I recently had a client move a smaller WooCommerce site over to Shopify. Bummer! Usually it’s the other way around from where I sit. I understand Shopify to have a mix of good and bad qualities to its business model. Here’s my thoughts.
Shopify?
Author: Sean D. Conklin
I have been a full-stack PHP web engineer since 2002. My current specialties have been in WordPress powered sites since 2011 and WooCommerce powered shops since early 2017.
Big WooCommerce Stores
WooCommerce is known as the leading eCommerce platform for having millions of installations worldwide. It’s had a reputation for scaling challenges. Not any longer! A recent official blog post covered this topic and included examples of six larger WooCommerce stores and a link to the official showcase of sites by category. Scaling is defined there […]
Co-organizing WordCamp Santa Clarita 2020
WordCamp Santa Clarita 2020 #wcscv website is now live and the call for speakers is up! Our call for sponsors, volunteers and opening of attendee tickets is forthcoming. Please stay tuned or subscribe for updates (see footer). I hope to see folks there in early April.
Making Good Plugin Choices
Plugin decisions tell me a lot about how the site was put together. Each plugin consumes resources and slows down a site, particularly on weaker hosting. Plugins can also clog-up the database by caching a bunch of data or storing oversized settings…
Smaller Business Trumping Bigger Business
You must be noticing it too — incompetence has been on the rise in the service industries. Bigger businesses continue to automate customer service and support areas they should not automate and fail to properly automate the mundane workloads that they should be. Employees are more often under trained, under compensated / unprofessional in their […]
Case Study: Pep Boys Automotive
I had a pleasant eCommerce experience earlier in the month and thought it’s worthy of sharing. This was not WooCommerce specific, but it makes the case for investment in eCommerce solutions. This workflow could easily be built using the open-source WooCommerce framework. I had been noticing my 7-year old KIA being increasingly sluggish to start. […]
PHP 7.4 is here and performing well
WordPress hosting companies are notoriously behind in upgrading PHP – the web service that processes a website’s data and logical code into HTML output. The cost of this delay is enormous in terms of website maintenance and performance. The jump from PHP v5 to v7 was a big one that required software updates and often […]
WooCommerce Store Manager
I’ve long held a belief that clients themselves (or their staff or VAs) should be empowered to manage content and that they naturally wish to do it themselves. Consider a Store Manager.
WooCommerce Website Accessibility
Website accessibility (codename: a11y) has always been an important quality dimension to a website. In recent months website accessibility has seen tremendous growth not only for the purposes of inclusion, customer growth and search-engine optimization, but also to shield litigation, frivolous or otherwise, in connection with federal and state laws (ADA, Disabled Persons Acts, and […]
Giving a Theme or Plugin Developer Admin Access
Let’s say you’ve reported a bug that you’ve observed in a theme or plugin. Good job by the way! Should you provide the developer admin access to your production site so they can diagnose or repair the issue? ABSOLUTELY NOT!