What the client wanted to get
Problem:
The client wanted to update the functionality of the sites, improve their loading speed, and make them more convenient in use, given the extended assortment. In addition to that, the owners wanted to have new features such as blog and email consultation with the veterinarians that work at iPet.
Our decision:
- For this purpose, the container-based architecture was adopted. The main pluses of this architecture are its outstanding flexibility and scalability that allow having as many resources as needed for stable work at any given moment (for instance, during peak loads).
- Furthermore, separate containers were used for the store, admin panel, and task planner. They use OpenShift as a working environment, which runs on AWS servers.
- As for the search engine, the choice fell on Sphinx due to its fast indexation, blazing speed, and high scalability.
- To transform iPet.ch into something more than just an online store, the blog was added along with the special form to contact the site’s veterinarians for consultation.
The website structure
The home page typical for Magento 1.9 was enhanced with additional features such as the banner that contains information about active deals and exclusive sales.
In addition to that, we also added static visual blocks for each main category of products.
One of the main features of Magento-based online stores is the “Selected (Recommended)” goods section (“UNSERE AUSWAHL FÜR SIE”), which contains products chosen by the site admins/owners.
Also, a list of brand banners was added to the main page – clicking on any banner allows users to browse all products provided by a particular brand.
We also extended the basic functionality of Magento and added dynamic lists of products that are created for each selected category (shows the most popular brands).
In addition to that, the site automatically forms a list of the most popular products in the selected category. Such improvements have dramatically boosted iPet positions in Google rankings thanks to dynamic content.
User Experience
Our developers added a few extra blocks that provide quick access to important functions such as reaching a vet and selecting proper food for your pet.
The latter is done through the partner site FutterWahl.ch, where anyone can fill a quick form with information about their pet and receive food suggestions.
This section of the home page also features the email subscription block. After entering their email, visitors will receive fresh news, information about sales, etc.
Added features
Enhanced the standard Magento notifications
Now it is possible to “subscribe” to products that are out of stock at the moment of purchase.
Checkout
redesign
Customization and redesign of the standard Magento checkout. Also, added a checkbox for asking whether the customer wants to subscribe and receive news and updates from iPet. With the new and improved version, all subscribers will only receive one summary email about products and other related information.
purchasing
Upon their first order, customers can attach a credit card to the account and confirm another purchase of the same products after a certain period. This procedure is completely automatic. All the information about such purchases (period, amount to be paid, etc.) can be found in the personal account
form
Customers can buy diet food for their pets on the website. However, it is possible only with the permission of the veterinarian. If an order includes diet products, the users must fill a quick form detailing information about their pets and leave a comment (optional). This info will be added as a side note in the admin panel for the veterinarians to check. If the food selected is not the right one for a certain breed or age, then the customer will be presented with alternatives (the original order won’t be approved).
and payslips
The system create invoices based on the Swiss model for the convenience of local customers. The main advantage of this method is that it allows users to accumulate invoices during a period (for example, month) and pay them all at once.
Accelerated mobile pages
Integrations with Swiss Post
Economy
Priority
Express
Integration with payment systems
- Saferpay
- Powerpay
- Isr
Available payment methods include PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, TWINT, Diners Club International, PostFinance (Card or E-Finance).
Applications for IOS / Android
Warehouses integration
All food and accessories are sent to customers directly from the suppliers, while iPet functions as a virtual warehouse presenting information about the number of products in stock.
The number of suppliers is constantly growing, and for mutual convenience, we created automated channels to fetch data through FTP, SFTP, Http, and soap-API.
This way, site admins can quickly check product balance in all warehouses.
The site is perfectly adapted for any displays and operating systems
Programming
Apart from the general optimization and modifications to the standard Magento features, we also worked on SEO and added W3C validation. Also, the site was enhanced with rich snippets that provide more detailed product descriptions for parsers.
All security patches are applied right after they become available. For better security, we added a WAF (web application firewall) by Cloudflare. The new iPet runs with the latest versions of PHP and Nginx. The latter is configured to withstand possible attacks.
Both the website and its admin panel are translated into French and German.
Admin Sidebar
The sidebar on the left is the main menu for your store’s Admin and is designed for both desktop and mobile devices. The flyout menu provides access to all the tools you need to manage your store daily.
Displays the Admin startup page, which by default is the Dashboard.
The Dashboard provides a quick overview of the sales and customer activity in your store and is usually the first page that appears when you log in to the Admin.
The Sales menu is where you can find everything related to the operations of processing orders, invoices, shipments, credit memos, and transactions.
The Catalog menu is used to create products and define categories.goo
The Customers menu is where you can manage customer accounts, and see which customers are online at the moment.
The Marketing menu is where you set up a catalog and shopping cart price rules and coupons. Price rules trigger actions when a set of specific conditions is met.
The Content menu is where you manage the content elements and design of your store. You will learn how to create pages, blocks, and frontend apps, and manage the presentation of your store.
The Reports menu provides a broad selection of reports that give you insight into every aspect of your store, including sales, shopping cart, products, customers, tags, reviews and search terms.
The Stores menu includes tools to configure and maintain every aspect of your store, including multisite installation settings, taxes, currency, product attributes, and customer groups.
The System menu includes tools to manage system operations, install extensions, and manage Web Services for integration with other applications
This is where you can find a marketplace Magento Partners and solutions for your store.