Project: American B2C brand (NDA)

Business model features: a new thematic nail polish collection every month and a marketing campaign for it

Project features: the site was transferred from the Magento platform to WooCommerce

Main problem: traffic loss due to 404 errors and the fact that the site crashed during peak loads

Additional problems:

• Slowed down work due to old URLs and suboptimal code.
• Outdated functions — filters, cart, wishlist.
• Inefficient development process — bugs and expensive errors during releases.

• eliminate all problems associated with changing the URL structure after the site migration from Magento;
• implement automatic testing of the entire store to eliminate risks when deploying new versions;
• fix performance issues when the site is running at peak loads;
• fix bugs and errors in the catalog filters, admin panel, Wishlist pages, and others.

After migrating from Magento, some popular URLs were immediately reconfigured, such as product cards and popular categories, while others were skipped. People who were switching from bookmarks to Pinterest used the old URL, which resulted in a huge number of 404 errors in the server log. In particular, the server received an additional load that did not bring any benefit. Problem resolution:

• Using the WordPress redirect plugin to configure a registry of absolutely all 404 errors that were on WordPress after the migration, and using the Nginx proxy manager to intercept non-existent images and other elements.
• Setting up redirects from all OLD personal account addresses (still on Magento) and for all URL variants of old filters.

We set up the process using the Codeception testing infrastructure. A virtual machine that uses the Selenium engine (a special browser) is launched. Tests from the PHP code are interpreted into real «user» actions — hover over a button, click, find a field, enter data, see if an element has appeared, etc. Automatic tests covered the cart, user account, banners, and other functions. Thanks to this, we were able to find and eliminate many bugs that affected the performance of the online store.

We conducted an audit, found caching problems, replaced some plugins with code, and optimized the table with orders. Black Friday was approaching, which meant an increase in the load on the site. A year ago, the client lost a significant part of the orders due to problems with the site. For client orders, we created a separate table optimized for MySQL. It replaced wp_posts + wp_postmeta, which were before optimization. As a result, no orders were lost, which means the risk of missing a client was zero. We increased the speed of the website for customers who logged in and customers who added something to the cart. As a result, absolutely all pages started loading faster than 500-600 ms.

Before optimization, the partner wanted to switch to Kubernetes infrastructure. This is an expensive solution because its setup and maintenance are a penny. We eliminated the load — simplified the infrastructure by abandoning expensive Kubernetes.

Custom filtering (by color, price, and other parameters) was not working correctly. We carefully refined the MySQL query used for all filtering options. We made sure that these cases were cached correctly at the data level (to avoid slowdowns) and successfully cleaned up one of the main functions of the online store – the product filter.

An outdated version of one of the premium plugins was used to create a Wishlist. We waited for an update of this tool, which uses a Frontend-first Wishlist based on AJAX fragments. All «likes» on the page are placed using JS. Accordingly, after literally 1 request to the server when rendering the page, we already know the current wish list and cache it on the client side. If something changes, we update it. All this is synchronized between tabs and does not slow down the site.

• +1000 high-quality transitions per day thanks to redirects and UX improvement.
• The average check increased by one and a half times.
• The page loading speed decreased to 500-600 ms.
• The site survived Black Friday without downtime.
• Test automation eliminated bugs in production.
• 10+ old bugs were identified and fixed during testing.
• +100,000 dollars on the first advertising campaign after optimization.
• Increased customer trust due to stability and convenience.

• We know the intricacies of the field and are guided by the experience of successful projects.
• The team correctly prioritizes and develops the necessary functions.
• Developers follow the best practices of writing code, in the future it will be easy for other specialists to immerse themselves in the project.
• Where there is no ready-made solution, we show ingenuity and implement custom features.
• The team works with any solution for WordPress, from small edits to large integrations.
• We do not set a goal to «sell more functions», our task is to provide the necessary options to our client.

If you are starting a startup project or the owner of a ready-made e-commerce business and want to get a competent development process, we know how to do it.