Mike McAlister emphasizes the importance of adopting the block editor for WordPress and eCommerce, arguing that delaying this transition will only make future changes more costly and difficult. He highlights the benefits of increased control, better performance, and cost savings, while addressing common misconceptions around the block editor's stability and the need for JavaScript. Overall, he encourages developers to embrace new opportunities for growth within the evolving WordPress ecosystem.

2. PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER
WP Engine
@mikemcalister
Front End: Building Future-Proof
eCommerce Sites
Mike McAlister

3. 3
Over a decade of building on WordPress and the bleeding edge
I live and breathe WordPress
Beautifully-simple
WordPress theme collection
used and trusted by many
Array Themes
Bleeding edge project that
broke ground on what’s
possible with the block
editor
Atomic Blocks
Bringing the power of
Genesis into the block era
with blocks and patterns
Genesis Pro
Teaching WordPress
creators how to turn
themes + plugins into
product businesses
Liftoff Course

4. 4
Block editor and full-site
editing explained

5. 5
When is the right time to jump
into the block editor?

6. 6
When is the right time to jump
into the block editor?
Two years ago!
But now is good, too.

7. 7
The Perception
The reality:
The longer you wait, the
more expensive and
difficult it’s going to be to
transition to the block
editor and away from 3rd
party solutions.
The reality:
The block editor is stable,
with a robust API that many
are building on. Although
FSE is still refining features,
it’s already impressively
powerful.
The reality:
JavaScript is the new reality
for WordPress +
eCommerce. This opens
the door to new pools of
talented devs who are
ready to shape this new
era.
It’s expensive!
“Changing workflows and
swapping out solutions for
new ones is costly. We’re
not in a position to make
that transition financially.”
It’s unstable!
“I’ve heard that the block
editor isn’t quite finished
yet, and it can be unstable
to build on. We need stable
eCommerce solutions for
our clients.”
JavaScript?!
“We’re used to the old way
of creating WordPress
themes, which are mostly
PHP with a little JavaScript.
Training devs on JavaScript
is time consuming.”

8. 8
The reality:
The longer you wait, the
more expensive and
difficult it’s going to be to
transition to the block
editor and away from 3rd
party solutions.
The reality:
The block editor is stable,
with a robust API that many
are building on. Although
FSE is still refining features,
it’s already impressively
powerful.
The reality:
JavaScript is the new reality
for WP + eCommerce. This
opens the door to new
pools of talented devs who
are ready to shape this new
era.
The Perception
It’s expensive!
“Changing workflows and
swapping out solutions for
new ones is costly. We’re
not in a position to make
that transition financially.”
It’s unstable!
“I’ve heard that the block
editor isn’t quite finished
yet, and it can be unstable
to build on. We need stable
eCommerce solutions for
our clients.”
JavaScript?!
“We’re used to the old way
of creating WordPress
themes, which are mostly
PHP with a little JavaScript.
Training devs on JavaScript
is time consuming.”

9. 9
WordPress isn’t going anywhere.
The longer you avoid adoption,
the more painful the inevitable
transition will be.
Invest now and set yourself up for
long-term eCommerce growth.

10. 10
1. More Control
2. Better Performance
3. Save Money

11. 11
If you only knew the power of the
Dark Side block editor.
This is the control we’ve always
needed in WordPress.

12. 12
More Control
3rd Party
Performance Woes
Go headless and pick your
platform. Use WordPress as your
site’s engine and offload
ecommerce to more powerful
platforms. Check out Atlas!
Choose your own JavaScript
language. React, Vue, Angular,
vanilla JS! Advanced workflows,
integrations, automation, and build
tools.
Tap into the massive pool of JS and
ecommerce developers out there.
Control your
codebase
The entire WP experience is now in
your hands. Shape it to your
ecommerce needs.
Lock down settings, content,
products, styles to maintain
branding but allow marketers and
maintainers to update the site with
guard rails.
Safeguard your eCommerce data
and functionality from WordPress
theme and plugin mishaps.
Control your destiny
A long-term dependency on
3rd party WP plugins can be
detrimental to your growth.
Tie directly into WP with your
own solutions that can be
updated, extended, and
pushed live in a moment’s
notice.
Portability is everything. You
don’t want your content
locked up in proprietary
solutions.

13. 13
1. More Control
2. Better Performance
3. Save Money

14. A single-second delay in page load
time results in 7% loss in conversions,
11% fewer page views, and 16%
decrease in customer satisfaction.
— via research done by Strangeloop
“

15. 15
Better Performance
3rd Party
Performance Woes
Don’t get me wrong, I love a
good WordPress plugin, and
we should use them to make
our websites better but…
Third-party plugins can be a
great time-saver, but they can
also impact performance and
create an unhealthy
dependency and uncertainty.
With modern build tools, you
have granular control over
your build. Treeshake, minify
assets, etc.
Page Performance
& SEO
Pagespeed and core web
vitals are tightening up,
especially for ecom. You’re
going to need a lot more
control to make big gains on
your site’s performance.
The block editor is getting
more and more features to
let you load only the styles
and scripts you need on each
page.
should_load_separate_core_b
lock_assets()
Follow These
Folks
Lots of next-level work being
done to improve the
performance and capabilities
of what’s possible with the
block editor.
twitter.com/leeshandle
twitter.com/nickmdiego
twitter.com/dgwyer
twitter.com/phil_webs
twitter.com/ellenbauer
twitter.com/gziolo

16. 16
1. More Control
2. Better Performance
3. Save Money

17. 17
The block editor will save you time
and money in the short and long
term and provide new opportunities
for generating revenue.

18. 18
Save (and make) Money
Money Saving
Themes + Patterns
Reinventing the wheel can be
expensive. Build your own
collection of eCommerce
patterns that you can use as
a jump off point for every
project. Easy to wireframe,
work with clients, and then
ship.
Theme.json makes your
brand and styles readily
available to all blocks. Make
site-wide changes in a few
clicks, not hours with global
styles. Time is money.
Pared-Down Plugins
Go with core and pare-down
your toolset. Working with
core is surprisingly refreshing
and can replace several
premium plugins you may be
paying for.
• Page builders
• Caching
• eCommerce extensions
This is your opportunity to
own your toolset and create a
workflow that helps you
move at lightspeed.
Turn Your Tools Into
Products
Solving a common problem
for your own needs? Chances
are others could use it. The
block editor brought with it a
brand new market to develop
products for.
eCommerce has difficult
problems to solve, customers
are willing to pay a premium
for time/money saving
solutions.
https://bit.ly/3L3eGJK

19. 19
There’s more opportunity and
money to be made in WordPress
eCommerce than ever before.
The block editor can help you unlock
that potential and set you up for long
term growth.

20. 20
1.Build something. No more excuses!
https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/
https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg
https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg-examples
2.Launch something.
3.Repeat.
Where
do I
start?

21. @mikemcalister
Thank you.
Mike McAlister