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Harnessing the Power of Magento 2 for rapid E-commerce Development at Atida.com

Incident management on Mag2 Platform

Abstract

The launch of Magento 2 in the summer of 2023 brings new opportunities for Atida.com to enhance its e-commerce platform and shop across Frites. It also ensures the P&T spend as a share of revenue can drop to ±1,5-2% of revenue within Frites (coming down from ±3% in the past). This paper explores the new way of working that emphasises performance (speed), mobile first & adaptive thinking, experimentation, configuration, and prioritisation of strategic projects through the Product & Technology (P&T) Council. It is meant to apply to any shop on the Mag2 Atida platform. Moreover, it is independent of any brand strategy (e.g., if

eFarma.com⁠

is on the Mag2 platform we can still apply this way of working). Implementing these key elements will allow Atida Frites to stay at the forefront of innovation, maximising the potential of Magento 2 to drive continuous growth and improvement.

Introduction

The e-commerce landscape is constantly evolving, demanding businesses to stay adaptive. In the past we have developed the Spryker platform for Atida. Although this platform has many powerful features, it was built for a much larger business (>€1 bln). It also comes with a level of complexity that makes it more expensive and difficult to operate, especially compared to the current size of our business. That is why we have embraced the latest release of Magento 2 to streamline our shop operations, enhance user experience, and unlock new revenue streams. We aim to move all the webshops of Frites to this new Magento platform in the period Summer 2023 - Summer 2024. By leveraging this powerful platform, Atida.com will adopt a new way of working, emphasising:

Performance (speed)

Mobile first & adaptive thinking

Experimentation

Bias for configuration and external services (vs own development)

Core strategic projects in the P&T council (taking the broader perspective)

Performance (speed) and Mobile

First and foremost, we have to ensure our shops have high performance (speed) and offer a mobile first & adaptive experience to our customers. Performance will be benchmarked to local competition, and we aim to be leading in speed in all our markets in 2024. The same applies to the mobile experience. Any new feature will have to follow these principles, and we aim to have them engrained in our thinking.

Performance

The performance of a webshop, particularly its speed, plays a crucial role in determining the success of an e-commerce business. In today's fast-paced digital landscape, consumers have high expectations for seamless, efficient, and convenient online experiences. A webshop's speed directly impacts various aspects of an e-commerce business, including user experience, customer satisfaction, conversion rates, and search engine rankings. Our main reasons prioritising performance for Atida are:

First and foremost, the speed of a webshop greatly influences the user experience. Slow-loading pages and sluggish performance can lead to frustration and impatience among customers, potentially causing them to abandon their shopping carts or leave the site altogether. And many of our customers browse our shops on older (and slower) phones. By optimising the speed of our webshops, we can create a smoother and more enjoyable shopping experience, increasing the likelihood of customers completing their purchases and returning for future transactions.

Second, customer satisfaction is directly correlated with the performance of a webshop. A fast and responsive site contributes to higher levels of customer satisfaction, building brand loyalty and promoting positive word-of-mouth marketing. Conversely, poor performance can tarnish our brand's reputation and deter potential customers.

Lastly, the speed of a webshop can significantly impact search engine rankings. Search engines like Google consider site speed as a ranking factor in their algorithms, prioritising fast-loading websites over their slower counterparts. A well-performing webshop is more likely to rank higher in search engine results, driving organic traffic and increasing visibility among potential customers. By investing in site speed optimisation, e-commerce businesses can improve their search engine rankings and attract more customers, ultimately leading to greater business success.

It is critical that with any new development we ensure that we understand the impact on performance, and aim to keep it the same or improve it. Moreover, if the performance of our shop is not leading in a market, then we have to prioritise this topic as it is likely to deliver more impact than most other features.

Mobile first & adaptive

A mobile-first experience is critical for the business success of an e-commerce business due to the rapid growth of mobile device usage, changing consumer behaviours, and the need for seamless, accessible shopping experiences. By adopting a mobile-first approach, Atida can cater to the preferences of a vast majority of customers (±65-80% of our traffic), improve user experience, increase conversions, and enhance their competitive advantage in the digital marketplace. Our reasons for doing so:

1. Ubiquity of mobile devices: The widespread adoption of smartphones and tablets has transformed how consumers interact with the digital world. Mobile devices have become the primary means through which people access the internet, surpassing traditional desktop computers.

2. Improved user experience: A mobile-first approach focuses on designing a website or app with mobile devices in mind from the outset. This ensures that the interface, navigation, and content are optimised for smaller screens, touch interactions, and varying network conditions. By prioritising a mobile-first experience, businesses can provide a seamless, intuitive, and enjoyable shopping experience for their customers, leading to higher levels of satisfaction and increased brand loyalty.

3. Increased conversions: Mobile users are more likely to convert when they encounter an optimised, easy-to-use mobile site or app. A mobile-first experience that simplifies the purchasing process and minimises friction can lead to higher conversion rates and increased sales. By catering to mobile users' needs and preferences, e-commerce businesses can boost their revenue and grow their customer base.

4. Competitive advantage: We see quite a few of our competitors still focused on desktop first. Mobile first thinking requires effort of the entire company - which could then result in a competitive advantage.

Although mobile will be on top of our minds, we also have to ensure a great experience on any other screen with a seamless experience between them. Because that is what our customers expect. Often they start their shopping on mobile, and then finish on another device. That is why we start mobile first, but then ensure we are adaptive to any screen.

Experimentation

Experimentation and gathering customer feedback will be critical for the successful development and growth of our business.

Data quality

High quality data gathering and transformation is critical to ensure reliable experimentation can happen on our platform. This is why we will implement a Frites-wide data strategy and foundation. It will require continuous investment in the quality of our data infrastructure to ensure experiments are of high quality and insights can be trusted.

Method of experimentation

Our approach to experimentation involves implementing a structured, data-driven process to test and validate various ideas and hypotheses. This process typically consists of several stages, including idea generation, hypothesis formation, experiment design, implementation, and analysis. A key aspect of this approach is differentiating between validation of ideas, where a positive result is sought through multivariate testing, and situations where a solid theory is in place, and an insignificant result can still be valuable (and result in implementing the idea). Main aspect of our approach:

1. Idea generation and prioritisation: This stage involves collecting ideas and potential improvements from various sources, such as user feedback, internal teams, industry trends, and competitor analysis. These ideas are then prioritised based on factors such as potential impact, feasibility, and alignment with business objectives.

2. Hypothesis formation: For each prioritised idea, a clear hypothesis is formulated, articulating the expected outcome and the underlying rationale. The hypothesis should be specific and testable, allowing for a meaningful evaluation of the idea's validity. It is better if the hypothesis is based on a solid theory.

3. Experiment design: Depending on the hypothesis, an appropriate testing method is chosen. In cases where validation of ideas is the goal, multivariate testing (MVT) can be employed. MVT allows for simultaneous testing of multiple variations, providing insights into which combination of changes yields the best results. When a solid theory is in place, a more focused approach like A/B testing or a controlled experiment can be used.

4. Implementation and data collection: The experiment is implemented, and data is collected over a predetermined period. The sample size and duration of the experiment should be large enough to ensure statistically significant results.

5. Analysis and interpretation: The collected data is analysed to determine the experiment's outcome. In validation-focused experiments using MVT, the goal is to identify a positive result, indicating a successful combination of changes that led to the desired outcome. In contrast, when testing a solid theory, an insignificant result can still be valuable. This might suggest that the theory holds up, even if the specific changes being tested do not yield significant improvements. The concrete implication is that the change can still be implemented with an insignificant result

6. Iteration and learning: Regardless of the result, the experiment's findings should be used to inform future experiments and decision-making. An insignificant result can provide insights into the robustness of the underlying theory, while a positive result from MVT may point to specific elements that can be further optimised.

These steps can be executed at various speeds (large experiments require longer time, while small changes can be quick). Our aim is to document and codify all learnings, so that they can be shared across Atida Frites.

People involved with experimentation

Experiments require coordination as you want to ensure that we prioritise in line with possible business impact, and also take learnings from the past. Moreover, traffic has to be assigned to experiments, and as such it requires a single view on the backlog of experiments. This coordination is done jointly by the e-commerce manager (for the country) and conversion specialist (taking Frites-wide perspective and ensure consistency in methodology). Moreover, product analytics and developers will often be (closely) involved. Finally, the relevant team member should be involved in the process (e.g., marketing, commercial, etc.).

Bias for configuration

At Atida, our approach to implementing improvements is driven by a bias towards leveraging the extensive configuration possibilities offered by the Magento 2 platform. By doing so, we aim to accelerate the pace of enhancements and keep costs down, ultimately benefiting both our business and our customers.

Emphasising configuration over customisation offers several key advantages:

1. Speed: Utilising the pre-built features and functionalities of Magento 2 allows for rapid implementation of improvements, thereby enabling Atida to respond quickly to emerging trends and opportunities. This agility is crucial in the competitive e-commerce landscape, where businesses need to continuously evolve to stay ahead.

2. Cost-efficiency: Relying on configuration options rather than custom development reduces the need for extensive developer resources, minimising both upfront and ongoing expenses. By keeping costs down, Atida can invest in other strategic initiatives that contribute to the company's overall growth and success.

3. Stability and maintainability: Customisations often introduce complexity and potential instability to an e-commerce platform. By opting for configuration over customisation, Atida can ensure a more stable and easily maintainable platform, reducing the risk of downtime or performance issues that could negatively impact customer experience and revenue.

4. Easier upgrades: Staying up-to-date with Magento's latest releases is essential for maintaining platform security and taking advantage of new features. Utilising configuration options simplifies the upgrade process, as customisations often require significant effort to ensure compatibility with newer versions.

It will still be possible to develop customised features, but these will have to have highly positive business cases given the development and maintenance costs. Moreover, we prefer customisations to be strategic in nature as they should help our business differentiate from competition.

P&T council for strategy planning

Overall P&T council

The P&T council is a monthly meeting with the MDs and P&T leads where the progress of strategic initiatives and developments is discussed. This forum will also be used to prioritise strategic initiatives that are important to realise the overall Frites strategy and drive differentiation with our competition. The validity of strategic initiatives is often difficult to experiment, and require collaboration across many teams. Past examples include our decision to move to the Magento 2 platform or the launch of an extensive loyalty program.

As a result, these strategic initiatives require more extensive documentation to ensure they are the "right" direction for Frites. We will separate them in two different buckets:

Decisions that can be reversed: We could decide rather quickly whether to move ahead. See if we like the results, and then potentially iterate, continue or revert back

Decisions that cannot be reversed: Here we should take our time and discuss them extensively with detailed papers

Every quarter the P&T council will set the main priorities for P&T in our Quarterly OKRs. These will capture the main strategic initiatives and improvements to focus on. They should exclude smaller experiments that hopefully start to drive more of our improvement efforts.

Magento 2 replatforming projects across Frites

One such strategic priority for Frites is the decision to move all Frites shops to the new Magento 2 platform. That is a project that will run for 12-18 months, and we foresee the following timings:

⁠

Atida.es⁠

Atida.pt⁠

from Spryker to Magento 2 → June 2023

⁠

Dosfarma.com⁠

from Prestashop to Magento 2 → Sept 2023

MiFarma International from Magento 1 to Magento 2 → Winter 2023

⁠

eFarma.com⁠

from Adobe to Magento 2 → March-April 2024 (to be validated)

⁠

Atida.fr⁠

from Magento 1 to Magento 2 → Summer 2024 (to be validated - mainly dependent on Tryton and Omniphar analytics implementations)

Santé Discount International from Magento 1 to Magento 2 → Fall 2024? (to be validated)

Own P&T organisation

As it relates to the development of the shop (e-commerce) the Product & Technology team consists of two parts:

Product

Technology

Product is responsible for defining, planning, and managing the development of new products or features. They work closely with customers and stakeholders to identify their needs, conduct market research, create product roadmaps, and prioritise features.

The Technology team, on the other hand, is responsible for the actual development, implementation, and maintenance of the technology that powers the company's products and services. This department consists of developers, data engineers, and IT professionals who work together to build, test, and deploy the technology infrastructure, applications, and systems required to support the company's products. Quite a lot of this work for the shop is executed by partners (see the Partners chapter).

Magic can occur when both teams work together closely and understand each other's field. Because that allows for the interesting problem solving in the grey areas where excellence can be found.

Product team

At Atida we have a small team that consists of Product Management, E-commerce Mgr, Conversion Specialist, Product Design & Analytics.

Much of the product activities should occur locally through the country e-commerce managers. A Country E-commerce Manager at Atida is responsible for overseeing and optimising the online shopping experience for customers within their designated country. Their main responsibilities include:

Mind the shop: Check the shop every day. Review all dashboards. Constantly hunt for improvements to raise our performance.

Cross-Departmental Collaboration: They work closely with various departments within the country to ensure the online shop runs smoothly on a daily basis and to coordinate marketing campaigns. This collaboration may involve sharing ideas and resources without necessarily requiring technical input.

Roadmap and Backlog Management: The Country E-commerce Manager supports the direction for the online shop by helping to define the roadmap and backlog based on the company's business needs and overarching strategy. Ultimately, we look to develop a shop across Frites, but they provide the input for the needs in the shop development.

Subject Matter Expertise: As an expert in e-commerce, they support local teams in executing various initiatives, from marketing campaigns to website enhancements. This support may include sharing best practices, providing guidance on effective strategies, and troubleshooting any issues that arise.

A/B Testing and Conversion Optimisation: They collaborate with conversion specialists to conduct A/B tests on various elements of the online shop, such as landing pages, product listings, and checkout processes. This helps identify improvements that can increase conversion rates and drive overall business performance.

Knowledge Sharing: The Country E-commerce Manager shares lessons learned and best practices with colleagues in other countries, promoting a culture of continuous improvement and learning across Frites

Our Conversion Specialist is responsible for analysing and optimising customer engagement and drive higher conversion rates. They employ various techniques, such as A/B testing, user behaviour analysis, and data-driven insights, to identify areas for improvement in shop design, user experience, and marketing campaigns. By making strategic adjustments and tracking their impact, a Conversion Specialist helps enhance the customer journey, ultimately leading to increased sales, customer retention, and overall business growth. She collaborates closely with the e-commerce managers.

A Product Designer at Atida plays a pivotal role in crafting the online shopping experience for customers. She concentrates on understanding user needs, preferences, and challenges to design intuitive, visually engaging, and easy-to-navigate digital interfaces. By collaborating with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders, a Product Designer refines their designs through wireframing, prototyping, and user testing in an iterative process. Their primary objective is to develop e-commerce solutions that not only fulfill functional requirements but also captivate users and contribute to the company's commercial success.

Our Product analytics is responsible for collecting, analysing, and interpreting data related to the company's online presence to inform decision-making and drive growth. They track user behavior, website performance, and conversion rates to identify trends, opportunities, and areas for improvement. By employing various tools and techniques, such as Google Analytics, heatmaps, and user segmentation, the Web Analyst helps the company optimize its website, marketing campaigns, and overall customer experience. Their insights and recommendations support cross-functional teams, including product designers, marketers, and developers, in making data-driven decisions that enhance the e-commerce platform and contribute to the company's success. He is part of the data tribe at Frites.

The team is led by the Product Director Shop. She is responsible for leading the team, coaching on capabilities, and making sure we have one shop roadmap that follows the Frites wide strategy. This includes defining our medium term product strategy for the shop to be sharpened with the P&T council, and then detailing execution of that strategy with the team.

⁠

⁠

Technology

For all product & technology, we are moving away from having our own product teams who do both development and maintenance of their parts of the technology stack. Atida will still be in the lead for the complete design of solutions (see relevant chapter for more details). But we will no longer be in the lead of development and maintenance, as this will be done by our Magento and Infrastructure partners (see relevant chapter for more details). Atida's developers can still work on the shop, but we will have to follow the agency standards as they are accountable for keeping the shop running.

Initially, the Magento shops will focus on the Iberian brands only. Pretty soon, however, we should evolve to include France and Italy as well (in the first half of 2024). Our primary focus is to get the Iberian brands successfully on the Magento 2 platform, and then we have to see how it operates in practice. This will then inform how to evolve our future way of working within the technology teams focused on e-commerce. There are multiple models for this, which we have to work through.

Below paragraphs focus on Iberia - although pretty soon they are also (partly) leading the delivery needed for the It and Fr replatforming projects.

The Iberian technology team has 4 main parts:

Platform delivery: Tech delivery of the shop roadmap (Magento 2). Manage Interactiv4 (Mag2 agency) and Teradisk (Infra) directly. Reponsible for IT Operations (run by the agencies).

Business Ops: Tech business operations needed to run the shop. This includes product processes, business gate, MMS.

Tryton: ERP for Spain and France. WMS for Spain. Tech delivery of Tryton roadmap.

IT: Local Infra and warehouse. Domains. IT Helpdesk (waiting for Frites IT Ops plan)

On the topics of IT Helpdesk, Data and Security we're likely to evolve our way of working as soon as the Frites plans for these topics have been detailed and executed.

⁠

⁠

Partners

Atida does product & solution design

All of the design will be done and/or overseen by Atida. As we know our customers and business best, we'd like to ensure that we control these critical elements in creating the shop experience. This mainly involves:

Architecture

Solution design

Product design (incl., detailed product requirements)

Partners deliver & maintain

Developing an e-commerce shop involves different stages, including, infrastructure setup, development, integration with third-party tools and technical operations. While some businesses choose to handle everything in-house, in Atida FRITES we have decided to partner with service providers to help us create the e-commerce shop for our customers across the three countries.

In building Atida's FRITES shop, we have decided to partner with providers who specialize in specific areas of e-commerce development.

We have partnered with

Interactive4⁠

(i4) for Magento development, and

⁠

Teradisk⁠

provides infrastructure and cloud hosting services.

For services such as search, reviews, and recommendations, We have chosen to partner with

Algolia⁠

Yotpo⁠

, and

Clerk⁠

, respectively. These partnerships allowed us to leverage the expertise of different service providers, resulting in a more efficient and effective e-commerce shop.

One of the key benefits of working with partners is cost-effectiveness. Partnering with i4 and Teradisk eliminated the need for us to invest in “expensive” team. Instead, we are able to leverage pre-built solutions (e.g., i4 has made an Optimo shop which is a fully functioning e-commerce shop for retailers) that could be easily integrated into Atida's shop requirements.

Another benefit of partnering with service providers is risk reduction. The service providers we have chosen have expertise in pharmacy / health and beauty areas, which minimizes the risk of errors or failures during the development process. Moreover, the service providers are responsible for the technical operations and maintenance of the shop, which means that any operational issues or bugs as well as upcoming features can be quickly addressed by them.

While we have chosen to partner with service providers for most stages of Atida's shop development and technical operations, we still needed a small team of developers for some tasks. In particular, we envision having one developer per country for Magento-related changes who works very closely with the e-commerce manager of the country. Small changes such as changing the color or size of CTA buttons can be done by this developer. Moreover, we will investigate if it is feasible and efficient to work in hybrid teams together with the Magento partner. In general, depending on the severity and applicability of the change, either the i4 team reviews the change or it can go directly into production.

Concluding

To be updated after way of working has been reviewed

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