We identified Broadleaf commerce as the platform to develop this e-commerce solution on, since it is ranked among the best open-source enterprise eCommerce platforms for B2B and B2C marketplaces, written entirely in Java and leveraging the Spring framework with a robust data model and set of services to take care of most of the ‘heavy lifting’ work.
1.
To meet the design needs of the client, our design team created branding guidelines, detailed wireframes, mood boards, and color palettes to understand client's design preferences before finalizing on high fidelity mockups.
2.
Since the immediate goal was to replicate the functionality of the client’s original site with a few additional feature enhancements, we started by creating all the interior pages, and landing pages for product categories.
3.
Based on volume of transactions and fee structure, we shortlisted Sage Payment Processor for payment processing and integrated the e-commerce solution with that.
4.
To enable easy shipping, we integrated UPS Shipping with custom shipping rules, that was readily available in Broadleaf’s Order Management System as a plugin. We added provisions for drop shipping and customer notifications to Warehouse Cables for unusual shipping situations.
5.
We configured multi-faceted product search and filter options readily available with Broadleaf’s powerful Apache SOLR search.
6.
Product reviews are very powerful form of social proof. We integrated the application with ‘Shopper Approved’ to collect reviews from customers on Warehouse Cables’ products.
7.
We integrated ‘Wufoo Forms’ to the application in order to allow the client to collect data on custom forms for special products.
8.
We mapped the custom data fields with the data fields in the new application, and cleaned up existing data for import. We then extracted product keywords from one-line descriptions of the products, and configured for search filtering.
9.
Broadleaf commerce has very powerful SEO capabilities built in. We guided Warehouse Cables on how to best leverage this, through search-friendly page titles and URLs.
We allotted specific time at the end of our projects, to allow the client to review the site, and request modifications, tweaks, or bug fixes. Finally, we scheduled three 2-hour sessions, where we trained on how to use Broadleaf commerce and manage the site. This included configuration of products and customers, as well as promotions and coupons.