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Until 2016, online sales ran on an old static website.
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A static site consists of unchangeable (static) HTML pages.
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Its main drawback is how difficult it is to make any changes: adding fresh content, changing the structure, and so on.
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As load on such a site grows, it becomes hard to maintain code quality and keep the project coherent.
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Accent Group planned to scale, and the developers needed to migrate the old online store to a flexible enough platform able to support business growth.
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At the same time, most of the traffic came from mobile phones and tablets.
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It was crucial to account for this: adapt the UX design, add the relevant features, and make page loads as fast as possible.
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Inventory management across a network of 430 offline stores plus the online store was very hard to run.
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The data volume is large, and records could be kept in different information systems. Yet proper order fulfillment requires seeing the stock of every item in real time.
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Omnichannel interaction with users needed to be digitized to easily collect and analyze data from all sources.
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This was meant to boost operational efficiency.
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When data from every store, the website, email and all other sources is integrated into a single software suite with CRM, ERP and BPM, the company holds all the cards to cut costs and grow sales.
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Alongside digitalization, Accent Group began rethinking the role of their retail stores.
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Instead of treating stores as separate retail outlets, they began thinking of them as distribution centers.
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The decision was made to implement click & collect (online order with pickup from an offline store), and the software had to support this option.
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Although major changes were being prepared, it was important to preserve the key thing - the authenticity of each brand. The online store had to convey the same emotions and communicate the same values as the offline experience. With such an extensive list of tasks, the developers got to work.
