Equitana
An equestrian store that ran Magento 1 for six years after its end of life. We rebuilt it on Magento 2 and Hyvä in five days. On phones, the main content now appears in 1.1 s instead of 4.2 s.
See the new store
Equitana is live on Magento 2 and Hyvä. Open it on your phone and tap around.
equitana.roThe starting point
Six years on a platform past its end of life
Equitana sells riding gear, horse care and stable supplies to riders across Romania. For years the store ran on Blugento, a hosted platform built on Magento 1. Adobe ended support for Magento 1 in June 2020. Equitana stayed on it for six more years.
Shoppers felt it. Google's Chrome UX Report times real visits and judges a store by its slowest quarter of page views. In the last full month on Magento 1, that quarter waited more than 4.2 seconds on phones for the main content, and more than 3.7 seconds before the server sent anything back. Lighthouse gave the mobile pages 36 and 37 out of 100 for performance.
The same shopping trip
19.5 seconds of waiting, down to 2.1
On 28 August 2026 we recorded the same six steps on both stores, minutes apart, in Chrome on the same computer: open the homepage, two category pages and a product, add to cart, go to checkout. The timers run from the click until the next page appears.
On Magento 1 the two category pages took 5.9 and 7.0 seconds. On the new store the homepage, both categories and the product page appeared in 0.1 to 0.2 seconds, and adding to cart and moving to checkout took 0.8 seconds each.
Real screen recordings, played at real speed. The product and cart steps use different items; the other steps are the same pages.
- 1Homepage
- Magento 1 on Blugento: 2.5 s, Magento 2 + Hyvä: 0.1 s
- 2Category: Copii (kids)
- Magento 1 on Blugento: 5.9 s, Magento 2 + Hyvä: 0.1 s
- 3Category: Damă (women)
- Magento 1 on Blugento: 7.0 s, Magento 2 + Hyvä: 0.1 s
- 4Product page
- Magento 1 on Blugento: 1.3 s, Magento 2 + Hyvä: 0.2 s
- 5Add to cart
- Magento 1 on Blugento: 1.7 s, Magento 2 + Hyvä: 0.8 s
- 6Go to checkout
- Magento 1 on Blugento: 1.1 s, Magento 2 + Hyvä: 0.8 s
Real shoppers
Real visits say the same
A recording is one computer on one evening. The Chrome UX Report collects timings from real visits by Chrome users, week after week. This is how long phones and desktops waited for the main content, before and after the move.
Source: Chrome UX Report for www.equitana.ro, 75th percentile of rolling 28-day windows, one point per week. Magento 1: 19 July to 15 August 2026. New store: 30 August to 26 September 2026.
Phones
Core Web Vitals:FailedPassed
| Magento 1 | New store | |
|---|---|---|
| Main content shown (LCP) | 4.2 s(Poor) | 1.1 s(Good) |
| First content shown (FCP) | 4.0 s(Poor) | 1.0 s(Good) |
| Server response (TTFB) | 3.7 s(Poor) | 0.34 s(Good) |
| Response to input (INP) | 95 ms(Good) | 102 ms(Good) |
| Layout shift (CLS) | 0.07(Good) | 0.00(Good) |
Desktops
Core Web Vitals:FailedPassed
| Magento 1 | New store | |
|---|---|---|
| Main content shown (LCP) | 3.5 s(Needs improvement) | 1.0 s(Good) |
| First content shown (FCP) | 3.4 s(Poor) | 0.83 s(Good) |
| Server response (TTFB) | 3.2 s(Poor) | 0.76 s(Good) |
| Response to input (INP) | 101 ms(Good) | 55 ms(Good) |
| Layout shift (CLS) | 0.06(Good) | 0.04(Good) |
The biggest change is on phones: 4.2 seconds became 1.1 for the slowest quarter of page views, and the server response went from 3.7 seconds to 0.34. Phones and desktops now both pass Core Web Vitals, the speed metrics Google uses in search.
More than half of phone page views now open instantly. 26.7% are prepared in advance: the next page loads while the shopper is still deciding. Another 25.9% come straight back from the browser cache when the shopper goes back. Before the move, both were at zero.
The results
Real-user figures from Chrome, plus the recorded shopping trip. Same store, same catalog, a different platform.
4.2 s → 1.1 s
Main content on phones
Largest Contentful Paint, 75th percentile
3.7 s → 0.34 s
Server response on phones
Time to First Byte, 75th percentile
19.5 s → 2.1 s
Waiting, same six steps
Screen recordings, 28 August 2026
0% → 53%
Phone page views that open instantly
Prepared in advance or restored from the browser cache
5 days
Ready in
Magento 1 to Magento 2 and Hyvä
14,500+
Products moved
With 12,000+ orders and 3,400+ customer accounts
The build
Ready in five days
The new store was ready in five days because we did not start from zero. The Liquid Framework is a finished Magento 2 and Hyvä platform with 60+ maintained modules, from Romanian payments and couriers to search and SEO. The time went into the Equitana catalog, content and customers.
Everything came across: 14,500+ products, 3,000+ of them with options such as size and color, 300+ categories, 3,400+ customer accounts and 12,000+ orders going back to 2019. Product and category addresses stayed the same, for example /produse/calaret-1/copii.html, the Copii category below.
Built in
Everything the store needed, from day one
The Liquid Framework modules covered what a Romanian store needs out of the box. These are the ones Equitana shoppers use every day.
Hyvä Checkout
Contact, address, delivery and payment on one page, next to the order summary.
Innoship couriers
Courier delivery through Innoship, connected to the checkout.
Card payments
Card payments through EuPlatesc, a Romanian payment processor.
Algolia search
Products, categories and pages appear as the shopper types.
Delivery estimates
Product pages tell the shopper when the order will arrive.
Back-in-stock alerts
Shoppers can ask for an email when a sold-out product is back.
GDPR privacy center
Cookie consent, plus data export and account deletion from the customer account.
Support form
Questions reach the Equitana team from a single form.
Instant page changes
The next page is prepared while the shopper decides, and going back is instant.
ERP stock sync
Stock levels flow in from the Equitana ERP automatically.
The homepage (before and after)
Frames from the two recordings. Drag to compare. The times are the phone figures from Chrome real-user data.
Every page, rebuilt
Home, category, product, search and checkout on the new store.
Checkout
From five steps to one page
The Magento 1 checkout opened one panel at a time: checkout method, billing, shipping, delivery method, payment. Hyvä Checkout shows contact details, address, delivery and payment on a single page, with the order summary always in view.
Fewer screens means fewer places to give up, especially on a phone.
The move, in short
Six years on an unsupported platform, five days to build the new one, and a store that real shoppers measure as nearly four times faster.
Equitana ran Magento 1 on Blugento until August 2026, six years after Adobe ended Magento 1 support. On phones, shoppers waited 4.2 s for the main content and 3.7 s for the server alone.
We rebuilt the store on Magento 2, Hyvä and the Liquid Framework in five days, and moved 14,500+ products, 300+ categories, 3,400+ customer accounts and 12,000+ orders.
A one-page Hyvä Checkout, Innoship couriers, EuPlatesc card payments, Algolia search, delivery estimates, back-in-stock alerts, a GDPR privacy center and ERP stock sync, from day one.
One month later: 1.1 s on phones, 1.0 s on desktop, Core Web Vitals passed on both, and more than half of phone page views opening instantly.
How we did it (in five days)
Start from a finished platform
The Liquid Framework is Magento 2 with Hyvä, Hyvä Checkout and 60+ maintained modules, Romanian payments and couriers included. The five days went into the Equitana store, not into basics.
Move everything across
Products with their sizes and colors, categories, content, customer accounts and seven years of orders, with product and category addresses in the same format as before.
Go live and measure
After the switch we followed Chrome real-user data week by week, until the whole 28-day window was on the new store: 1.1 s on phones, 1.0 s on desktop.
Why it matters
An old platform does not have to mean a long project
Plenty of stores still run on Magento 1 because moving sounds like a year of work with an uncertain end. Equitana moved after five days of build work, kept its products, orders, customers and addresses, and within a month had a store that real shoppers measure as nearly four times faster on phones.
That is what LIQUIDLAB does: Magento 2 and Hyvä on a platform we maintain, so a store can move fast without starting from zero.