SHOE X Website - A Drupal Based E-Commerce Marketplace www.appnovation.com
SHOE X Website - A Drupal Based E-Commerce Marketplace Contents 1.0 Background P. 3 2.0 Project Overview P. 4 3.0 Goals & Requirements P. 8 4.0 Modules P. 10 P.2
1.0 Background Section 1.1 SHOE X Project Background SHOE X is a drupal based e-commerce website fostering a niche culture of sneakerheads whose vocabulary ranges from Air Max to Zigtech. SHOE X is a dedicated marketplace for users to buy, or sell rare and exclusive sneakers and other urban apparel. SHOE X s aim is to not only create a network of sneakerheads and shoe enthusiasts, but to also help people find rare shoes, and offer sellers an avenue to sell their prized possessions. While Nike and other shoe brands are re-releasing classic and innovative designs from the past, users can find rare originals and custom shoes for sale on SHOE X. There are no listing fees, as the site s income stems from an 8% commission from all sales. In the first month alone, SHOE X received nearly 600 orders. P.3
2.0 Project Overview Section 2.1 Team & Structure SHOE X s Home Page PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS Active Collab Discussions File Repository Jira for bug tracking GoogleDocs for collaborative document sharing Skype & Google Hangouts for real time video collaboration DRUPAL VERSION Drupal 6, at the time, 7 still was not capable of this out of the box functionality. HOSTING Acquia Cloud. Database: Mysql V5.5.24. Webserver: Apache. OS: Ubuntu. PHP V5.3.2 P.4
2.0 Project Overview Section 2.2 Why Drupal? SHOE X Popular Page In the fall of 2012, the founders of SHOE X were looking for a solid platform that would allow them to quickly implement a lifestyle marketplace. The main goal was to develop a Drupal based website fostering a marketplace for avid sneakerheads. They chose the Drupal Content Management System (CMS) as they knew the technology would meet their business needs and web requirements. From a business perspective, the Drupal CMS offered a proven and robust e-commerce platform on which SHOE X could ensure a secure marketplace for buyers and sellers. Drupal guarantees easy scalability as traffic and transactions increase. Additionally, being an open sourced product meant it carried no licensing fees which helped SHOE X keep its cost low in comparison with nonopen sourced products. P.5
2.0 Project Overview Section 2.2 Drupal provides the ability to perfectly blend e-commerce functionalities with social community attributes into one interactive marketplace. This makes it easy to accommodate the needs of buyers, sellers and those just there to browse. Being modular and flexible in development, Drupal is a very attractive choice providing near limitless customizations. Finally, as one of the premiere open source software platforms on the market, Drupal is well known for both its tough security and strong community support. Section 2.3 Why Appnovation? The creators of SHOE X were looking for a web development partner with experience creating marketplaces using the Drupal CMS platform. During their research, they found that Appnovation had key examples of Drupal based e-commerce sites in their portfolio. Appnovation comes highly recommended as they are one of Acquia s Enterprise Select Partners. Regarded as one of the world s top open source development shops and having produced over 100 different Drupal sites, Appnovation was natural fit for the SHOE X team. Appnovation really enjoyed the challenge of working within the enthusiastic and devoted world of sneakerheads. This project opened Appnovation s eyes to a market that seems larger than expected. P.6
2.0 Project Overview Section 2.3 Product for sale on SHOE X P.7
3.0 Goals & Requirements Section 3.1 Site Functionalities & Business Goals Sample SHOE X Storefront The stakeholders at SHOE X outlined very clear objectives. They wanted a self-sustaining marketplace with a simple interface. They realized some users were avid collectors with plenty of shoes, some customized shoes as a service, and some whose aim was to build their repertoire. No matter the user types, account holders all had the ability to market their listings by designing a storefront and sharing their products via social media. In all, Appnovation needed to satisfy a few demands, ease of use through user interface, different user types, and develop a selfmanaging website. P.8
3.0 Goals & Requirements Section 3.1 Users come in 3 forms: buyers, sellers, and admirers. Buyers can search or browse through specific product categories from Air Jordans to Nike Air Foamposits; sort through listings based on criteria such as newest shoes, most popular, and sale items; search for specific products or even browse by brand. Buyers can contact sellers directly, favorite a store, add products to their wishlist, and even report a listing in case of any misconduct. Sellers have the ability to sell shoes individually or create a store with multiple items and a storefront. SHOE X offers two types of free accounts, Basic and Pro. The Pro account allows users to create a store with multiple items as well as a custom storefront. All stores are uniform in design with the ability to upload your own storefront image. With the Basic account, users receive all the same privileges except the customizable storefront. Images and details such as shipping, payment, product information, and refund policies are determined by the vendor. Sellers can promote their products with the site s social integration, allowing products to be shared easily on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Pinterest. As mentioned earlier, the site s income is derived from an 8% commission from each sale. As transactions are completed, SHOE X calculates the commission it will receive and bills sellers on a monthly basis. However, vendors do not need to wait for payment; once the payment method is approved, sellers will receive payment almost instantaneously. Users can checkout and purchase goods with Paypal, Visa and most other major credit cards. Users must have an account with SHOE X in order to make purchases. By modifying Paypal s Adaptive Payments module and the Ubercart suite, SHOE X is able to split payments for up to 6 vendors. Typically Ubercart checkouts are limited to one vendor. P.9
4.0 Modules Section 4.2 Major Contributed Modules SHOE X About Us page Ubercart A module suite that allows a site to becomes a store. Extended functionality to accommodate multiple sellers. Views - Views were used throughout the site to show related content. Default Views were set up to allow for various Views within the Panels interface to fill out content on certain pages. Apache Solr - A third party system for their search functionality. This provides for a site-wide search which can be customized to exclude nodes, node types, and even configure bias settings. Context Allows the site to divide itself into sections/context. With minimal code, blocks can dynamically be displayed on sections. CCK - Used to create a multitude of content types. Facebook Social Allows users to sign in via Facebook. P.10
4.0 Modules Section 4.2 Custom Modules A custom module was implemented for each components of the site. The out of the box functionality was not enough to fulfill site requirements. The main modified module was become a seller / store which extended the core Ubercart functionality to a multi-seller capable platform mentioned earlier. Typically, Ubercart only allowed for one seller, which often is the site itself. Hosted on Acquia cloud. SHOE X has Solr built in, so there was no need to set up server with instance of Solr. Paypal Adaptive Payments - Allows payments to be split between sellers. Handles purchases from multiple sellers (up to 6) in one checkout. Paypal Website Payment Standards - Allows payments to be sent to 1 seller only. Comes out of the box with Ubercart but we customized it so that the right seller will get the payment upon successful checkout. Beanstream - Allows SHOE X to collect commission on a monthly basis. During the seller registration, a Beanstream profile ID will be assigned to the seller which will be used by the system to bill the seller monthly (only if the seller made a sale). Bolt Adds a Bolt It button onto the page SHOE X_apply Handles the seller application workflow SHOE X_billing Handles seller account billing cycle SHOE X_helper Deals with SHOE X s administrative settings, tools and reports. SHOE X_navigation Handles category navigation SHOE X_stats Outputs graphic statistics, graphs and charts SHOE X_stock Improves Ubercart s product stock and product attribute handling SHOE X_invoice Handles all aspects of SHOE X s invoicing methods P.11
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