Home Improvement Store Case
A replatforming project was successfully undertaken by the Magedia team wherein an outdated and obsolete eCommerce website based on Smilehouse Workspace was transformed into a fully functional store on the Magento 2 platform with all the latest features and add-ons.The final output was a full-fledged website with a responsive customized theme and scalable to handle large traffic. The new website allows several thousand users to simultaneously be on the site and serves about 1 million users per month. The solution also included the development and integration of various custom systems for order fulfillment, payments,and data migration.
About The Client
Our client is one of the largest home improvement stores in the Nordic countries and is one of the top 10 online stores in Finland with annual sales of US$44.5 million. This hardware retailer offers a huge range of products for home and yard construction, renovation, and interior decoration.
Project Context and Objective
When the client approached the Magedia team they were stuck with an outdated website on an obsolete eCommerce platform -Smilehouse Workspace. While Smilehouse is an effective platform to build and manage product catalogs and simple online stores,it is not scalable, has limited API functions, and it is difficult to integrate it with 3rd party systems. It also lacked functionalities like advanced analytics, advanced marketing and promotional tools, etc.
By replatforming the customer was seeking to increase the productivity of his site and solve integration problems with external systems, including payment and order processing systems.
Our Solution
The solution we proposed was a full-fledged multifunctional site on the Magento platform. The main reason for this was that Magento 2 was scalable, easy to upgrade and maintain, had built-in integrations, and offered a great shopping experience.
For this project, we developed a custom migration solution with several key integrations with systems like order fulfillment, multiple payment options, site search, etc. Also, a responsive custom website theme was developed for the customer for better aesthetics and functionality.
A solution was also developed in-house to migrate all URLs, customer data, passwords, and order history to the new system without any error. The process was so seamless that end-users didn t even notice the changes.
Project Process and Methodology
Since the customer did not have a development team, a project manager and developers from Magedia were assigned for this project. After analyzing the client requirements, it was decided to use the scrum methodology to show the client ready-made functionality in stages. Thus, the client was able to assess progress, see results, and recommend changes right after each stage completion.
An effective communication process was also put in place to ensure that both teams were on the same page throughout the project implementation period. Daily meetings, regular progress reports, and an advanced Scrum-based workflow helped in maintaining the time schedules and in the development of new modules and features for the website as planned. The close collaboration between the teams helped reduce the project delivery time substantially with parts of the project being delivered ahead of schedule.
Product Performance and Quality
Results delivered as part of the project
- Full data migration
- Migration of user account with old passwords (a special module was developed for this purpose)
- Development of various data encryption algorithms
- Migration of categories, products, custom fields and variables (a special script was developed which analyzed the data and distributed them, then insert into the Magento fields)
- Successful migration of orders with lots of custom attributes
- Integration with a 3rd party system that calculates the cost of goods delivery
- Integration with Klevu search Development of a website Magento theme, page making and programming (category page, product page)
- Implementation of responsive design – together with a third-party design agency
To ensure the proper quality, our team carefully tested the solution before handing it over to the client.
Project Results
Benefits for Client
- Complete migration of data from the old eCommerce platform to the new one, with all passwords saved
- The user account saved and completely migrated without any error
- Integration of Klevu search
- Improvement and optimization of back-office processes
- Integration of powerful sales analysis tools
- Set up of Visual Merchandiser tool for optimizing the presentation of goods in the online store
- Site performance increased by 43%
- Increased number of orders
- Accelerated order fulfillment process
End-user benefits
- Faster order processing
- Improved site speed
- Responsive design that ensures that the site works perfectly on all devices
- Quick site search (thanks to additional integration of Magento with Klevu search)
- Local payment systems support
