Today, a majority of online stores choose to go with a SaaS solution like BigCommerce. Also, B2B businesses prefer BigCommerce as their e-commerce platform because of its
Launched in 2016, Stencil is the latest framework of BigCommerce. It incorporates industry best practices in technology, design standards, and Search Engine Optimization.
And if you haven’t upgraded your store to Stencil, you could be missing out on many benefits of the updated framework.
The BigCommerce developers at ioVista have worked with both Blueprint and Stencil on a number of e-commerce websites. Before we present to you the benefits of Stencil, we want to share some of the limitations our developers have experienced while using Blueprint.
All the development on Blueprint needs to be done within the editor available in the BigCommerce admin account. Unlike modern development tools and applications, the old BigCommerce Blueprint editor hinders the developers’ productivity.
BigCommerce Blueprint has many of the store attributes hidden inside %%GLOBAL%% variables. This causes the store variables to be blocked and inaccessible to developers due to which they can’t access and change their contents; leading to major project roadblocks.
Blueprint doesn’t allow local testing. All the changes need to be made live on your e-commerce website for testing. This makes it difficult to carry out conversion rate optimization tests, A/B tests and other tests essential for maintaining the efficiency and UX/UI of your website.
Stencil overcomes limited editing and global variables challenges through the handlebar templating language. It allows developers to make as many changes as they wish. Stencil makes it easier to redesign, develop and edit the site with much less coding.
Another functionality supported by Stencil is the use of CSS preprocessors which enables the developers to write code much faster by writing in abbreviations, then translated and expanded into full code.
Stencil allows developers to use a command line interface for local testing and development; not affecting the live site, unlike Blueprint. It also enables developers to test the store theme with the store data.
Stencil has 160 industry-specific theme variations to find a customizable theme that perfectly suits your store.
Another noteworthy functionality Stencil’s BrowserSync preview that lets developers view any changes they made in real-time on any device. So, the changes to a desktop view can’t come across negatively on mobile devices.
BigCommerce comes with its base Stencil theme called Cornerstone which is updated regularly with the latest features and functionalities offered; including Apple Pay and Google AMP support.
Cornerstone’s native AMP compliance accelerates the page speed and offers great website experiences.
BigCommerce Stencil will improve the overall storefront experience for you and your customers. Upgrade your BigCommerce site from Blueprint to Stencil without any data loss and other hassles with ioVista.
Feel free to contact us for any questions or if you want to learn more about what your store’s upgrade could look like.
Mike Patel is the Founder and CEO of ioVista, a leading digital commerce agency specializing in eCommerce solutions. With a strong background in business and technology, Mike Patel has been at the forefront of driving digital transformations for businesses. He has successfully navigated the ever-changing landscape of eCommerce, helping companies leverage the power of online platforms to grow their brand, increase revenues, and optimize their digital presence. Under his leadership, ioVista has become a trusted partner with major technology companies: Adobe/Magento, Google, BigCommerce, Shopify, and Yahoo. He is dedicated to staying ahead of industry trends, adopting cutting-edge technologies, and continuously improving strategies to provide clients with a competitive edge. Mike’s commitment to excellence and client satisfaction is evident in every project ioVista undertakes.
Mike Patel
05 Sep 2023Mike Patel
09 May 2023Mike Patel
15 Dec 2022Mike Patel
24 Nov 2022Mike Patel
17 Nov 2022Mike Patel
17 Nov 2022Mike Patel
27 Oct 2022Mike Patel
23 Aug 2022Mike Patel
17 Aug 2022Mike Patel
01 Jul 2022Mike Patel
14 Jun 2022Mike Patel
11 May 2022Mike Patel
03 May 2022Mike Patel
27 Apr 2022Mike Patel
29 Mar 2022Mike Patel
01 Mar 2022Mike Patel
11 Feb 2022Mike Patel
13 Jan 2022Mike Patel
30 Nov 2021Mike Patel
05 Oct 2021Mike Patel
21 Sep 2021Mike Patel
17 Sep 2021Mike Patel
16 Jun 2021Mike Patel
03 Jun 2021Mike Patel
06 May 2021Mike Patel
04 May 2021Mike Patel
28 Jan 2021Mike Patel
29 Jul 2020Mike Patel
21 Jul 2020Mike Patel
29 Jun 2020Mike Patel
24 Apr 2020Get in touch with us if you have a web development or digital marketing project that you would like to get underway!
TOP
ioVista
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
Get in Touch