Continuous Support Resulting in Improved Performance and Conversions of Magento Multistore

Client

The Client is a US-based online restaurant supplier that offers labels, smallwares, first-aid supplies, and more to medium-to-large restaurant chains.

Challenge

The Client owns 40+ Magento stores managed from the same back end – one main store with the full product catalog available to all visitors and separate stores with customized catalogs for long-standing clients. The Client used to rely on an in-house Magento developer to keep the stores in line with changing and growing business needs. However, they found the support insufficient to implement all their ideas of web store optimization and further development. So, the Client looked for a Magento support team with deep knowledge of the platform and an ability to solve challenges with optimal solutions. They expected the team to stay agile and scale up if needed for a task.

The Client chose ScienceSoft as their Magento support team.

Solution

Started at the beginning of 2018, the cooperation is still ongoing. So far, a number of significant improvements to the Magento multi-store have been delivered.

Optimized website performance. Having detected issues with loading speed, ScienceSoft’s team started with website performance optimization. The specialists conducted a number of adjustments. To name a few, they optimized images, reduced HTTP requests, and minified CSS and JavaScript.

Enhanced website and data security. The team installed the latest Magento security patches and conducted security tests for the system protection. They also initiated the practice of creating backups on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to ensure the security of the company data in case of hardware failure, malware, etc.

Streamlined development and testing workflow. The Client used to rely on the workflow consisting of two environments: development and production. When new features had been developed, they were deployed right in production. This implied the risk of detecting a bug only after it had already become public. ScienceSoft’s team prevented this risk by putting a staging server between the development and release processes. Now, updates go live after they have proved to be stable.

Improved website ranking. ScienceSoft’s Magento specialists were involved in SEO optimization. They fixed technical errors that prevented the websites from ranking high, e.g., they fixed URL and sitemap issues. They also engaged some optimization tactics to win better search positions, for example, they added rich snippets for products including product descriptions, prices, ratings, reviews, and more characteristics.

Brand-new design. The Client provided sketches for landing pages, and ScienceSoft’s team implemented web design. They added interactive elements (e.g., interactive maps) to make the pages more engaging for visitors.

Improved client experience

• The Client offered templates of print assets (e.g., business cards) and provided their clients with a possibility to customize them for their companies. ScienceSoft added an option to save these customized templates to make future ordering of print assets fast and simple.
• The web stores were integrated with Yext, a digital knowledge management system. It gave the company’s clients a possibility to instantly check their company information in 65+ online business directories and edit it if needed to keep the information up-to-date.

Increased conversions. ScienceSoft supported the Client in their intention to rethink the way a website menu looked. The implemented mega menu allowed the Client to manage the information shown without effort and add categories, products, text contents, images, videos, and more there.

In the course of cooperation, the Client needed to smoothly integrate a newly acquired digital printing company into their ecommerce business and build its effective online presence. ScienceSoft’s team took on creating an ecommerce solution and came up with a brand-new Magento webstore that became part of the multi-store.

Results

The Client enjoys competent Magento support for their multi-store. The performance optimization resulted in increased website loading speed. With improved UI and UX design, the look and feel of the websites conform to the Client’s vision. With the staging environment, they can see and approve website updates before they go live. The Client successfully develops their digital print business direction and sells online via their new Magento online store.

ScienceSoft provides technical assistance for the Client’s business ideas and guides them on their development strategy. Now, the team is working out a plan of migration of the Client’s multi-store to a newer Magento version.

Technologies and Tools

Tools: Jira, Helpscout, Git, DeployHQ

Environment: Magento 1.9.3.9, WordPress 4.9, ERP, CHILI Graphics Engine

Technologies: LAMP stack, Zend Framework, PHP