Bronte Assadzadeh, Author at Noibu

Posted on September 24, 2019

So your site is on Magento but you’re looking to make some improvements to it. That would entail that you’re probably interested in looking at some extensions. What’s great about the Magento platform is that it is versatile and great for building customization with 3rd part plugins. That means that a website without extensions is often far less productive than a website with them. Therefore, it is highly recommended that businesses add extensions to their sites when the fit is there with the goal of improving the customer experience and ultimately increasing conversion. Otherwise, they will not remain competitive with other companies that are leveraging 3rd party extensions that enhance their ecommerce experience. Extensions can enhance your website by reducing the steps in the checkout process, increased conversion rates and lowered abandoned cart rates. Additionally, extensions can help personalize experiences to fit the customer’s requests. Oftentimes, extensions can improve the checkout experiences across all devices. When implementing an extension, it’s essential to also recognize the risks that can come with it. This is why you should consider the extensive options available to see which one fits your website’s needs the most.

Amasty

Amasty is an official Magento partner and was the first Magento extension builder. With over 88,000 customers, Amasty has been able to achieve a 96% customer satisfaction rate. Some benefits of using Amasty include that they offer to install their plugins on your site for only a $59 fee. A benefit of this is that it makes the service available to those who are non-technical. Another feature they offer is a custom development service which is again, for those who are not too familiar with CMS architecture. Magento is a very flexible and versatile software but can be very difficult to navigate if you are not technical. Their customization projects vary in price depending on the project that you choose to move forward with. Amasty has over 125 plugins available on the Magento 2 platform, going far beyond only checkout improvements. Therefore, they must offer at least one extension that would successfully suit your business needs. Something that some users have found can be improved with their software is that it is known to sometimes interfere with and have conflicts with third party applications. These conflicts can sometimes be a headache to fix during times of stress. Additionally, these conflicts can lead to errors occurring on your website which can cost you revenue.

Their one step checkout retails for $299 per month.

Bolt

Originally founded in 2014 by Ryan Breslow and Eric Feldman, Bolt was finally released to the public in 2018. Although they are a young company, they already have over 100 customers on their platform. Bolt serves benefits to ecommerce companies through their checkout, fraud and payment enhancements. Specifically, Bolt’s checkout service can drastically alter your metrics. The average industry checkout time is 69 seconds per transaction. With Bolt, that time is lessened to a mere 34 seconds. This change in time could be the difference between your customer fully completing their purchase at the checkout and the possibility that they will abandon their cart. The more time the customers have to hesitate, the more likely it is that you will lose your sale. What sets Bolt apart from their competitors is that their one step checkout is an all-in-one payment. This means that all of the features you really want come all in one bundle. There is no need for purchasing additional extensions for payment processing, fraud detection, etc. Instead, everything is included. This leaves you with much less to worry about, knowing that the product you are purchasing is easy to use and worry free. A benefit that comes with using Bolt is that their pricing is done on the basis of how many sales you have and what your risk of fraud is. In this way, your cost increases only as you grow. Bolt focuses more-so on the smaller market and their software is designed for smaller volume merchants.

The cost of their one step checkout varies depending on your order numbers and website traffic.

Mageplaza

Also established in 2014, Mageplaza is also an extension provider, but a standout feature they have is that they offer FREE extensions and resources for you to download. This is perfect for a person who is testing out the Magento platform. Mageplaza does not offer a free trial, but you are able to get a full refund within 60 days of your purchase. Unlike Bolt, the price is not dependent on your sales and traffic. Instead, it is based on whatever package suits you best based on features. A great feature that Mageplaza offers is support for 1 year after purchase and lifetime extension updates. Therefore, you will not be left stranded without a way to update your software to the newest version available. According to Beeketting.com, Mageplaza’s best extension is their One Step Checkout integrated with Mageplaza’s Abandoned Cart Email Extension. This email extension sets them apart from other companies because this feature automatically sends emails to customers who have abandoned their carts. Mageplaza’s checkout is easy to use and has a simple aesthetic look. On one column on the left, there is the detailed form needed for checkout like a space for the customers name, address, etc. On the other column on the right, there are all of the payment details. This keeps things sorted so customers can use your checkout quickly and effectively!

Their one step checkout can vary between $199, $229 and $429 per month.

Mage-World

Mage-World’s checkout process is a simple one to follow. Firstly, everything is located on one page so customers go from their main shopping and add to cart page, straight to the checkout page. On the checkout page, there is everything a checkout should include but additionally, there are a variety of ways to pay. Therefore, a major benefit of using this brand is that it focuses on what the customer wants. By offering more payment options, customers are no longer inconvenienced or limited to using a method that they do not have interest in. Although these payment options are beneficial, it is always up to the retailer to display the payment methods that they want to be available. Some other key features that Mage-World offers include discount codes, auto fill ins, newsletter subscriptions and customer order comments. Mage-World provides a 30 day warranty. Additionally, on Mage-World’s website, they advertise that their customers are seeing around a 20% increase in sales compared to what they saw before. This is a great lift %, although other sites have shown higher success rates.

Their one step checkout retails for $149 per month.

Aheadworks

Aheadworks is a company with over 10 years of experience in the ecommerce business and they offer a variety of solutions. With their return policy, you can get a refund within 45 days and they offer lifetime updates. The company’s exceptional work has earned them various awards overtime such as the “Top Quality Extension” award in 2017 and they were recognized as the “Magento Most Innovative Extension Developer” in both 2016 and 2017. Some features of their one step checkout system include that you can go live right away, there are flexible configuration settings, you can monitor your abandonment rates and detect registered accounts. Another benefit of using Aheadwork is that they use a rewards system. Based on the money you spend with them yearly, in return you can get points which convert to getting your money back at the end. For example, if you spend over $1000 with them yearly, get $150 back in cash. Lastly, something that you should know by going with Aheadworks is that they only offer support for 90 days, whereas other companies offer it for up to one year. This could be difficult especially if you are using the extension and you are only a one person shop.

Their one step checkout retails for $299 per month.

Before making your final choice, we recommend you spend some time investigating on your own. Every company has its own pros and cons and it is ultimately up to you to decide what features are essential for your business. We hope this has helped ease the decision.

Posted on September 17, 2019

Rudy Abitbol is a digital transformation expert with over 10 years of experience in the ecommerce industry. He is a prominent figure in the retail scene in Montreal and is known for his strong comprehension on how businesses work and how they can develop a strong ecommerce strategy. Among Rudy’s many accomplishments, a standout achievement of his is that his company “Pixel Society” joined altima in 2015, only 2 years after its creation. Additionally, after that, altima became Accenture Interactive. Now, Rudy is the Director of Digital Channels at Lumen, part of Sonepar. Lumen is Québec’s largest distributor of electrical equipment and Rudy plays an important role in executing digital strategies and implements procedures for ecommerce solutions. With Rudy’s extensive knowledge in the realm of ecommerce, we wanted his insight on what he thinks are trends in the ecommerce and retail worlds right now.

We first asked him what inspired him to get involved in the ecommerce scene. He explained that his interest in this area sparked from before he even came to Canada. Rudy indicated that he has always seen the internet as a space filled with opportunities. After working in traditional agencies in his early career, he noticed that the work he was doing was only helping companies for a limited period of time. He would solve a problem for them, and that would be it. What was attractive about getting involved in ecommerce was that websites need to perform for ongoing periods of time. They need to be durable because they are a large reflection on the business. At the time that Rudy was wanting to get more involved in ecommerce, he was especially noticing that there was a great increase in online shopping interest with platforms like Magento and Shopify, and he saw the importance to learn more and investigate the space.

In relation to online shopping, this new outlet of retail has caused the word “omnichannel” to gain a lot of attention. That’s why we asked Rudy what “omnichannel” means to him. Rudy sees omnichannel as based on one vision – being customer centric. Having a successful omnichannel is about having a harmonized retail where it really matters . The customer does not necessarily care about the individual touch points. What they care about is that the company knows how to deliver them with what they want/need. Therefore, in order to build this perspective from the customer, the successful touch points are vital. All in all, the customer IS the channel.

In order to strengthen a company’s omnichannel, Rudy also explained to us how he thinks brands can give a better customer experience online. He highlighted that a major way that this can be done is through making the process as simple as possible for the customer. Often when people are shopping as of current, they will either do the complete transaction online or they will look at the items online and then go to a brick-and-mortar location. The big problem with this is that there is little chance for human intervention now. There is no longer the opportunity for a sales person to speak about why the product is exceptional or why the customer should choose your brand over another. Now, it is all about the online representation. Ways that this can be done is through ensuring that your site is error free, speedy and contains the right information.

He emphasized that, “in 2019, there are no excuses for there to be errors on sites. The tolerance for any kind of online issues is at zero”. This comment is extremely relevant as it reflects upon the mindset of the current consumer. Now, in this hypercompetitive space, it is hard for companies to stand out from their competitors. If your website has an issue, they will go somewhere else for the same product or a similar one. Rudy believes that companies should look at a website as more than just an experience, they should look at it as a moment to show their expertise. This helps build customer trust. Another important point he noted is that you should never take your online experience as final. Companies must always be doing the most to improve and reform it where needed, in order to eliminate the friction points.

When it comes to brands today, Rudy believes their top three ecommerce priorities should be:

Understanding the impact of ecommerce.

When everyone in a company is on the same page (especially top management) and fully understands the difference having an exceptional ecommerce store can make, it gives everyone a goal point. It heightens the standards and expectations of the online store.

Giving the same experience throughout all touch points.

An ecommerce store is only one touch point in the omnichannel. In saying this, the online experience is just as important as one in person. These experiences both online and in-store must be complimentary. For example, if a customer goes to shop online and the product they are looking for says “out of stock”, they should not be able to go to the store and find it there. There should be a great effort in place to keep the online experience as up to date as possible.

Creating a personalized experience.

Lastly, customers now expect the experience to be personal. For example, you should have a different homepage for customers buying in New York versus customers buying in LA. This specific personalization allows your site to stand out from others and make the customer see that you care about their interests and them as an individual.

Lastly, we asked Rudy what changes he has seen in customer behaviour over the past few years. Connecting to the last point above, he explained that customers not only want to feel unique to the brand, they also want to feel a special connection with it. For example, they want the brands to have interests in things the customers are interested – like donating to charities. They want brands to behave like a human personality. Unfortunately, it is difficult to create this persona only through IT. Consumers realize that they do not need your brand and that needs to be recognized by the company. Consumers now will support what they want to, and boycott what they don’t. This point is crucial for retailers to remember as it serves as a reminder to stay focused, diligent and positive in this competitive retail landscape.

Posted on September 10, 2019

A business is a machine that functions as a result of a multitude of smaller components working together. These pieces of the machine must work together effectively to have the positive result of a functional business that they were intended to have. This is why all components of a business must communicate and understand one-another. Specifically, this can be seen in the relationship between you and your development shop. Development shops merge the ideas and models of major thinkers within the company and allows them to come to life. Therefore, managing the relationship between you and your development shop is crucial to business success because they unlock the potential to provide various features to your platform leading to a seamless customer experience. If your relationship and process/error solution framework is weak, it could cause your customer experience to suffer. Additionally, when errors happen, it’s important that there is a detection and prioritization method in place so that the customer experience does not cripple.

Step 1: Ensure Error Detection Framework is in place

Many companies rely on their customers to notify them when an error happens. Even if a customer does report an issue, there may be hundreds of other customers who experienced the same issue before reporting it. That means that errors could have been live on your site for extended periods of time but went unnoticed by your company until someone finally alerted you of them. When these errors are present, you not only lose the sale, you also have the risk of losing the customer. According to PwC, 32% of customers stop doing business with a brand after one bad experience. This is why you should ensure that you have an error monitoring software in place on your ecommerce website. A program that notifies you when there is an issue is beneficial so problems can be resolved when they actually occur. Then, you can be proactive and solve the error quickly so that your customers receive an excellent experience.

Step 2: Prioritize Errors

Internal prioritization is a great way to make sure everyone is on the same page and understands what should be seen as a priority. The framework should be organized in a way that allows easy comprehension for all parties. All organizations are different but a recommendation is to have priority rankings that include listing relevance for p1 to p5 or sorting them as low, medium and high risk. High risk errors are typically related to checkout and add to cart issues or server fails. Ultimately, they can be anything that impedes a customer from making their purchase. Medium errors are typically related to anything that hinders the customer experience. This could include missing photos or broken contact forms that could jeopardize your customer’s trust in your company. Low errors are still important but they do not urgently need to be solved. This could be because they are less likely to damage your customer relationship or because they are less likely to cause a customer to not complete their purchase. Thankfully, some issues can temporarily be ignored because they are benign in nature. With errors arising often, it’s important to establish clear guidelines in terms of how you go about solving them.

Step 3: Establish an Error Resolution Framework

Having an effective error resolution framework allows you to save time and development costs because developers will only be working on resolving issues instead of investigating issues. Creating communication flow allows you to send errors that you want solved and then you can receive updates on the progress. Additionally, a ticketing system can be created and errors should be resolved in a certain period of time. Then, you can inform your development team of the expectations and procedures they must follow when resolving each type of error.

Tools like Slack, Trello and Noibu can be useful in organizing the resolution process. What’s great about Slack is that there are different channels to help group tasks into streams. For example, you can have a channel for each ranking of error. Then, when the channel is accessed, those working on a specific project can see all of the previous notes within the channel. This creates an immersive workspace which focuses on team building. Trello is helpful because it can create a step-by-step process for solving problems and it is accessible to full teams. They have different columns including “to do”, “doing” and “done”. Each team member can have access to the board and can update it and add notes to it when things are in progress. Lastly, once you start working with Noibu and you begin to start solving the errors, Noibu actually lets you know if they are actually going away or not. This is great for your business because it is reassuring that what your development team is working on is actually making a difference on your website. One additional quick tip regarding this topic is that it is vital that you communicate the required information that a developer needs in order to diagnose and fix the issue. A developer will need the error type, browser/device information, number of occurrences, users impacted, and reproduction steps in order to diagnose and solve the issue.

An example of the different slack channels that could be utilized

An example of Trello’s prioritization of tasks

Step 4: Continuous Monitoring

Once errors are resolved, you must continuously monitor your ecommerce website. If your website is not heavily monitored and kept up to date with, it risks developing serious errors again, even after critical ones have been solved. Another component of the continuous monitoring process is to ensure that once errors are found again, the error resolution framework is used and repeated. By continuously using the framework you designed, you commence a sequence that will speed up the solution process. Lastly, continue to discuss with your development shop to ensure the feedback loop is in fact working, and make changes when necessary. Once a strategy loop is in place, it is easy to forget that it needs to be updated, altered and tested consistently to ensure that your solution system is as effective as possible.

Conclusion:

After looking at ways to improve your website error management with your development ship, it can be seen that the best way to drive lift is to make sure that your ecommerce website provides an excellent customer experience. The best way to get that customer experience that you’re looking for is through providing the best online customer service available which can be achieved through mitigating the amount of errors that occur on your website. Additionally, working closely with your development shop and creating efficient communication channels allows you to ensure that your website will also have a minimized amount of errors. This connects back to customer experience because by improving relationships with your development shop, you once again can improve the experience for your customers by not only minimizing errors but also by allowing them to help in the process of constructing an overall better ecommerce experience on your platform.

Posted on August 13, 2019

Being an ecommerce manager comes with a lot of responsibility. You have to wear many hats: responsible for P & L, managing technology, marketing, design and more. With such robust obligations, it can be hectic when a website error comes forward. And you know that critical errors impact your sales significantly so you need to act quick. Below is a guide designed for an ecommerce manager to follow to both prevent errors and deal with them effectively when they arise.

1) Ensure your website migration goes smoothly

When migrating your website, things can get pretty tricky. Migration is a prime time where errors occur and it can be a time where errors that can come up later will be created. That is why it is important to take various precautions before the actual migration occurs. The first precaution to take in order to have a smooth migration is to ensure that you actually understand the process as a whole. A useful resource for understanding migration can be found on the Magento website linked here. Some key things to note about migration that are mentioned in the article include the different modes that exist including the settings mode, the data mode and the delta mode. Within each mode, there are three stages. The stages include the integrity check, data check and data transfer stage. Once you get through actually understanding migration, it is important to note that if you are migrating as a team, you should definitely take things slowly. Divide responsibilities and designate tasks to others. This ensures that people remain accountable for their part in migration the project.

2) Create a redesign error mitigation process

Another measure you can take if you want to prevent errors on your website is to create a redesign error mitigation process. Step 1 is to setup a staging site. A staging site is basically a clone of your original site but it is not available to the public eye. Staging sites can be tested on as many times as you want and you can manually test for errors. It is optimal to stress test as much as possible. Stress test you add to cart flow, checkout process and coupon system. Once you are pleased with the way your staging site performs, you can make your real site live with the changes you made. Some other tools that can mitigate errors are quality assurance platforms and error monitoring tools. These types of products help assure your business by keeping it safe from errors. They ensure your business is running effectively so it continues to look professional and well kept for site visitors. Noibu is a great critical error detecting company that finds errors on your sites and alerts you of them instantly. They also offer help and guidance on what measures should be taken to resolve the issue so your company can get back on its’ feet as fast as possible. Not only can Noibu be used on a live site, it can also be used on a staging site as well. Therefore, it helps check for errors even before your site goes live.

3) Ensure you have a backup plan for plugins

Plugins are softwares that are used in addition to your already running operating system. Every plugin adds a specific value to your site and it varies based on what plugin you install. However, when plugins are integrated, many issues can arise. The problem with plugins is that the code from them can interact with your main code base and can oftentimes cause conflict. This is why you must ensure that you have a backup plan to uninstall the plugin if things don’t work correctly. For example, when using 1 step checkout plugins like Amasty, ensure you stress test the plugin the night before going live and, if you decide to go live, do not do so during peak sales hours. You can also use tools such as Noibu to test the functionality of these plugins and your code base. Additionally, it can sometimes be difficult for you to identify what plugin is causing the error if you have multiple plugins. Easy ways to figure out what plugin is solving the problem include looking at what you recently updated or installed. Those plugins could definitely be the culprit. Another option to prevent errors when installing a plugin is to use a software to back up your site. There are a variety of softwares available and we recommend that you do your research before choosing one, so you choose the optimal software for your company.

4) Create a prioritization system once errors are detected

It is inevitable that you will stumble upon errors. If errors are left unsolved, they can trigger other errors to occur. This is why you should create a P1-P5 system that prioritizes critical errors where you place the greatest priority on the most large-scale errors. Each priority level error should come with a plan to fix them quickly. Ensure checkout and add to cart errors are categorized as P1 because oftentimes, they cause the greatest damage for your sales. An example of an error that may be P2 would be coupons not working, a P3 would be images not displaying for products, P4 would be a picture slideshow not working and a P5 could be some sort of cosmetic issue. Also, when you export your errors for your development team to fix them, ensure you have established a relationship protocol. By forming a relationship with them, clear expectations are outlined and exceptional communication exists so errors are fixed as quickly as possible.

5) Run non-technical tools to alert you when something goes wrong

You can also use tools like Noibu that not only help you detect errors, but also measure the impact of errors from a low-medium-high categorization system and attribute a dollar value priority to each error. In this way, you can see which errors need to be fixed first. The benefits of a non-technical tool is that ecommerce professionals can prioritize and action errors. If you’re a company that does not have in-house development capability non-technical tools are a must. Simplified tools like Noibu can help alert a non-technical ecommerce manager and help them comprehend the problem. From there, the manager can sort through the errors based on the priority ranking and decide which errors need to be fixed by the development shop, and which ones can be solved on their own. This saves your company both time and money. It saves time because ecommerce managers will not have the burden of having to sift through all of the errors on their own, and it will save you money because not all of the errors will have to be exported to the development shop. The errors you do send to your developer will increase your sales.

Posted on August 6, 2019

When the Magento 1 platform was released in 2008, it gave great opportunity for businesses to build themselves online. Magento 1 was a good starting point for setting up an online store however, Magento will only be offering online support for the platform until June 2020. This means that eventually, your company must migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2. We are aware of the comforts that come with staying on the old platform – it’s familiar and has worked for the past 11 years. Although, there are plenty of benefits that come with switching to the Magento 2 platform which was released in 2015.

Some of the benefits of switching platforms according to ServerGuy.com include architectural differences, speed and performance improvement, allowance of overlapping extension codes, an easy dashboard, SEO and security and accurate pricing for the new features you are gaining access to.

1. Understand how migration works

The migration process can seem quite tricky at first glance, but by taking the appropriate steps and knowing your stuff, it can be made simple. On the Magento website, they give a step by step instruction guide on the ins and outs of migration. First you must understand the different modes that are present. Each mode is specific to a certain part of the migration process. The settings mode is in charge of website related settings that would affect the configuration of your site. The data mode migrates the database itself. Lastly, delta moves data that changes over time like your customers and your sales. Ultimately, it is in charge of components that are not stagnant. Within each of these modes, there are also three checkpoints that must be reached before moving to the next step. These steps are called stages and they include the integrity check, data transfer and volume check stages.

You can learn more about this process by checking out the instructions from the Magento website linked below:

https://devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.3/migration/migration-overview-how.html

2. Ensure you test on a staging environment before going live with production site

Yes, it is very exciting launching a new site. But don’t get too excited. By going live on your site it means that there is a greater chance that your customers will experience errors. This is why it is recommended to test on a staging site first. Staging sites are important because they are not available to the public. In this way, you can make as many changes as you want and take your time to experiment with it. The hassle that comes with avoiding using a staging site is that it can jeopardize your customer’s experience. It isn’t worth risking to launch with a production site without first testing on a staging environment. In fact, according to PwC, 32% of customers stop doing business with a brand after one bad experience. In todays world, it is easy for consumers to find what they are looking for elsewhere. Therefore, having a faulty customer experience comes with major consequences that can impact your business greatly. Take the time necessary and test rigorously the functionality of your ecommerce website before going live.

3. Use an error monitoring software to ensure your new site is error free

You’ve successfully stress tested your staging site and are now ready to go live on your production site. But wait, we recommend that you install an error monitoring software to ensure that any issues that may have slipped by the staging testing process are caught and resolved in a timely manner. Many issues can arise during a website migration and the only way to ensure a smooth transition is to continue monitoring progress post deployment and action any errors that arise. Noibu allows you to monitor your website post deployment and then receive reports on any critical issue that is detected. These reports are user friendly and do not require technical knowledge to read. Equipped with priority suggestions and revenue impact per error, you’ll be equipped to prioritize and fix any errors that may be impacting your customer experience post migration.

Noibu Magento Error Monitoring — Noibu Error Monitoring

Conclusively, the switch from Magento 1 to Magento 2 is a big one but hopefully with these tips it can ease the process. We recommend making the switch sooner rather than later because of the lack of support that will be offered by the company after June 2020. Best of luck!

Posted on July 30, 2019

We have all been there. We are online shopping and we have found exactly what we were looking for but as soon as we are minutes away from purchasing it, something goes wrong. The add to cart button is broken. This is an extremely frustrating occurrence for online shoppers and it isn’t a rare one either. In this blog post, we will explore how add to cart malfunctions can affect your business and how to prevent them from happening.

Add to cart malfunctions affect your business in a negative way for a multitude of reasons. Firstly and most apparently, they prevent sales transactions from being completed. If a customer cannot buy your product, no sale will be made no matter how good your marketing strategy is or your ecommerce platform looks. Add to cart malfunctions = no sale.

Secondly, add to cart problems are a shortcoming in customer loyalty. Customer loyalty arises as a result of consistent positive experiences delivered to the customer, building them up to trust the brand and your products/services. As soon as a negative experience occurs, there is a definite breach in trust that causes the customer’s loyalty towards the brand to decline. For example, if there is an add to cart error, it makes the website seem like it is not kept up to date and is not taken care of. This makes your company appear to be less professional to the public eye. In fact, by disappointing one customer, you are disappointing everyone linked to them as well. This is because most of the time, customers who experience difficulties will not recommend your business to their friends and family. According to PwC, 32% of customers don’t come back to a brand after one bad customer experience.

Now that the problems that come with add to cart errors have been addressed, we must now consider how they can be prevented from happening.

The overarching tip to preventing errors is to be more aware. The first type of error to be aware of is human error. The bottom line is that people make mistakes. When implementing new tools or features into your website, inaccuracies can happen. This is just a reminder to be mindful of your actions and to double check your edits before they go live.

Issues can arise when you perform design changes to your UI/UX. Minor tweaks in the front end of your website can have devastating impacts. An update in your product page layout can cause your add to cart button to malfunction. Thinking of changing your design from a multistep to one step checkout? Problems can arise and your entire checkout system may go down. It is important to take proactive measures and implementing design changes and ensuring that you test any changes on a staging site before going live on a production site.

3rd party plugins can cause errors on your website when conflicting 3rd party code causes a break in the add to cart system. An example would be an add-to-cart up-sell plugin that doesn’t sync properly with your base code. Other issues arise when 3rd part plugins update code on their end that causes a break when this new code interacts with your website. The best thing to do is to ensure you throughly test the plugin before rolling it out site wide.

We recommend installing a tool like Noibu to ensure whenever an add to cart issue happens you are instantly notified. How it works is whenever your add to cart system malfunctions for one of the above listed reasons, you are instantly notified with a user friendly report that business professionals can use to prioritize which issues need resolving.

Add to cart errors can be destructive for an ecommerce company. Take a proactive approach to these errors and your customer loyalty and sales will increase greatly.

Posted on July 12, 2019

Your checkout is the cash register of your online store. If your cash register goes down you are in a panic and ensure all priority is focused on resolving the issue. The same goes for your checkout. According to BigCommerce, 22% of abandoned carts are a result of errors. Here are some common reasons for why your checkout may be broken and how to fix these issues:

1. 1-Step Checkout Malfunction

Problem

When clicking the checkout button on the checkout page, customers are faced with a loading icon for an indeterminate duration.

This loading screen is caused by Magento trying to send a request to:

/en-ca/rest/en-ca/V1/guest-carts/f9a27bd8334084edd67c44cd18cfc249/set-payment-information:1

This request returns a 404 error as it cannot be found on the server.

Error Message (404)

Solution

The issue arises when the wrong token is used. Specifically, the POST command created a cart with an admin token. Guest carts are for anonymous users so as a result, the wrong GET call was used in this case.

To solve the issue use the POST command to create a guest token.

2. PayPal Integration Malfunction

Problem:

Many PayPal issues arise after specifying the payment card details and then during the checkout process the payment does not process causing an error. The result is infinite load, an error message or blank page.

Solution:

The issue is often a result of inconsistent settings in Magento and PayPal. It is crucial to have the same settings in Magento and PayPal.

For the PayPal Express Checkout, AVS/CSC responses should be declined in PayPal Manager and in Magento Admin:

PayPal: Service Settings > Set Up > Security Options

Magento: Stores > Configuration > Sales > Payment methods

3. Magento 2 – 2 Step Checkout

Problem:

The Magento 2 checkout has been reported to be slow at times or show a blank screen as seen below. Many customers have reported this issue and it persists predominantly because of Magento’s new 2-step checkout system.

Solution:

For slow checkout experiences make sure to turn on cache in the Magento Cache panel. You can access the Magento Cache panel by going to System > Cache Management.

Identify the usages of your PaymentTokenInterfaceFactory in your codebase and then specify the implementation for this payment token via di.xml. You can read more about payment tokens here.

Now that you can fix your Magento checkout issues, it’s important to think about being alerted when these issues arise. Waiting for your customer to report issues is a losing strategy – you lose the sale and the customer for life. According to PwC 32% of customers don’t come back after one bad customer experience. You can get started by diagnosing your website here.

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