Every year, the global e-commerce sector adds new milestones. At the same time, it includes the most recent breakthroughs in the software area to speed growth and meet consumers’ ever-increasing needs. Each e-commerce platform strives to provide a different customer experience. But the most popular option is Magento 2. The platform’s headless approach allows you to develop entirely new consumer experiences in addition to offering robust capabilities right out of the box and enabling a wide range of modifications based on third-party extensions. You can use one of the third-party options or the built-in Magento 2 PWA Studio. Today, we’ll look at one of the most well-known progressive web applications.
What is Vue Storefront?
You might waste weeks or even months if you don’t comprehend the framework you’re employing. That is why, before we can get deep into the project, we must first grasp what powers it all below the hood.
Vue Storefront and Magento 2
Regarding our preferred e-commerce platform, Vue Storefront, you can add all the functionalities mentioned above on top of its backend. Websites built with Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA are quick, decisive, and accessible even while offline. They can even be stored as home screen applications. Aside from that, Vue Storefront significantly improves and strengthens Magento frontend development over its default capabilities. Because it is backend-independent, you can also design a PWA frontend for Magento 1. However, with all the benefits of the second platform version, it doesn’t feel like a choice you need.
A headless PWA Vue frontend provides the following benefits for Magento 2:
- Vue.js serves as a frontend library, Node.js and GraphQL serve as server APIs, and Elasticsearch serves as a database.
- support for all platforms and devices;
- Low data needs and offline mode;
- Offline orders are supported.
- Notifications through push.
- An application is not required to be downloaded to use a Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA frontend. Your consumers, on the other hand, have this option.
With the aid of the Vue.js framework, you may design quicker stores in less time as a developer. Your Magento 2 projects will always be versatile and scalable, thanks to the headless architecture. You may also make use of a plethora of built-in e-commerce tools. A supportive community is available to assist you if you have any problems.
Integrated e-commerce capabilities
Some of the capabilities accessible to any Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA website are listed below.
Payment, Checkout, and Shipping
- One-Page Checkout: Unlike the usual checkout page, the Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA provides a one-page solution.
- Shipping Rates: Shipping Costs The PWA platform also has incorporated real-time shipping prices.
- Security: SSL encryption is used to safeguard all online orders and critical transactions.
- Calculation: Before checkout, the platform computes tax and shipping estimates.
- Customer Accounts: After entering all of the required information, a customer account may be created instantly on the checkout page.
- Saved Carts: The Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA allows you to preserve shopping carts. You can set an expiration date as a shop administrator.
- Shipping Addresses: A customer account and its associated operations enable multiple shipping addresses. A destination management capability is another significant enhancement.
- Other shipping features included are flat fee delivery choices per order/item, free shipping, weight management, and so on.
SEO
- SSR: The Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA provides server-side rendering to increase your e-commerce website’s ranking position.
- Light Footprint Design: Utilizing this function may boost SEO while simultaneously speeding up page loads.
- Friendly URLs: Vue Storefront optimizes store URLs to make them more search engine friendly. The software also provides URL rewriting options for your Magento 2 website.
- Metadata: Meta-information for items and categories may be added using the Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA.
- Additional customization: Include a paragraph that contains well-known search phrases.
Reports and Analytics
- Google Analytics: Of course, the Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA includes a Google Analytics connection.
- Dashboard: You will be given a dashboard with reports, including a summary of your e-commerce website’s business.
- Numerous reports: You may use the PWA solution to access the following reports:
- Total Sales; Returns
- Taxes; Shopping Cart Abandonment
- Most Viewed and Most Sold Products
- Low Stock Items; Search Terms (Onsite)
- Coupon codes; Tags + RSS
- Product Reviews + RSS
Marketing and promotions
- Newsletter: The Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA has newsletter management features.
- Catalog: You will also have control over promotional records (including pricing)
- Coupons: coupon management with variable rules and pricing constraints is standard.
- Free shipping: The Vue Storefront PWA provides free shipping as a promotional feature. You have complete control over connected conditions.
- Product Bundles: There are several packaged product alternatives available.
- Pricing: You may set different prices for different consumer categories.
- New Products: For new products, there is a promotional tool. You also have the normal upsell and cross-sell blocks.
- Wishlists: Customers and admins may manage wishlists using the Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA.
Order Management
- The Vue Storefront PWA: Magento 2’s order management functionalities are entirely supported.
- Backend Management: You can see the products, edit, create, and fulfill them by your administrators.
- Split Fulfillment: Create Multiple papers for each order.
- Printing: The Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA allows users to download invoices and packing slips.
- Other features: include the ability to browse and change a shopping cart, wishlist, most recently ordered things, compared products, assign custom pricing, issue discounts, send email notifications, and so on.
Customer Services
- Contact Form: The Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA has a contact form that allows your customers to contact you.
- Customer Accounts: Every registered client has access to an advanced interface that includes order details and status updates, reorders, an endless contact list, default delivery and billing addresses, wishlists, and newsletter subscription management.
- Admin Orders: Your administrators can place orders on your customers’ behalf.
- Emails: Vue Storefront provides email alerts for order and account updates. Furthermore, order emails are entirely personalized.
- Password Reset: Customers (from the frontend) and administrators (from the backend) can reset customer account passwords.
Inventory Management
- Inventory Management: Inventory management functions are included in the Vue Storefront Magento 2 PWA. You can, for example, specify minimum and maximum amounts.
- Different Product Types: The system also supports a variety of product categories, such as simple, customizable, packaged, grouped, virtual, and downloaded products.
- Tax Rates Management: You may configure tax rates based on a customer’s region, group membership, or requested product category.
- Attribute Sets: Attribute sets are another helpful feature. Use them to produce things as quickly as possible. Furthermore, Vue Storefront allows you to set all essential properties according to your company’s requirements.
- Customer Personalization Product: We’d want to draw your attention to it even though it’s a bespoke feature. As a result, the Vue Storefront Magento 2 PWA allows your customers to personalize the things you offer through embroidery or monogramming. Only a text message must be specified.
Products
- Media: Multiple photos can be added to a product page. Zooming in is enabled by default.
- Related Products: On a product page, there is a block displaying similar products.
- Stock Availability: Your consumers may also view an item’s availability on a product page.
- Configuration Products: As previously said, the Vue Storefront Magento 2 PWA allows customizable products so that you may choose settings there.
- Grouped Products: standard grouped product functionality is also provided.
- Wishlists: Customers can add items to their wishlist.
Catalog
- Elasticsearch: Your catalog is powered by this search engine. Caching for Service Workers improves the overall search experience.
- Offline Support: Offline catalog browsing is possible.
- Layered Navigation: Filters may be used to limit the selection of items in a category.
- Recently viewed: A block containing recently seen products is included in the Vue Storefront Magento 2 PWA.
- Comparisons: Products from a catalog can be compared.
- Related Products: In addition, the system allows you to display related items and cross-sell and up-sell products in a catalog.
- Products Listing: There are two types of category page layouts available: list and grid. However, the feature is only available through modification.
- Breadcrumbs: Breadcrumbs increase not only the consumer experience your shop provides but also SEO.
Integrations
The Vue Storefront PWA comes with a slew of third-party connectors, like Paypal, Stripe, Alexa, Google Assistant, Adyen, Contentful, Klarna, Braintree intercom, and more. However, if you need to link your Magento 2 PWA website to a system that Vue Storefront does not support, Improved Import & Export is always available. The plugin is frontend-independent so that you can use it with any Magento 2 PWA solution, including Vue Storefront. We also provide add-ons for each integration. Use them to make data transfers as simple as possible.
Magento 2 Vue Storefront PWA success story
Kubota is a well-known Polish fashion company that was bold enough to embrace new e-commerce trends. The firm returned to the market with over 1,000 orders in the first four weeks after launching a mobile-first PWA website!
The following features demonstrate Kubota’s key motive for switching from a traditional e-commerce store to a Magento 2 PWA website:
- A mobile-first strategy that complements Google’s mobile-first indexing;
- Increased productivity due to faster page loading times on slower connections;
- Platform-independent e-commerce store that offers the same shopping experience across several operating systems, devices, and browsers;
- Store page changes are quick and easy for administrators.
- Increased security.
Kubota had a 192 percent rise in daily visits, 94 percent more keywords in the top three years on year, and a 30 percent improvement in loading times. The full Vue Storefront Magento 2 PWA success story can be seen here: Kubota’s case study on creating a PWA shop.
Products & Pricing
Vue Storefront has three options. For starters, it is an open-source project that allows you to install Vue Storefront on your server for free. You may investigate the project and link it to the Magento 2 backend. The community PWA comes with a simple template, access to the associated Slack group, and a PWA Storefront application. Follow this link for more information: The Vue Storefront on GitHub.
Second, there is a production bundle that includes Vue Storefront and additional support and services. With the core Vue team, you can build a seamless shopping experience on top of the Magento 2 backend. It should note that the bundle is subscription-based. Code reviews, DevOps setup, production-ready sealing, support, and core team advice are all available. For additional information, please contact Vue Storefront.
Third, you may use the Storefront Cloud to avoid all technological complexities (including setup and maintenance) and gain access to additional functionalities. This bundle is a subscription-based service. It provides a simple storefront template, Slack community access, a PWA application, cloud hosting, an AMP rendering engine, and frequent backups. Furthermore, there are various layers within, so let’s go through each.
- Discovery. For 400 euros, you receive a single non-production instance of Vue Storefront. It contains a containerized cluster. You also receive containerized source code management, automated CI/DC flow, and support for familiar DevOps, deployment, and pipeline procedures. The infrastructure SLA is 99.9% each month. You may also purchase an extra development instance for 99 euros. An additional geo area costs 240 euros.
- Basic. The monthly cost of this plan is 500 euros. There is just one production instance available, and it supports up to 5,000 baseline traffic page clicks per day. At the same time, you acquire one non-production. Other features are comparable to those listed above, except for the opportunity to deploy an extra production instance for 249 EUR. Also, an additional geo area is more costly. It costs 400 euros. For 100€, you may additionally enhance a traffic peak up to 10X baseline each day.
- Premium. This plan is more costly, costing 700 EUR per month. You get twice as many basic traffic page views for this money daily. A second geo area costs twice as much – 800€.
- Enterprise. Choose this package if you expect more than 10,000-page visitors each day. It is the only tier that provides application support and an SLA. Its cost is available upon request.
Storefront Cloud
Let’s talk a little more about Storefront Cloud before diving into the Vue Storefront example.
Storefront Cloud is a hosted frontend solution that drives progressive web apps. It is quick, secure, and simple to set up. Furthermore, Storefront Cloud boosts conversion rates and allows for immediate UX enhancements. It is a hybrid of mobile web and native apps that combines the advantages of both current browsers and native mobile applications:
- A Magento 2 Storefront Cloud PWA website is compatible with all devices. It also provides the same experience across all platforms and screen sizes.
- Even though Storefront Cloud Magento 2 PWA stores function as mobile applications, Google indexes them.
- Because the data requirements are so modest, even a poor internet connection is not an issue. A Storefront Cloud Magento 2 PWA frontend is also available offline! However, there is no need to download anything.
- Using the push alerts that come with Storefront Cloud is also feasible.
As a result, store visitors have a highly engaging purchasing experience as soon as they land on your website. The need to install a native program is no longer required. Your consumers receive a native-like experience directly from the web.
Secure frontend
Storefront Cloud is a dependable solution with a robust and constant foundation that improves the security of your online store. The company’s approved solution has been tested against a broad range of barriers, demonstrating its high degree of protection. At the same time, the platform undergoes continuing maintenance to ensure that users have the best possible experience while utilizing the most recent stable version. These and several other elements contribute to the protection of websites and their users from various online dangers.
Reliable platform
Storefront Cloud is designed for current infrastructures while keeping it flexible and scalable. It is ready for any situation and will help you overcome any obstacles. You have access to Kubernetes and AWS-based hosting. Furthermore, the front end is constantly prepared for traffic spikes. Even during major events like Black Friday, the Storefront Cloud PWA infrastructure is dependable. The platform automatically scales your applications to give worldwide users a quick and comfortable shopping experience.
Top-notch performance
The Storefront Cloud provides more excellent performance and uptime. You may use the robust frontend solution on top of the most excellent e-commerce backend system, Magento 2, to create the quickest e-commerce website accessible. This aim does not appear to be impossible with world-class support and engineering teams. Storefront Cloud offers a variety of benefits, including speed, accuracy, minimum system impact, and low administrative cost.
World-class support
Global support and engineers are accessible via a primary contact. Feel free to contact us with any Storefront Cloud-related queries. This will resolve all of your problems quickly. The platform guarantees SLAs and often answers on the same day. You will also get access to training and advisory services to help you grasp Storefront Cloud better.
Vue Storefront Magento PWA Frontend
Vue Storefront provides a sample to demonstrate the platform’s dependability and excellent user experience. We give our impressions of engaging with the front end in the section below.
Home page
Vue Storefront appears to allow you to construct whatever page layout you desire for a homepage. Add the appropriate blocks and sliders to immediately offer your clients what they need. Add all conceivable categories, items, and media material. However, such adaptability is no longer a competitive advantage. It is a trend that every trustworthy e-commerce shop should adopt. The option to personalize your homepage raises brand recognition and differentiates the experience you provide. However, the menu’s operation appears to be highly intriguing. You can switch between categories without leaving the page you’re on. When the required type is discovered, you may advance to it with a single click. You stay in the same spot in the category menu after being redirected, which significantly boosts convenience, especially when you periodically open the wrong category. The Vue Storefront PWA frontend’s search capability is lightning quick. You simply begin entering a query, and the system returns the results.
A wishlist is simple: it is a collection of things that you have already added. Items can be removed or navigated to product pages.
A tiny cart allows you to browse product information and change the amount. You cannot, however, adjust the product selections there. At this point, you can also delete any item from your cart.
Following the shopping summary area (which displays the subtotal, shipping and handling fees, tax amount, and total, as well as allowing you to use a discount coupon), you can either go to the checkout or return shopping.
Category page
Although a category page appears to be relatively simple, it is one of the greatest catalogs you can imagine:
The layered navigation is quick; the website is free of distracting features that divert your focus.
What more do you require as a client?
Product page
A product page displays product details and offers alternatives. You may utilize a sizing guide, add a product to your basket or wishlist, or compare it to another product. The zoom-in functionality is also given.
The website responds quickly to all of your actions. It gives the impression of being one of the quickest product pages (even among other demos).
CMS pages
Because of the table of topics on the left, you can simply move between CMS pages. You won’t find anything exceptional here, but the functionality is excellent.
Shopping cart
There appears to be no separate cart page. The only one available is at the front of every store page. As a result, you never disrupt the buying experience, making the Vue Storefront PWA website extremely user-friendly.
Checkout
The entire checkout process is available on a single page. If you are not already registered, you may create an account using the information given. Each component of the page appears to be recognizable. At the same time, you have the feeling of discovering something new.
