

For many B2B companies in the UK, the challenge isn't just getting new customers - it's persuading existing ones to use the online store more often. Despite investing in B2B functionality, you may still find customers phoning in orders, emailing spreadsheets or relying on account managers for every transaction.

Functionality is one thing. Changing customer behaviour is another. The more customers use your ecommerce channel, the more efficient your business becomes and the more seamless their buying experience feels. It's a win-win. So, here are some considerations for invigorating your existing customer base to adopt your online store as their go-to channel.

## 1. Make the Online Experience Easier Than Offline

Customers won't change habits unless your online store is genuinely more convenient. That means:

- Quick reordering tools so they can repeat past purchases in a couple of clicks
- Saved order lists for common bundles or kits
- Real-time account dashboards where they can view invoices, credit status and order history without chasing your team

When using your site saves them time, adoption follows naturally.

## 2. Offer Incentives for Online Orders

A simple way to nudge behaviour is through incentives. For example:

- Exclusive online-only promotions or bulk discounts
- Loyalty points or rebates for customers who place orders through the site
- Priority shipping or service levels for web orders

Even modest perks can shift the balance and show customers the benefits of digital first.

## 3. Personalise the Store for Key Accounts

Magento allows you to tailor what each customer sees:

- Account-specific pricing and terms displayed directly at checkout
- Restricted catalogues so customers only see the products relevant to them
- Targeted recommendations based on previous order history

This feels less like a generic webshop and more like a bespoke procurement tool designed for them.

## 4. Keep Customers Informed Automatically

Many customers still rely on phone calls or emails because they want reassurance: "Has my order gone through? When will it arrive?"

Magento can help by sending:

- Automatic order confirmations by email
- Dispatch updates with tracking links once goods are on their way
- Invoice copies straight from the system

These small touches reduce uncertainty and make the online route the easiest choice.

## 5. Promote the Benefits Proactively

Sometimes the issue isn't functionality - it's awareness. Your customers may not realise what your Magento store can do for them.

- Run training sessions or short demo videos showing time-saving features
- Get account managers to encourage adoption during calls
- Highlight customer success stories: "Company X cut ordering time by 50% by moving online"

Education builds confidence and removes the fear of change.

## 6. Use Data to Target Non-Adopters

Magento gives you visibility into who is and isn't using the online store.

- Identify customers still sending manual orders
- Follow up with tailored guidance or reminders
- Track adoption metrics and adjust incentives where needed

By measuring usage, you can spot gaps and focus on customers who need the extra push.

## Why This Matters

Encouraging customers to use your ecommerce store isn't about cutting human contact - it's about removing friction. The more you shift routine transactions online:

- The less admin your team has to handle
- The faster customers get what they need
- The more capacity you have to invest in growth and service

It's a win-win: customers gain efficiency, and you gain scalability.

## Final Thought

Your Magento B2B store isn't just a sales channel - it's a customer relationship tool. By making it easier, rewarding and visible to your customers, you can steadily shift behaviour away from email and phone ordering, and towards a future where your ecommerce store is the heartbeat of your customer relationships.

How to Encourage Your Existing Customers to Use Your B2B Ecommerce Store


Black Friday is one of the biggest opportunities of the year to turn browsers into buyers - and the secret weapon behind the best-performing campaigns isn't just flashy discounts. It's automation.

If you're using Klaviyo, flows (also known as automations or drip campaigns) are the key to engaging customers at the right moment - automatically. Whether it's welcoming new subscribers, recovering abandoned carts or driving urgency before your sale ends, flows make sure your message lands when it matters most.

Let's break down how to create a high-converting Black Friday flow in Klaviyo, based on their official flow builder walkthrough - with a few expert tweaks for this all-important retail event.


## Step 1: Choose Your Flow Type

In Klaviyo, flows are triggered when someone takes an action - like joining your list, making a purchase or abandoning their cart.

For Black Friday, some of the most effective flow types are:

- **Black Friday Welcome Flow** - Perfect for subscribers who join your list in the run-up to the sale.
- **Browse Abandonment Flow** - Targets shoppers who've viewed products but haven't added anything to their cart yet.
- **Abandoned Cart Flow** - A must-have during the sale, when shoppers get distracted mid-checkout.
- **Last Chance Reminder Flow** - Urgent messaging for customers who haven't purchased yet.

To get started, head to the **Flows** tab in Klaviyo and click **Create Flow**. From the library, you can filter by goal (like preventing lost sales or encouraging repeat purchases). Select a flow that fits your campaign goal - for example, "Nurture Subscribers" or "Drive Conversions".


## Step 2: Set Your Trigger (and Don't Overthink It)

Every flow starts with a trigger, and once it's set, you can't change it - so choose carefully.

For a **Black Friday Welcome Flow**, your trigger might be "When someone subscribes to your newsletter."
For an **Abandoned Cart Flow**, the trigger would be "When someone abandons checkout."

You can also apply filters to fine-tune who gets the emails. For example, exclude anyone who has already purchased during your Black Friday promotion - no need to offer a second discount when they've already converted!


## Step 3: Build and Customise Your Flow

Klaviyo's drag-and-drop builder makes it easy to add emails, SMS messages and time delays.

Here's how to make it work for your Black Friday flow:

1. **Send your first email instantly.** When someone signs up, they should receive a confirmation or teaser email straight away - don't leave them waiting.
2. **Add a time delay.** Space out follow-up messages with 1-3 day gaps to keep momentum without overwhelming your audience.
3. **Use Smart Sending wisely.** Klaviyo's Smart Sending ensures customers don't receive multiple emails too close together - but for that first Black Friday message, you'll want it to hit their inbox instantly.


## Step 4: Personalise with Conditional Splits

Conditional splits let you tailor your messaging based on what someone has done (or not done).

For example:

- **If someone has purchased:** Send a thank-you email and a cross-sell or loyalty incentive.
- **If they haven't:** Send a "Don't Miss Out" message with a stronger call to action or limited-time offer.

To set this up, drag in a **Conditional Split**, select **What someone has done or not done**, then choose "Placed Order" since starting this flow.

This ensures that your messaging stays relevant - and your customers feel like you're speaking directly to them.


## Step 5: Test, Monitor, and Optimise

Once your flow is ready, change its status to **Live** and start tracking performance.

You can view analytics for each email - including open rates, click-through rates, conversions and how many recipients skipped the flow. Use this data to refine your timing, content and segmentation throughout the Black Friday period.

**Pro tip:** Once Black Friday wraps up, clone your flow, adjust the messaging and reuse it for Cyber Monday, Christmas or Boxing Day sales. Smart automations can work year-round with just a few tweaks.


## Browse Abandonment vs Cart Abandonment: Why You Need Both

One of the most underutilised opportunities during Black Friday is the **Browse Abandonment Flow** - and it's often far more powerful than cart abandonment alone.

Here's why: for every shopper who adds something to their cart, there are dozens more browsing your products without taking that step. They're interested, they're engaged, but they haven't committed yet. That's your opportunity.

### How to Set Up a Black Friday Browse Abandonment Flow

In Klaviyo, set your trigger to **"Viewed Product"** and add a filter to exclude anyone who has added to cart or made a purchase since viewing. This ensures you're only targeting genuine browsers.

**Even simpler:** Klaviyo's flow library includes pre-built browse abandonment templates. Head to **Create Flow** and select the **"Browse Abandonment"** template from the library. This gives you a ready-made structure with triggers and filters already configured - you just need to customise the messaging and timing for Black Friday.

For timing during Black Friday:

1. **First email: 2-4 hours after browsing** - A gentle reminder showcasing the product they viewed, with messaging like "Still thinking it over?" or "It's still available".
2. **Second email: 24 hours later** - Add urgency with stock levels or sale countdown messaging like "Black Friday prices end soon" or "Limited stock remaining".

### What Makes Browse Abandonment So Effective During Black Friday?

- **Larger audience** - You'll capture far more browsers than cart abandoners, giving you a bigger pool to convert.
- **Lower pressure** - These shoppers aren't ready for hard selling yet, so helpful, informative messaging works better.
- **Scarcity messaging** - Black Friday creates natural urgency. "This deal won't last" hits differently when it's true.
- **Product recall** - With so many deals flying around, your email reminds them exactly what caught their eye on your site.

The beauty of browse abandonment is that it works alongside your cart abandonment flow. Shoppers move through both funnels naturally - and if they don't convert from browsing, you've got another chance when they add to cart.

**Pro tip:** Use dynamic product blocks in your browse abandonment emails to show the exact items they viewed, along with similar products or "frequently bought together" suggestions. This keeps the email relevant and increases your chances of conversion.


## Final Thoughts

Black Friday success isn't about sending more emails - it's about sending the right ones, at the right time, to the right people.

With Klaviyo's flow builder, you can automate personalised, data-driven campaigns that do just that - welcoming new shoppers, recovering abandoned carts and driving urgency right up to checkout.

But setting up powerful flows takes strategy, structure and smart segmentation - and that's where we come in.


## Need help setting up your Black Friday email flows?

Our team specialises in Magento and Shopify marketing, and we build high-performing Klaviyo campaigns that convert.

Whether you need a complete Black Friday automation strategy or just want your flows optimised before the big weekend, we'll make sure your emails hit the mark - every time.

**[Get in touch today](/contact)** to supercharge your Klaviyo flows and make this Black Friday your most profitable yet.

How to Build a Winning Black Friday Email Flow in Klaviyo


# Instant Checkout & Product Feed with ChatGPT: What Magento Merchants Should Know (Without Panicking)

AI is making some bold moves into ecommerce. OpenAI just rolled out Instant Checkout and Product Feed for ChatGPT - and while the headlines are all "Shopify this, Etsy that," we know what you're really thinking: What about Magento merchants?

Don’t worry. You’re not being left behind. In fact, this is just the beginning, and we’ve already put our name down to join the early access program so we can start sketching out a Magento extension.

Let's break down what's happening, what it means for Magento/Adobe Commerce, and why you don't need to flip your checkout flow upside down just yet.

---

## So, what's Instant Checkout anyway?

Imagine chatting with an AI about hiking boots, getting a couple of solid recommendations, and then... boom - right there in ChatGPT, you can buy them without hopping over to a store website. That's Instant Checkout in action.

ChatGPT collects the details (shipping, payment, etc.), sends them back to your store through a new Agentic Commerce Protocol, and you - the merchant - actually run the order.

**Key point:** OpenAI isn't the store. You still are.

**Why it's cool:**
- Zero friction for customers (no "add to cart → checkout → confirm → payment" marathon).
- Works well for impulse purchases or straightforward products.
- A new way to get discovered — customers can "shop" by chatting instead of Googling.

**Why it's tricky:**
- It's new. Which means bugs, learning curves, and edge cases galore.
- Customers might need a bit of convincing before trusting an AI checkout.
- Magento will need custom endpoints built to "talk" to ChatGPT (it's not plug-and-play yet).

---

## And what about the Product Feed?

This one's easier to picture. Your product catalogue becomes accessible directly to ChatGPT. So when someone asks:

"Show me black trainers under £120 with good reviews."

ChatGPT could show your trainers - if they're in the feed.

**The details:**
- Your catalogue needs to be exported in a structured feed (CSV, JSON, XML, take your pick).
- It has to be refreshed often - OpenAI suggests as frequently as every 15 minutes - so stock, prices, and availability stay accurate.
- Required info: SKU, title, description, price, inventory, shipping details, images.
- Bonus info: reviews, ratings, performance signals. The more complete, the better you'll surface.

**Why it's cool:**
- It's like SEO for ChatGPT — your products get discovered in new, conversational ways.
- It levels the playing field: smaller merchants can surface alongside big brands if the feed is strong.

**Why it's tricky:**
- Keeping the feed fresh takes real tech effort (especially if your catalogue is complex).
- Mapping Magento's more advanced product types (configurable, bundles, etc.) into a flat feed is no small task.
- If the feed breaks, your products simply vanish from AI-driven discovery.

---

## Who handles the money? (Spoiler: you still do)

This is where a lot of merchants breathe a sigh of relief. OpenAI doesn't take your payments, handle your refunds, or manage your returns.

**Here's how it works:**
- ChatGPT collects a customer's payment details.
- It creates a delegated payment request - basically a one-time token.
- Your PSP (right now Stripe is supported, but it's opensource so more will be coming later) runs the charge.
- The order is processed in Magento, not OpenAI.

**That means:**
- You stay the merchant of record.
- You own the transaction, the refund, the return.
- Customer service is still your team, not an AI chatbot in the sky.

---

## Magento: what's next?

Right now, this is US-only and Shopify/Etsy-first. So there's no mad scramble to roll this out tomorrow. But the direction is clear: conversational commerce is here to stay.

**For Magento merchants, here's what to keep in mind:**
- **Feeds matter:** Building a rock-solid product feed generator for Magento will be step one.
- **APIs are key:** Magento will need new endpoints that map to the Agentic Commerce Protocol.
- **Payments must align:** If you're not on a PSP that supports delegated payments, you may need an adapter.
- **Ops need prep:** Think about inventory concurrency, order reconciliation, and refund workflows now, not later.

We're already scoping out how a Magento extension could handle all of this. Expect it to touch catalogue exports, checkout APIs, and PSP adapters.

---

## So, should you care yet?

If you're a Magento merchant in the UK, Europe, or anywhere outside the US, you've got breathing room. But if you want to stay ahead of the curve, now's the time to start thinking about:
- How clean your product data is.
- How ready your checkout flows are for external integrations.
- Whether your payment provider will play nicely with delegated payments.

---

## Final word

Instant Checkout and Product Feed with ChatGPT are less about replacing your ecommerce site and more about adding a new storefront in a new channel.

Magento remains your backbone. You’re still the merchant of record. You’re still in control of your orders, your customer relationships, and your returns.

But now, you might also have an AI sales assistant bringing customers straight to checkout — without them ever leaving a chat.

We'll make sure Magento merchants are ready when the time comes, and don’t worry Magento merchants, Shopify's just the guinea pig!

Instant Checkout & Product Feed with ChatGPT: What Magento Merchants Should Know (Without Panicking)


# Magento / Adobe Commerce Security Alert: SessionReaper (CVE-2025-54236)

Adobe has released an **emergency out-of-band patch** to address a **critical flaw** in Magento / Adobe Commerce, tracked as **CVE-2025-54236**, also known as *SessionReaper*.
[Adobe Security Bulletin](https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/magento/apsb25-88.html)

## Risk Overview

- The vulnerability is tied to **improper input validation** in the Web API (`ServiceInputProcessor`), allowing attackers to bypass security controls without interaction.
- Can lead to **customer account takeover** and potentially **unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE)**, especially with file-based session storage.
- Confirmed by **Sansec**, who simulated the attack and publicised the SessionReaper research.
- Patch leak increases the risk of active exploitation.

[Sansec SessionReaper Research](https://sansec.io/research/sessionreaper)

## Affected Versions

- Adobe Commerce & Magento Open Source **2.4.4 through 2.4.9-alpha2**.
- WAF rules are applied to cloud deployments, but **patching is mandatory**.

## Recommended Actions

1. **Patch immediately**. Test custom and third-party modules carefully.
2. **Enable WAF rules** if immediate patching is not possible (Sansec Shield and Adobe Fastly confirmed to block this attack vector).
3. **Scan for indicators of compromise** after patching.
4. **Rotate critical keys** and verify integrity of core files.

## Shoutout to Sansec & our own Scott

We're proud to partner with **Sansec**, whose team first simulated and publicised this vulnerability.

Special recognition goes to **Scott**, our technical lead, for his **additional research contributions** on this issue.

We tested the patch prior to the public release, allowing all of our customers to be patched and live on the day of the release.

[Read the full Sansec analysis](https://sansec.io/research/sessionreaper)

Latest Security patch for Magento: CVE-2025-54236



## What is Hyvä Commerce?

At its core, Hyvä Commerce is a subscription product (license pricing €3,000/year) that bundles together Hyvä Theme, Hyvä UI, Hyvä Checkout, plus new capabilities like Hyvä CMS, Admin Image Editor, and the promise of tools further down the roadmap (dashboard, media optimisation, etc.).

Because it's built on top of Magento 2 (Open Source or Adobe Commerce), the extensibility, ecosystem, and the parts of Magento we love remain intact — but now with a cleaner, more streamlined experience.

If you're already using Hyvä Theme or Hyvä Checkout, there's a "trade-in" path so you can consolidate into Hyvä Commerce while gaining those extra features.


## What’s new (and why it matters)

From where we sit as an agency, the new features are not just “nice to have,” they open doors to smoother workflows, happier merchants, and cleaner technical foundations. Here are the highlights:

### Hyvä CMS with Liveview

This is a killer one. Instead of toggling between admin editors and preview modes, Hyvä CMS offers real-time, drag/drop content editing with immediate storefront previews. Changes you make = what you see. No surprises.

That lowers the barrier for marketing/merchandising teams to update pages, banners, content — without constantly bugging developers. It also reduces context switching and speeds time to content iteration.

### Admin Theme & fresher UI

Magento’s backend is powerful but can be… uninspiring. Hyvä Commerce introduces a modern, polished Admin Theme that doesn’t reinvent the wheel — everything still works as you’d expect — but delivers a nicer feel and better usability.

That’s especially appealing to merchant teams who live in the backend day to day. A more enjoyable interface isn’t just cosmetic: it helps reduce friction, mistakes, training time.

###  Built-in Image Editor

No more relying on external tools for simple image tweaks or cropping. With the Image Editor baked into the admin, you can make small adjustments on the fly — reframe, rotate, tweak — right where you’re managing content.

That’s a big quality-of-life win.

### Roadmap: dashboard, media optimisation, etc.

Hyvä Commerce is launching with a core set, but the roadmap is promising. Upcoming features include an Admin Dashboard (key metrics at a glance) and Media Optimisation (ensuring fast-loading, visually rich pages) among others.

Because Hyvä is also committing to frequent updates, the product is less “static launch” and more "living platform."

## Benefits for merchants & agencies (why this changes things)

From the agency side, Hyvä Commerce lets us deliver more with less friction. From the merchant side, it means better tools, faster iteration, and lower maintenance overhead. Here’s what we see as the biggest wins.

### Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)

By bundling many features (theme, UI, checkout, CMS, image editing) in one, there’s less need for ad-hoc extensions, glue code, or custom hacks. That simplifies upgrades, reduces integration maintenance, and cuts technical debt.

Plus, the intuitive tooling means merchant teams can self-serve more, reducing support overhead.

### Better performance & SEO

Hyvä Theme + Checkout (already proven) continue to push toward optimal performance, which helps with Core Web Vitals, conversion, and SEO.

New media and optimisation features will only enhance that.

### Improved admin & merchant experience

When non-technical teams can directly update content or images more easily, that speeds campaigns, promotions, A/B tests, and general site freshness. The more empowered the merchant team is, the less dependency on dev cycles.

### Maintain Magento’s flexibility & ecosystem

This is perhaps the most reassuring bit: you don’t lose Magento’s extensibility. Hyvä is compatible with many existing extensions (especially those made Hyvä-aware) and supports integration with ERPs, processes, and more.

In other words: you get the best of both worlds — a sleeker, more modern “shell” over Magento’s meat and bones, without sacrificing what made Magento great in the first place.

## How we as an agency are adapting (and how we’ll use Hyvä Commerce)

With Hyvä Commerce’s release, we see shifts in how we approach project planning, architecture, and client collaboration. Here’s how we plan to embrace it (and how we recommend clients do, too):

### Strategy first, new baseline second

We’ll lean into Hyvä Commerce as a baseline for new builds (where Magento is already in scope). Instead of layering disparate tools, we can start from a modern, cohesive foundation.

For clients migrating from “vanilla Magento + custom theme + various modules,” we can propose “replatform onto Hyvä Commerce” as a clean, future-proof upgrade path.

### Focus on innovation rather than plumbing

Because so much of the repetitive, “boilerplate” admin / content work is now baked in (CMS, image editor, UI polish), we can spend more of our time on creative direction, custom features, business logic, and delivering value, rather than wiring basic admin tools.

### Collaboration with merchants is smoother

Because merchants and marketing teams will have more control via CMS, image editing, dashboards, etc., the feedback loop is shorter. We anticipate fewer small “tweak requests” and more autonomy for content teams.

### Ensuring extension compatibility & ecosystem participation

One change: making sure third-party extensions are compatible with Hyvä’s architecture. Hyvä maintains a “compatibility module tracker,” and provides documentation and support to vendors to help them make their extensions Hyvä-ready.

As an agency, we’ll prioritise extension partners who support Hyvä, or build compatibility bridges ourselves. That way, clients don’t lose investments in existing tools.

### What to watch out for / caveats (and how to mitigate)

To be fully transparent, every new platform shift has trade-offs. We don’t see showstoppers, but here are things to keep in mind — and how we intend to handle them.
* **Extension compatibility gaps**: Some extensions with heavy frontend logic may need adjustment or rewriting. Mitigation: check compatibility first; leverage Hyvä’s documentation and the extension-vendor support they offer. 
* **Migration complexity**: Moving from existing setups (especially with Page Builder, or complex content structures) to Hyvä CMS may require planning. Hyvä offers to let you enable Hyvä CMS on selected pages/blocks initially. 
* **Subscription model / licensing**: Hyvä Commerce is subscription-based (renew annually). Clients must commit to that. But you get updates, support, and evolving features as part of it. 
* **Learning curve**: Admin users will need orientation to the new UI, CMS, image editor. We’ll treat training as part of onboarding.

## The future is looking bright

In many ways, Hyvä Commerce feels like a natural “next chapter” for Magento and the Hyvä ecosystem. It’s not a disruptive break, but a thoughtful evolution — one that respects what’s good about Magento, while breathing fresh air into its admin, content workflows, performance, and usability.

For merchants, Hyvä Commerce offers more control, fewer moving parts, lower maintenance, and a path toward faster iteration. For agencies like ours, it means we can deliver better, faster, cleaner solutions — and focus more on innovation, not plumbing.

We’re genuinely excited to get our hands on it, start building new Hyvä Commerce projects, and see how the ecosystem grows. If you’re curious how this could work for your store — whether a brand new build, a migration, or a refresh — we’d love to chat.


Why we’re excited about Hyvä Commerce


Business relationships are also something that constantly evolve too. Some stand the test of time extremely well and even get better with age. For an agency, having a deep level of knowledge of their clients, how they like to work, their industry, competitors etc.. is a huge plus.

But sometimes, that evolution isn’t always a positive one. And it can lead to questions over the ultimate viability of the relationship.

## Has your business changed?
It’s not uncommon for an agency to consistently offer the same core skills and capabilities as time passes. The only challenge is, as your business changes, the fit isn’t as ideal as it initially was. You may need to accelerate through the workload quicker than you used to, which simply can’t be accommodated at the pace you need. You may scale back and subsequently feel you don’t have the same profile anymore.

## Has the agency changed?
Agencies also change. They experienced growth, win new relationships and find old relationships aren’t the same fit for them anymore. They may have changed fundamental principles about how they deliver support or manage projects that don’t quite fit your preferences any more. Most agencies, in our experience, are professionally-run, ethical businesses and when they see the fit isn’t working for them, will highlight that to their clients. But sometimes a client may feel that a little sooner than the agency does.

## Personnel Change?
People are key to great relationships. Unfortunately, people move on, into new roles or with new companies. When that happens, it leaves the relationship in a delicate spot. Sometimes it’s actually a positive, and the relationship gathers strength. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

## Attention
It’s not unusual for attention to be high at the start of a working relationship, and without any malice, that attention wanes as familiarity sets in. As a result, the levels of attention dips and so does a number of key elements that made the relationship work.

## Communication
One thing we know is that clients love great communication. It’s often the heartbeat of a working relationship. And putting enough focus on good communication is something we know can be a catalyst for outstanding long term relationships. The opposite is also true, and poor communication can leave a business feeling exposed and in the dark.

## Competence
It seems obvious to state, but competence is clearly an underpinning factor in a working relationship. Sometimes, things go wrong and the most competent, communicative and organised agency can experience a curveball. Most clients appreciate this work together when this happens. But persistent occurrences can lead to serious questions over competence. If you feel that anything jeopardizes your project, then head over to view our rescue page here.

## Project Management
Do your projects hit deadlines as expected.

## Inherited Relationship
Have you inherited a working relationship, and for any reason, just feel that everyone would benefit from a change? This is a common scenario and can take elements from all of the above as justification for a fresh start.

If you feel it’s time to consider moving agency, Deploy can draw upon 10 years of experience keeping the process of change efficient, headache-free and positive meaning you can get back to making progress quickly.


Agency Relationships - Is it time for a change?


Recent research has shown that 80%* of adults reach for their smartphone as their primary browsing device over tablets and laptops. If you think about it, it’s too not surprising as most of us keep our phone at arm’s length most of the time. We conduct a lot of our daily business with our phones; on average we reach for them 150* times a day, to check our mail and social media, browse the web, read the news, handle our banking, and of course, to make calls and texts.

When you consider how and where people use their phones, they are not usually sitting at a desk or living room with controlled lighting and very little distraction. They are in a coffee shop, on a bus, out and about with lots of distractions, noise and inconsistent lighting. These factors all conspire to sap our attention, making it harder to focus on the task at hand.

## Mobile vs Desktop Browsing

Generally, mobiles are used for short bursts of time and for smaller, faster tasks that require more intense focus. Laptops and tablets are typically used to perform the majority of in-depth research and comparisons; this allows people a more leisurely and comfortable pace when browsing online.

Let’s take a look at the scenario of purchasing a new pair of jeans and how this might be performed on a mobile. It could be any product but we’ll use jeans for this example.

The user is in a coffee shop with lots of noise and distractions, the lighting is subtle, they have five minutes free before their friend turns up and they are thinking about buying a new pair of jeans from an online store. We’ve mentioned about the shortened attention span that users have in distracting settings like coffee shops; the user’s journey had better be fairly fluid to keep their attention from wandering.

The user loads up the site and they are presented with the home page. Suddenly, a pop-up appears offering them 10% off their next order before they’ve had a chance to think about finding what they’re looking for. They dismiss the pop-up and start trying to figure out how to find the item they want. The screen has a moving slider and the navigation is not clear. A Facebook notification appears and a barista is asking if they’ve finished with their drink. Game over – attention span broke.

If 80% of adults use their phones as their primary browsing device, we need to make sure their online experiences are as smooth and effortless as possible.

## How do we do this?
### With great user experience.

This is achieved by making the main task apparent. In the scenario above the user was hit with a distraction before they even had the chance to think about locating any jeans. This disrupted their flow and forced them to think and act on another task. We’ve all experienced the pop-up offering free delivery or a percentage off our first order, and these are great incentives when they appear in the correct location and don’t cause a distraction by being intrusive.

By making the main task apparent and not bombarding users with pop-ups, we relegate all other tasks and make them secondary to the main task. If the user was offered a clear, focused option to choose a clothing category they could have reached their target page within no time at all. Web developers and designers call this ‘intuitive navigation’ and it helps users to find exactly what they want in just a few quick taps.

In our example, the user had already made the choice to find a product, so all offers of free delivery or money off could be made at the product level, giving them that extra encouragement to make the purchase. Relegate pop-ups to the end of the users’ journey once they have completed their task.

## What else do we need to think about?
There are lots of other considerations to aid an effortless user flow such as colour contrast of elements, especially if the task is being performed in a very bright or dimly lit environment. Simple hints and transitions also help so the user knows something is happening, for example when something is added to an online basket an icon will usually appear or change.

Focusing on the mobile experience isn’t always the correct path to take for every product or service. Performing user research will determine who your target audience is and how they use your site, but when ‘mobile-first’ is right for your user base it needs to be thoroughly considered.

For more information on giving your customers the best user experience possible and for more on what we do, feel free to give us a call on 01782 479363 or drop us a message online.

*source: www.techcrunch.com

Mobile eCommerce UX : The Race To Grab Users’ Attention


## Buy my product, it’s the best!
It has 3 waffle bangers and 6 outlet trailblazers. It’s the same as all the other waffle trailblazers, but ours is better!

Followed by an emotionless picture that is accompanied by a bunch of bullet points along with a table showing the waffle trailblazer’s performance.

Just in case you were wondering, the waffle trailblazer is a made-up item purely for the purpose of this story.

This is a popular format lots of businesses use to sell or promote their products or services. To a degree, this format works or else companies wouldn’t still be around if it didn’t work.

But what about the companies that are selling the ‘me too’ products and are out-performing the other ‘me too’ companies selling the same products and services? How do they get there?

> Products and services on eCommerce websites are far more successful when they focus on the benefits of how they will improve the consumer’s life and not the technical functions of the product.

I’m going to use an obvious example from Apple, as most people will know and understand Apple’s brand. Apple didn’t invent the phone or MP3 player but look at the success both products have gained. The iPod wasn’t sold as an MP3 player by Apple, that would make it just another ‘me too’ product that other companies were offering. It was sold as ‘have 1,000 songs in your pocket’.

![Alt text](/images/blog/2022/first-gen-ipod.jpg "Ipod")
**_1st generation Apple iPod_**

The funny thing about it at the time the iPod wasn’t the best technical MP3 player and it didn’t hold anywhere near the number of songs others could. Apple sold the emotion of its product, Apple sold what you could do with the product and how it would better your life and didn’t focus on all the technicalities of the product. The technicals were available and were needed, but they weren’t out front and center stage.

In this story, I’ve tried to demonstrate visually how emotion can help sell products. Barbour’s home page, shown below, tells the story of a man enjoying the outdoors. It shows actor Sam Claflin at the foot of a British snowy mountain on a chilly day modeling one of Barbour’s famous wax jackets. The fact that they are using a celebrity is irrelevant, I hadn’t got a clue who he was until I Googled him. This image conveys emotion by setting the scene, it’s helping the consumer to see themselves in that environment especially if in the case of the Barbour scene you are a lover of the great outdoors, you’ll probably be wishing you were there. The point is, Barbour is selling the lifestyle and not just the jacket.

![Alt text](/images/blog/2022/barbour-with-emotion-1024x772.jpg "You can feel the cold air on his face")
**_You can feel the cold air on his face**_

Take a look at the mockup I’ve put together below, this is the formula that a lot of companies use. Notice the difference in impact between the man at the base of the mountain and the jacket surrounded by text. The one surrounded by text features a nice looking product shot but doesn’t convey an ounce of any emotion, the jacket could be switched out by a tin of Heinz Baked Beans. Although I’m sure Heinz wouldn’t put together a landing page with bullet points like this, they’d probably show a family around a kitchen table tucking into a warm plate of beans accompanied by buttery toast. Between the two pages, which would draw you into buying the jacket? I’m not saying the technicals are not important, but they should be relegated to the side stage as the supporting role and not to be the main character.

![Alt text](/images/blog/2022/barbour-with-out-emotion-1024x772.jpg "My mockup showing lack of any emotion")
**_My mockup showing lack of any emotion**_

So many big companies use emotion to sell and that is why they are big successful companies. Another obvious example to demonstrate the use of emotion in their sites is Nike. They use emotion to tell a story with their products, it’s a story that connects with the audience. I don’t know about you, but I feel the cold on the face of the man modeling the Barbour jacket, the joy on the fencers face for Nike, and the pain of the boy running for Nike. In the advertising industry, it’s known as ‘selling the sizzle, not the sausage’.


![Alt text](/images/blog/2022/nike-1-1024x576.jpg "You can feel the joy")
**_You can feel the joy_**

![Alt text](/images/blog/2022/nike-2-1024x576.jpg "You can feel the pain")
**_You can feel the pain_**

Regardless of your age, your personality, walk of life, how much money you have, all humans are all the same deep down. We like to think that we are rational thinkers, but the truth of it is, we’re not. We make decisions based on emotion. That emotion is the thing that will just push us over the purchase line. Sure, it’s backed up with the rational side of our brain asking questions like, “can I afford this?” and “Will it fit in the place I have for it?”. But even then, your emotions will still try and get the item to fit in the space you know it won’t fit. If a consumer really, really wants a certain product, the tiny bit of rationality you have will be out of the window leaving your emotions to push that index finger on the buy now button.

I know Barbour, Apple, and Nike all have large marketing budgets and can afford to hire celebrities to endorse their products. It’s great if you have the marketing budget to do that, but you don’t need celebrities to tap into your audience’s emotions. A little bit of research to get to know your audience and some creativity can go a long way in working towards achieving the same thing.

To find out how we can help your business inject some emotion into your eCommerce site, get in touch.

Some good resources that relate to this article are Simon Sinek’s ’Start with Why’ and ‘Influence’ by Robert B. Cialdini.

The Story of the Emotional Sell


## What’s PCI DSS Compliance?
PCI DSS is an acronym for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. The security standards are made up of technical and operational requirements to help to protect cardholder data and reduce fraudulent transactions. These standards apply to all that store, process, or transmit cardholder data. The council that is responsible for these standards, is supported by the world-leading credit card companies.

## Why it’s important you are compliant?
Compliance is not a legal requirement in the UK, but it is a mandatory contractual obligation imposed by payment card networks. Also, credit/debit card details are also personal data that will fall under the Data Protection Act and/or GDPR.

If you are found to be a breach of PCI DSS, your business could be fined. These fines are issued by payment providers and are enforced through contracts between you the merchant, banks, and the payment brands. These fines can range from $5,000 to $100,000 per month for the months of non-compliance.

In addition to this, if there was a card data breach the ICO (Information Commissioner’s office) would view whether the merchant was PCI compliant, and this will have an impact on the potential penalties. The fines issued can be huge depending on the scale of the breach and work on two ties.

Standard – up to 2% of the total global turnover or €10,000,000 whichever is higher.

Higher – up to 4% of the total global turnover or €20,000,000 whichever is higher.

## Levels of compliance
There are different levels of compliance, it’s not a one size fits all approach.

**Level 1** — this applies to businesses that process more than six million card transactions a year

**Level 2** — this applies to businesses that process more than one million but less than six million transactions a year

**Level 3** — this applies to businesses that process more than 20,000 but less than one million transactions a year

**Level 4** — this applies to businesses that process less than 20,000 transactions a year

Level 1 is the most strict in regards to the requirements, level 4 is the least strict.

For levels 2-4 the merchants can submit a self assessment questions whilst level 1 would need to go through an assessment by a Qualified Security Assessor.

How does Magento help to obtain compliance?
Magento Commerce Cloud is PCI Certified as a Level 1 Solution Provider, all merchants using Commerce Cloud can use Magento’s PCI Attestation to help them through their own PCI certification process.

By using integrated payment gateways that either use a direct post or hosted payment forms that are integrated into the checkout helps to reduce your requirements. Keeping all card details outside of the Magento Platform. This means that most merchants can validate their compliance by completing a self-assessment at an SAQ A or SAQ A-EP level rather than the more complex SAQ D.

As part of the Commerce Cloud product Magento provides a WAF powered by Fastly. The WAF ensures that all storefronts in production environments meet PCI DSS 6.6 security requirements.

Interested in other security features implemented by Magento? take a read over magento.com/trust/security

## Will my agency sort this out?
Ultimately not, this will fall on you as the merchant from a legal perspective. Naturally, during a working relationship, it’s not uncommon for the conversation around PCI compliance to come up. In fact, if it didn’t get risen by our client we would raise it. We take an advisory approach to best practices but always advise that you also speak to your bank and/or merchant account provider to ensure compliance.

## How to avoid fines and penalties?
The best way to avoid fines is to make sure you are compliant. This means following every item on the PCI DSS Checklist.

PCI Compliance, Who’s Responsible?


These three parts are broken up into the old brain, midbrain, and new brain, each part has an influence on the way you make decisions.

Let’s take a look at how the three parts of our brain affect our decisions when making choices online, starting with the old brain.

## The Primal Lizard Brain
The old brain is the part of the brain responsible for all your primal urges; fight, flight or freeze. The old brain takes care of all our basic needs; safety, food and sex. When we put this in context of how our old brain reacts when we visit sites, our old brain needs to safe and secure and not under any threat. If the old brain doesn’t feel safe, it will be screaming ‘LET’S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!’. The good news is that there are plenty of ways we can make the old brain feel safe.

Firstly, adding feelings of security by using a secure connection – https instead of http – so that all data between the site and user is encrypted. Then it’s a case of moving on to the information architecture – that’s the design, layout, styling and messaging. Unfortunately not every company has the luxury of the brand reassurance that comes with Apple or Amazon. This means that companies have to focus on getting the balance just right. Using the correct tone of voice, making sure images are of high quality and focusing on the key elements and making sure these elements are ordered rationally.

Think of a website as a bricks and mortar fashion store. Most follow the same formula. They have a sign and branding at the front of the building telling the customers what they sell. Their most popular selling products displayed in the window to entice customers through the door. Then if the customer makes it through the door, all the products laid out in the relevant sections. Shoes in one place, t-shirts in another, the store has a natural flow to walk through and navigate the sections. The tills are usually pushed to one side with signage directing customers to them.

Most stores follow the same formula, and it works. Consumers are used to this formula, so when they visit a different store, the flow feels natural and familiar. This reassures the customer making them feel at ease and it also means that they haven’t got to learn a new way of navigation, so they can focus on their main task, to make a purchase.

Now imagine if that bricks and mortar store didn’t follow the formula; they filled the windows with as much product as they could, the tills were not in the usual place, all the sections didn’t make sense, the t-shirts were mixed up with the shoes. Furthermore, maybe the store looks a little tired and shabby. Straight away, you’d question if the products were going to be the same quality as the shabby store. Then you’d have to learn a new way of navigating the store, trying to find what you want. It wouldn’t be a pleasant shopping experience and you might even give up and go to the store next door.

Most successful websites follow the same formula as each other, placing the important elements in the same places. This reassures site visitors, putting them at ease and satisfying the old brain, making it feel safe and secure to proceed.

## The Emotional Middle-Man
The next step is to satisfy the needs of the midbrain. The midbrain is responsible for our emotional part of the decision making process. You want the midbrain to feel relaxed and that the site can be trusted. We also want the midbrain to feel excited about the product, you want the midbrain to start releasing dopamine – the feel-good hormone.

## The Rational New Brain
Finally, it’s the new brain’s turn to get involved. Or at least to feel that it has been involved. The new brain deals with rational decision making, although most of our ‘rational’ decision making occurs after the decision has been made, not before. The new brain wants to feel involved even when it’s not. Its primary focus is to make sure the old brain and midbrain are happy if they are then the new brain is given the green light.

Satisfying your users’ old brain, midbrain which in-turn satisfies the new brain are the very basics of the psychology of eCommerce. Once you’ve tackled this, it time to move on to getting to know your user.

## Know Your User
One of the most fundamental parts of selling your products online is to know who you are selling to. Get this wrong and you risk putting users off your product or sales offering, which means you’ve also wasted time and money with the whole design and development of your site. For example, selling to a predominantly female audience between the ages of 18-30 is going to require a different strategy for selling products aimed at men in their 50s.

There are of course times when your product or service may sell to either or all demographics, which requires a totally different strategy. The great news is that you can find out exactly who your customers are with some research techniques, then you will be on the road to making your product or service an amazing success.

There are many more factors involved with the Psychology of E-Commerce, get in touch to find out how we can help figure out the best way forward for you.

The Psychology of E-Commerce: Why Three Heads are Better Than One


So, the strangest year in recent memory has rumbled on into the final three months of the year and Black Friday/Cyber Monday is starting to loom large.

For some businesses, 2020 has been a year to forget. For others, eCommerce sales hit Christmas levels by Spring. In the UK, whilst Black Friday doesn’t quite cause the frenzy it does ‘across the pond’, it’s still a key catalyst for people to spend. And this year it’s an opportunity to either redress the balance from a tough spring/summer or really use it to push on and make the year memorable for more positive reasons.

Experts are predicting that whilst there is still uncertainty, BFCM (Black Friday- Cyber Monday) will still be a predictably busy period with perhaps the notable expectation that shoppers will be really organised this year. In a nutshell, that means planning as early as possible.

So, in anticipation of that, we thought we’d share some observations based on experience that we hope will help you maximise BFCM this year:

## Communicate Early
Not just savvy shoppers but pretty much everyone is aware of Black Friday now. And this year, it’s well worth communicating early about your intentions to be involved in the melee. So, whichever channels  you plan to communicate on, begin to build up some anticipation early this year and keep your brand relevant in the customers’ mind in the run-up.

## Organised Strategy
A well-planned strategy is always important but this year even more so. What to include in that strategy? Well it’s a huge topic, but just couple of ideas to get the grey matter whirring:

* Introduce a ‘loss leader’ product bringing customers to store, creating upsell opportunities. 
* Create daily deals to keep visitors returning and interest high. 
* Promote a deal countdown to capitalise of FOMO (fear of missing out). 
* Magento has some excellent functionality around content staging to make your co-ordinated promotions seamless (get in touch if you’d like to discuss further)

But, whatever your promotion plans are, planning early with a well-co-ordinated strategy is a must this year.

## Pandemic Related Products
Turning a negative into a positive is fairly generic, sound advice obviously. But this pandemic has clearly emphasised some product categories more than others. So a question to ask is whether there is part of the product range that has become naturally more appealing this year? What about lower-value thoughtful gifts within your range? They could well be hot property this year as some customers are more careful with their budget.

## Payments Options.
And if customers are somewhat budget-conscious, then for higher-priced items, why not make the purchase decision easier by integrating with a provider who can solve the dilemma? Klarna is a great option for deferred and split payments without the customer having to enter long term financing plans with heavy APR rates.

And of course, it goes without saying that using the quickest and easiest payment methods on mobile checkouts like  Paypal, Apple Pay and Android Pay will make for a smoother buying process.

## Social
During lockdown, people were even more glued to their devices than ever before. And with local restrictions and the rule of 6, social gatherings are limited, so naturally, social media is relied upon even more heavily this year. So for many brands, clever use of social media has been a great way to stay connected with their customer. For instance, using retargeting can be a great way to reignite a purchase opportunity when your customers are using social media. Which leads us nicely on…

## Mobile First
Mobile has seen a steady rise in traffic, orders and revenue year on year. So if there are areas of improvement in your mobile UX, now is the time to address them as the volumes of visitors from mobile devices will be high. There’s some time to test, but it’s running short now.

## Returns Policy
Depending on the industry, returns can occur in more than 30% of orders. So this is obviously going to be in your customers thinking when they are considering their purchase. Is your returns policy easy to understand? Prominent? How about fair? Are there opportunities for short term returns policy incentives?

## Delivery
Once a customer has committed to purchase, then how quickly they can receive their item/s can be make-or-break in who they purchase from. It also can dictate what customer actually buys, as some people will choose a product arriving quicker over a product that may take a little longer. So now’s the time to review your competition and see how you stack up. Can you offer anything better?

--- 
So, there are a few things to consider. We’re always happy to chat about all things eCommerce, especially harnessing Magento for maximum ROI, so feel free to give us a nudge…

Get Black Friday/Cyber Monday Ready!


It’s probably an understatement to say that most companies are currently faced with a very defining period.

We’re in the eye of the storm and we don’t truly know how long it will last. Some industries will obviously be hit harder than others. Some will recover more quickly, and some will, in fact, thrive.

Ecommerce is one industry that does represent some positivity. Whether you’re 100% eCommerce focused, or it’s a route to market, it represents a way to continue to reach customers, when they’re confined to their homes.

Businesses that supply products and technology for home working are doing well. Exercise and home entertainment products are now further in the spotlight than before along with online delivery services, serving their customers for their favourite foods/drinks safely.

And whilst this is clearly not true for every online business, it does serve as a reminder that there is a real seed of opportunity for many businesses. When the world begins to open its doors for business again, things will be different. And every business will respond differently while the doors are semi-shut. And it’s this response that will be a defining point in the speed and strength of recovery when the storm passes.

It would seem that it’s even more important than ever to make calculated investments where possible to maximise the opportunity that exists in every challenging situation. Cost-effectiveness will be as important as ever, if not more so, with many future investments.

Time to market will also be key in the thinking of any business when considering their options.  Missing the boat would be an even more painful experience if their competitors have acted quickly to steal a march.

With that in mind, Deploy is pleased to launch our Magento Quick Start Package. Take a good read, we always welcome questions/feedback.

Get Online With Magento | Quick Start Package


# Improving your Web Vitals

## What are ‘Web Vitals’?
Essentially they are a set of metrics used to monitor your customer’s experience on your site. They are not designed for developers alone, merchants too can use Web Vitals to help identify new opportunities to create gains and improve the experience of their website.

Web Vitals is a Google lead initiative that aims to simplify some of the mystery around what matters the most to your customers, so that you, the merchant can understand it. They’ve been around for a while, we are probably all familiar with Lighthouse? This is just one tool Google has provided over the years. Core Web Vitals is a subsidiary and currently measures the following metrics:

1. Largest Content Paint (LCP)
2. First Input Delay
3. Cumulative Layout Shift 

## Largest Content Paint (LCP)
How long does the page take to load from a users perspective. The largest image or text block visible to the user.

We should be aiming to get the LCP score less than 2.5 seconds where possible.

![Alt text](/images/blog/2021/lcp.png "Largest Contentful Paint")


## First Input Delay
First Input Delay measures how responsive your website is, once a user clicks on a link, taps a button or any other interaction with the page. What is the delay between the interaction and the result of the website actually doing something. We’ve all been there when we have clicked on a link and then wondered, did that work? Do I need to click it again?

Anything less than 100ms is considered good, anything over 300ms is poor and should be addressed with priority.

![Alt text](/images/blog/2021/fid.png "First Input Delay")

## Cumulative Layout Shift
This metric is to measure the visual stability of a webpage. Does the page shift as you scroll, do you go to click a link for it to move before you’ve clicked it. This usually happens because things are still loading in the background.

A CLS score of less than 0.1 is considered good, anything over 0.25 is poor and needs attention.

![Alt text](/images/blog/2021/cls.png "Cumulative Layout Shift")

## How to improve Magento Core Web Vitals?
There are a number of tools that can be used to check these metrics, such as Google Page Insights, Lighthouse, Chrome UX Report.

Google web.dev also provides a tool to check these scores, to check your scores follow the below steps:

Navigate to Magento Web Vitals
Enter your URL and click ‘Run Audit’
This will return 4 scores. If you look past those, for now, you will see the Largest Contentful Paint and the Cumulative Layout Shift score.

## Common Issues for Magento 2 Sites
Not all issues are fixed easily and nearly all will need competent Magento Developers to be working on them. Below we have included the most common that we see on pretty much every Magento 2 build that has not gone through an optimisation service. If your website currently performs badly, that’s not to say that your agency has done a poor job, unfortunately, it’s just Magento 2. With a little attention, your scores can be improved.

### Eliminate Render Blocking Resources
All CSS and JS needs to be deferred where possible, if possible create a critical CSS file, for all content above the fold. More information on this can be found further down.

### Defer offscreen images
This is achieved by lazy loading images. Meaning you only load the images that are being viewed by the user instead of all images on the page. There a whole bunch of js lazy loaders out there, that can be found by a quick google search. Times are changing though, browsers are now offering native support, this is great! One less JS file to include! Support is still somewhat limited to Chromium-powered browsers such as Chrome, Edge, Opera. Firefox also supports it and Safari is a work in progress.

More information can be found at Magento 2 Web Vitals

### Serve Images in Next-Gen Format
Optimizing images has always been about, compress jpgs and pngs is something we have all done for years. This is no longer enough and instead for browsers that support them we should be serving images in next-gen formats such as JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, and WebP. These formats are not currently supported in Magento out of the box. But there are a number of extensions that are available on the Magento Marketplace. There are also free opensource extensions available. ([Yireo_Webp2](https://github.com/yireo/Yireo_Webp2))

An alternative is to use a CDN that can do image optimisation for you. Magento Commerce Cloud includes Fastly. Fastly will optimize your images for you.

Improve Magento 2 Web Vitals

### Remove Unused JavaScript and CSS
This is often a tricky one to resolve without a big investment of time, from experience the risk of creating bugs is also quite high. To help reduce JS you will want to look at the advanced JS Bundling as mentioned above.

To address the CSS directly there are a number of opensource projects out there:

Magento Web Vital CSS Issues
Magento 2 Critical CSS Web Vitals

Reduce Initial Server Response Time
First thing to make sure is you have Varnish cache configured correctly in your production environment. If you believe you do already, you will need a developer to dive in and see whats going on. There are lots of common errors that could be preventing the pages from being cached correctly.

You may also want to get in touch with your host to make sure the server has been fully optimised for Magento 2. If your host is not advertising that they are Magento experts it’s probably best to stay clear. Generally, you pay for what you get with hosting.

Complete a code/extension audit, poor code is often the cause of per performance. Magento comes with an inbuilt code profile to help us pinpoint the performance issue. Tools such as New Relic are often extremely helpful too.

### CLS improvements.
There are a few simple things to implement to make sure you get this score down into the green zone.

### Reserving the required space
This is a simple thing to do, but it could take some time to implement throughout a whole site. You need to always include size attributes on images/videos or alternatively reserve the required space. This can be done by using aspect ratio css boxes, its basic stuff to most frontend developers.

### Don’t shoehorn content above other content
When content is added above content that is already visible of course this causes your users screen to jump down. This is bad. Stay away from this wherever possible. If you do need to do this, make sure the space is reserved as mentioned above.

## Conclusion
If you are worried about your score, and speed performance in general please reach out. We can offer some FREE advice, you don’t need to instruct us to complete the work. Of course, if you do want an agency to handle it for you, great! We would love to help you improve your scores.

**Thanks for reading!**

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