AgilePress

Tag: MVP

  • The 80/20 Website: Why “More” Features Mean Less Revenue

    It is a conversation we have every week.

    A client comes to us with a vision. They want a website that has a mega-menu, a video background, an integrated forum, a live chat, a social media wall, and a parallax effect that triggers when you scroll.

    They are trying to build a Digital Monument. They want to impress their competitors.

    At AgilePress, we don’t build monuments. We build Sales Engines. And to do that, we have to be the ones to say “No.”

    We apply the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) to web development. Here is why removing 80% of the noise is the only way to get 100% of the results.

    The Design Trap: Vanity vs. Conversion

    Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto discovered that 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population. In web design, this ratio is even more extreme.

    The Reality:

    • 20% of your page (The Headline, the Call to Action, and the Load Speed) drives 80% of your conversions.
    • The other 80% (Fancy animations, decorative sliders, “About Us” philosophy text) is mostly ignored by users.

    Most agencies charge you thousands of dollars to design that useless 80%. They focus on “Vanity Metrics” (Does it look cool?) instead of “Business Metrics” (Does it sell?).

    The AgilePress Way: We obsess over the critical 20%. We strip away the heavy visual effects that kill your loading speed. We don’t care if the site wins a design award; we care if it makes your phone ring.

    The Feature Creep: The “Just in Case” Syndrome

    Why do websites become bloated? Because of the fear of missing out. “Maybe we should add a blog sidebar… just in case.” “Maybe we need a weather widget… just in case.”

    Every feature you add has a cost. Not just in money, but in Cognitive Load. If you give a user 10 options in the menu, they will choose none (Analysis Paralysis). If you give them 1 clear option (“Book a Call”), they will click it.

    The AgilePress Way: We audit your requirements list and cut it in half.

    • Do you need a Forum? No, use a Facebook Group.
    • Do you need a complex Booking System? Maybe just a Calendly link is enough to start.
    • We protect your budget from features that don’t generate ROI.

    The Code: Paying for Bloat

    This principle applies to what is under the hood, too.

    If you buy a $60 “Multi-Purpose Theme” from ThemeForest, you are buying a codebase where 80% of the code is never used. You are loading scripts for a “Portfolio Slider” on your “Contact Page.” You are loading 5 different font weights when you only use 2.

    The AgilePress Way: We write the 20% of code that delivers the result. If we need a button, we write the code for a button. We don’t install a 5MB library just to render a rectangle.

    Result: A site that loads in 0.5 seconds because it isn’t carrying dead weight.

    The Budget: Invert the Pyramid

    Most projects spend their budget like this:

    • 80%: Design, Animation, Custom Development of complex features.
    • 20%: Copywriting, SEO, Offer Strategy.

    This is a recipe for a beautiful website that nobody visits.

    The AgilePress Way: We want you to spend your budget on what sells.

    • Invest in a Fast Infrastructure (Hosting/Maintenance).
    • Invest in Clear Copywriting.
    • Invest in SEO.
    • Keep the design clean, functional, and minimal.

    Conclusion: Do You Want a Monument or an Engine?

    A Digital Monument is expensive to build, expensive to maintain, and sits there looking pretty while gathering dust.

    A Sales Engine is lean, tuned for performance, and designed to move fast.

    The next time you write a list of requirements for your website, look at each item and ask: “Is this part of the 20% that drives revenue, or is it part of the 80% that strokes my ego?”

    If it doesn’t sell, delete it.

  • The Vanity Trap: Why Your WooCommerce Store Needs Less, Not More

    We see it in almost every briefing. A client comes in with a list of requirements: “I want the menu to look like Zara’s. I want the checkout flow of Shopify. And I want the animations I saw on Apple’s landing page.”

    It is natural to want a unique, stunning website. You love your business, and you want your store to reflect that passion.

    But here is the hard truth: Apple has 500 engineers. You have a business to launch.

    At AgilePress, we believe that in E-commerce, boring sells. Standardization converts. And spending 100 hours customizing every pixel of WooCommerce is not an investment; it is a vanity tax that will not bring you a single euro in return.

    Here is why your store needs to be standard, fast, and simple.

    Jakob’s Law: The Science of “Standard”

    There is a fundamental principle in User Experience (UX) design called Jakob’s Law. It states:

    “Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.”

    When you customize your WooCommerce checkout to make it “unique,” or when you move the cart icon to a “creative” location, you are breaking this law. You are forcing the user to relearn how to shop.

    Friction kills sales.

    WooCommerce, out of the box, follows the standard e-commerce patterns that 99% of internet users already understand. The “Add to Cart” button is where they expect it. The checkout asks for the right fields.

    Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. The round wheel already works perfectly.

    The Hidden Cost of the “100 Hours”

    Let’s talk about Return on Investment (ROI).

    Imagine you have a budget for 100 hours of work. You have two options:

    • Option A (The Vanity Route): We spend those 100 hours writing custom code snippets to hide fields, installing plugins to add “wishlists” that no one uses, and tweaking the CSS so the buttons have a specific gradient.
      • Result: A “unique” website.
      • ROI: €0. No one buys a product because the button has a gradient.
    • Option B (The AgilePress Route): We launch the standard store in 10 hours. We spend the remaining 90 hours on Professional Product Photography, SEO, and Google Ads.
      • Result: A functional website with traffic and customers.
      • ROI: Sales.

    Development does not create demand. Marketing and Product create demand. Every hour you spend “decorating” the code is an hour you are not selling.

    The Product is King (The Website is Just the Shelf)

    Shift your mindset: Your website is not a piece of art. It is a supermarket shelf.

    When you walk into a supermarket to buy cereal, what do you want from the shelf?

    1. It should be clean.
    2. It should be well-lit.
    3. The price should be clear.

    You don’t want the shelf to dance, flash neon lights, or ask you 5 questions before you can pick up the box.

    If your product is good, it doesn’t need a “parallax effect” to sell. It needs a high-resolution photo, a clear description, and a fast “Buy” button. If your product is bad, a €50,000 custom website won’t save it.

    Invest in your content, not the container.

    Minimum Viable Trust (What Actually Matters)

    We are not saying your site should look “cheap” or broken. We are saying it should focus on Trust rather than Decoration.

    These are the only “Must-Haves” for a store to convert:

    1. Speed: It must load instantly (this is why we use lightweight themes and good hosting).
    2. Payment Security: Use recognized gateways like Stripe, PayPal, or Redsys.
    3. Clarity: Readable typography, whitespace, and clear legal policies (Shipping/Returns).
    4. Standardization: A cart that looks like a cart.

    Everything else—popups, spinning wheels, complex filtering systems, social proof notifications—is often just noise that distracts the user from the only goal: Checkout.

    Conclusion: Launch Fast, Sell Sooner

    The market doesn’t wait for your website to be “pixel perfect.”

    Our strategy at AgilePress is the MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

    1. Launch with a clean, standard WooCommerce setup.
    2. Start selling immediately.
    3. Gather data.

    If, after selling 1,000 units, the data tells us that a specific custom feature will increase sales by 10%, then we build it. But we never build based on assumptions or vanity.

    Your business needs revenue, not a design award.