Online store creation for expert-TechnoMarkt

Store programming with the OXID eShop Enterprise Edition

The consumer electronics chain expert TechnoMarkt (Alling) is one of the largest members of expert SE with around 500 employees at 14 locations and has commissioned eWorks as a Frankfurt-based OXID agency with the store programming https://www.expert-technomarkt.de for the sale of electrical and electronic goods in B2C. The eCommerce solution "OXID eShop Enterprise Edition" from the online store provider OXID eSales AG (Freiburg) was used as the standard software in order to achieve maximum functionality, usability and security while keeping time and costs to a minimum. As an official OXID partner from Frankfurt, eWorks was able to support its client in almost all technical matters, from installation, customizing and web design to OXID programming with PHP & MySQL.

Following the store commissioning, eWorks has been supporting its client for several years now in daily store operation ("store support") and in continuous store optimization, helping with technical faults, carrying out security updates, performance and SEO optimizations, keeping the web design fresh, programming OXID modules with PHP and much more. Thanks to this continuous, long-term cooperation in the sense of an "extended workbench", the client has been able to have countless features and USPs created for the online store over the years: the list of OXID modules developed is now in three figures and covers almost all aspects of the store frontend, store backend, cronjobs and interfaces. PHP and OXID versions have come and gone, mobile apps have been developed and replaced by responsive designs, web server clusters have been set up, replaced by scalable cloud architectures, moved and expanded. While "under the hood" was being worked on daily and after tens of person-years (!) of PHP programming, no line of source code was the same as before, expert customers, including user accounts, order histories and passwords, were always taken along for the ride and at best noticed the regular facelifts and functional updates of their online store.

For example, the online customer service was taken to the next level by programming additional services such as a "2-man bulky goods delivery service", appliance connection, disposal of old appliances, optional additional insurance and much more. As well as a customer center with tracking data from various shipping service providers (DHL etc.) including a returns portal. And for a genuine multichannel / omnichannel experience, the functionality was programmed to reserve goods online in the store, pick them up in the store and pay either directly online or at the checkout on site - including stock updating or goods reservation and intelligent order routing to the relevant store. Last but not least, interactive product advisors, live shopping, audio players for CD/MP3 samples and much more were programmed. All OXID modules were programmed by eWorks by experienced and usually certified OXID developers according to specifications and seamlessly integrated into the frontend/backend of the OXID store.

Wherever possible, available third-party tools and services were integrated to maximize time and budget efficiency. For example, the eCommerce search engine "FACT-Finder" (from Omikron Data Quality GmbH, Pforzheim), the web ERP system "ROQQIO" (from ROQQIO GmbH, Hamburg), the financing service "Consors Finanz" (from BNP Paribas S.A., Munich) for installment payments, "CHECK24" and "IDEALO" as product portals and "Econda" for cross-selling. As well as "Zoovu", "Loadbee", "Icecat" and not forgetting the current "PayPal Checkout". And many more: several dozen interfaces were purchased or individually programmed, adapted to specific customer requirements and seamlessly integrated into the OXID web store.

Not only was the OXID store itself expanded, but numerous background processes were also installed in the back office. Unfortunately, a store with a six-digit number of items and thousands of customers does not manage itself, so fully automated monitoring helps the store operator to detect technical errors at an early stage (e.g. missing orders from additional sales channels such as eBay or Amazon), identify frequent returns of certain items, recognize missing images / texts and much more. Data maintenance has also been simplified as much as possible through individual OXID programming: intelligent tools for SEO optimization, price optimization and much more make the store operator's life easier.

Online store support is provided in close coordination with the client: an agile development process including source code management, demonstration system, ticket system and jour fixes enables an orderly project flow that reconciles long-term project planning on the one hand with short-term reactivity of the store managers on the other. New requirements are regularly discussed, recorded, evaluated, implemented and viewed, the demonstration system is updated and transferred to the production system at defined intervals and put live.

Special attention has always been paid to store performance: in cooperation with the eCommerce agency ScaleCommerce (Berlin), a highly efficient PHP web server and MySQL database system was developed, continuously analyzed and optimized - individually developed cache strategies, widgets, full-page caches and "Cloudflare" do the rest. True to the motto "Cobbler, stick to your last!", special requirements were transferred to external eCommerce specialists in order to bring more manpower and, above all, specialist expertise into the project. In addition to ScaleCommerce, the eCommerce specialist Uli Straub(http://www.kontinui.de) has therefore also been on board for years to continuously modernize and optimize the store web design. As well as other external eCommerce experts to bring together the best of all disciplines in the project team setup.

eWorks planned and programmed the expert TechnoMarkt online store for and with its client and realization partners, continuously developed it as part of the online store support and will continue to be available to the client as a reliable OXID service provider for support requests and change requests.