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5 Mobile Commerce Trends That Will Dominate 2021

Mobile technology has changed the way we live. Our smartphones are seemingly always within an arms reach and dictate our daily habits. As a result, mobile commerce trends are evolving.
Consumer buying behaviour has changed drastically over the years, and mobile commerce will continue to thrive in the future.

The following ten trends will dominate in 2021. Not only will I explain these ecommerce trends, but Ill also give you mobile commerce tips for 2021 to help you prepare and adapt accordingly.

Shopping via Mobile Apps
Nowadays, people use their mobile devices to buy online. Weve already discussed how m-commerce is dominating the global ecommerce market share. But the way people are using those devices to shop is changing.

To stay competitive in the market, you require to have an application in 2021. Think about that figure in dollars. How much more money would your ecommerce business make if a 157% higher conversion rate?
Shopify owners have recognized this trend and are adapting accordingly. Everyone has identified the importance of targeting mobile users, so theyre building apps for their ecommerce sites.

Sales From Smartphones and Tablets
With mobile shopping on the rise, its no surprise that sales from smartphones will dominate in 2021. The average order value from a mobile app is $102 compared to $92 from a mobile website.
But mobile apps and mobile sites can be accessed from multiple devices. For the largest part, mobile devices can be segmented into two categories; smartphones and tablets.

One-Click Ordering
Mobile apps will ease the checkout process in 2021. Placing an order online has historically needed quite a bit of data from the consumer.
Think about what you need to process transactions on your ecommerce store.
Customer name
Credit card number
Credit card expiration
Card verification number
Shipping address
Billing address
Email address
Entering this information each time manually, buying something online is tedious. Moreover, its extremely inconvenient from the small screen of a mobile device.

One-click ordering virtually eliminates the checkout process. Were going to see more ecommerce businesses performing this technology in the following year. So building an ecommerce mobile app will be the first step to following this trend in 2021.

Social Commerce
Using social media to increase exposure and raise brand awareness is nothing new. Im sure (and I hope) that youre already leveraging social media for your ecommerce business.
While social media has a tremendous upside, historically, its been challenging for businesses to convert social traffic into sales. This is because theres always been too much friction between navigating from a social post to a product page. But social commerce has evolved. For example, with shoppable Facebook pages and Instagram shoppable posts, customers have a more direct way to buy products they see on social media.

Voice Shopping
Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa have been growing in popularity over the years. Moreover, voice search has shifted as well.
At first, people used voice search for things like weather-related questions. Or perhaps telling their smart speaker to play music.
In 2021, voice search has penetrated the ecommerce market. Voice shopping is expected to reach $40 billion by 2022. Thats up from a modest $2 billion in 2018, a 1,900% increase in just four years.
This will significantly impact mobile commerce because 40% of adults use voice search at least once per day. In addition, 20% of all https://www.mangoitsolutions.com/

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BuddyPress 9.0.0 Transforms Legacy Widgets Into Blocks

BuddyPress 9.0 was released one day before WordPress 5.8. As all major BuddyPress releases are named for pizza joints, this one has been dubbed “Mico” in honor of Pizzéria Chez Mico, a small restaurant on the French riviera, where you just may find capers and anchovies on your pie.

This short release cycle was laser focused on getting all of the BP component widgets ready to be used as blocks to ensure that they work with WordPress 5.8’s new block widgets experience. BuddyPress 9.0 introduces 10 new BuddyPress blocks to be used in place of the legacy widgets.

New BuddyPress Blocks in 9.0.0

This release also enables users to transform legacy widgets into a block with two clicks, while preserving all of their settings and automatically importing them. The availability of these new blocks is an important milestone that BP contributing developer David Cavins said is “the first step toward the progressive retirement” of BuddyPress widgets.

All this functionality that used to only be available in widgetized areas can now easily be used as blocks inside content areas. The blocks vastly expand BuddyPress’ flexibility, enabling site owners to do many things that used to require custom development. Designing unique landing pages for communities is now easier than it has ever been.

“My coworkers are pretty excited to have these new BP blocks,” Cavins said during a chat in the BuddyPress development channel on Slack. “For instance, with the login form block, you can pretty well replace login form customization plugins and put the form in your landing page with ease.”

The release also includes a new Sitewide Notices endpoint for the BP REST API that will enable site admins to create, edit, or delete notices and let users fetch the active notice. For a full list of the improvements and bug fixes included in 9.0.0, check out the release notes in the codex.

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The Nine States of Design

Here’s a really good ol’ post from way back in 2015 all about the nine states of design and how we should think all the edge cases whenever we’re building interfaces. Vince Speelman writes:

Modern UI teams are designing components first; Interfaces are merely the thoughtful composition of components. This leaves an often glaring hole for users on “the unhappy path” — The places where users may, intentionally or not, stray from your idealized flow. As we learn to craft systems rather than pages, we must invest effort into shaping these often missed states of design and create with a component lifecycle that can support everyone. Here’s the lifecycle as I see it:


  1. Nothing state
  2. Loading
  3. None
  4. One
  5. Some
  6. Too many
  7. Incorrect
  8. Correct
  9. Done

During the design process I think everyone (including me!) tends to focus on the ideal state of a component or interface, often leaving the extremely important edge cases forgotten until the last moment. I think I need to stick this list to my screen so I don’t forget it in my next project.

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What’s New in WordPress 5.8 (Features and Screenshots)

WordPress 5.8 was released earlier today, and it is the second major release of 2021.

This new release is coming with some major new features and improvements. These changes introduce new creative ways to work on your WordPress website.

In this article, we’ll share what’s new in WordPress 5.8, and which features you should try after updating your websites.

WordPress 5.8 new features with screenshots

WordPress 5.8 is a major release, and unless you are on a managed WordPress hosting service, you’ll have to manually initiate the update.

Important: Don’t forget to create a complete WordPress backup before initiating the update.

That being said, here’s all that’s new in WordPress 5.8.

The New Template Editor

WordPress 5.8 comes with a new feature called the template editor. It is a step towards creating a full site editing tool using the block editor.

You can create a new template by creating on the ‘New’ link under the template tab while editing a post or page.

Create a new template in the block editor

Note: Template editor is an optional theme feature. If you cannot see the Template tab on the post edit screen, then this means that your theme does not support the feature.

WordPress will then ask you to provide a title for your new template. This could be anything that helps you easily identify the template for later use.

Add template name

After that, WordPress will switch to the template editor mode. This will allow you to edit non-content areas and add site-wide blocks in your template.

Template editor mode

WordPress 5.8 comes with several site blocks that allow you to add different site-wide elements to your new template.

  • Site Logo
  • Site Tagline
  • Site Title
  • Query Loop
  • Post Title
  • Post Content
  • Post Date
  • Post Excerpt
  • Post Featured Image
  • Post Categories
  • Post Tags
  • Login/out
  • Page List

The template editor in WordPress 5.8 is a theme-specific feature. It still uses your WordPress theme’s styles and appearance.

If you want to get full design control for a custom layout, then a far better tool would be a page builder plugin like SeedProd. It works regardless of which WordPress theme you are using which gives you full control on the layout.

Blocks Based Widget Editor in WordPress 5.8

The widgets screen in WordPress now uses the block editor. Simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page to try out the new widgets experience.

Widgets as blocks in WordPress 5.8

Each widget-ready area in your WordPress theme will appear as a tab in the block editor. You can add widgets as blocks to your website’s sidebars and widget-enabled areas.

This gives you greater control over widgets as you can now use blocks to create more engaging widget areas. For instance, you can add buttons, choose colors, group different blocks, and more.

Editing blocks in widget areas in WordPress 5.8

You can still use older widgets by adding the Legacy Widget block to any sidebar.

Adding legacy widgets in WordPress 5.8

Opting Out of The New Widgets Screen

Some users may still want to use the older Widgets screen. This can be easily done by installing and activating the Classic Widgets plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will simply restore the older classic widgets screen.

WordPress Now Supports WebP Images by Default

WebP is a new image format that reduces image file size by 25-34% than PNG and JPEG without losing quality. This is a big difference and can significantly boost speed and performance of any website.

WordPress 5.8 now supports WebP images by default. This means you can save and upload your WebP images to your WordPress website without using a plugin.

However, some older web browsers don’t support WebP images. If many of your users use unsupported browsers, then you should consider using an image compression plugin.

Image compression plugins can convert images into WebP format and display JPEG or PNG images as the fallback option. For detailed instructions, see our tutorial on how to add WebP images in WordPress.

Media Library Changes in WordPress 5.8

WordPress media library will not be using infinite scroll to load images in the ‘Grid’ view. Instead, you’ll now see a Load more button to view more images.

Load more button in Media Library

Another handy new improvement is the ability to copy the media file URL when uploading directly via Media » Add New page.

Previously, when you added an image directly in the media library you had to edit the image and then manually copy the image URL.

With WordPress 5.8, you’ll now see a button to copy the media file URL and use it anywhere you want.

Copy file URL to clipboard

Block Editor Changes in WordPress 5.8

The block editor is where WordPress users spend most of their time creating content. Each WordPress release brings improvements to the block editor.

Following are some of the new features and improvements in the block editor that you may want to try out.

The Query Loop Block in WordPress 5.8

Ever wanted to display a bunch of posts inside a WordPress page or post?

Previously, you had to use plugins to do that but now you can use the Query Loop block to easily display a list of posts, pages, or products anywhere.

Simply add the Query Loop block to a post or page. You can choose from a bunch of layouts and configure the query parameters in the block settings.

Query Loop block in WordPress 5.8

Duotone Filters for Images and Media Blocks

WordPress 5.8 has introduced Duotone filters for images and media blocks like images, galleries, and cover images.

Applying duotone filter to images in WordPress 5.8

It comes with a few presets and you can create your own presets as well by choosing the colors you want to apply. Your WordPress theme may also include their own presets to match theme colors.

Duotone filters applied on an image in WordPress 5.8

Pattern Recommendations in Add Block Panel

WordPress 5.8 will now recommend patterns in the the add block panel.

For instance, if you look for a common element then it may suggest patterns using that block.

Pattern suggestions in WordPress 5.8

There are some new patterns available and initial work has been laid for integration with the WordPress.org pattern directory.

Easily Select Parent Block in Nested Blocks

Selecting the parent block in columns, groups, and other nested blocks was a bit difficult.

WordPress 5.8 now shows an always visible parent block button in the toolbar which allows you to quickly select it.

Parent block button in the toolbar

Improved List View in Block Navigation

WordPress 5.8 comes with an improved list view panel showing the complete list of blocks in your post or page. This makes it easier to navigate when you are working with a more complex layout.

Improved list view panel in WordPress 5.8

Improved Select Tool with Block Handles

WordPress 5.8 introduces better block highlighting and an improved select tool. It shows you a block handle so that you can easily move blocks up and down.

Better Select tool with block handles

Block Enhancements in WordPress 5.8

WordPress 5.8 has many enhancements for existing blocks. There are more options to choose text, background, and link colors.

More color options

You can now control spacing among columns, cover, and other blocks.

Padding option for blocks

You can now also use gradient background color for tables.

Gradient background color option for tables

Under the Hood Changes

WordPress 5.8 brings many changes for developers to explore and use in their own themes, plugins, and projects. Here are some of the under the hood changes for developers.

A new file called theme.json can now be used by theme developers to configure block settings in one place. For instance, theme developers can use it to define colors, add presets, control which options are available for a block, and more. (See details)

Theme authors can now set layout and content width globally in theme.json file. (See details)

Context aware filters to use block editor APIs on multiple WordPress admin screens. (#52920)

WordPress recovery mode email message will now only be shown when email can be sent. (#52560)

Encouraging usage of block.json metadata file as the canonical way to register block types. (#53233)

We hope this guide helped you explore what’s new in WordPress 5.8. We are particularly excited about the new widget and template editor features.

What are you excited about? Let us know in the comments below.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post What’s New in WordPress 5.8 (Features and Screenshots) appeared first on WPBeginner.

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Your Image Is Probably Not Decorative

Eric doesn’t mince words, especially in the title, but also in the conclusion:

In modern web design and development, displaying an image is a highly intentional act. Alternate descriptions allow us to explain the content of the image, and in doing so, communicate why it is worth including.

Just because an image displays something fanciful doesn’t mean it isn’t worth describing. Announcing its presence ensures that anyone, regardless of ability or circumstance, can fully understand your digital experience.

I like the bit where, even when a CSS background-image is used, you can still use a “spacer GIF” to add alt text. And speaking of alt descriptions, did you know even Open Graph images can have them?

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The post Your Image Is Probably Not Decorative appeared first on CSS-Tricks. You can support CSS-Tricks by being an MVP Supporter.

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WordPress 5.8 “Tatum” Introduces Block Widgets, Duotone Media Filters, New Emoji Support, and More

WordPress 5.8 “Tatum,” named in honor of jazz pianist Art Tatum, landed earlier today. It is the second major release in 2021. It includes duotone media filters, block-based widgets, theme-related blocks, template editing, and theme JSON file support.

The release also ships tons of other notable features, such as support for new Emoji and an Update URI field for plugin authors to offer custom updates. The latest update also drops support for IE11, saying goodbye to the era of Internet Explorer.

Matt Mullenweg led the WordPress 5.8 release, which saw contributions from 530 volunteers. The entire release team closed 320 Trac tickets and over 1,500 GitHub pull requests.

The official release squad members were:

  • Release Co-Coordinator: Jeffrey Paul
  • Release Co-Coordinator: Jonathan Desrosiers
  • Editor Tech Lead: Riad Benguella
  • Marketing and Communications Lead: Josepha Haden Chomphosy
  • Documentation Lead: Milana Cap
  • Test Lead: Piotrek Boniu
  • Support Lead: Mary Job

Duotone and Media Improvements

Applying a blue and red duotone filter along with a black, purple, and blue transparent overlay on top of an image of a record and player.
Duotone filter + gradient overlay on a Cover block.

The Image and Cover blocks received a new duotone feature. It is a filter that allows users to lay two colors over their media, creating unique effects. The colors overwrite the shadows and highlights of the image or video. Users can use WordPress’s defaults, theme-defined colors, or create their own mixes.

WordPress 5.8 also introduces several upgrades to the media library. The development team replaced infinite scrolling with a “load more” button, improving the experience for screen-reader and keyboard users. End-users can now copy media file URLs from the Add New media screen.

The latest release offers WebP image format support for the first time, and developers have a new image_editor_output_format filter hook to fine-tune the experience.

Block Widgets

Adding a Gallery block to the footer sidebar in the WordPress block widgets screen.
Widgets screen with a Gallery block in the Footer sidebar.

For the first time since the block system launched with WordPress 5.0 nearly three years ago, blocks are no longer confined to the post content editor. Users can now use them in any available sidebar. This is a stepping stone in the Full Site Editing experience that will eventually lead to block themes and the site editor. In the meantime, it is a way for users to begin trying out blocks in new ways.

However, those experiences may vary, depending on the active theme. Some older projects may not hold up well with this system. Authors may need to opt-out of the feature. Users who do not want to use block widgets or run into trouble can install the Classic Widgets plugin.

Query Loop and Theme Blocks

A carousel/slider view of the available patterns for inserting into the WordPress editor.
Query Loop pattern inserter: carousel view.

The power to create lists, grids, and other designs around a group of posts has long been solely in the wheelhouse of developers. Users had to rely on their themes or specialized plugins to make such changes. This is no longer the case. Users will have the power to create almost any type of post list they want from now and far into the future with the Query Loop block.

And, this is just the beginning. WordPress 5.8’s new block is merely an introduction to what will eventually be one of the foundational elements to Full Site Editing in the coming years. As more and more blocks continue to mature, users and theme authors will continue building all sorts of layouts from this simple starting point.

The Query Loop block will also be the first introduction of the pattern inserter to many users. This is a new tool that allows users to scroll through block patterns, choose one, and customize. In the future, it will become a more prominent feature.

Inserting lists of posts is just scratching the surface. WordPress 5.8 ships a new “Theme” category of blocks for users to play around with. Many of these are primarily for use within the Query Loop, such as the Post* blocks. However, others like Site Title and Site Tagline will be handy in the template editor.

Template Editor

Creating a custom landing page template with a search form in the header with the WordPress 5.8 template editor.
Creating a custom landing page template.

The new template editor provides users with a method of creating reusable templates. And, they do not need a 100% block theme to do it. The feature opens an overlay from the content-editing screen for users to customize their page header, footer, and everything in between.

This is essentially a scaled-back version of the upcoming site editor. With 5.8, its primary use case will be for creating custom landing pages. It is a lot of power in the hands of the average user. And, it helps WordPress inch closer to its goal of not only democratizing publishing but also design.

The downside to this feature? It is currently opt-in. The active theme must declare support for users to access it. Many will not see it until developers submit updates.

Developers: theme.json Support

Screenshot of a theme.json file in a code editor.
Real-world theme.json file.

WordPress 5.8 lets theme authors begin tapping into global styles and settings configuration via the new theme.json system. In the coming years, this will be the foundation of how themers build their projects.

Essentially, the new file is a bridge between themes, WordPress, and users, a standardized method of communication that puts them all on the same page. Theme authors define which settings it supports and its default styles. WordPress reflects these via the editing interfaces and on the front end. And, users can overwrite them on a per-block basis or, eventually, through the Global Styles feature.

Right now, it is an opt-in feature that both traditional and block themes can utilize. Themers will want to start moving their projects over to using it now that WordPress 5.8 is on the doorstep.

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De-Siloing Incident Management: How to Make Reliability Engineering Everyone’s Job

SREs may “own” reliability engineering, but they can succeed in that role only with help from a variety of other stakeholders. If you can’t collaborate and communicate readily with developers, IT engineers, and even non-technical teams like PR and legal, you’ll struggle to optimize reliability engineering.

That’s why de-siloing the organization is such a crucial part of managing reliability. Here’s why breaking down the silos that separate SREs from other teams is so important, and practical strategies for doing so.

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15 SWE Trends Dominating the Tech Industry in 2021

Software development trends are leading the charters in the tech industry. If you’re a tech professional, you’ll see money-churning ideas abound. However, what about the future stakes remain a million-dollar question. Be it DevSecOps to low-code apps, software development trends are fast as technology itself.

So it makes sense that all would be wondering what the latest trends in software development are. A paradigm shift is awaited in the IT industry. The good thing about technology is that it is ever-growing, unstoppable, and versatile.

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Simplifying IAC Using Terraform, Terragrunt, and Atlantis

Before we start on simplifying the Infra as Code(IAC), let's learn about what it is and the best practices of coding for our Infra. 

What Is Infra as Code(IAC)?

IaC is a method of templating your infrastructure configuration in a version-controlled system and automate the provisioning and destruction of application environments. Adapting IAC helps in enabling self-service for developers, reducing bottlenecks, errors, and time-consuming rollbacks.  

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Transforming Messages With DataWeave

DataWeave is an expression language designed by MuleSoft. The language helps in transforming the incoming payload to various payloads as per the requirements.  Most developers write transformation scripts in the transforming message or set payload components. The language is tightly integrated with the Mule runtime engine and is a must-learn for every MuleSoft developer.

A few examples for transforming the input payload into various patterns:

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How to Create a Modal in UI Builder

A modal is a common UI element used to grab the user’s attention by overlaying the page. In this step-by-step tutorial, we will show you how to implement, style, and interact with modals in UI Builder.

Also known as overlays or dialog windows, modals are an easy way to ensure your user receives information or takes an action you want them to take. In order to guarantee the user interacts with the modal, most modals prevent the user from interacting with the underlying page.

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Top 5 Lessons for Every DevOps Leader

One thing about the DevOps route is that it comes with a lot of range. Two organizations may be using a DevOps approach, but differ considerably in how they apply it. Ultimately, different organizations will succeed or fail at DevOps for different reasons. Naturally, DevOps leaders implementing specific and widespread changes are caught in the middle.

Regardless of your organization’s structure, from a leadership perspective, there are several boxes you must check if you’re to succeed at DevOps. We are going to look at five of the most prevalent lessons that a leader can draw from executing a DevOps strategy.

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Common Anti-Patterns in Python

1. Not Using with to Open Files

When you open a file without the with statement, you need to remember closing the file via calling close() explicitly when finished with processing it. Even while explicitly closing the resource, there are chances of exceptions before the resource is actually released. This can cause inconsistencies, or lead the file to be corrupted. Opening a file via with implements the context manager protocol that releases the resource when execution is outside of the with block.

Bad practice:

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Demo: How to Build a No-Code to-Do App With UI Builder

With "no-code" tools, anyone can build a mobile or web app faster than ever before. In this step-by-step demo of Backendless UI Builder, we walk you through the creation of a fully Codeless To-Do app.

The Backendless UI Builder is one of our favorite features in Version 6. UI Builder is a no-code, drag-and-drop interface for building the frontend of your app. Whether your app is mobile, web, or both, you can design for all platforms.