Expert story: Jisse Reitsma about Loki

From trainer to challenger in the Magento community

Those who have been around in the Magento community for some time know Jisse Reitsma of the company Yireo as a trainer, developer and critical thinker. Since the early years of Magento, he has been helping developers and agencies get to grips with a platform that is powerful, but also complex. Sharing knowledge is deeply embedded in his way of working. Yet it didn't stop there.

Gradually the need arose not only to explain how things work, but also to show that they can be done differently.

"Precisely because I provide training, I see how developers and agencies deal with technology. And then you automatically get to the point where you think: this can be smarter."

That thought formed the basis for Loki: a new take on front-end architecture and checkout logic within Magento.

From user to creator

Jisse worked for years with existing Magento solutions, including Hyvä and Hyvä Checkout. Strong products, but not always suited to his own use cases: training, events and other virtual products.

"For my scenarios, I found the Hyvä Checkout just not flexible enough. And then the question comes naturally: how hard is it to build this yourself?"

What started as an experiment grew into a conscious architectural choice. The first versions were based on Magewire, but performance and flexibility proved difficult to combine. That led to a fundamental step: a proprietary component layer, focused on simplicity, speed and control.

Thus was born Loki Components and eventually the Loki Checkout.

The name was not chosen by accident. Loki is known as the god who moves between everything, stimulates and questions existing structures. Exactly that attitude typifies Jisse's role within the community: not against the established order, but critical and forward-looking.

What is 'good' software?

One principle is central to everything Jisse builds: claims must be able to be fulfilled. Especially when it comes to performance.

"Increasing conversion sounds nice, but it depends on many factors. What you can do is make sure your checkout is not a barrier."

This is why Loki is not about marketing promises, but about measurable improvements:

• minimal and targeted AJAX calls
• small, independent components
• direct user feedback
• predictable behavior for developers

Lighthouse scores are used as a benchmark, not an absolute truth. Integrations with payment and shipping parties are intentionally developed first-party.

"If you don't have control over integrations as a core technology, legacy arises automatically. By building it yourself, you keep control over security, performance and future-proofing."

Training as a foundation for quality

Jisse has been providing Magento training for more than twelve years. That experience works directly into his product development.

"Training development is a luxury way of learning. No deadlines, no customers calling, but the space to really get to the bottom of scenarios."

Documentation alone is never enough. Only when you have to explain something do you discover where the holes are. Because of those years of practical experience, there are few scenarios that surprise him during Loki's development.

That experience also leads to a clear conviction:

"Bugs don't go down by being smarter, but by rigorous testing."

This is why Loki has a strong emphasis on testing and code quality.

The misunderstanding about performance and checkouts

"With Magento 2 Luma we got used to an unwieldy checkout. For insiders normal, for outsiders actually incomprehensible."

Because of that complexity, solutions like Express Checkouts or external checkout pages have become popular: the customer leaves the shop and checks out at a PSP. That solves a problem, but also creates new dependencies.

With a faster and more flexible checkout within Magento itself, there is again room to optimize the funnel:

"Making adjustments - adding a step, flipping billing and shipping - are suddenly within reach again."

Making an impact in the community

For Jisse, a community is not about names or events, but about reciprocity.

"A community is a group of people who help each other further. That addition - helping each other further - is crucial. That is also the great thing about Vicus: You have been very helpful in establishing a Dutch Magento community - Mage-OS NL - and that has helped enormously. Thanks for that!"

Impact occurs when what you build or share actually has value for others.

"If others get something out of it and show it, then you know you're doing a good job."

When did Loki succeed?

Right now, the focus is on the Loki Checkout: a stable core with room for new integrations. But the ambition extends further.

"Perhaps Loki will only really succeed if other products in addition to the checkout become known."

Loki is thus not an end point, but a platform in development.

A message to doubters

For developers and agencies who hesitate to actively contribute to the Magento community, Jisse has a clear message:

"The community has a hard core. That can be uncomfortable in the beginning. But it is absolutely worth it."

Community breaks the bubble of your own organization, offers new insights and makes work more fun.

"Helping out very simply makes your own work more fun. A win-win."