An e-commerce world-known marketplace faced scalability and budgeting challenges of the existing box solution and decided to develop a custom one, to migrate on it without UX interruption
Ruby, React
E-commerce
Dedicated Team
Web
7 members
MVP – 6 months, 18 months total
A thriving e-commerce marketplace with over 100 shops and 20 brands approached us for a critical mission: migrating their entire ecosystem from Shopify to a custom platform. With offices in all across the globe, this multi-brand store was experiencing rapid growth but found itself constrained by Shopify’s limitations and escalating costs.
The project’s scope was ambitious: to transition a complex, multi-regional business with millions of loyal customers to a new platform without disrupting the user experience. This migration needed to support multi-language and multi-currency capabilities, handle a vast product assortment, and accommodate high traffic volumes – all while maintaining seamless operations across hundreds of warehouses and involving numerous employees in the process.
The analysis of the application development process allowed us to identify a few compelling challenges. Let us highlight them below:
Migrating extensive store data and user information without impacting the user interface or experience
Implementing the transition within a tight timeframe to minimize risks and maintain business continuity
Scaling the platform to handle over 100 stores and 20 brands with millions of customers
Customizing features beyond Shopify's capabilities, such as integrating specific shipping carriers
Reducing transaction fees and subscription costs associated with Shopify
Improving search engine optimization through better data structuring
Enhancing platform flexibility and control over the underlying code
First things first, for this client, we performed a Design and Discovery phase, also known as Sprint Zero. Its aim was to specify the business requirements of the project and draft the initial steps the development team needed to take. Based on data from this phase, our Project Manager crafted a complex action plan with initial estimates and checkpoints.
Next, we developed detailed user personas for merchants, buyers, and site administrators to guide our decisions. With a clear understanding of user needs, we created a strategic Product Roadmap and defined the MVP scope. This involved mapping out user journeys and iterating on use cases until we reached a consensus on the app’s structure and features.
As the foundation for the new system, we chose an open-source e-commerce platform called Spree. It offered both the flexibility and customization options our client needed, along with potential cost savings on transaction fees.
The design team carefully enhanced the UI, creating a component library to ensure consistency while maintaining familiarity for existing users, which was one of the client’s critical requirements.
To overcome the technical challenges of scaling Spree, our engineers and DevOps team wrote custom scripts for bulk data upload to handle the migration. This alone resulted in a 10x improvement in productivity and speed, crucial for managing the client’s large product catalog and high traffic volumes. Additionally, to address all scaling issues, we refactored the initial codebase, made tweaks to server performance, and optimized database queries.
As a result, the client received not only a smooth migration of a relatively vast amount of data but also extensive room for further business growth.
Lastly, we implemented a customizable admin panel for merchants and site administrators, allowing them to efficiently manage their operations.
The migration to a custom Spree-based platform has yielded significant benefits for our client. Most notably, they’ve achieved a cost reduction of at least $10,000 per month in transaction fees alone. This substantial saving, combined with the elimination of Shopify’s monthly subscription costs, has dramatically improved the client’s bottom line.
Beyond the financial gains, the new platform offers unparalleled scalability and customization options. The client now enjoys full ownership and control over their e-commerce infrastructure, enabling them to adapt quickly to market changes and implement brand-specific features with ease. The improved site performance and optimized user experience have positioned the client for continued growth and success in the competitive e-commerce landscape.
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