Success Story Retail

Luxury retailer builds global presence with emarketplace

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This UAE-based ecommerce retailer offers a range of luxury contemporary handmade craft including jewelry, fashion accessories, art, photography and home furnishings.

As an aggregator of unique artists and designers, this luxury retailer constantly challenges the conventional norms in its industry with its one-of-a-kind offerings. It had a strong presence in the Middle East, but it had bigger ideas for its growing brand.

It engaged with Apexon to help build out a commerce portal to increase its global reach and enhance brand engagement.

  • Founded 2017

    Founded 2017

  • Curator of goods from global artists, makers and designers

    Curator of goods from global artists, makers and designers

  • Strong brand presence in Mideast with eyes on expansion

    Strong brand presence in Mideast with eyes on expansion

the Results

Key Outcomes

YOY GROWTH IN TRANSACTION VOLUME & ONLINE TRAFFIC
YOY GROWTH IN TRANSACTION
VOLUME & ONLINE TRAFFIC

A SEAMLESS COMMERCE EXPERIENCE
A SEAMLESS COMMERCE
EXPERIENCE

REGIONAL PERSONALIZATION
REGIONAL
PERSONALIZATION

The challenge

CREATING A SEAMLESS GLOBAL COMMERCE EXPERIENCE ACROSS A WIDE ARRAY OF LUXURY OFFERINGS

The client’s aim was to house a wide variety of its international art, fashion and furniture designers on a single site. Within the site, it wanted to create different divisions for each craft disciplines; e.g., jewelry, fashion accessories, art, photography and home furnishings.

The plan was to build the online marketplace from the ground up, including setup, configuration and customization. The marketplace would be supported with a robust communication strategy that would drive global sales through relevant messaging.

In addition:

The user experience had to be consistent

The user experience had to be consistent across different devices and touchpoints

Scalability was required to prevent resource bottlenecks

Scalability was required to prevent resource bottlenecks during traffic surges

An end-to-end seller and buyer onboarding process was required

An end-to-end seller and buyer onboarding process was required

Caching delays

Caching delays caused by parity between CDN and servers had to be eliminated

Navigation and search had to be optimized

Navigation and search had to be optimized with site performance

The online buying process needed to be smooth and intuitive

The online buying process needed to be smooth and intuitive

The Solution

MODERN B2B eMARKETPLACE BUILT ON OPEN SOURCE MAGENTO

Apexon built a seamless B2B marketplace for the client using the open-source Magento platform. We focused on a user-centric design that could support multiple viewports and better responsiveness.

Key aspects of Apexon’s solution approach included:

The online buying process needed to be smooth and intuitive

Solr-based search and navigation filter reduced the database load with indexation

Seller signup, product upload and approvals were streamlined

Seller signup, product upload and approvals were streamlined from the super admin

FedEx incorporation and returns processing (RMA)

FedEx incorporation and returns processing (RMA) led to smoother customer flow

Finer control for caching was added

Finer control for caching was added by leveraging OOTB and Varnish capabilities, both on the CDN and server

AWS, Azure and Docker-like DevOps tools enhanced site performance

AWS, Azure and Docker-like DevOps tools enhanced site performance

Loader.io tuned the site for resource balancing and speed checks

Loader.io tuned the site for resource balancing and speed checks during surge times

Touchpoints were optimized for a consistent customer experience

Touchpoints were optimized for a consistent customer experience across different devices

Outcomes
With the eMarketplace, the retailer became a digital-first brand powered by:
A scalable platform centered around customer experience

A scalable platform centered around customer experience

Location-wise personalization through the FedEx module

Location-wise personalization through the FedEx module

The client saw immediate impact as well in the form of increased year-on-year transaction volume and online traffic. With its increased global reach, it expects that trend to accelerate as well.