Shopify Integrations for E-commerce [Case Study]

Problem

The problem

Shopify is the unquestionable number one e-commerce platform, with a breathtaking 800k brands onboard and over $100 billion of sales. However, as a ready-to-use tool, it may not meet all of your expectations. Although it offers many features and integrations, there is a blank spot when it comes to apps dedicated to external management, tracking or shipping systems, especially on the European market.

Goal

The goal

The project’s objective was a smooth integration between clients’ Shopify e-stores and the existing external systems that were responsible for specific e-commerce sections, such as warehouse management systems, loyalty systems, gift cards, product data management systems, etc.

Challenge

The challenge

Although Shopify made it easier for many businesses to start with online sales, it comes with some limitations for stores in Europe, lacking important features such as solutions for simplifying order management. In this case, when you need something out-of-the-box, like a shipping list generated in real-time - you need a dedicated application for that.

Naturaily’s job was to design and create the integrations for our e-commerce partners, double-check that all of the built solutions are 100% scalable and secure, ensure that the stores work well will integrations and, overall, make them ready to handle the growing number of orders with no difficulties.

Solution

Managing the project’s issues

refactoring the legacy code
rewriting the user interface using React
making some fixes and improvements to reduce the number of errors generated by the application
adding new shipping companies

customer data, stock balance, order status, product data, product prices, gift cards, etc.
application processes data from external systems and presents it automatically in the online store (and vice versa)

enabling safe customer identification for Finland and the EU with Suomi.fi
Using SSO (single sign-on) system, so the store’s customers can log in and out with a single click

enabling customers to check the availability of products in a selected store online
benefiting to a higher customer service score, increased conversion and more efficient order processing

integrating the inventory and prices in an online pharmacy store
sending orders from Shopify to the Oscar system (with data translation from JSON to .xml and field mapping)
updating the privacy policy and regulations required to be accepted by a customer automatically
automatic updating of product images, based on a media bank

React.js
(frontend)
Ruby on Rails
(backend)
GraphQL
(API)
JSON
(API)
Shopify Polaris
(design system)

Slack
(communication)
Teamwork
(project management)
One-pass
(password manager)

1

Ruby on Rails Developers
2

QA Specialist
3

Project Manager

Results

As a result, Naturaily designed, developed and proof-checked a number of Shopify integrations. The technology let our e-commerce partners improve the customer experience and satisfaction, increase the conversion and automate lots of tasks that used to be done manually, saving their time and money.