Essays

Reflections, lessons, and guides on leadership, the web, and programming.

WooCommerce Related Products: What and How to Improve Them
December 21, 2023
In today’s eCommerce world, creating a more relevant shopping experience for each customer is essential.
If you have a WooCommerce store, especially one with many products, achieving this can be challenging. The simple related products in WooCommerce often fall short. They can display items that aren’t quite similar to what the customer is visiting.
This is because WooCommerce offers product recommendations based only on the same categories and tags as the displayed product.
However, a better approach can be to use product attributes to filter related products. This strategy not only makes your products more appealing. It also aligns seamlessly with your customers’ interests, creating a more satisfying shopping experience.
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AI in WordPress: A Year of Transformation
December 5, 2023
Just a year ago, the digital landscape witnessed a seismic shift with the launch of ChatGPT.
This groundbreaking AI quickly became the fastest-growing app in history, a testament to its transformative potential.
Among its many feats, the way ChatGPT and AI in general have reshaped the WordPress world stands out, a change I’ve personally experienced and embraced in my professional journey.
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Automatic EU VAT Validation in WooCommerce
December 4, 2023
Running an e-commerce store can be challenging, especially when dealing with international sales and tax regulations.
One particular difficult and time-consuming task that merchants from the European Union have is to validate VAT numbers provided by customers.
To ensure compliance and smooth operations, WooCommerce store owners can implement an automatic EU VAT number validation using the VIES system to validate VAT on checkout. Let’s delve into a straightforward approach to integrating this into your WooCommerce setup.
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Enhancing WordPress Content Protection: Beyond Blocking Right-Clicks
November 28, 2023
Trying to protect your content by blocking right-clicks? You’re actually locking out your readers, not the thieves.
As a WordPress professional, I’ve seen all kinds of “security” tricks across websites. One, however, always makes me cringe: blocking right-clicks.
It’s still surprisingly common, even though it harms accessibility and user experience far more than it helps prevent content theft.
Let’s look at why this outdated approach does more harm than good, and what you can do instead to protect your content without alienating readers.
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SmartBill WooCommerce Integration and Multi Currency with WooPayments
November 24, 2023
In the ever-evolving world of e-commerce, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. For Romanian online businesses, a significant development has emerged: the introduction of WooPayments, now fully operable in Romania. This post delves into the benefits of WooPayments, its integration with Stripe, and how it surpasses other gateways. Furthermore, we’ll explore the synergy between WooPayments and SmartBill with the SmartBill WooCommerce Integration, especially focusing on a custom plugin I developed for seamless multi-currency transactions and invoicing.
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