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Large online retail businesses often face a decision between using a ready-made solution like Shopify or investing in a custom e-commerce platform. At scale, the financial benefits of a custom platform can be compelling.
JetRuby Agency partnered with a client to create a bespoke e-commerce platform tailored for global-scale business needs. Our effort focused on integrating features for multiple regions, languages, and currencies. The platform handles extensive assortments and provides robust logistical support, ensuring personalized shopping experiences.
This blog post explores the financial benefits and intangibles of a custom e-commerce platform. Drawing from our project, we’ll demonstrate why a custom solution offers substantial returns and a competitive edge. We’ll also discuss the client’s decision to move away from Shopify, shedding light on the pros and cons of custom-built solutions versus pre-existing platforms. By the end, you’ll understand the intricacies and strategic considerations of creating a tailored e-commerce system.
Financial Benefits of Custom E-Commerce Platform Development
No Recurring Fees: Unlike Shopify’s monthly fees, a custom solution requires only an initial investment, avoiding recurring costs and boosting profit margins.
Eliminate Third-Party Costs: Custom platforms integrate necessary features from the start, reducing reliance on costly add-ons, saving money, and ensuring efficient operation.
Scalability: Custom platforms scale with your business without additional charges, ensuring cost-effective growth.
Predictable Maintenance Costs: Choose your developers and negotiate maintenance contracts, leading to lower long-term expenses.
Enhanced Security: Tailored security measures reduce financial risks associated with data breaches.
Operational Efficiency: Seamless integration with existing systems reduces manual interventions and errors, lowering operational costs.
Project Objectives
Our client’s expansion targeted over 50 countries, adding complexity to the project. The platform needed to support a diverse range of products and services, ensuring reliable performance across regions. This involved extensive coordination and robust infrastructure to handle high transaction volumes.
Seamless collaboration and precise execution were crucial, ensuring uninterrupted operations and a smooth transition for users. Achieving UI/UX consistency was essential to provide a familiar interface, minimizing the learning curve.
Agreed Custom Product Features
User Experience: Responsive Design, Advanced Search and Filtering, Customer Accounts
Security: Data Encryption, Fraud Detection, Compliance with GDPR and CCPA
Marketing and Sales: SEO Optimization, Promotions and Discounts, Analytics and Reporting
Integration Capabilities: Third-Party Integrations, API Access
Our Work
A microservices architecture provided scalability and performance, with services like AWS ensuring high availability and fault tolerance. A Content Delivery Network (CDN) reduced latency.
Geolocation services, localized hosting, a translation management system, and real-time currency conversion APIs supported a multi-regional user base. A centralized Product Information Management (PIM) and Warehouse Management systems (WMS) handled inventory.
Load balancing and advanced caching techniques ensured performance. Big data analytics and machine learning offered personalization, while a robust Order Management System (OMS) streamlined logistics and employee management.
Technologies used in Custom E-commerce solution
Backend: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Spree Commerce, AWS, New Relic, Artillery.io
Frontend: Spree Next.js Commerce, Redux, Redux-saga, Tailwind CSS
Our team chose Ruby on Rails as the server-side web application framework due to its efficiency and strong community support. As for PostgreSQL, team used it for its advanced features and greater flexibility compared to MySQL. Spree Commerce, an open-source headless e-commerce platform, served as the core component, providing a flexible and customizable foundation for e-commerce functionalities.
We hosted the server-side code on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provided scalability, reliability, and a comprehensive range of services to support the platform’s infrastructure. We implemented New Relic as a powerful full-stack data analysis platform to monitor and analyze software metrics, events, and logs, ensuring optimal performance and rapid issue resolution. Artillery.io, a load testing tool, was essential for testing the final solution under high load conditions, ensuring the platform could handle large volumes of traffic and transactions smoothly.
We utilized Spree Next.js Commerce, an all-in-one React starter kit, to build high-performance e-commerce sites, providing a robust front-end framework that integrates seamlessly with the back end. We employed Redux as a predictable state container for JavaScript applications, efficiently managing the application state and ensuring consistent behavior across the platform. Redux-saga, a library for handling application side effects such as data fetching and cache management, enhanced efficiency, manageability, and failure handling. For rapidly building custom user interfaces, we used Tailwind CSS, a utility-first CSS framework that allowed for highly customizable and responsive design.
Results
Our solution offered greater flexibility and customization, targeting specific verticals and consumer groups. This led to increased efficiency, improved user experience, and higher customer satisfaction. While custom solutions require significant upfront investment, they offer long-term profitability and are ideal for businesses with unique requirements.
If you’re considering a custom solution, reach out to us. We’ll help you make an informed decision. Follow our digest for more useful articles!
