E-Commerce Meetup at sitegeist

Christian, our Senior Art Director Digital, and Miriam, our Senior Developer, gave a joint presentation on the interesting topic of "Component-based workflow (design + technology) and component-based / headless development".

We gained exciting insights into User interface design for component-based application development. The design of user interfaces plays a crucial role in the development of applications. At the Meetup, we focused on how user interface design (UI) in component-based application development can be created, managed and used efficiently by all project stakeholders. Splitting the application into reusable libraries increases the performance of the development. This allows us to concentrate on the essentials as the project progresses without having to do too many laps in the layout. We talked about proven methods and tools, such as Figma and Zeplin, to design appealing and user-friendly user interfaces.

Another fascinating topic we covered is the component-based development headless with Shopware Frontends. Headless commerce is a modern architecture in which the Frontend area is separated from the Backend logic. This enables greater flexibility in the development of e-commerce applications. We have explored the use of Shopware Frontend s to create engaging user interfaces for e-commerce websites while taking advantage of a headless architecture. We gained insights into the available Packages, dealt with the topic of project templates and learned about the exciting application possibilities. Together we took a look at the framework via Stackblitz. It was very interesting to learn how efficiently designers and developers, among others, can work together on a project if it is thought of "correctly" from the start of the project.

The second round of presentations was given by our friends from moinAI / knowhere GmbH, the specialists in the field of artificial intelligence and chatbots. The mission of moinAI is to revolutionize digital customer communication. We have received exciting Insights about: Livechat & Chatbot - Synergy for optimal customer experience. Positive user experiences are an important aspect of any application, be it a website or a mobile app. During the meetup, we discussed the interaction between live chat and chatbot and how they can work together to provide an optimal user experience (UX). Live chats allow users to request immediate assistance, while chatbots automate repetitive tasks and enable personalized interactions. The integration of these two technologies can help to improve customer service and increase efficiency. The synergy between live chat and chatbots leads to an improved experience with the product for consumers. Customers receive fast and relevant answers to their questions, regardless of the time of day. The combination of automation and human interaction enables fast processing of service requests and demand-oriented human-to-human communication for individual support with complex issues.

Artificial intelligence has made enormous progress in recent years, particularly in the field of generative AI models. We have looked at the challenges and opportunities that arise for corporate chatbots when they rely on these advanced AI models. By using generative AI models, chatbots can have more natural and human-like conversations. However, we also discussed the ethical considerations and the need for careful monitoring of such models.

Our Meetup was a great opportunity to hear the experiences and perspectives of more than 45 participants. Over "tasty pizza" and cold drinks, designers, developers, project managers and many other interested parties were able to exchange ideas directly with stakeholders from Shopware, plugin developers, agencies, payment providers and many more in a summery atmosphere.