Overcoming Challenges in Building a Comprehensive E-commerce Website: A Success Story
As a custom software development company, we embrace challenging projects that push the boundaries of innovation. Our latest endeavor involved creating a reliable, always-available e-commerce website with robust reporting tools. At Ai Web Solutions, we take pride in not only handling web development but also offering a comprehensive suite of services, including managing Google Ads, Facebook Pages and Ads, on-page SEO, email marketing, and various design work like leaflets and brochures.
In this article, we delve into an exciting project poised to transform water management as we know it. While we are unable to disclose all the intricate details at this time, we will provide an overview, a backstory, and an exploration of the current challenges. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the talented team at Ai Web Solutions Ltd crafted all the design work, including the logo, app, and dashboard.
Initially, we assumed that building an e-commerce platform would be a straightforward task of uploading products and enabling customers to add them to their baskets for checkout. However, reality quickly shattered our preconceptions. Our client had nearly nine different price variations for each product on any given day. These variations included collection and delivery prices, as well as offer prices, multi-buy discounts, this week-only prices, branch-exclusive prices, and more.
Despite investing four years into development, we recognize that the journey is ongoing. We continue to add new features, optimize code for performance and security, and enhance on-page SEO. Presently, we are updating the design to deliver an even more user-friendly and modern website experience.
From day one, we faced challenges, starting with the data migration process from the client's old WordPress e-commerce website. The outdated system was slow, clunky, and cluttered with unknown add-ons. We had to develop migration tools to transfer user details, only to discover that many users had multiple accounts with the same email addresses. This raised critical questions: Which account is the primary one? How do we determine it? To resolve this, we opted not to activate all transferred accounts, deleting duplicates and merging orders under the same email address. Subsequently, we developed a user-friendly activation process where users enter their door number and postcode. The system prompts them to confirm their email address and reset their password. This solution proved highly effective. However, we encountered duplicate accounts for the same address but with different email addresses. To prevent this, we implemented an address and postcode checker, prompting users if they already had an account and providing clues to their existing email addresses. This approach successfully prevented users from creating duplicate accounts due to forgotten email addresses.
The possibilities and potential impact of this smart water metering system are immense. We feel privileged and proud to be working with such a transformative solution alongside a team of dedicated professionals. The journey is still ongoing, and we eagerly await to see the widespread adoption and impact of this remarkable system. Let's witness where this groundbreaking system ultimately finds its place in revolutionising water management.
We’re excited to offer you a complimentary consultation to discuss your project needs.