An End-To-End Digital Shopping Platform Enables Consultants To Sell Faster And Better

It was becoming clear was looking for a platform that allows them the ultimate flexibility - the flexibility and freedom to choose the right approach for situation like: getting to followers faster, expanding to incorporate third party solutions or building the perfect, differentiating experience from scratch and all done on with modern development approach that facilitates time-to-market, scalability, simple upgrades/updates and optimized customizability

To help get started with implementing the project, the client teamed up with our team of mobile app developers and web developers. The shopping ecosystem would include two parts, i.e., one mobile app and one web portal. The mobile application was made available for consultants and buyers. On the other hand, the web portal was only made available for only the admin and consultants. The whole ecosystem was designed to help sellers upload their merchandise, assign attributes, schedule sales, and process claims. The claimed items were later shopped and payments were made offline. Eventually, the consultant was updated on the status of the claims.

Front-end

As the digital shopping ecosystem included a web portal and an app, the client wanted us to build an interactive and easy-to-use front-end. Making user-friendliness and intuitiveness the foundation of the online shopping system, we made the front-end as responsive as possible. Here are some key highlights of the front-end that we designed.

• Flexsin simplified how users browsed and claimed products/merchandise during the sale events. The UX of a website was made smooth and attractive enough to make a prospect stay on the website and convert it into a member for good.
• Platform empowered buyers to browse sales in progress and claim them online. Flexsin made sure the search bar is omnipresent throughout the website, supported all kinds of queries, had an auto-complete functionality and supported sorting and filtering of results.
• Enabled consultants to upload images using drag-and-drop features
• Helped buyers chat with clients to clarify their queries. Flexsin used persuasive designs and psychological ways to make sure that prospects were becoming part of the community.
• Flexsin allowed buyers to follow consultants via an interactive mobile app. Flexsin followed standard brand guidelines for the entire website and across different channels such as a mobile app. Flexsin ensured the brand experience was consistent throughout the website and suitable for the product type that the platform is offering. Flexsin ensured visual hierarchy by keeping the most critical content displayed above the fold.

Backend
As the shopping system had to be data-centric, it was connected with a robust database to seamlessly store data points. The database was to be used by both the web portal and the mobile app. However, both the users of the portal and the app were required to communicate with the database slightly differently. Here are a few key highlights of the shopping system's backend.

• Connected the web portal and mobile app with a robust database
• Created indexes and RDBMS in database structure to make the site optimized. Flexsin developed a very sophisticated architecture that stores lots of members and consultant data (including member's data, history, users, and campaigns) in many database tables.
• Allowed only web-portal users to store and add data as well as modify it. The new responsive storefronts were built with extensibility in mind. Each logical area of the "pages" were built in a way that can be independently replaced with a third party or custom solution. From the product grid to the login box to all of the product page widgets, it was all developed in a way that allow client to easily swap in and out different components to help business better.
• Flexsin developed fast and flexible framework with the heavy usage of API's to make sure that experience across devices is not different.

Development Process
The project was realised using agile management methods, to ensure maximum flexibility and efficiency at the same time as optimum quality. Daily stand-ups and ongoing exchange between the team and customer allowed the project to be implemented efficiently. Flexsin development team worked closely with design, engineering, and analytics throughout the entire lifecycle to adjust design/requirements continuously based on small deployments and short feedback loops via continuous integration and continuous deployment. Flexsin development team worked closely with client product managers to design and execute a constant stream of experiments that were tested with actual consultants to validate key assumptions with real user data. Development team quickly follow-up experiments with many iterations of key features, resulting in maximizing key metrics over time.

We had deep expertise in mobile app and web development that helped us deliver the final product without hampering the project's deadline. We have listed below a couple of highlights that defined our development process throughout the engagement.

• Finalized the scope of the project along with the client's team
• Made sure the app and web portal had a seamless look and feel
• Managed different project requirements in real time
• Thoroughly checked the app with the help of QA experts
• Planned maintenance schedules to make sure the shopping system worked as intended