Thought Leadership

A beautifully crafted guide for merchants selling outdoor apparel, hunting/fishing gear, and firearms. Be inspired as to what you can accomp…

Download this free eBook to guide you toward quickly solving persistent problems with Adobe Commerce / Magento 2.

Quick determine which platform is ideal for the next iteration of your eCommerce website.

The do's and don'ts for composable eCommerce—all right here.

Explore the cavernous differences between WooCommerce and BigCommerce with this helpful guide.

Fix vague product pages fast. Download this free AI prompt guide to improve SEO, structure, and clarity with Claude or ChatGPT—without losin…

Here's a free 66-page eBook that is your bible for digital transformation in the B2B space.

Quickly understand the the process of migrating from Magento 2 to BigCommerce and how it will affect your ecommerce experience.

How eCommerce merchants can prepare for a potential UPS strike: communicating delays, setting up carrier alternatives, and protecting sales.

A common Magento fix for decimal attributes truncates data and breaks tax calculations. Here is the safer approach using a frontend model.

Why reviewing Magento modules before installation protects your store from performance issues, security vulnerabilities, and code conflicts.

What Adobe Edge Delivery Services is, how it fits into the Adobe commerce ecosystem, and what merchants and developers need to know about ad…

What Adobe Commerce Optimizer is, how it improves site speed and stability, and which merchant types it is built for without heavy developme…

When your eCommerce site goes down, every minute counts. Walk through diagnosing the problem, communicating with customers, and recovering f…

How to make your eCommerce site ADA compliant: WCAG standards, the legal risk of non-compliance, audit approaches, and practical fixes to im…

A review of the top Shopify 3D product configurators, including best-overall, best for customization, and how each one integrates with your …

SwiftOtter Adobe Commerce and Magento 2 audits identify performance issues, security vulnerabilities, and quality problems before they becom…

Why eCommerce personalization builds customer trust, which techniques work at different levels of maturity, and common mistakes to avoid.

When an Adobe Commerce build goes sideways, here is how to diagnose what went wrong, reset the project, and get back to a stable, working st…

Hyva is a strong Magento frontend but not for every store. Five situations where merchants should pause before committing to the switch.

Which outdoor sporting goods brands changed platforms in Q2 2024, the stats behind the moves, and five migrations worth examining more close…

Which outdoor sporting goods brands changed eCommerce platforms in Q1 2024, what they moved to, and what it signals about the industry.

Shopify, BigCommerce, and Adobe Commerce compared for multi-brand eCommerce: inventory sync, admin efficiency, pricing structures, and limit…

An honest look at whether WooCommerce works for firearms merchants, covering payment processing, compliance, platform philosophy, and altern…

Five reasons Hyva remains the strongest frontend investment for Adobe Commerce: faster load times, cleaner code, and a growing ecosystem of …

An honest look at whether Hyva is right for your Adobe Commerce store. We compare it against Luma, Porto, and PWA to help you decide.

How to diagnose and recover from a revenue drop after an Adobe Commerce migration, with analysis of common causes and a path back to stabili…

Five problems Adobe Commerce Optimizer addresses, from slow storefronts to heavy customization overhead, explained for merchants evaluating …

How to implement Colorado's retail delivery fee in Adobe Commerce, including tax connector support, compliance requirements, and recommended…

The best resources for learning BigCommerce development, from official documentation and partner training to community channels and practica…

A demo of the new Adobe Commerce Storefront, the official Luma replacement. See the updated design, performance improvements, and admin expe…

How to set up and manage company hierarchies in BigCommerce B2B Edition, including what to expect and how to configure them for complex acco…

An honest look at Adobe Commerce Live Search: what it does well, where it falls short, and the advantage most merchants overlook before deci…

Adobe Commerce as a Service is Magento 2 rearchitected for SaaS delivery. Here is what that means for customizations, upgrades, and your roa…

A full demo of Adobe Commerce as a Service covering the new architecture, frontend performance, admin updates, and Composable Catalog.

Twenty real eCommerce product configurator examples showing how brands use interactive tools to improve buyer confidence and increase conver…

Practical eCommerce articles for merchants covering platform decisions, B2B strategy, AI adoption, site performance, and industry-specific c…

If your Adobe Commerce site is underperforming, the cause could be the platform, your agency, or your processes. Here is how to tell the dif…

Shopify website costs depend on your plan, design complexity, and apps. This guide breaks down what you should expect to budget at different…

Adobe Commerce project costs vary widely by requirements, integrations, and agency. This guide covers the real cost drivers and what to watc…

What to look for in an Adobe Commerce partner: technical depth, how they scope projects, and how they communicate throughout delivery.

Most brands ask if an agency has integrated their ERP. That question misses the point. Here is what to ask to find a partner built for compl…

A review of the top eCommerce platforms for firearms retailers and gun stores, covering compliance, payment processing, and 2A merchant supp…

How to evaluate Shopify development agencies by niche, specialty, and fit. A practical guide to finding the right partner for your build or …

How to evaluate BigCommerce development agencies by niche, specialty, and fit. A practical breakdown to help you find the right partner.

Comparing OroCommerce, BigCommerce B2B Edition, and SparkLayer for B2B buyer portals. Covers workflow fit, ERP requirements, and platform su…

Five questions every eCommerce CEO should ask their agency about AI: how they measure ROI, protect your data, and what good AI guidance look…

Vague product descriptions hurt conversions. Learn how to use AI to improve eCommerce copy for SEO, structure, and buyer confidence the righ…

Adobe Commerce 2.4.8 brings PHP 8.4 support, security patches, and B2B updates. Here is what merchants need to know before planning their up…

Layout XML files control a page's content. It's fairly easy to sleuth out which layout filename controls which URL path, but some patterns a…

Here's how to make better, more bug free code. And, when we do have bugs, here's how to solve those problems, pronto.

Getting started on Magento 2 is not easy: we will point you in the right direction.

So you’ve decided to take the first steps toward learning how to “do BigCommerce development.” You may need to start with a mindset shift.

Virtual types in Adobe Commerce can seem intimidating, but they’re nothing to fear. Learn what they are and how to work with them confidentl…

Are you using view models in your Adobe Commerce presentation layer, or still creating custom block classes for every need? There’s a better…

Know the difference between _module.less and _extend.less in Magento. Avoid compile errors from theme-specific references in the wrong file.

When creating a Magento config setting, ask if it’s sensitive or env-specific—then declare it in di.xml to keep it out of versioned files.

Using Adobe Commerce Cloud? Simplify your workflow with the Synchronize action for code and data changes that need to flow downstream.

Adobe Commerce’s Page Builder offers powerful drag-and-drop content types, and you can extend them or create your own with the right compone…

You probably use view.xml only when you have to. Define your own vars to add presentational flexibility to custom Adobe Commerce features.

The magento/magento2-base Composer package works behind the scenes in Adobe Commerce. Learn its implications for your version control workfl…

Syncing code and data between environments is a fact of dev life. Adobe Commerce has many moving pieces, develop a consistent workflow to sa…

Magento collection processors may seem scary, but they’re a great example of ‘one class, one job’ composition and less complex than they app…

GraphQL caching boosts headless Adobe Commerce performance. Learn the right Varnish config, back-end setup, and front-end request format.

GraphQL resolvers in Magento are flexible, but traditional API habits can hold you back. Break free from the ‘one request, one resolver’ men…

Don’t forget to generate a whitelist file with setup:db-declaration:generate-whitelist when using Magento declarative schema. Here’s why.

We’re continuing our look into generated classes in Adobe Commerce, and this time we’re going to examine the neglected and oft forgotten sib…

Make feature toggles part of your Magento development mindset. Use Store Config settings to disable code effects without reverting changes.

You know to use class constants instead of hard-coded strings in PHP, but did you know you can do the same in Magento XML files?

We leverage our deep Magento 2 experience to present the pros and cons of how you can modernize your website.

Learn the good and bad of Hyva in this unbiased review by SwiftOtter. We compare Hyva, Luma, Porto and PWA.

See Adobe Commerce as a Service in action. Explore the new architecture, frontend performance, admin updates, and Composable Catalog Data Mo…

Learn the core concepts of Knockout JS.

A deeper dive into BigCommerce’s ‘open SaaS’ backbone: the APIs and toolset you’ll use extensively throughout your developer journey.

The Magento Solution Specialist exam is tough to crack. Joseph walks you through what it takes—he helped write the exam.

Here is everything you need to know to get Magento certified. We have been intimately familiar with the exam development process.

Interviews can be terrifying. They don't have to be. Joseph walks you through the eight steps to leapfrog to the front of the pack.

Are you ready to level up your career? We can help you. Join our certification challenge to get this kicked off!

A survey of 400+ eCommerce developers on tools, environments, and workflows. Discover what the community uses and improve your own dev confi…

Learn how to use Magento 2's @magentoConfigFixture annotation to set store config values in integration tests without manual setup and clean…

Add custom CSS style options to Magento 2's WYSIWYG editor so content managers can apply pre-defined classes without developer help. Simple …

Learn how to implement CSS Grid in Magento stores for responsive layouts, faster prototyping, and smaller stylesheets. Includes IE fallback …

Join SwiftOtter's exclusive Slack community for expert answers to complex e-commerce, business, and development questions. Cut through the n…

A deep dive into Magento 2's CSS architecture flaws and proposed improvements, including BEM naming, inline media queries, SVG icons, and CS…

Find the right Adobe Commerce certification for your skill level. Compare 6 exams from Associate to Architect with difficulty ratings and st…

Learn how to efficiently increase MySQL auto-increment values across multiple tables using a stored procedure.

Protect yourself from data breaches and long-term liability by avoiding botched upgrades.

Master the intricacies of Magento development and template paths.

Explore the benefits and drawbacks of working with an SVG icon system.

Explore an incredibly simple approach to leveraging Magento 2's Javascript framework to add our own custom Javascript.

Here's how to make better, more bug free code. And, when we do have bugs, here's how to solve those problems, pronto.

Harness the power of Adobe Commerce (Magento 2) and BigCommerce through these actionable ideas

Here's how the pieces fit together (with a downloadable map), describing Adobe Commerce, Experience Optimizer, Experience Manager and more.

Make sure you have a good handle on the mechanics of enabling/disabling modules in Adobe Commerce, and the implications.

Joseph has done it, you can do it, too. Here's everything you need to know about ensuring your Magento 2 or Adobe Commerce certification rem…

Let's zoom in a to survey the major tools and concepts you’ll need to familiarize yourself with for your BigCommerce journey!

I hope you're making consistent use of PHP type-hints in your Magento code. But don't throw the habit of variable annotations out the window…

In this short series, we’re going to look at the different kinds of auto-generated PHP classes in Adobe Commerce. First up: interceptors!

We’re continuing our look at generated classes in Adobe Commerce, and in this segment we’re examining factories.

In this last entry in a series looking at generated classes in Adobe Commerce, we’re examining extension classes.

Prepare for certification success with SwiftOtter's live study group program

SwiftOtter has tracked all Magento to Adobe Commerce certification updates very closely. Here are our updates.

Learn about Adobe's recent changes to certification tests and titles. Two new titles and two new addendums.

This sheds light on what your colleagues use to write code.

Tired of outdated site search? SwiftOtter’s Customer Discovery AI uses conversational intelligence to transform how customers find products,…

Tired of outdated site search? SwiftOtter’s Customer Discovery AI uses conversational intelligence to transform how customers find products,…

AI is reshaping how customers find products online—and most eCommerce brands aren’t ready. In this episode of eCom Buzz, we unpack the shift…

Understand how to use AI in eCommerce the right way. This guide breaks down generative AI, machine learning, and automation—what each one do…

Learn how website speed affects sales, SEO, and user experience in 2025. Understand the ROI of performance optimization with expert insight,…

A practical, step-by-step guide for eCommerce managers on how to successfully custom build features—without overspending, overbuilding, or m…

Covering Adobe Commerce (Magento 2), Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce

Covering Adobe Commerce (Magento 2), Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce

Here's our expert opinion on "what's next" for your website. Use this guide to help you better achieve your goals for 2025.

Technical users aren't just browsing—they're building your success. Learn how to meet their exact needs and make their job (and yours) easie…

Help Customers Find products

Boost your Black Friday sales and average order value with three essential promotion types, complete with video tutorials for Shopify, BigCo…

Confusing product lines are frustrating your customers—learn how categorizing by application can improve their experience and boost your sal…

Learn how to improve product discoverability, boost user experience, and reduce bounce rates with three practical solutions for eCommerce we…

Discover 3 ways AI can enhance eCommerce productivity, plus 2 common traps to avoid. Learn about AI-powered tools, drone delivery issues, an…

Learn how to track your website's conversion rate in Google Analytics 4 and navigate the new "Key Events" system for better insights.

Learn how to solve eCommerce problems faster, boost your performance, and stay updated on the latest industry news from BigCommerce and more…

Explore three strategies to upgrade your ecommerce website and break free from outdated technology.

Explore the implications of Google’s antitrust lawsuit for merchants and gain insights from a recent eCommerce website launch.

Get ahead of the holiday rush by securing your eCommerce site, optimizing customer experience, and ensuring accurate delivery times to boost…

Discover how optimizing the Interaction to Next Paint (INP) metric can enhance your eCommerce website's user experience and boost search ran…

Discover the latest ecommerce news and learn how a clear value proposition can boost your online sales.

Discover the key needs of end users, architects, engineers, and dealers to optimize your B2B website and boost your sales!

Discover why your homepage might be less important than you think.

Discover why Adobe Commerce is expensive to maintain and learn strategies to manage these costs.

Unlock the secret to standing out in ecommerce with a clear value proposition that sets you apart from the competition.

Discover how an overloaded Google Tag Manager could be tanking your SEO and learn the steps to streamline your tags for optimal search engin…

Discover how optimizing your website's image sizes can dramatically boost your site's speed and performance, and catch up on the latest eCom…

Explore SwiftOtter's in-depth guide on optimizing mobile UX for fashion and apparel eCommerce. Learn how to design intuitive, high-performan…

Explore SwiftOtter's in-depth strategies for designing a seamless UX for both quoting and direct checkout in B2B manufacturing eCommerce. Le…

Looking for a PDF catalog replacement? Learn how manufacturers replace static PDFs with searchable, ERP-integrated digital catalogs, product…

Discover proven UX strategies for manufacturers to help B2B buyers identify products without a specific part number. Learn about visual sear…

Discover how to transform your online dealer map from a static list into a dynamic conversion tool. This guide from SwiftOtter shows how to …

In-depth strategies for optimizing your eCommerce return page UX. Learn how a frictionless, empathetic, and transparent return process can r…

Adobe Commerce’s built-in Page Builder drag-and-drop content types provide powerful authoring tools, but you can also extend them or create …

Make sure you have a good handle on the mechanics of enabling/disabling modules in Adobe Commerce, and the implications.

Virtual types in Adobe Commerce can seem intimidating at first, particular if your first exposure to them occurs when desperately trying to …

Syncing code and data between multiple environments is a fact of dev life. Adobe Commerce has a lot of moving pieces that create side effect…

I hope you're making consistent use of PHP type-hints in your Magento code. But don't throw the habit of variable annotations out the window…

In Adobe Commerce, layout XML files control the content on a given page. It’s often fairly easy to sleuth out which layout filename controls…

GraphQL resolvers in Magento can be used in a flexible way, but if you’re used to more traditional API schemes, there’s un-learning to do. I…

If you're using Adobe Commerce Cloud, make your life simpler with the Synchronize action when you have code and data changes that should mak…

Are you making proper use of view models in your Adobe Commerce presentation layer, or do you continue to give in to the temptation to creat…

You should be well familiar with using class constants instead of hard-coded strings in your PHP code, but did you know you can do this in y…

In this short series, we’re going to look at the different kinds of auto-generated PHP classes in Adobe Commerce. First up: interceptors!

We’re continuing our look at generated classes in Adobe Commerce, and in this segment we’re examining factories.

We’re continuing our look into generated classes in Adobe Commerce, and this time we’re going to examine the neglected and oft forgotten sib…

In this last entry in a series looking at generated classes in Adobe Commerce, we’re examining extension classes.

The magento/magento2-base Composer package is an important one for the main codebase of Adobe Commerce - one that typically does its job beh…

Make feature toggles part of your development mindset. It should always be possible to disable the effects of your code without reverting it…

Magento collection processors might initially scare you away from implementing a service layer. But they're really just a good example of go…

When using Magento declarative schema, it’s easy to forget generating a "whitelist" file with setup:db-declaration:generate-whitelist. But t…

Don’t overlook how GraphQL caching can enhance performance for headless Adobe Commerce! To get the full benefit of caching, you need to unde…

When creating a new Magento config setting, always ask yourself whether it is sensitive or env-specific and take the extra, easy step of dec…

When styling a Magento module, make sure you know the difference between _module.less and _extend.less and avoid introducing compile errors …

You probably mostly use view.xml in Adobe Commerce when you have to. But give some thought to defining your own vars to give presentational …

Listen in to this episode to hear James Cowie's recommendations for getting the most out of your code reviews, how to stay fresh with the kn…

Security is one of those topics like taxes where we have to just do it. Talking to someone like Talesh Seeparsan about security on our Magen…

Junior developers are a category of people we haven’t explored much on this podcast yet. In this episode of Smash the Bug, we’re changing th…

This episode of Smash the Bug is part 2 of the conversation with Joseph and Igor Miniailo! In this part, Igor delves further into the backst…

On this episode, we talk with Łukasz Bajsarowicz about Imposter Syndrome and burnout; two very common feelings that most, if not all of us c…

In this episode Alexander Galdin, Frontend Developer with ITdelight joined us to talk about customizing Hyvä for merchants. His in the trenc…

Igor Miniailo joins us for this return of Smash The Bug! He and Joseph share similar experiences on the difficulties of replicating issues, …

On this episode, Joseph and Jesse discuss the latest news, real-life challenges they face as an agency at SwiftOtter, and the importance of …

Today’s topic is on sticking points with Commerce Cloud, the challenges people bring upon themselves when they are deploying solutions out t…

Peter Jaap Blaakmeer has been a developer for over 15 years. He recently jumped into a pretty interesting project, and he was very kind to g…

When Peter Rusin comes across a monstrous challenge, he creates a tool to beat it, and shares it openly with the community. On this episode,…

On this episode, we hear from Michal Biarda on his passion for helping developers to get away from writing “spaghetti code”, and how he and …

January was a big month for SwiftOtter’s digital agency, meaning lots of difficult problems to solve and lessons to learn! Join Joseph and J…

On this episode, Leon Helmus shares a few of the crazy circumstances he has worked through and the challenges he’s overcome in the recent pa…

Grab a seat and let’s talk about what’s in the near future for us developers, going into 2022, and the “how”, “why” and “when” behind code r…

After getting hung up on the wonderful world of Hyvä themes and the amazing future in store for the Magento frontend, we’re finally back to …

Matt Sherer joins us on this episode to share his experience and show us what it really looks like to transition from a senior developer int…

Willem Wigman's disdain for Luma is what brought us Hyvä, a Magento front-end that makes sense. Why does it make sense? Let’s dive in and se…

Eric Allatt is an 8-time certified Magento developer (kind of a lot, right?) who is kind of obsessed with website performance. On this episo…

Ivan has been around since the beginning, and he has some very valuable tips to share from his experience that might just help you fix whate…

Join us on this episode as we discuss developers mental health, integration testing, debugging, and some challenging experiences with Łukasz…

In this episode we get to hear from Eric Erway, Group Project Manager at Adobe Commerce, regarding the future of Magento/Adobe Commerce Open…

In a world where billable hours and quick turnaround times are supreme, we must remember that quality is the only option, before profits or …

How far have YOU gone to smash a bug? Listen in to hear how Shawn Abramson worked on a bug that took him to a place he'd never been before.

When working with a legacy/inherited project, how do we jump in and assume the project without pulling the rug out from under the merchant, …

Barny Shergold has been developing software for over 30 years. Join us on this episode to get his advice on how to reach your full potential…

Join us on this episode to hear Ray Bogman's insider perspective on where Magento is headed and why he's excited about it's future

Join us on this episode as we discuss some new features, a big problem we recently faced on one of our client's sites, and a reminder to joi…

Wahid Nory, an experienced developer out of The Netherlands explains a difficult challenge he faced with a merchant's shopping cart redirect…

Listen in for Ben Marks take on Magento vs. Shopware, and advice on what you should be learning. You might be surprised!

In this episode, Ryan Keelaghan talks about his approach to large-scale upgrades, shares some advice on keeping your site secure, and gives …

Join us on this episode for an exciting Magento improvement, developer tips, and another crazy bug story from Jesse!

What is YOUR dream job? Are you prepared for that next interview? Are you being paid what you’re worth? Do you feel valued and appreciated b…

Join Joseph and Jesse as they discuss some exciting, new features in the Magento 2.4.3 release, as well as an interesting problem Jesse rece…

In this podcast, Eduard Zuiev, shares his daily habits and his methods of growing as a developer. He also tells his mountaintop story!

On this episode of Smash the Bug, Joseph and Jesse play out an interview to inspire you and help you to prepare for the next big move in you…

Join us on this podcast as Max Chadwick shares advice on debugging, and how to improve your skillset.

In this explosive episode of Smash the Bug, Joseph and Jisse explore the conversation of product repositories, efficiency enhancements and w…

Do you feel like you’ve had a lot of bad days recently? Tech workers are constantly dealing with new problems to solve that require a sense …

On this episode of Smash the Bug, the one and only Phillip Jackson, is here to discuss the process of going from Junior to Master Developer.…

Sometimes the problems we face aren't with the code, but with ourselves, and we need to be open up about these challenges so that we can hel…

In this episode, we discuss with TJ Gamble what makes a developer irreplaceable and how to think about your journey as an Ecommerce professi…

Do you want to be a PHP Pro? Oscar Merida, is here to give us the "PHP pro tools" and remind us of some very useful resources we should be u…

Chris Anderson, Tech Lead at BORN Group talks about a difficult integration project and how developers really should be learning how to use …

On this episode, Simon Frost gives us a sneak peek at his upcoming book, outlines his debugging process and explains what it takes to become…

Join Joseph and Jesse as they talk about the importance of resetting even before a problem is solved, a deep Xdebug stack trace, and the imp…

On this podcast, Robert Rand discusses the current state of the Magento ecosystem after the Adobe Summit, and gives some helpful tips on age…

Listen in to hear Joseph and Jesse talk about Hyva, BugUFO.com, and helpful strategies for debugging!

On this podcast, Dan Andrei talks about his experience dealing with a massive eCommerce store that wasn't functioning well on Magento 2.3.6!

Listen in as Joseph and Jesse talk about news from the Adobe Summit and discuss the many common production challenges that agencies experien…

Sarvagya Pandey talks about his experience with MSI and the difficult hurdles he has crossed in his career.

Join Joseph and Jesse as they talk about some big Magento/Adobe news, developer efficiency hacks and how to become a better problem solver.

On this episode of Smash the Bug, Ruggero Landolina shares his story about having to completely rebuild a Magento 2 website for a merchant w…

Listen in as Joris Hart, CTO at ATI4 GROUP explains a major issue he had to work through with uiComponents and custom product options in Mag…