Client Overview: Wiggle/Chain Reaction Cycles

The goal of the project was to deliver a comprehensive eCommerce solution that included a modern platform, payment gateway integrations, OMS implementation, and successful integration with legacy applications. The new solution had to improve the customer experience, optimise order fulfillment processes, ensure smooth payment handling, and allow Wiggle/CRC to scale as the business grew and offer a great customer service to its loyal customers.

1. Legacy Systems Integration: Wiggle/CRC had several legacy systems, including outdated inventory management, CRM, ERP and fulfillment systems. Integrating these older systems with the new eCommerce platform was essential to ensure business continuity and avoid disruptions in daily operations.
2. Payment Service Provider (PSP) Integration: The company operated in multiple regions and needed to offer various payment methods, including credit cards, digital wallets, and alternative local payment options. The challenge was to integrate multiple Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to handle transactions seamlessly across different markets, this included in-store solutions.
3. Order Management System (OMS): As Wiggle's global presence grew, managing orders across different regions/countries became more complex. An integrated OMS was needed to centralise the order processing system and provide near real-time inventory updates, shipping status, and customer support.
4. Website Scalability and Performance: With an increasing volume of online shoppers, especially during seasonal peaks like Black Friday, the eCommerce platform had to handle high traffic, ensure fast load times, and provide a frictionless shopping experience with a multilingual/currency environment.
5. Data Consistency Across Systems: Ensuring real-time synchronisation between the eCommerce platform, OMS, PSPs, POS and legacy systems was critical for accurate inventory, pricing, product data and order status updates.

1. eCommerce Platform Implementation: We chose commercetools as the eCommerce platform for its flexibility, scalability, and ability to handle complex product catalogs and high-volume transactions. The platform was customised to meet Wiggle/CRC's specific needs, such as personalised product recommendations, region-specific offers, and an easy-to-navigate interface.
2. Payment Service Provider (PSP) Integration: A modular payment gateway integration was developed to connect Wiggle's website with multiple PSPs, including PayPal, Stripe, andAdyen. This enabled the site to handle a wide range of payment methods, including credit cards, local bank transfers, and e-wallets like Apple Pay. The payment flow was optimised for speed and security, ensuring compliance with PCI-DSS standards and implementing advanced fraud prevention tools.
3. Order Management System (OMS) Integration: We integrated Fluent Commence as the OMS, which connected directly to the commercetoolsplatform, allowing Wiggle/CRC to manage the entire order lifecycle from order creation to fulfillment. This OMS helped automate order routing to the nearest warehouse, optimised inventory management, and allowed for near real-time order tracking updates.
4. Legacy System Integration: The integration with legacy systems was achieved through a combination of API-based middleware and batch data processes for approximately 150 integrations. The middleware layer allowed the commercetools platform to communicate seamlessly with the legacy inventory management and CRM systems. This integration ensured that real-time stock updates and customer order data were synchronised between the new eCommerce platform and existing systems, minimising errors and delays in order processing.
5. Website Scalability and Performance: To handle the growing volume of traffic, the platform was hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provided scalable cloud infrastructure. The use of a Content Delivery Network (CDN) ensured fast page load times for users across all regions. Additional performance optimisations included caching and load balancing to handle high traffic volumes during peak seasons without performance degradation.

1. Improved Customer Experience: The upgraded platform resulted in a 22% increase in authorisation rates within the first 3 months post-launch. Features like a seamless checkout process and an optimised mobile experience enhanced customer experience. The integration with multiple payment methods also allowed Wiggle/CRC to cater to customers' preferences across different regions, improving the shopping experience.
2. Operational Efficiency: The implementation of the OMS streamlined order processing, processes and workflows. Automated inventory updates and order routing to the nearest fulfillment center reduced shipping delays and errors.
3. Scalability and Performance: The platform successfully handled an increase in traffic during peak shopping periods, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, without any performance issues. The cloud-based infrastructure allowed for dynamic scaling, ensuring optimal performance even under high load conditions.
4. Platform Quality enabled with a greater than 50% reduction in operations and support personnel.
5. Global Market Expansion: The payment gateway integration enabled Wiggle/CRC to offer local payment methods in various markets. Customers from different regions were able to use their preferred payment options, which contributed to higher conversion rates and customer loyalty.