Success Story Retail

Re-architected Ecommerce Platform Drives Record Sales For Healthcare Retailer

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This leading nutritional supplement retailer provides health and wellness products in-store and online to customers in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

The client focuses on helping people become their best selves by offering a wide assortment of cutting-edge supplements, proteins, aromatherapies, herbs, superfoods, natural beauty products, and more. To better serve its customers, the company was looking to upgrade its online shopping experience and align it more seamlessly with its in-store channel. They were looking for a consistent UX across all channels.

Apexon engaged with the client to help modernize its existing eCommerce capability with a focus on increasing scalability, enabling a seamless checkout experience, and optimizing it with physical inventory changes. Apexon introduced omnichannel capabilities including Buy-OnlinePick-Up-In-Store (BOPIS) for a holistic customer experience

  • Founded in 1977

    Founded in 1977

  • Over 700 stores in the US and Canada

    Over 700 stores in the US and Canada

  • 20,000 SKUs

    20,000 SKUs

the Results

Key Outcomes

Record-setting Cyber Monday sales
Record-setting
Cyber Monday sales

50% increase YOY on Black Friday
50% increase YOY
on Black Friday

Enhanced customer experience across an omnichannel platform
Enhanced customer
experience across an
omnichannel platform

The challenge

UNSCALABLE & FRAGMENTED SYSTEM HURTING SALES

With Cyber-Monday on the horizon, this client was concerned about the scalability of its existing Oracle Commerce website. The current infrastructure worked such that any changes to the backend meant a disruption to the UI. In addition, there was no connectivity between the regional brick and mortar stores and eCommerce site. This lack of an omnichannel capability created broken customer journeys and lost sales.

The client needed a more flexible technical environment within the existing infrastructure:

The customer shopping experience at both physical and online stores

The customer shopping experience at both physical and online stores needed measurable touchpoints

Site maintenance and overhead costs

Site maintenance and overhead costs needed to be brought under control

The business and UI layers needed to be decoupled

The business and UI layers needed to be decoupled to enable easier upgrades

The implementation of BOPIS called for end-to-end connectivity between the regional brick and mortar stores and eCommerce site.

In addition, the client required:

Actionable BOPIS options with voice-of-customer

Actionable BOPIS options with voice-of-customer feedback across the portal

Customer notifications for order updates

Customer notifications for order updates

Store-specific inventory

Store-specific inventory based on selected products

Consistent payment methods

Consistent payment methods for singular authorization flow from the web to POS systems

The Solution

BOPIS CAPABILITY TO DRIVE INCREASED ONLINE & IN-STORE TRAFFIC & SALES

Taking into account data analysis, technology, supply chain and people management. Apexon bridged the gap between online and offline experiences with a comprehensive BOPIS strategy with its existing Oracle eCommerce platform at the base. The solution included a seamless user experience via a Single Page Application (SPA) with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling across all viewing channels through an AngularJS-based responsive interface.

An improved product taxonomy ensured a uniform hierarchy for all users.

Key capabilities incorporated into the solution include:

Consistent product and store data

Consistent product and store data using NodeJS and MongoDB

An independent UI layer

An independent UI layer that only consumes Oracle Commerce REST APIs

Free resources for additional requests

Free resources for additional requests during peak time, focusing on order capture

Performance tuning

Performance tuning via implementation of parallel asynchronous processing

Elimination of redundant database

Elimination of redundant database requests to bring in pure eCommerce aspects

A robust, component caching strategy

A robust, component caching strategy, leveraging Akamai and Varnish

Real-time store inventory

Real-time store inventory to the eCommerce portal

Addition of default store functionalities

Addition of default store functionalities based on the user’s current location

The ability to turn off BOPIS features

The ability to turn off BOPIS features for fulfilment stores

Display of pickup timings per order

Display of pickup timings per order placement and selected store details

Modification of cart and checkout flow

Modification of cart and checkout flow for direct store pickup option

Real-time validations across the checkout flow

Real-time validations across the checkout flow

Enhanced order history to include BOPIS tracking

Enhanced order history to include BOPIS tracking

Push-notifications for due pickups

Push-notifications for due pickups

Enhanced analytics for customer journeys

Enhanced analytics for customer journeys and feedback loops

Outcomes

With the addition of a company-wide BOPIS implementation on Oracle eCommerce, the client saw big sales gains and significant efficiencies in order management and customer turnaround:

Record-setting Cyber Monday sales

Record-setting Cyber Monday sales

50% increase YOY on Black Friday

50% increase YOY on Black Friday

Advanced reporting on in-store and online experiences

Advanced reporting on in-store and online experiences

Streamlined inventory updates in real-time

Streamlined inventory updates in real-time

Increased in-store foot traffic leveraging 'BOPIS' as an omnichannel strategy

Streamlined inventory updates in real-time