Our client is a company specializing in auto parts wholesale and retail. It also has a plant producing shock absorbers in Taiwan. At the beginning of our cooperation, the company was operating in a “classic style”. Most orders were accepted by phone and email. Company clients were given personalized prices, and this significantly complicated the work of sales managers. The internal processes of the business were not automated. 1C was used as ERP.
All of this greatly hindered the growth and efficient scaling of the business. In this regard, OrbitLift decided to automate the business processes and develop a modern web platform that would allow to quickly and efficiently serve many B2B and B2C customers.
Initially, the task assigned to us was to create a stable, highly loaded and flexible platform, which would allow to work with the TecDoc database of car parts, as well as to provide tools to work effectively with different types of customers. Upon holding extensive development talks, OrbitLift detailed a technology strategy. Please, mind that we provide consulting to all of our clients to ensure the best experience and results in aspects. Before the start of cooperation, we advise all our customers to read our tech consulting strategy guide.
To achieve the pre-set goals and to provide a high-quality shopping experience the following strategic requirements have been set:
Creation of a proper database architecture that would allow adding any number of items, each of which would allow a variety of features. But at the same time, it should make it possible to find any items according to the given parameters with the execution speeds of up to 50 ms.
Development of an intuitive search interface and directory filters with a possibility to find the required spare part in just a few clicks.
When searching for specific parameters (body number, engine type, car make, year, region, etc.) to show both the original parts and their close substitutes.
Possibility of individual pricing in view of the company's customers.
Integration with 1C (unloading, availability / shelf stock, orders' transfer).
Ability to work with contractors as well as provision of specific functionality allowing them to place their products on the company's site, including bulk upload and creation of headings.
Anticipating the interest of our potential customers, OrbitLift’s created a general e-Commerce strategy guideline where all major focus points are lined out in simple terms.
To implement a successful search platform for products OrbitLift used the TecDoc database. A version of this database for the client contained more than nine million original products and their analogues (crosses). Data from the TecDoc (Oracle DB) was regularly synchronized with the data on shelf stock from 1C. Then it was uploaded into the MySQL database for future use.
The final database consisted of hundreds of thousands of commodity positions. The samples involved more than 30 tables. Such architecture allowed users not only to carry out a quick search on the set characteristics but also provided a dynamic pricing for different types of customers.
The development of a storage system, retrieval, and management of data has removed the load from the sales managers and simplified their work with different groups of clients (both wholesale and to retail). This resulted in a significant decrease in operating costs.
Intuitive interface, a quick and easy search of goods, as well as additional innovations (e.g. a list of recommended spare parts changes, depending on the mileage), resulted in a lot of positive feedback from customers and increased the number of sales by 20%.
OrbitLift has all the necessary experience to create and manage large eCommerce development projects with multi-million data points. Our professional tech team has helped a number of large businesses to structure and upgrade their sales platforms.
Our team continues to support the car sales portal and remains a major participant in all digital processes. Short term effects seen by the client are the increased revenue and sales, and more positive effects are expected as the end result of this cooperation.
