack of time, misunderstanding and weak communication process between client and service provider and a motivation loss.

In reality, you don’t need to put all your forces to get the correct assessment. You also don’t need to have in-depth knowledge in web development or read additional literature to send the right data.

We’ve collected the list of the essential points; then if you will follow them, you will get the most detailed survey and consultation from our project managers and developers, and it will be the best RFP response that you expect.

RFP Examples

The task usually consists of the number of desired features that could be included in any online store. We will provide you with an example of this process:

Almost all features from this list are included in the Magento® out-of-the-box, and it is difficult to assess the task from the request without details. Pure feature out-of-the-box counted as 0 hours, and you buy it with Magento CMS. Feature customization, i.e., custom programming is the paid hours for the development. The development from scratch also counted as a time for the developer’s work.

That is why our first advice is to try to look at your project functionality by your customer’s eyes, for example, when he is making a purchase, and to write a description, as follows:

This table shows exact information about how the user will pay off for the purchase. In this case, we know that custom functionality should be added to the local payment system and your assessment will be more concrete.

Other Requirements of Magento Store Functionality That Affect on the Total Project Cost

As well as standard feature, you can have individual elements that you think will be useful at your online store. As well as just a feature description, you should make the exact notes about the customization or the ways how you would like to use this feature. This will help you with a question how to write a request for proposal.

Offline Store

If you have a physical store, you need to mention it, because we should predict the way how we will add data of your offline customers to the customers base.

If you use any CRM or other additional systems for collecting and analyzing customers data, we need to connect it with Magento. For this purpose, we use API that should be written before the integration with the additional systems.

Blog and Content

Magento is a platform for eCommerce business, that is why to add a blog to your store, you need to download an extension. Think about do you need a blog and how it should look like. If the blog is not the primary sales channel, perhaps you can wait a couple of releases to find the best option for your future blog.

Design

Depending on which design will be at your online store will impact the price significantly. There are two ways: to make your design unique or to set up a ready theme.

Unique Design

The way of creating an exclusive look of your site is better than a ready theme that is why the customization could cost more. It includes designer’s working hours, as well as frontend and backend developers that will implement created mockups.

This approach will be in-demand for those who want to get an online store that will be matching your targeted audience, including visual identification of your brand. Custom design includes website development, in case if it will be extended, then you will get the right architecture, improved usability, and clean code.

Ready-to-Use Theme

Ready themes include a particular set of page templates. They can be downloaded, set up and used. The website will look average; yet, the customization will have its borders.

Limitations – are ready-to-use templates. If you want to change or add something to them, it will be custom code and extra expenses afterward. A theme will be restricted not only technically, but also in design. In particular, you can change UI theme frames: colors, block, swatch, and add own content.

Problems occur when developers add something custom, and their quantity becomes far too much. That is why a ready theme is good to go for the quick start of the project and further you should think of redesign.

Fixing Magento 2.2.3 Checkout Issues with Magento 2 Extension Attributes

Let’s discuss Magento® 2.2.3 – or, rather, let’s discuss its bugs. We will examine checkout errors related to extension attributes of the entity \Magento\Quote\Model\Quote\Address, and how to fix them. While working on a client project, we encountered a problem when transferring the shipping module to the new Magento 2.2.3 version.

Today, we will tell you more about this problem and how we solved it.

The Shipping Module for Magento 2

A module was implemented for stores on Magento 2.1.9 that allowed order shipping totals to be calculated when the products in the order were shipped from different warehouses using different delivery methods.

The following capabilities are implemented in the module:

• Store administrators can assign products to warehouses.
• Products are grouped by the warehouse on the checkout page.
• Customers can choose a different delivery method allowed by the administrator for each group of products from a warehouse.
• Total delivery amounts are derived using a specialized delivery method.
• Information about each chosen shipping method is stored for shopping carts and is copied to orders.
• Separate shipments can be created for each warehouse.
• If the delivery service allows, address labels can be printed. The USPS revoked this ability as of February 23, 2018, but many other delivery services support it.

Task: Additional information must be stored to a cart’s delivery address, and the information must be copied to the order using this module.

Solution: We used extension attributes since as of today this is the only correct way to solve such issues.

Checkout Error

The module was initially implemented for Magento 2.1.9 CE. Then, we installed it on Magento 2.2.1 CE. In the Magento 2.2.3 CE module, shipping methods stopped loading at checkout. The delivery method request returned a 500 error at checkout.

This is the error text in the web server’s log:

[Wed Mar 07 15:06:36.693548 2018] [:error] [pid 4286] [client 127.0.0.1:45463] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to a member function getOriginShippingDetails() on array in...

Why is this happening? Eventually, we were able to establish the reason for the error.

Reason for the Error

For cart and order addresses, the module stores information about grouping by the warehouse to extension attributes, defined as follows:

<extension_attributes for="Magento\Quote\Api\Data\AddressInterface">
    <attribute code="origin_shipping_details" type="string">
        <join reference_table="origin_quote_address" join_on_field="address_id" reference_field="address_id">
            <field column="origin_shipping_details">origin_shipping_details</field>
        </join>
    </attribute>
</extension_attributes>
<extension_attributes for="Magento\Sales\Api\Data\OrderAddressInterface">
    <attribute code="origin_shipping_details" type="string">
        <join reference_table="origin_order_address" join_on_field="entity_id" reference_field="entity_id">
            <field column="origin_shipping_details">origin_shipping_details</field>
        </join>
    </attribute>
</extension_attributes>

Nothing out of the ordinary.

There is an additional table where the values of the extension attributes are stored. Then they are automatically joined to the collection of addresses using join processor in the collection load event. There are always two addresses, especially for delivery methods.

This happens in the following way:

class AddressCollectionLoad implements \Magento\Framework\Event\ObserverInterface {

    protected $_joinProcessor;

    public function __construct(\Magento\Framework\Api\ExtensionAttribute\JoinProcessor $joinProcessor){
        $this->_joinProcessor = $joinProcessor;
    }
    public function execute(\Magento\Framework\Event\Observer $observer){
        if($collection = $observer->getEvent()->getQuoteAddressCollection()){
            $this->_joinProcessor->process($collection);
        }
    }
}

The data in an array is serialized in JSON for the convenience of storage. In Magento 2.2.3 CE, a problem arose when reading this value. The error was returned by the following code:

if($extAttribute = $address->getExtensionAttributes()){
    $details = $extAttribute->getOriginShippingDetails();
}

The $address object type was checked. The getExtensionAttributes() method had to return an object that implemented the \Magento\Quote\Api\Data\AddressExtensionInterface interface or null, as it had been written in the method description. Instead, it returned an array. We were unable to find the exact reason for this. However, we have several ideas.

The Temando_Shipping Module

Starting with Magento 2.2.2, the Temando_Shipping module was added to the Magento core. This also implements an extension attribute for cart and order address.

<extension_attributes for="Magento\Quote\Api\Data\AddressInterface">
    <attribute code="checkout_fields" type="Magento\Framework\Api\AttributeInterface[]" />
</extension_attributes>
<extension_attributes for="Magento\Sales\Api\Data\OrderAddressInterface">
    <attribute code="checkout_fields" type="Magento\Framework\Api\AttributeInterface[]" />
</extension_attributes>

Joining Extension Attribute Error

This module was enabled, but it was not configured, so it was not essentially used. Since the Temando attribute is not scalar, but rather is an array of objects, it’s not possible to automatically join the attribute to the collection of addresses. Reading the values of this attribute is entirely up to the module developer.

Assumption 1: When trying to load the value of this attribute to the address, for some reason an array was written to the field extension_attributes of \Magento\Quote\Model\Quote\Address, instead of an object.

Assumption 2: For some reason, Join Processor, the standard extension attribute loader, initialized an array instead of an object. We rewrote the above code:

if($extAttribute = $address->getExtensionAttributes()){
    if(is_object($extAttribute)){
        $details = $extAttribute->getOriginShippingDetails();
    }else{
   if(is_array($extAttribute)&&isset($extAttribute['origin_shipping_details'])){
            $details = $extAttribute['origin_shipping_details'];
        }
    }
}

It’s a bit more complicated, but it does what it has to do.

Ordering Error

So, we figured out joining attributes. But there’s more. When trying to place an order, a different error was written to the server log:

[Wed Mar 07 15:33:00.499754 2018] [:error] [pid 9705] [client 127.0.0.1:45728] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to Temando\\Shipping\\Model\\Checkout\\Address::setServiceSelection() must be of the type array, null given, called in /var/www/mercyrobes2/vendor/temando/module-shipping-m2/Observer/SaveCheckoutFieldsObserver.php on line 73 and defined in /var/www/mercyrobes2/vendor/temando/module-shipping-m2/Model/Checkout/Address.php:78\nStack trace:\n#0 /var/www/mercyrobes2/vendor/temando/module-shipping-m2/Observer/SaveCheckoutFieldsObserver.php(73): Temando\\Shipping\\Model\\Checkout\\Address->setServiceSelection(NULL)\n#1 /var/www/mercyrobes2/vendor/magento/framework/Event/Invoker/InvokerDefault.php(72): Temando\\Shipping\\Observer\\SaveCheckoutFieldsObserver->execute(Object(Magento\\Framework\\Event\\Observer))\n#2 /var/www/mercyrobes2/vendor/magento/framework/Event/Invoker/InvokerDefault.php(60): Magento\\Framework\\Event\\Invoker\\InvokerDefault->_callObserverMethod(Object(Temando\\Shipping\\Observer\\SaveCheckoutFieldsObserver), Object(Magento\\Framework\\Event\\Observer))\n#3 /var/www/mercyrobes2/vendor/m in /var/www/mercyrobes2/vendor/temando/module-shipping-m2/Model/Checkout/Address.php on line 78, referer: http://mercyrobes2.loc/index.php/checkout/

Here, the error was definitely in the Temando module, and it had to be resolved.

This problem has already been brought up in a Github thread:

After analyzing the Temando module, it was established that the Temando\Shipping\Observer\SaveCheckoutFieldsObserver class is a handler of the event sales_quote_address_save_after. Its code is below

class SaveCheckoutFieldsObserver implements ObserverInterface
{
    /**
     * @var AddressRepositoryInterface
     */
    private $addressRepository;
    /**
     * @var AddressInterfaceFactory
     */
    private $addressFactory;
    /**
     * SaveCheckoutFieldsObserver constructor.
     * @param AddressRepositoryInterface $addressRepository
     * @param AddressInterfaceFactory $addressFactory
     */
    public function __construct(
        AddressRepositoryInterface $addressRepository,
        AddressInterfaceFactory $addressFactory
    ) {
        $this->addressRepository = $addressRepository;
        $this->addressFactory = $addressFactory;
    }
    /**
     * @param Observer $observer
     * @return void
     */
    public function execute(Observer $observer)
    {
        /** @var \Magento\Quote\Api\Data\AddressInterface|\Magento\Quote\Model\Quote\Address $quoteAddress */
        $quoteAddress = $observer->getData('quote_address');
        if ($quoteAddress->getAddressType() !== \Magento\Quote\Model\Quote\Address::ADDRESS_TYPE_SHIPPING) {
            return;
        }
        if (!$quoteAddress->getExtensionAttributes()) {
            return;
        }
        // persist checkout fields
        try {
            $checkoutAddress = $this->addressRepository->getByQuoteAddressId($quoteAddress->getId());
        } catch (NoSuchEntityException $e) {
            $checkoutAddress = $this->addressFactory->create(['data' => [
                AddressInterface::SHIPPING_ADDRESS_ID => $quoteAddress->getId(),
            ]]);
        }
        $extensionAttributes = $quoteAddress->getExtensionAttributes();
        $checkoutAddress->setServiceSelection($extensionAttributes->getCheckoutFields());
        $this->addressRepository->save($checkoutAddress);
    }
}

As you can see, this observer checks:

• whether the address is a shipping address;
• Whether there is any extension attribute in the address.

Then the entity is requested and created. It implements the extension attribute of Temando module. Specific operations are carried out with this entity up to saving this entity to the database. This entity has a Temando\Shipping\Model\Checkout\Address type, and implements setServiceSelection method the following way:

/**
 * @param \Magento\Framework\Api\AttributeInterface[] $services
 * @return void
 */
public function setServiceSelection(array $services)
{
    $this->setData(AddressInterface::SERVICE_SELECTION, $services);
}

Reason for the Ordering Error

The method input parameter must be an array of objects that implement \Magento\Framework\Api\AttributeInterface. Since the Temando module is not configured and is not used on this site, $extensionAttributes->getCheckoutFields() returns null. Then, a fatal type incompatibility error occurs. If the Temando_Shipping module was checked on Magento 2.2.2, the problem would exist there too, since the Temando_Shipping version in Magento 2.2.2 CE is the exact same as in Magento 2.2.3 CE. This use case was not checked in Magento before it had been included in the out-of-box solution.

The Solution to the Ordering Problem

This problem has a fairly simple solution. We have implemented the observer of the sales_quote_address_save_before event, which allows this case to be handled.

The handler of this event looks like this:

class AddressSaveBefore implements \Magento\Framework\Event\ObserverInterface
{
    public function execute(\Magento\Framework\Event\Observer $observer){
        if($address = $observer->getEvent()->getQuoteAddress()){
            if($attributes = $address->getExtensionAttributes()){
                $checkoutFields = $attributes->getCheckoutFields();
                if(is_null($checkoutFields)){
                    $attributes->setCheckoutFields(array());
                    }
                }
            }
        }
}

This observer checks if the value of the checkout_fields attribute is null, and if it is, it replaces it with an empty array. The error will no longer be returned, and the order can be placed successfully.

Magento vs WooCommerce: Complete Comparison

Magento® 2 and WooCommerce are two of the largest and most popular platforms used for setting up eCommerce stores. While they both have many positives, there are still differences between them. In this article, we will be providing a detailed breakdown of the two platforms, so you can decide which one is best for your business.

Difference Between Magento 2 and WooCommerce

Let’s make eCommerce platforms comparison between WooCommerce vs Magento 2018. First things you should consider are each platforms usability, the community behind them, and which kind of business should choose Magento and WooCommerce.

Packages and Pricing

Here we can define the average or fixed WooCommerce price and also how much is Magento price? Use the infographics below.

Magento 2 and WooCommerce: eCommerce Functionality

While WordPress or Magento for eCommerce are popular and effective, there are certain areas where one may be stronger than the other. Below you will find a breakdown of all the key features, and how each platform performs in that category.

Payment Methods

Magento checkout and payment features are optimized, smooth and convert very well. Magento takes credit card payments on your store automatically after the user makes a purchase. Paypal is also accepted as a form of payment.

WooCommerce has a similarly effective checkout process, and like Magento, it accepts a majority of the popular payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe and Amazon Pay.

Shipping Methods

WooCommerce brings flexibility, which comes in handy when you consider different shipping settings per product. It has various plugins that allow you to provide more shipping options. These include local pickup, international shipping, and the ability to edit shipping fees (flat fees, percentages, etc.)

Magento also brings adaptability and allows you to use a lot of customizable processes to allow you to create the exact shipping options you want to provide per product. As well as that you are able to set your own shipping options, which range from all types of popular delivery methods and delivery charges.

SEO Features

Let’s compare 2 platforms and see who is more SEO-friendly Magento or WooCommerce. You can set multiple different discounts, prices, upsells, downsells, and in general create much more advanced and effective funnels with Magento SEO. The site offers many tools that will increase your results. The layout of your site can change depending on the viewer, taking advantage of their previous viewing and purchase history. Having your site optimized for every individual will greatly increase your business success with regards to revenue.

WooCommerce does provide plugins that will aid SEO, and you can also find plugins that can generate more effective funnels to improve your sales.

Plugins and Extensions

Magento Marketplace has over a thousand extensions you can add to improve your site. The majority of the extensions are paid extensions, but there are hundreds of free extensions that will greatly improve your site. Regarding Magento customization, it is easy with the development team and you can scale any feature according to your needs. This will help you solve more business tasks and handle more operations.

WooCommerce offers a large number of widgets that can improve the functionality of your site, both for the front end and the back end. As for WooCommerce customization, you can perform it on a basic level. However, with plugins, you can add necessary functionality to your store.

Server Requirements

WooCommerce is a WordPress based plugin that operates as an online store and requires fewer resources to run it.

Magento, on the other hand, requires more resources to work with it.

Speed and Performance

Both platforms provide stable and robust performance, as long as you setup your settings correctly. For sure WooCommerce vs Magento speed is a bit differ due to the functionality and size of the platform. Fail to optimize, and you could see issues. There are guides online that will help you easily get the best out of your platform speed-wise.

Security

As both platforms are open source, you have the opportunity to add your own measures when it comes to security. The systems themselves also come with their own security features. In this case, however, Magento is clearly superior.

WooCommerce has basic security features. The main feature is their security plugin. It provides you protection from brute force hacking and has its own malware scanner. It also has an SSL certificate.

Magento employs security features that are forever changing and becoming stronger and more efficient as time goes on. Magento Commerce, in particular, has an Admin Actions Log that will keep a log of everything that is done on your site. Should you see any suspicious behavior, or evidence of any actions you did not make, then you know how to act fast and protect yourself. You can use different tools like a TripWire to scan for malware and edit the configuration settings, your system’s security, so security settings can be optimized for every user.

They release new patches on a regular basis, meaning your security is always up to date and is never vulnerable to becoming obsolete in the face of new threats.

Usability

Usability is vital when it comes to eCommerce. A lot of people underrate its importance, but it can make or break your business. A site that loads faster has higher levels of accessibility and will convert much better than a website that doesn’t meet the same standards of usability.

WooCommerce is excellent at usability, mainly as it utilizes itself as a WordPress plugin. However, its ease of use is also a part of its weakness. The fact that it is a WordPress plugin means that it has fewer functions than its competitor, who have more extensive, stand-alone system.

Magento gives you the ability to create products, orders, and manage them. Their analytics features are detailed, and advanced reports you receive from your site will significantly improve your decision making. Features that optimize SEO, tools increase lead generations stats, and marketing campaigns all make up a part of why Magento is so useful.

Community Support

Magento, in particular, has built up the platform over 15 years, thanks to its community of developers and merchants, it continues to grow with technologies and additional tools to become the best platform for eCommerce. Magento Help Center will help you to handle all the issues and find the answers to your questions. If it is not enough for you, you can find Magento technical support at the Magento Stack Exchange or eCommerce-related forums.

WooCommerce also has a community behind it but it’s a newer platform, meaning it has started to grow now. That is why the queries could be solved slower than it does with Magento. As for WooCommerce technical support, you can refer to their Customer Service page or to WordPress Support.

Installation and Usage

Magento has a pretty organized admin panel. All the main features you can find in Sales, Catalog, Customers, Marketing, etc. To check the Demo version, you need to request it from the official website. Or, you can check our Demo overview to learn more about the functionality.

On the one hand, Magento is not easy to install. You need 1-3 hours and a developer. On the other hand, Magento provides customers with constant updates and choice between full or partial update.

If we look at WooCommerce installation, firstly you need to download WordPress, then you can add WooCommerce plugin from WordPress admin. It is easy and doesn’t require additional help from the development side. As for the usage, the admin panel is pretty intuitive. However, to extend functionality, you have to choose other plugins.

We’ve compared all the main features, pricing plans and server resources. Now we can continue with the pros and cons of each platform.

What Suits Your Business

The real question is which platform will suit your business better? If you have a medium to large store, Magento has an advantage. WooCommerce is good for smaller stores and beginners, but once you start to progress, you will realize that you are disabled in a lot of ways. Magento provides a lot more room for growth, with upgrades, new feature, and scalability.

Magento vs. WooCommerce: Usage Prospects

Magento Customers

Magento is gaining the popularity and currently hosts around 1.42% of the top million and almost 2.47% of the entire Internet. This number continues to grow as Magento continues to improve its existing features and adding new ones.

The tendency of Magento 2 stores’ popularity in the US among other countries remain stable – it is around 49% of others. Other companies that prefer Magento are based in the Netherlands – 9% or the United Kingdom – 6% according to the following statistics.

WooCommerce Customers

As for WooCommerce, it has a big amount of stores around the globe. That’s because WooCommerce is good for the start of the business, it has the necessary amount of functions for the simple shop. WooCommerce site with a checkout has 2.4% of the top million and 3.2% of the entire Internet.

There are nearly 70% of stores that use WooCommerce in the US, the other amount relies on other countries – 30%.

Magento 2 vs WooCommerce: Which Platform Wins?

Overall both platforms are very good at what they do. You can’t really go wrong with either, but if we were to suggest one, it would definitely be Magento 2. It offers you much better opportunities for scaling up and making more money down the line. It is also stronger than WooCommerce in security and user support. For these reasons, Magento 2 is the best CMS out there today.

Magento Commerce Cloud Edition

If you own an eCommerce business and you’re looking for the next upgrade to make your store better, Magento® Commerce Cloud may be your way to go. It offers plenty of features and solutions that other platforms do not, and it promises you better results by helping you to understand your clients more. Below, you can read all about Magento Cloud and its various features.

What is Magento Commerce Cloud?

Magento Cloud plays upon Saas, which you might have otherwise heard of as Software-as-a-service. Instead, Magento is introducing PaaS, which is Platform-as-a-service.

With Magento Commerce Cloud, which, as the name suggests, is hosted by cloud, you have versatility, power, and more to control your eCommerce store. Not only this, but you a full technology stack from one source and you don’t need to deal with multiple vendors. You still have power and flexibility of Magento having access to Magento code and database.

Cloud Magento Features

Now that you know a little bit about what Magento Commerce Cloud is, we can begin to talk about the various Cloud Magento Features.

Cloud Base

Since Magento Commerce Cloud is cloud-based, you can have total control over your online channel. That’s because the eCommerce solution allows you to update and backup your information through an omnichannel function. This is done from a single panel; wherein, you can customize your design, decide between going wholesale or retail, you can create a section for popular searches, reviews, etc.

Pricing

Luckily, the Magento Cloud pricing is free for the first month. If you want to learn more about this service, you can send the company your name, email address, and phone number.

Magento PaaS Benefits

There are many benefits to using a cloud-based system. Among them are the following:

Background updates. Instead of having your site shut down while it updates, all your updates will be done through the cloud so that your customers can still browse and shop seamlessly.

Uniqueness. Your store us your own, which means you won’t have an eCommerce site that is similar to others. With Magento Commerce Cloud, you can install any of the Magento 2 extensions you need.

Optimization. Magento Cloud has partnered up with New Relic and Black Fire to ensure that they can optimize your stores and to make them more efficient.

Support. Magento offers 24-hour monitoring every day of the week. That means when you need customer support or security patching, Magento will have your back.

Quick Ordering Toolkit

We will provide you with the main functions included in it.

Speed. Magento’s Cloud eCommerce keeps ordering fast and simple. Your customers could checkout on a single page without creating an account, or they can create an account to save an address book.

Payment integrations. It allows for Paypal integration, money orders, and offers alternate payment methods like “pay me later.” You can attract customers with free shipping and shipping calculator.

Customer help. You can have a call center for orders; thereby, allowing you to change order configurations and assistance during shopping. This will help customers to organize their carts and add coupons to their orders.

Order management. To make orders faster, this Magento Cloud platform allows customers to save credit card information. In doing so, they’ll be able to carry out their orders when they’re offline as well.

Account management. When it comes to customer accounts, you can’t ask for much better than Magento Cloud. Your customers can make their accounts to see their order history, update their billing info, sign up for newsletters, and create wishlists with added comments.

Analytics and Reporting

You can receive tax reports, sales reports, low stock reports, and others to improve your site’s efficiency and to increase your sales. In doing so, you’ll be able to learn more about what and how your customers’ shop, so you can learn how to accommodate their needs.

Multichannel Support

With Magento Commerce Cloud edition, business owners are offered multichannel support. Both B2B and B2C customers have different ways to interact with the eCommerce site owner on the same platform.

Security

Magento Cloud eCommerce offers Magento security scan for all Magento products to ensure that everything is running smoothly and efficiently. It also allows you to assign roles to improve the security of your site. Because you give each role different responsibilities, you can have every part of your project covered.

Technologies Used

Magento Commerce Cloud used to be called Magento Enterprise Edition. Among its requirements are the following:

• Git
• Composer
• Secure Shell
• MySQL
• Linux

The Magento site claims that by using Magento Commerce Cloud Edition, you can have up to triple the sales. Magento Cloud is the step up that your company needs to set it apart from all the rest. There are several benefits to using this upgrade; among them, are the analytics, customer accounts, order management systems, and search engine optimization for B2B business.