Building an Organic Childcare Products Store on Magento 2 from Scratch

Challenges

The company planned to launch their site in February 2018, so naturally, our goal was to meet, if not exceed all client requirements for design, bespoke marketing features, and third-party services integration.

Development

Refer a Friend program

Refer a Friend program allows existing and frequent shoppers to earn money by introducing and signing friends up to MADE OF. The essential functionality was provided by a third-party extension that we customized according to our client’s business needs.

The program is really simple to launch, and just as easy to manage. First, a customer invites a friend to register on the website by filling in a simple form with their name and email address. Each customer is able to invite up to 5 contacts at once but overall, there are no limits to how many friends you can recommend and be compensated for. Listed below, we provide 3 easy ways to get your friends up and running with the refer a friend method:

– Referral popup form (accessed via the link in the header)

– Referral form on the Success Page (appears after order placement)

– Separate CMS page (accessed via the link in the footer)

In order to use the Refer a Friend program, customers should already be registered members of MADE OF. With that in mind, we tried to make the sign-up process an easy and painless process for all users. This way, customers can create an account wherever they are in the process, such as:

– From any page via the header link

– From the Refer a Friend popup

– During checkout

Every invitation and every first order placed by the referred person will result in the customer earning Customer Reward Points (1 Point = $1). These points will be added to their balance automatically and can be spent on the customer’s next round of shopping. Additionally, the customer can keep an eye on their Reward Points balance (both earnings and spendings) in their MADE OF personal account section.

Custom product attributes for product pages

As was mentioned above, our сlient wanted to show customers as much information about products as possible. In doing so, they came up with ultimate transparency as the main advantage of their production. It means that end customers should have an ability to see where and how their products are made, as well as, which ingredients are used to make them.

In order to implement this opportunity, we developed custom attributes for each product: ingredients, factory location, test results, certificates, etc. All attributes are easily manageable within the Magento Admin panel in 2 different ways:

• From the special attribute section, where an Admin can control any attribute within groups (or separately) without reference to the specific product
• From the product page where an Admin can handle the previously added attributes to this product (and, of course, add new) for quick and easy access.

Throughout this process, we implemented lots of possible options for each attribute, such as listing certificates & logos, large images of ingredients for easier reading access. Even downloading files to appear later in popup forms, attributes displaying at the same time via vertical tabs where users can see detailed information about product specifics, you name it, and we thought of it. Twice.

Categories with CMS blocks (& mobile product grids)

We implemented an elegant solution for site admins to manage and implement CMS blocks directly into the product grid.

As a result of such implementation, admins can define where and in which order to place the CMS blocks on MADE OF category pages. And since it’s so easy, it can be done according to a thorough, logical structure, or at will when things change last minute. By default, we linked each couple of products with the CMS block, including a short description of the subcategory that they’re related to, and put a direct link to each one.

We should probably note here that, we’re all for the idea of freedom, and we didn’t want to restrict design capabilities in any way. So, we added some features that would allow for a bit more creativity and flexibility. For example, each CMS block and, consequently, the number of products associated with it, can be changed. The default setting will display 4 products in a row, but it’s nice to know you have options to change up the design to best suit your style.

According to statistics, the number of mobile gadgets among internet users, especially e-commerce website users, being used to connect to websites is steadily increasing. We can’t help thinking about the growing number of people accessing these sites via mobile devices so, we optimized the MADE OF category pages for mobile. By utilizing the Product Grid Switcher, an admin can customize the number of products displayed in each row (1×1, 2×1, etc) based on the product image, size, or the total number of products in the category.

Automatic account creation at checkout as a guest

MADE OF to keep customers on the site and reduce cart abandonment is automatic account creation during checkout. The idea is pretty simple: a user starts the checkout process as a guest but finishes as a registered MADE OF customer.

Product subscription functionality

We developed a product for MADE OF called Subscription Functionality to allow customers to subscribe to products or product bundles, which will then be delivered automatically according to a set schedule.

The product subscription is implemented through the Yes/No switcher in the admin panel for each product. The main idea is that a product or product bundle is reordered after a certain amount of time passes, usually determined by the customer. If a product fails to be reordered because of payment processing issues, availability, etc., both user and admin will be notified via email.

Integration with Klaviyo ESP

To stay in touch with customers, our client chose Klaviyo for MADE OF – a modern ESP system with an automated configuration of email campaigns, and a built-in email template builder. We integrated this ESP with Magento and configured all scheduled events and flows from Magento to Klaviyo. This means the end-user gets an email from Klaviyo that’s relevant to the event triggered. For example, it could be a “Forgot password” email, a “Thank you for your order” email, or even a “Signup confirmed” email.

The main advantage of our implementation is its user-friendliness. This means the site admin doesn’t need to be very tech-savvy to configure a Klaviyo email template on the front-end.

We should also point out that we successfully implemented cross-integration among Magento, Klaviyo, and the Refer a Friend module for sending email chains regarding this feature.

SEO optimization

It’s no secret that ranking well in Google search results gives your site many advantages.

To make the site SEO-friendly, we implemented 301 redirects and URL rewrites for shorter and more user-friendly products and categories URLs. We have also customized breadcrumbs for category pages and integrated Google Tag Manager supported by a third-party extension.

Additionally, to help the MADE OF site stand out in Google search results, we customized its snippet to make it rich and eye-catching. We added custom events according to Google Rich Snippet documentation (for example, Organization), fine-tuned existing elements, and troubleshot the Product Review Snippet (by default in Magento = Null).