The Background
The client, based in the United States, is a well-known manufacturer of industrial equipment and runs an e-Commerce website to sell its products to end-users. The client had an existing Microsoft solution that could not be scaled due to technology constraints. Apart from limited backend support, the existing solution lacked advanced features required to manage and scale an eCommerce website. On the other hand, upgrading these solutions to the latest proprietary software packages involved significantly higher licensing costs. The client was looking for alternative options to easily scale up vertically and horizontally and thereby, grow the core business and reduce operational costs.
The Challenge
- Coordinating and working with multiple virtual teams associated with the project.
- Understanding the customer needs of a niche industrial product.
The Solution
PennyWise Solutions carried out a detailed study of the existing Microsoft solution; features of the existing website; traffic patterns; the order processing system; and the prevailing payment and shipment tracking technology. The project team then analyzed the requirements for the project and finalized an appropriate technology platform in Magento. Furthermore, as part of the application development cycle, the key objectives and milestones were identified including strategies for data migration.
The Result
Achieved higher conversion rates and lower abandonment rates through a revamp of the shopping cart. Reduced costs in eCommerce site maintenance and overall technology deployments.
Significantly increased overall user satisfaction and enhanced user experience as measured via qualitative feedback.
Increased organic traffic to the site through search engine optimizations. The website now features in the top 3 results many for product specific search queries.
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP solution to assist finance, manufacturing, customer relationship management and supply chain divisions.
Technology Stack
- PHP
- Apache
- Linux
- MySQL
- Magento
- Microsoft Dynamics NAV integration
- Amazon CloudFront
- JQuery
- Prototype
- User experience engineering
- Search Engine Optimization