7Flowers — Development of a flowers exchange
Client:
The company “7Flowers” is engaged in the wholesale of the cut flowers, potted plants and planting materials from the network of suppliers worldwide. The firm has offices, and it also works online.
More than 10 000 flower shops, floristic studios, and landscape design bureaus, greenhouse complexes, garden centers, regional distributors are clients of “7Flowers” as well as the retail chains such as OBI, AUCHAN, LEROY MERLIN, CASTORAMA.
Task:
- Implement synchronization with the 1C storage system
- Include authorization through a form or social networks with two-factor authentication
- Provide a mechanism to view and manage a client’s profile
- Use the catalog for pre-ordering (filling the basket and creating a preliminary order)
- Create a flexible system for users to select goods based on various parameters from different suppliers
- Create a directory view in two modes (list and grid)
- Organize clearance of shipment claims
- View the client’s financial balance and its history
- Arrange operations within the exchange catalog in a competitive environment (where the buyer and the manager can simultaneously send requests for the same resource)
- Work with exchange orders and exchange reservations
- Implement an exchange bonus system
- Organize sale in boxes
- Build a module of general and individual discounts for customers
- Create flexible and multi-parameter filtering
Result:
“7Flowers” came to AXIOMA at the initial stage of online system development to service wholesale customers – a personal cabinet. AXIOMA was to create an online catalog for existing customers, automate the receipt of advance orders, and later – to make an exchange system within an online catalog.
When AXIOMA set to work, the team had just the idea of how to transfer the existing system of accepting orders online and an idea of a similar offline mechanism. AXIOMA and “7Flowers” teamed up to design an online system that would be convenient for customers, consistent with the company’s processes and had a reasonable technical implementation.
As a result, we created a personal cabinet, where a client can manage his account, browse the catalog, create orders and draw up claims. Later, based on this cabinet AXIOMA implemented a local flower exchange for “7Flowers” customers.
Key features
- Dense integration with 1C
- Developed its own REST API to work with the exchange
- Developed its own XML-exchange format to work with the catalog and orders
- Autotests that fully cover the XML exchange and REST API, as well as many other project functions
- Compliance with the competitiveness and users priority requests. Buyers and managers can work with the same orders and reservations at the exchange simultaneously.
- The AXIOMA team tested the system fault tolerance and implemented the fault tolerance requirements. The business has strict requirements for zero data or images of goods loss, in case of an emergency. Moreover, the maximum system outage time was established. Therefore AXIOMA implemented special requirements for fault tolerance, and the emergency recovery plan was carefully worked out.
- Implementing a SPA application using React: complete redesign and transition to modern front-end technologies while maintaining functionality
- Implementation of adaptive design for ease of use on different devices.
It is noteworthy that for AXIOMA it is a project where we were able to apply several methodologies for its management. Work on the project began with a cascading method, as”7Flowers” model expected it. Over time, as we worked well together and an effective team together we applied the draft principles of Scrum. Agile practices were convenient both for the client and the developers. We still use them in the project.
Technology stack:
- PHP 8
- Microsoft SQL Server 2019
- Fast search SphinxSearch
- Symfony 4 transition to version 5
- Redis – for distributed storage of user sessions
- React – for SPA implementation
The result:
AXIOMA started working on the project in 2015. However, as the system is actively exploited, the project support and its development have been maintained to date. The personal cabinet of “7Flowers” became a multifunctional online ordering system with the exchange functionality. The system allows to interact successfully with thousands of customers all over Russia at the same time and gives the opportunity to order online goods for your flower shop without waiting for its delivery to the supplier all over the globe.
List of products with filter
List of products with filter
Cart page with drag and drop functionality
Pre-order page
Shipping Page
Client review
I heard about AXIOMA almost 4 years ago and when I invited guys for a small test project to develop the lending and its bundles with the payment system in order to check the Axioma for strength - we could not afford to risk when working with the primary processes (B2B sales of cut flowers and potted plants). As a result, the team coped with the task perfectly, and since then we have trusted them with all of its tasks relating to the web: from the design and development of a personal cabinet for customers to the creation of an online floral exchange from scratch. Initially, we conducted projects on the classic "waterfall" scheme, but then AXIOMA proposed the AGILE / SCRUM approach. We adhered to this approach in internal development, therefore, after the first successfully completed project, we became convinced of the obvious advantages of this methodology and wholly switched to SCRUM on all our joint projects. Vladimir Rybnikov, DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND AUTOMATION AT 7FLOWERS