Case Studies / Cloud Native Development
From Monolith to Multichannel System: How Gsoft Helped a Fashion E-commerce Giant Thrive
Posted: March 18, 2021
• 4 Min Read
Gsoft modernized a major player in the fashion e-commerce sector by modernizing its monolithic application into a versatile omnichannel system. This transformation significantly enhanced customer satisfaction, sharpened business insights, streamlined operations, and paved the way for their future growth. This case study elaborates on how Gsoft's intervention enabled them to excel in the competitive e-commerce landscape, providing an exceptional shopping experience tailored to diverse customer preferences.
Our Client
The client is a large e-commerce business that concentrates on the fashion and apparel industries. They sell a wide range of high-quality products from well-known fashion labels and emerging designers online to customers globally. Its sales, inventory, and customer information had all been managed by a single, centralized program for years. However, the monolithic application proved more difficult to maintain and scale as the client's business expanded. To remain competitive, the client opted to transform its legacy monolithic application into a scalable and agile omnichannel suite that incorporates messaging (chatbots, SMS, and social media—live and non-live channels), voice, and CRM.
Challenges
The main challenges faced by Gsoft during the transformation of the monolith application to an omnichannel system were:
- Decoupling the monolithic application: The legacy application's tightly coupled and monolithic architecture posed difficulties in incorporating new features and scaling the system effectively. Breaking down the monolith into loosely coupled services required careful planning and execution to ensure a seamless transition without disrupting existing functionalities.
- Introducing an omnichannel approach: Gsoft had to implement an omnichannel strategy that allowed customers to interact with the application through various channels, including online, mobile, and in-store. This required significant changes to the application's architecture, data synchronization, and user experience to provide a consistent and cohesive shopping journey across all touchpoints.
- Managing data synchronization: With multiple channels now interacting with the application, Gsoft faced the challenge of ensuring real-time data synchronization. Customers should have access to their shopping history, preferences, and cart contents irrespective of the channel they use, necessitating robust data management and synchronization techniques.
- User experience consistency: Maintaining a seamless and consistent user experience across different channels and devices was a complex undertaking. Gsoft had to ensure that the application's interface, functionalities, and features were optimized for each platform while still providing a unified experience to customers.
- Integrating messaging and voice channels: To support the omnichannel approach effectively, Gsoft had to integrate messaging and voice channels into the application. This integration required careful consideration of communication protocols, security, and data privacy to ensure smooth interactions between customers and the company.
- Ensuring security and privacy: With an expanded range of channels, the risk of security vulnerabilities and data breaches increased. Gsoft had to implement robust security measures to safeguard customer information and transactions across all channels, ensuring compliance with industry regulations and best practices.
- Testing and quality assurance: The complexity of the transformed application required comprehensive testing across various channels and scenarios to ensure its stability, performance, and functionality. Gsoft needed to devise effective testing strategies to identify and address potential issues before deployment.
- Performance optimization: As the application's user base expanded, Gsoft had to optimize the system's performance to handle increased traffic and maintain a smooth shopping experience for customers, regardless of the channel they used.
- Scalability: Ensuring scalability was a critical challenge for Gsoft during the transformation project. The application had to scale effectively as the client's business expanded and attracted a larger consumer base. Performance bottlenecks, poor response times, and possible system breakdowns during peak periods might come from ignoring scalability difficulties.
Solutions
Gsoft undertook a systematic and incremental approach to implement the omnichannel system, replacing the legacy monolithic application for the client. The transformation was divided into three phases:
Phase 1: Identification of Microservices and Implementation of a
Component Model
In this initial phase, Gsoft performed a thorough analysis of
the monolithic application to identify distinct functionalities that
could be extracted and transformed into individual microservices. Components
such as sales, inventory management, and customer data were carefully
separated, creating a more flexible and scalable architecture. By breaking
down the application into microservices, Gsoft paved the way for easier
integration of new features and enhanced scalability to support the client's
growing business demands.
Phase 2: Introduction of Messaging and Voice Channels
During the second phase, Gsoft introduced various messaging
and voice channels to enable seamless communication between the
client and their customers. Chatbots, SMS messaging, and social
media messaging were integrated into the system, facilitating
real-time and non-linear interactions with customers. Additionally,
a cloud PBX system was implemented to incorporate voice channels,
allowing customers to communicate with the client through their
preferred channels. This multi-channel approach created a
streamlined and efficient shopping experience, enhancing customer
satisfaction and engagement.
Phase 3: Implementation of CRM
The third and final phase focused on the implementation of a
cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This CRM
system was seamlessly linked with the messaging and voice channels,
capturing, and analyzing customer data from all interactions and
touchpoints. The integrated CRM provided invaluable insights into
customer behaviour, preferences, and purchase history, enabling the
client to offer personalized and tailored experiences to each
customer. This data-driven approach empowered the client to make
data-backed decisions, optimize marketing strategies, and build
stronger customer relationships.
Results
Through the transformation of the legacy monolithic application into a cutting-edge omnichannel suite, Gsoft brought significant benefits to the client, resulting in the following outcomes:
- Enhanced Customer Experience: The client's customers experienced a notable improvement in their shopping journey. With messaging, voice, and CRM features in place, customers can now talk to the client through their chosen channels, such as chatbots, SMS, social media, or voice calls through the cloud PBX system. This multi-channel approach made shopping easy and efficient, and customers could interact with the brand in a way that fit their own tastes and needs.
- Optimized Customer Insights: Gsoft's transformation enabled the client to capture and analyze valuable customer data from all channels. The integrated CRM system gathered information on customer behaviour, interactions, and preferences across various touchpoints. These comprehensive insights provided the client with a deeper understanding of their customers, empowering them to make data-driven decisions and offer personalized experiences. By leveraging these customer insights, the client could tailor their marketing strategies and improve product offerings to meet the ever-changing demands of their target audience.
- Enhanced Efficiency and Agility: The newly transformed omni-channel suite streamlined the client's operations and communication with customers. With messaging and voice channels integrated seamlessly, the client's teams could efficiently manage customer inquiries and requests. This optimization translated to increased efficiency in handling customer interactions, ultimately leading to quicker response times and improved customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the microservices architecture and component model enabled the application to be more agile and scalable. The ability to add new features and functionalities with ease ensured that the client could adapt swiftly to market trends and stay ahead of the competition.
- Scalability and Future-Readiness: One of the primary challenges of the monolith application was its limited scalability. However, Gsoft's transformation addressed this issue, providing the client with a scalable and adaptable omnichannel system. As the client's business continued to grow, the application could seamlessly accommodate higher traffic and increased user interactions. The flexibility of the microservices architecture allowed the client to scale individual components independently, optimizing resource allocation and ensuring that the application remained responsive even during peak periods.
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