Mirasvit in 2024: Challenges, Achievements, and Future Ambitions

The end of the year is a great opportunity for individuals and businesses alike to reflect on their journey and assess their progress. Which plans were successfully implemented, and what challenges arose? What events and trends influenced the teams' work? What accomplishments can the company truly be proud of, and what is planned for 2025? We discussed these and other aspects with the CEO of Mirasvit, Volodymyr Drok.

Volodymyr, let's start with an overall assessment: how was 2024 for Mirasvit? What trends dominated the e-commerce industry, and how did they impact your work?

One could say that the most significant trend this year was the rapid development of artificial intelligence and related technologies. Many new AI products emerged, directly influencing how we live, work, and learn.

AI tools already allow us to speed up programming, enhance productivity, and introduce new features to our products, both for Magento and Shopify. This impact isn't limited to developers but extends to the company as a whole, significantly improving overall efficiency. And this is just the beginning. We will continue to monitor tech trends closely.

This year also saw notable growth in activity within the Magento ecosystem. New themes for Magento appeared, as well as alternative versions of the platform, developed from the original code (commonly referred to as forks), which are attempting to evolve independently. There were also some fascinating international events.

Shopify had a highly productive 2024 as well. The company significantly expanded marketplace functionality, enabling sales across multiple markets with various pricing and language options. They are also advancing their GraphQL API, which presents both a challenge and an opportunity for developers. Overall, there is much to learn from Shopify's approach to business growth.

We're particularly pleased that these platforms continue to evolve rather than stagnate. When the market grows, so do we.

Overall, I believe 2024 was a successful and productive year for our company. Despite various challenges, we continued to grow and evolve.

What challenges did Mirasvit face this year?

We are a global company with team members from different countries. However, a significant portion of our developers are in Ukraine, so I cannot overlook the difficulties they've had to endure. These challenges are primarily related to the war: power outages, heating disruptions, constant psychological pressure, etc.

While these circumstances make work more challenging, they don't stop it altogether. First, because Ukrainians are incredibly resilient and courageous people. Second, because we've put maximum effort into minimizing risks.

Each team has clear instructions on how to maintain operations regardless of the circumstances. Our colleagues in Europe and the United States are always ready to step in when needed, ensuring there have been no delays in the company's work.

As for other challenges, it's worth noting the growing competition in the industry.

More and more companies are offering solutions similar to ours for e-commerce, and some even attempt to copy our products. This is especially noticeable in the Shopify marketplace. As a result, we must constantly innovate to remain competitive.

Another trend in the Shopify market is the consolidation of players. Some companies are acquiring others, creating large organizations with significant resources, making it even more challenging to compete against them.

One more issue is technological complexity.

Our primary goal remains unchanged—to solve our clients' problems by providing them with the best possible modules or applications. However, the trend is that products are becoming more complex. We're adding new features and leveraging cutting-edge technologies (including AI), which naturally raises the bar for both developers and management.

That said, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. It's precisely how we can ensure the highest quality for each extension and make our offerings truly unique.

What achievements of the company would you highlight? Let's start with the development team.

We had a few new releases, but the main focus this year was on improving our existing products to make them the best on the market.

We're not chasing quantity; we already have over 80 extensions if we count Magento 1 (which, by the way, is still in use). Our priority is to continue enhancing each one.

Every month, we add new features, improve module performance, compatibility, and more—all in close collaboration with our clients, who share their challenges and offer suggestions.

Each month, we publish the results of this work in our blog: what has changed, how to use these features, and how they have impacted online stores. Reviewing these articles reveals the intensive and fruitful efforts of our development team, resulting in over a hundred new features.

We've also devoted significant attention to developing our Shopify apps. In 2024, we focused on the usability of our apps, their functionality, and transitioning to GraphQL.

One notable achievement here is earning the "Built For Shopify" status for our feeds app, and we're working on achieving this for others.

What about the customer support team?

Our customer support team is constantly seeking improvements and analyzing existing procedures. Several new approaches were implemented in 2024.

According to the numbers, clients highly rate our products and support services.

For example, fewer than 1% of tickets received negative feedback throughout the year, which is an excellent result. Additionally, our NPS score improved by 7%, indicating we're on the right track.

Overall, we've seen an increase in satisfied customers and a decrease in dissatisfied ones. Detractors are turning into promoters, which we consider to be a significant achievement.

We've also continued to develop our partnership program. We're delighted to welcome new studios and greatly value the ongoing close and productive collaboration with existing partners.

We've implemented new solutions to streamline communication, accelerate problem-solving, and enhance the overall satisfaction of each client and partner. We also actively listen to feedback, address concerns, and remain open to new formats of interaction.

How has your client base evolved this year?

We focus primarily on markets in the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Most of our clients come from these regions, although their rankings sometimes vary. Of course, our modules are also used in many other countries worldwide.

What matters more to us is the gradual growth of our cohort of brand ambassadors—clients who don't just purchase one module but have more than five of our products. What does this indicate? They've recognized the quality of our products, and we've earned their trust. Together, we continue to grow.

If we talk about specific modules that were particularly in demand, there were no significant changes compared to last year, as these remain some of our best products:

• Search Ultimate
• Layered Navigation
• Advanced SEO Suite
• Advanced Reports
• Advanced Product Feeds

We are continuously working to improve these products.

How has your approach to content marketing evolved?

This year was undoubtedly one of experimentation in this area.

We didn't want to fill our blog with compilation articles on popular topics that already flood the internet. Instead, we aimed to find a unique way to convey our perspective and experience. The goal was to create materials that are genuinely interesting and valuable for clients, not just written for search engines.

So, we tested different approaches and analyzed the results. Ultimately, it seems we've found the model we were looking for.

Now, we only write about what we genuinely know and work with. These insights come directly from our company's experts, who stand behind every word. We hope our readers appreciate this shift.

What are Mirasvit's plans for 2025?

I can't reveal the details, but there's a lot of new things coming. I believe it's fair to say that 2025 will be a year of transformation for Mirasvit.

We plan to expand our teams, strengthen cross-team connections, develop new high-tech products, and continue improving existing ones. Of course, we'll prepare various special offers for our clients throughout the year.

The plans are ambitious, and I'm confident that our strong team will succeed. We have amazing specialists who love their work, aren't afraid of challenges, and are eager to grow. Together, we'll overcome any obstacles.