Ziggle Tech

The Challenge

There were multiple issues with the eCommerce Platform when we came on board to redesign the infrastructure:

1. The eCommerce site was crashing quite frequently.
2. The AWS cloud infrastructure was not developed to handle the growing demand. It was designed with a single EC2 instance over 3 years ago when the traffic to the site was very low.
3. There was no CDN enabled.
4. The images and static content were being served from the same server.
5. The admin interface for managing content, dashboard, EDI, batch uploads etc. is also being served from the same server.
6. eCommerce landing pages and call center were using the APIs via the main site itself.
7. EDI server would constantly crash.

The Solution

We created a highly available AWS infrastructure using Docker and Kubernetes. With Kubernetes, we created multiple worker nodes with optimized docker containers using the alpine version of docker images where possible to reduce deployment time and increase application performance. We also configured a CI/CD deployment pipeline.

We also divided spree into four separate containers

• Main site and checkout
• SPREE API
• SPREE Admin
• SPREE EDI

This allowed us to better maintain and monitor SPREE. Dividing the containers also gives us much-needed insight on how many resources were being used at each section of SPREE and allow the development team to optimize the code where needed.

The highest number of requests we received at the time was about 60000 with about 5000 users on the site. We had better monitoring and alert mechanism in place. The eCommerce site never went down in last 4 months. We are now able to manage the maintenance without bringing down the server. The client saw an increased conversion by over 40%. This conversion is very high because of the above infrastructure business is able to put more marketing efforts hence the increased conversion.

Other improvements
We optimized the N+1 queries that were being run by Spree Commerce and used Redis caching heavily for database queries.

The Challenge

Senior management at XYPRO realized that the old PHP based portal is not meeting the expectations of a large customer base that they have for its enterprise security software. They were looking for a robust self-service customer portal to support their customers where customers could go and download software documentation, software, and resolve issues. Customers had to login twice before they could create a support ticket or search the knowledge base.

The Solution

After comprehensive user research and understanding of their needs, we proposed to re-platform their self-service customer portal. We redesigned their portal using Liferay. Customers now could go to the portal and download the software, documentation and other materials without having to contact customer support.

For a connected customer experience, we achieved integration between Liferay and Salesforce. XYPRO customer portal has exceeded the company’s expectations in terms of usage and customers’ reaction. Users can now create the support tickets directly from Liferay without having the need for them to go to Salesforce.

Since we established single-sign-on (SSO) between Liferay and Salesforce, the customer portal has exceeded the company’s expectations in terms of user experience and customers’ reaction. We understand that reliability is a key when it comes to self-service customer portals, we developed a highly available AWS cloud infrastructure to host the Liferay portal to make sure we have 99.9% uptime.

Overall, this new self-service customer portal made customers happy with faster resolutions.

The Challenge

With consumer expectations around the mobile shopping experience at an all-time high, senior management at SHEEX realized that the responsive website has various limitations and they need to redesign their website and offer better user experience to its customers (approx. 70%) who are shopping on their website from their phone.

The Solution

Initially, we were exploring a native mobile app, but we realized that customers will have no incentive to download the app to make a purchase, at the same time we wanted to deliver an app-like user experience that was reliable, fast and engaging. Then, we proposed a mobile-first approach using Progressive Web App (PWA) and focus on design, speed and intuitive user experience to drive mobile conversion. We developed a PWA that provided better UX/UI and checkout experience that improved the conversion and customer satisfaction.

The biggest challenge for us was to complete the UX research, auditing, design, develop, test and launch the PWA a week before the Black Friday. Because of our experience and the agile development methodology that we follow for such projects, we were able to launch the PWA on time and within the budget.