BOOKCITY.RO - Bespoke Magento 2 e-commerce store development

  • UX based on custom-built features
  • multi-inventory system
  • smart 3rd-party integrations
  • re-engagement customer tools
  • mobile-optimized webshop

Technologies

Magento 2, ElasticSearch, Redis

Categories

E-commerce
Retail & e-commerce
loan app development banking solution

Home > Magento Development Bookcity

Dynamic, feature-rich e-commerce store (developed with Magento 2) able to attract, engage and re-engage customers on the platform and beyond.

The client

Bookcity is a national bookstore chain with a high market presence (especially in the west of Romania). This business story started in 2011 with a physical bookstore in Brasov and then extended to other cities (Timisoara, Targu Mures, Galati). The online environment was also explored as a sale strategy until 2020 by using a Magento 1 based webshop. Books mostly represent the store's products, but it also offers related products as gifts, stationery, and board games.

The context

The existing Bookcity's website was using Magento 1 - an open-source platform reaching end-of-life in 2020. The owners wanted to extend their online presence and were looking for a Magento 2 development team to migrate their Magento 1 website for significant optimizations. The reasons behind their platform decision were:

  • the team was already familiar with Magento;
  • the new Magento 2 version is feature-rich & already a mature solution.

The solution

We migrated the webshop from Magento 1 to Magento 2 along with the existing product catalogue and orders and clients database. For providing a complete and functional solution, we took into account several milestones across the development process:

  • creating an intuitive and sales-oriented webshop architecture;
  • matching design concepts with the client’s objectives and with the development requirements;
  • adapting existing modules to the business needs and expectations;
  • developing new modules and features from scratch;
  • integrating 3rd-party tools and services.

Shortly after the webshop was optimized, Bookcity recorded more orders.

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Complete e-commerce experience

Complete digital experience. Easy manageable sales process.

Promotion tools

Various widgets on the Home page and custom “special offer” feature for promoting products based on specific criteria.

Online shopping assistant

Custom-made shopping assistant module - when shopping for a gift, customers can get relevant product suggestions by selecting 3 main criteria (gender, age, hobbies).

Smart integrations

Smart 3rd party integrations for providing a complete and risk-free online shopping experience (CDMS ERP, mobilPay payment system, customized Urgent-Cargus shipping module).

Automated updates

The shop displays categories with on-stock products only, using a custom-built module. All product details, inventory, and promotions are imported from an ERP in real-time.

Smart shipping & delivery

Real-time order tracking, automated shipping costs calculation, and gift wrapping options. BOPIS (Buy Online Pick Up In Store) - a multi-inventory system showing the shops where a product is available.

Automated content management

Simplified product management on the page through smart categories (products get automatically mapped to categories based on their attributes).

Features and functionalities

  • promoting specific products and categories (easily manageable by the bookstore owner) using Homepage dynamic widgets;
  • filter-based suggestions (for “special gifts”) actionable through a dedicated search bar;
  • custom filters in the sidebar (based on a predefined layered navigation module);
  • mega-menu and sticky menus;
  • “special offers” instant notification - users get information about the available promos while adding products to their cart;
  • wishlist products reminder re-engagement email;
  • automated checking for on-stock/of-stock products;
  • category automatisation - categories containing out-of-stock products only are automatically hidden.
  • “back in stock” notification for users to be emailed when an out-of-stock product is reached via Google search;
  • criteria-based products sorting (newcomers, ascending/descending price, relevance, product name);
  • smart search features (search suggestion, synonyms, stop words);
  • login using a personal account, or using a Google/Facebook account;
  • 2-step checkout system;
  • real-time order tracking;
  • automated shipping costs calculator based on the order’s value;
  • gift wrapping features;
  • Magento custom-build blog;
  • subscribe to the newsletter.

3rd party integrations

The platform integrates seamlessly with 3rd party services, add-ons, and features.

Matching design concepts with development requirements

Implementing advanced platform settings for displaying relevant content only

Adapting existing features to the business needs

Using best tools for outstanding results

Providing beyond the online store experiences

Matching design concepts with development requirements

  • In the design implementation phase, visual elements were fitted to the website layout. The development team worked together with the design team to get the best results in terms of visual and engaging user experiences.
  • Main pages (Books, Gifts, Games, etc.) were designed and implemented as layout pages for providing a wide and dynamic exposure of the products.
  • We combined visual elements and transactional features on the same page for providing a consistent user experience, across the buying process.

Implementing advanced platform settings for displaying relevant content only

  • We’ve created a custom module for Magento 2 able to scan which categories have on-stock products and which have not. Empty categories are automatically disabled from the website and re-enabled when available products are added.
  • On the Home page, we’ve implemented various widgets for generating a dynamic overview of the top promoted products (recently launched books, Romanian authors/book accessories/bestsellers, categories, etc.)
  • We've implemented several searching and filtering features (suggestions for offering the best gift, listing products based on specific criteria, filtering products on price, category, publisher, etc.) to simplify the acquisition process and get customers closer to the products matching their interests best.

Adapting existing features to the business needs

Some several great features and add-ons can be added to a (Magento) webshop.

However, these external features are created with general e-commerce needs in mind (so they can’t cover the specific entrepreneur’s challenges and expectations).

For instance, the Urgent-Cargus shipping module needed important changes to respond to our client’s needs and provide the complete experience users are expecting.

Main optimizations our team applied to the Urgent-Cargus module:

  • displaying of the AWB code on the order management forms;
  • attaching the pdf invoices to orders;
  • automated shipping costs calculation based on the total cart value.

Using best tools for outstanding results

  • Smart 3rd party integrations for providing a complete and risk-free online shopping experience (CDMS ERP, mobilPay payment system, customized Urgent-Cargus shipping module).
  • Real-time order tracking, automated shipping costs calculation, and gift wrapping option. BOPIS (Buy Online Pick Up In Store) - a multi-inventory system for allowing customers to quickly identify the Bookcity shops where their chosen products are available.
  • Custom-made shopping assistant module - when shopping for a gift, customers can select from 3 main criteria (gender, age, hobbies) to get relevant suggestions only.
  • Custom, csv-based SEO module for automating 301 redirects.

Providing beyond the online store experiences

Off-page experiences are critical in e-commerce, for converting prospects into customers - regardless of the stage of the Buyer Journey:

  • ATTRACT new customers: if a prospect is looking for a certain book using a search engine (e.g., Google) but the product is no longer available in BookCity’s stock, it will still be displayed in search results with the “Notify me when this product is available” option;
  • CONVERT prospects: sending automated and personalized reminder emails to those prospects that have built a wishlist but didn’t add products to cart;
  • DELIGHT existing customers: custom-made shopping assistant module - when shopping for a gift, customers can select from 3 main criteria (gender, age, hobbies) to get relevant suggestions only.

Technologies

Magento 2, REDIS, ElasticSearch