Knowledge base
E-commerce & online stores
Faster stores, higher conversion, especially on mobile. Store speed, apps that slow you down, headless storefronts, and what a second of load time costs you.
64 articles
Articles in E-commerce & online stores
A/B testing on your store: what you can test without a developer
What a store can test itself, what needs a developer, how long a test must run, and the tests that are worth the effort.
3 min read
Accessibility for online stores: the European Accessibility Act applies to you
Why e-commerce is explicitly covered by the Accessibility Act, which parts of a store fail most often, and how to fix them in a theme.
4 min read
Analytics for stores: which numbers to trust
Why two analytics tools never agree, which numbers each is right about, and how to set up store measurement you can act on.
3 min read
Astro storefronts: how we build them and what changes for you
What a storefront built with Astro on top of Shopify looks like, how it is built, and what stays the same for the store owner.
3 min read
B2B for online stores: wholesale pricing, accounts and quotes
What business buyers need from a store that consumers do not, what the platform provides natively, and when custom work is needed.
3 min read
Blogging on your store: worth it, or move it to a faster site?
When a store's blog belongs inside the store platform, when it belongs on a separate static site, and how to keep the two connected.
3 min read
Building a Shopify app: what it takes and what the review process checks
What a public app on Shopify involves, from framework and billing to the review that decides whether merchants can install it.
3 min read
Bundles and configurators: when you need custom code
Fixed bundles, mix-and-match, and configurable products: what native features and apps handle, and where custom logic is unavoidable.
3 min read
Content and commerce: running a fast blog next to your store
How a static content site and a Shopify store share a domain, a design and a product feed, and why the split makes both faster.
3 min read
Conversion rate: how to find your baseline and move it
What conversion rate actually measures on a store, how to establish yours by segment, and the changes that move it in order of return.
3 min read
Cookie consent for online stores: doing it right in the EU
How consent actually works on a hosted store platform, what the built-in tools do, and how to make sure marketing pixels genuinely wait.
4 min read
Core Web Vitals for e-commerce: which pages matter most
The three speed measurements search engines use, what they mean on a store, and which page types to fix first.
3 min read
Currencies, taxes and shipping zones: the setup that prevents chargebacks
The store settings that decide what a customer pays and sees at checkout, and how mistakes there turn into disputes.
3 min read
Custom Shopify apps: when an off-the-shelf app is not enough
The signs that a store has outgrown the app store, what a private custom app involves, and how it stays lighter and safer than the alternatives.
4 min read
Discounts and promotions: avoiding the margin trap
How discounts quietly train customers to wait, what they do to margin, and the promotion patterns that grow a store instead of eroding it.
3 min read
Duplicate content in online stores: collections, tags and canonical URLs
Why one product can appear at several addresses in a store, what it does to search rankings, and how to point everything at one.
3 min read
E-commerce glossary: 43 terms in one sentence each
The forty-three terms that come up in every conversation about running an online store, each explained in one plain sentence.
5 min read
Email for e-commerce: the flows that matter first
Store email is not a newsletter. Six automated flows do most of the work, from welcome to win-back. What each should say and when.
3 min read
Fraud prevention for small stores
The kinds of fraud a small store actually sees, the platform tools that catch most of it, and the manual checks worth doing on the rest.
3 min read
GDPR for stores: customer data, marketing and retention
How data protection applies to an online shop: what you hold, what you may do with it, how long to keep it and how to handle customer requests.
4 min read
Hydrogen versus Astro for headless Shopify
Two ways to build a custom storefront on Shopify, what each optimises for, and why we choose Astro by default.
3 min read
International SEO for stores: hreflang, domains and country targeting
How to be found in each country you sell to without competing with yourself, and how market and country settings fit in.
3 min read
Inventory sync with your accounting or ERP
How stock, orders and products stay in step between the store and the systems behind it, and where sync goes wrong.
3 min read
Marketplaces versus your own store: Amazon, Bol and control
What marketplaces give and take, how they fit next to a store you own, and the rule that keeps the relationship with your customers yours.
3 min read
Measuring store speed properly: field data, not screenshots
Why a lab score screenshot proves little, which measurements reflect what customers experience, and a monthly routine for a store.
3 min read
Migrating from Shopify: what you can take with you
What leaves Shopify cleanly, what does not, and how to plan an exit without losing customers, history or rankings.
3 min read
Migrating to Shopify from WooCommerce or Magento: the plan
How to move a store to Shopify without losing rankings, customers or order history, in six stages.
3 min read
Multi-store setups: when you need more than one store
The cases that justify a second store, the cases one store with market settings handles, and how to run several without running several businesses.
3 min read
Our take: your store is slow because of ten small decisions, not one big one
The ten ordinary choices that make a store slow on a phone, why nobody notices each one, and the order to undo them.
4 min read
Payment methods in Europe: iDEAL, Bancontact, cards and wallets
Why the right payment methods per country decide checkout conversion in Europe, and how to choose and set them up.
3 min read
Peak season readiness: the part that is yours to prepare
How to prepare a store for the weeks that decide the year, what to freeze, what to test, and what to watch on the day.
3 min read
Preview and staging for stores: testing changes safely
How to test theme changes, apps, campaigns and storefront releases before customers see them, on a theme and on a headless setup.
3 min read
Product images: sizes, formats and the mobile reality
Product photos sell the product and slow the store. How to have both: one good original, automatic sizes and formats, and a mobile-first gallery.
3 min read
Product videos: how to add them without killing speed
Video sells, and video is heavy. How to add product video so it helps conversion without loading on every visit for every visitor.
3 min read
Returns and refunds: a policy that protects margin and trust
How to write and run a returns policy that customers trust, the law allows, and the margin can afford.
3 min read
Reviews on your store: apps, speed and honesty
Reviews build trust and review apps slow stores. How to collect and show reviews that help, without the weight or the temptation to fake them.
3 min read
Security for stores: accounts, apps and staff access
Where store security actually fails, which is rarely the platform, and the routine that closes the doors staff, apps and habits leave open.
3 min read
Shipping integrations: carriers, labels and tracking pages
How orders become labelled parcels with tracking the customer can follow, what to connect, and where shipping integrations fail.
3 min read
Shopify Flow: automations without code
What Shopify's built-in automation tool does, the workflows worth setting up first, and where it stops and code begins.
3 min read
Shopify Functions: custom discounts and checkout logic
How custom logic runs inside Shopify's checkout without replacing it, what functions can do, and when they beat an app.
3 min read
Shopify Plus: who actually needs it
What the enterprise plan adds, the situations where it pays for itself, and the signs that a store is being upsold.
3 min read
Social commerce: Instagram and TikTok shops connected to your store
How social shops connect to the store, what they are good for, what they cost in margin and control, and how to run them without a second catalogue.
3 min read
Store launch checklist: the 30 items we verify
The thirty checks a store passes before it opens, grouped by what goes wrong when they are skipped.
4 min read
Store maintenance: what to do monthly
The monthly routine that keeps a store fast, secure, accurate and profitable, in an hour or two.
3 min read
Store speed checklist: 20 items you can check today
Twenty checks a store owner can run on a phone in an hour, each with what to look for and what to do about it.
3 min read
Storefront API explained for store owners
The interface that lets a custom site, app or content page read your products and build carts, what it can and cannot do, and how it stays safe.
3 min read
Structured data for products: rich results explained
Price, stock and rating in search results come from product structured data. What it must contain, how to check it, and where stores go wrong.
3 min read
Subscriptions in an online store: what the apps do and what breaks
How subscriptions work on the platform, what a subscription app actually handles, and the operational and legal details that decide whether they pay.
3 min read
What running an online store costs: platform, apps, payments
The lines on a store's monthly bill, what drives each, which ones creep, and how to keep the total honest.
3 min read
Abandoned carts: what actually brings people back
Most abandoned carts were never going to convert. Some were. Remove the reasons people leave, then remind well. What works, in order.
3 min read
Collection pages that sell: structure, filters and speed
Most shoppers browse collections first. What a collection page must do, the filters worth having, and the mistakes that lose sales.
3 min read
Custom theme versus headless: cost, speed, flexibility
A custom theme keeps everything inside the store platform. Headless moves the storefront to code you own. Cost, speed and flexibility compared.
4 min read
Headless Shopify with Astro: what it is and when it pays off
A fast custom storefront on Astro, with cart and checkout still on Shopify. How the pieces fit, what changes for shoppers and staff, and when not to do it.
4 min read
How many apps is too many? An audit method for your store
Every app adds weight, cost and risk. A one-hour audit method to find the apps you do not need, the ones that slow you down, and what to remove first.
3 min read
How to make your store faster on mobile (without a rebuild)
Online stores are slow on phones because of apps and images, not the platform. A practical order of fixes, from free to a headless rebuild.
5 min read
Product pages that convert: structure, images, trust
A product page answers the buyer's questions faster than they can ask them. The structure that does it, the images that sell, the trust that closes.
3 min read
Search on your store: what shoppers who search expect, and how to serve them
Shoppers who search have told you what they want. What good store search does, how to read the search report, and how to turn empty results into sales.
3 min read
SEO for online stores: what the platform does for you and what it cannot
A store platform gets the basics right and leaves the rest to you. What it handles, its limits, and the work that moves a store in search.
3 min read
Shopify apps that slow down your store, by category
Not every app costs speed. Storefront apps that inject scripts do, and they cluster in a few categories. Which to watch, and lighter alternatives.
3 min read
Shopify checkout: why we never replace it
Checkout is where money changes hands. Why we leave it to Shopify even on headless builds, and what we customise around it instead.
3 min read
Shopify Markets: selling in more than one country
Selling abroad on Shopify is a setup question first. What Markets handles, what it does not, and the order for tax, shipping, currency and language.
3 min read
Shopify themes: the trade-offs behind the pretty demo
A theme demo shows the best case with perfect images and no apps. What to check before choosing one, what a theme decides for years, and when to build your own.
3 min read
Shopify, WooCommerce or custom: how to choose a platform
Three ways to run a store, three different lives. How to choose between Shopify, WooCommerce and a custom build on volume, team and control.
3 min read
Why we recommend Shopify by default, and when we do not
We recommend Shopify by default because the risky parts are its job. The reasons, the exceptions, and the two things we always change on a new store.
3 min read