Client spotlight: A journey to building a scalable ecommerce platform

The technology is ever-growing and expanding as we speak. This same technology kept us going during the pandemic and made us realize the value of being connected through social media platforms. This prompted several businesses, both big and small to build their presence online. Evidently, ecommerce jumped to $26.7 trillion in sales.

Speaking of numbers, ecommerce giants like Amazon saw a 220% saw rise in online shopping but small and mid-sized brands didn’t disappoint either, 71% of them survived and soared proudly but this wasn’t easy, and it definitely didn’t happen overnight. It took them a while to build trust and retain customers for the future. It goes without saying that we trust ecommerce giants but what about these small online stores having no big publication putting their name or any YouTube review on them, and their services being pre-paid, it took the customers a while to become accustomed to this method, and believe that their trust will not be compromised.

These small in-house businesses were able to set up websites on their own for a small amount of money and as they expanded after the pandemic they shifted to larger ecommerce websites.

- How did this happen?
- What made it possible and this easy?

The simple answer is ecommerce platforms.

In the ocean of ecommerce platforms, we make it possible for you to choose the best one according to your needs, try us.

Building a scalable ecommerce platform

If you are still on this article, it means you need a little more convincing. So, we are going to embark on a journey to help you make your decision.

Client’s business overview

Luxury lifestyle products are a huge market and worth billions. We had a client with the idea of scaling his Luxury candles and perfumes business. Being a founder for more than 2 years, he knew it was the crucial step to move forward and expand so he reached out to us. He needed someone to build a website for him along with every feature he required such as payment gateways, streamlining offline and online stores, etc.

So, what were the indicators that he needed to scale-

1. His customer base grew as well as the demand for the products. The demand was more than what was being produced.

2. The target revenue he had in mind was long met.

3. There was a demand for a new segment in the business and he knew the potential his team had.

What were his goals?

1. He wanted to acquire a larger audience and reach across countries with different time zones eventually building a loyal customer base.

2. He wanted to streamline and increase operational efficiency.

3. He wanted to dive into other products and not stay limited to existing products.

What were the reasons for opting for an outsourcing company rather than doing it on his own?

1. As he wanted to build a website from scratch, he would have to hire for multiple positions which costs much more than the project whereas with outsourcing his project he cut down on hiring costs and employed that money in other areas.

2. His business was rapidly growing, time was a constraint and he needed a team that could complete the project within a given period of time without compromising on the quality.

3. One last reason he opted to outsource the project was due to his vast experience in an outsourcing team handling a wide array of projects.

In case you are also on a tightrope on whether you should opt for outsourcing, get on a call with us and hear us out.

What were the challenges he was facing?

Our client was a seasoned founder and had done a good number of sales when he came to us his business was already growing but he still faced some challenges-

• Limited and outdated online presence:
  He wanted to reach a wider audience including different time zones but the brand’s online presence was outdated meaning that the social media platforms, website, and ads needed revamping.
  
• Incompetent sales process:
  Being a luxury business, everything had to be automated, and streamlining the sales including the inventory process was essential.
  
• Business integration:
  He was using inept tools to run his business. He had a couple of physical stores too and now with this new website it would become difficult to align the complete process and track the sales.
  
• Unable to meet the competition:
  As the business was growing, he was unable to compete with other brands due to the systems not being up to date with the market and falling behind on being able to keep up with the trends.
  
• Scalability obstruction:
  Luxury lifestyle brands are always growing and they will continue to expand in the coming years, he wanted to know what should be the next step.

These were some of the reasons why he reached out to us and after conducting a 30-minute consultation call and getting to know inside about his business, we moved on to devising a systematic plan for him.

What was our answer?

Keeping his needs in mind, we suggested Shopify. As we have mentioned, we are liable to explain so, here it goes.

What is Shopify?

• Shopify is an all-in-one ecommerce platform for business owners. It helps beginners and seasoned business owners start or scale their enterprises while managing them.
  
• Shopify allows the owners to integrate third-party apps and have everything in one place. It is a cloud-based software which means it can be accessed anytime and from anywhere.

Why did we recommend Shopify?

There are several ecommerce platforms such as WooCommerce, Wix and Squarespace, etc., available across the web. We chose Shopify after carefully evaluating his requirements and looking for a compatible platform.

Below we have mentioned the reasons equipped with an analysis between Shopify and other ecommerce platforms.

Reasons:

1. Easy to create website:

• Shopify offers various templates to create an up-and-running website by paying a subscription amount.
  
• Shopify has multiple plans for its customers at a reasonable price.
  
• These available templates are eye-pleasing and you can even tweak them according to your liking. But, in case you want to go for a custom code website then Shopify provides their experts as well to help you with the same.

2. Wide range of features available:

• Shopify has various features available on its platform with which several of the operations can be optimized in one place.
• These features can help with shipments, tracking, and inventory management.
• Inefficiencies in the system are reduced and data is handled more carefully.

3. Integration of different platforms:

• Shopify has a varied range of applications available on their App Store meaning, they allow third-party apps to be integrated into the website which eases the process for the customers.
  
• It helps with maintaining the physical and online store data in one place. This will enable the owner to make informed decisions for scaling their business.
  
• It reduces the number of tools one has to use to track offline and online store sales, revenue, shipment, etc.

4. Third-party apps to scale the business:

• With all the features explained above, it is self-explanatory that all the apps or features that you’ll ever need to scale your business are present in the App Store.
  
• Shopify acts as a business catalyst by offering a vast range of tools for the business such as
  - central admin helping to manage all aspects of a business anywhere.
  - banking solutions, keeping in check all the transactions and access to funding, etc.
  - customer experience increasing the interaction with the customers and building a loyal base.

5. Inbuilt marketing and SEO tools:

• Ineffective marketing is the biggest culprit of not reaching a wider audience.
  
• Shopify has built-in marketing tools, that assist you to reach the complete potential of your business.

Analysis:

How we helped our client achieve the desired results?

Now, in order to meet the needs of the customer there is an analysis required to build a roadmap. Once it was done the pain points of the customer were highlighted and we jumped right on to fixing them.

1. As his business was continuously expanding, we started by creating a professional, and easy-to-navigate website with minimalistic and luxurious aesthetics through appealing displays of the products by using multiple templates and tweaking them according to the needs.
   
2. Once the look of the website was decided, the need was to address the other problems hence, we integrated several of the tools available on the App Store of Shopify.
   
3. One of the tools incorporated was payment gateways which made it exceptionally simple for the customers to pay and place an order no matter what part of the world and what currency they used due to the incorporation of multiple languages.
   
4. He was facing issues with keeping track of the expenses, profits, and revenue generated. Hence we used a couple of third-party apps to integrate everything at once be it the physical stores, websites, or social media platforms.
   
5. We devised a marketing plan to help him scale the business by using the tools available on Shopify.
   
6. We made this website by keeping in mind the scalability scope of the business. The features and plugins used were to allow his audience to grow efficiently and business without any hassle.

If you are also looking to scale your business but don’t know what step to take. Then take a step forward to pick us and we will do the rest for you.

The website development process

The solutions that are needed to be employed are lined up, it is time to get into action and bring the vision to life.

Building the face of the website

1. Project details and subscription:
   To build a website, we chose a particular plan according to our client’s requirements.
   
2. Setting up the website
   An account was set up and other settings were completed such as the name of the store and address, etc.
   
3. Theme Selection
   To create a minimalistic look of the website, multiple themes were used and tweaked according to the store theme
   
4. Customization of the pages
   Based on the theme home page and product displays were chosen, at this stage we can also see how will the store look on different devices.
   
5. Completing the overall look of the website
   Once the pages were created, we moved on to creating the logo and selecting the header and promotional messages.

Integrating the apps

1. PayPal
   For the payment gateways, we chose the PayPal app due to it being renowned and trusted worldwide is compatible with various currencies, and offers free and paid plans to the owners.
   
2. Inventory Planner
   To resolve the inventory management issue and restock updates, this particular app was deployed on the website the reason being it is easy to operate, sends alerts when any of the products is low on stock, and can be integrated with many other applications.
   
3. BeProfit - Profit Analytics
   It is a dashboard available on the Shopify app store that helps to track expenses, profits, and losses in real time. It is useful because of its nature to provide custom reports regarding sales and helps in optimizing ads.
   
4. SMSBump: SMS Marketing & Email
   It has been noted that SMS Marketing is highly effective for sending campaigns and new offers. This is because people regularly check their messages, one of the reports has indicated that messages have a 98% chance of being opened.
   
5. Google Analytics
   For tracking and analysis, we employed the Google Analytics app as it is one of the best. It provides better information regarding the business and the customers and how they are behaving. It helps the client to make better decisions by evaluating customers' behaviors in a particular given period.
   
6. Plugin SEO
   This is one of the best apps as it helps in increasing sales traffic on the website and provides an improvement report from time to time so that your website can rack on top.
   
7. Central Admin
   It is an all-in-one tool to manage one’s business from one place, be it your physical stores or online websites or managing orders.

Testing the website

Once the website was ready, it was time to check its functioning and device compatibility.

• Firstly, we needed to check if the website was working accurately such as searching for the products on the website or checking the dashboard for stock alerts.
• Moving on, we checked if orders were being placed, and after, the customer was taken to the right page.
• Now was the time to check website compatibility on different web browsers and devices.
• The final step was to look out for the loading speed of the page, images, and video quality.

Results and Impact

We built this website from the ground up and we aimed to make one whole website by integrating the apps that make it easier for the client to run his business and eventually drive sales.

• The results speak in numbers therefore, the impact that we saw was a striking 32% increase in the number of orders from different time zones.
• It became easier for the client to operate and optimise his website from anywhere and at any time.
• He was able to make better and more informed decisions regarding his business by looking at the trends and customers' behaviors.
• Due to the accurate shipment tracking, the number of lost products was reduced.
• All in all, the website traffic increased and revenue scaled.

Client Testimonial

The client shared, "The website created by Grorapid Lab’s team was an easy-to-navigate website and had everything in his hand. Not only did we see significant cost savings, but our operational efficiency and customer satisfaction also skyrocketed. It validated our product's promise in real-world scenarios."

Well, this is what we do. We help you run your business without putting in a lot of effort so you can only focus on the operations.

In simple words, we take care of the technicalities and you focus on growing your business. If you wish to build and scale your business, then let us help you