Keeping e-commerce platforms modern, efficient, and user-friendly is crucial to staying competitive. As e-commerce continues to evolve, the integration of advanced technology and strategic planning plays a significant role in enhancing both customer experiences and operational efficiency.
Restive focus on helping businesses achieve seamless e-commerce transformations. Recently, our team partnered with a Major Supermarket Chain to modernise their e-commerce experience, led by Senior React Developer, Jeremy Stocker. This article outlines how our expertise in front-end development and content management system (CMS) integration was pivotal in this large-scale project.
Understanding the need for e-commerce modernisation
Businesses must consistently update their e-commerce platforms to ensure they meet modern user expectations and business goals. Legacy systems can create challenges such as slower performance, limited scalability, and an outdated user interface – leading to poor customer satisfaction and missed opportunities.
For the Major Supermarket Chain, modernising their e-commerce platform was essential for driving efficiency and enabling content teams to easily update promotions, pricing, and location-specific deals. With a high volume of traffic and jurisdiction-specific content, they needed a flexible and scalable solution that integrated with their existing content management system (CMS), Adobe Experience Manager (AEM).
The role of front-end development in e-commerce modernisation
Front-end development plays a critical role in shaping user experiences. Fast load times, responsive design, and intuitive navigation are essential for keeping users engaged. Restive recommends using advanced frameworks such as React and TypeScript to deliver scalable and maintainable front-end solutions.
For this project, Jeremy leveraged React’s component-based architecture to build a dynamic and responsive user interface, while also ensuring smooth integration with AEM. The client’s platform also utilised NX Monorepo to streamline project management, enabling better collaboration and faster development cycles by centralising code across different parts of the project.
Modernising a major supermarket chain’s e-commerce platform
Our project with the Major Supermarket Chain involved updating their entire e-commerce infrastructure, focusing on front-end engineering and CMS integration. Jeremy was instrumental in ensuring that content authors could easily update the site’s promotions and pricing through AEM, without disrupting the user experience.
Key to this effort was optimising the platform’s performance, particularly around server-side rendering (SSR), to improve search engine optimisation (SEO). Jeremy’s extensive experience in SSR with React and AEM allowed the team to make the necessary infrastructure changes, ensuring a smooth rollout and enhanced performance.
Challenges and solutions in e-commerce modernisation
As with any large-scale project, we faced several challenges along the way, including managing frequent team turnover and handling complex SSR issues. Jeremy played a critical role in addressing these challenges through collaboration and problem-solving.
One of the biggest obstacles was ensuring that new team members could quickly get up to speed. Jeremy developed detailed documentation outlining workflows, component mapping between the CMS and front end, and best practices for future development. This process greatly improved onboarding efficiency and ensured continuity in the project’s progress.
Technical deep dive: Server-side rendering (SSR) with AEM
Server-side rendering is important for improving page load times and website performance, especially for large e-commerce platforms. For this project, Jeremy worked closely with the team to integrate SSR with Adobe Experience Manager, ensuring that pages were properly rendered on the server before being sent to the client.
This approach significantly improved page load times, resulting in a smoother experience for users and better rankings on search engines. By using AEM Remote SPA, the team was able to overcome technical hurdles related to rendering dynamic content, improving overall performance and scalability.
The impact of modernising e-commerce on business outcomes
Modernising an e-commerce platform brings significant business benefits. For the Major Supermarket Chain, the improvements in the CMS and front-end systems are expected to drive higher conversion rates, improve operational efficiency, and provide a more seamless experience for customers. The flexibility built into the platform allows content authors to quickly adjust promotions and pricing, which is crucial in a fast-moving retail environment.
These enhancements also contribute to the growth of the client’s online network, ensuring that their e-commerce platform can support future expansions and evolving customer needs.
Best practices for e-commerce modernisation
Modernising an e-commerce platform requires careful planning and execution. Here are some best practices to consider:- Choose the right technology stack: Ensure that your stack supports scalability, performance, and ease of integration. For this project, React, TypeScript, and AEM provided the flexibility and performance needed.
- Prioritise user experience: Focus on creating a seamless, responsive, and fast-loading site that meets the needs of your customers.
- Document processes and workflows: Creating comprehensive documentation helps onboard new team members quickly and ensures that knowledge is retained within the team.
- Invest in automated testing: Tools like React Testing Library are invaluable for ensuring code quality and catching bugs early in the development process.
Conclusion
Modernising an e-commerce platform is not just about updating technology – it’s about creating a seamless, engaging, and efficient experience for both customers and businesses. By leveraging modern front-end frameworks, integrating flexible CMS solutions, and focusing on user experience, businesses can ensure their e-commerce platforms remain competitive and future-proof.
Restive are committed to helping businesses achieve these outcomes through our technical expertise and strategic insights. Contact us to learn more about how we can support your e-commerce modernisation journey.
Liked this article? Get the latest insights straight to your inbox.
More from the Restive Files
React vs Angular
