Cercle fashion rental platform
Cercle.uk is a fashion rental platform that allows users to rent clothing, shoes, and accessories from lenders. The platform aims to promote a more sustainable approach to fashion consumption by encouraging borrowing over buying. Lenders can list their items on the platform and earn money from rentals, while renters can access a wide range of luxury items at a lower cost than buying.
Industry:
E-commercePlatform:
Web
Client Requirement
Autobuffy, a leading e-commerce store for auto parts, reached out to us to enhance their website functionality and user experience.
Challenges & It’s Solutions
The website was causing significant frustration to users due to its slow loading times. This issue was causing a significant increase in bounce rates, meaning that users were leaving the website before engaging with it. This further resulted in decreased user engagement, which ultimately led to lower sales.
We optimized the code using various techniques such as image caching and efficient handling of product data. Additionally, we incorporated Sidekiq to move resource-intensive processes to the background, ensuring that the user experience remains smooth and uninterrupted.
In the absence of the store credits feature within the payment module, customers were limited to traditional payment methods such as cash, credit cards, or bank transfers. This resulted in a less flexible and convenient payment system. It could lead to a loss of potential sales and customer loyalty.
We developed and integrated a store credits (wallet) feature into the website, which allowed users to deposit funds into their digital wallet for future purchases whenever there was refund or cancellation of order. We implemented strict security measures to protect user funds and transactions, including encryption, secure tokenization, and regular security audits.
Expanding the website's reach and sales channels posed a challenge, as users increasingly expect seamless shopping experiences across various platforms, including social media.
Integrated the website with Facebook's e-commerce features, allowing users to browse and purchase products directly from the Facebook platform. Leveraged Facebook's API to synchronise product catalogues, inventory, and order management systems between the website and the Facebook store.
The need for integrating a service for the renewal of clothes worn by customers and selling them again to other customers was a challenging task due to the complexities involved in cleaning, repairing, and preparing the clothes for resale. It required extensive resources and expertise to ensure that the clothes were in good condition and met the standards of the customers.
Collaborated closely with ACS to establish a secure and reliable connection between the app and their system. This enabled the seamless process of sending used products directly from the user's address and, after the renewal process, sending them back to the business.
Product delivery statuses, along with payment status, are not updated due to multiple bugs. One issue is that the payment status is not updating correctly, leading to mismanagement and miscommunication between the business and the user.
The app has an admin side that uses Solidus services for better management of listings, user administrations, taxation, shipping, and many others. We corrected the configuration and the code regarding the delivery and the payment statuses to avoid the user's miscommunication with the business.
Meeting project deadlines had been a challenging task, which could result in delayed launches and compromised quality. We had to address this challenge to ensure successful outcomes.
Adopted an agile project management approach, breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable iterations with regular sprints and checkpoints.
The website was causing significant frustration to users due to its slow loading times. This issue was causing a significant increase in bounce rates, meaning that users were leaving the website before engaging with it. This further resulted in decreased user engagement, which ultimately led to lower sales.
In the absence of the store credits feature within the payment module, customers were limited to traditional payment methods such as cash, credit cards, or bank transfers. This resulted in a less flexible and convenient payment system. It could lead to a loss of potential sales and customer loyalty.
Expanding the website's reach and sales channels posed a challenge, as users increasingly expect seamless shopping experiences across various platforms, including social media.
The need for integrating a service for the renewal of clothes worn by customers and selling them again to other customers was a challenging task due to the complexities involved in cleaning, repairing, and preparing the clothes for resale. It required extensive resources and expertise to ensure that the clothes were in good condition and met the standards of the customers.
Product delivery statuses, along with payment status, are not updated due to multiple bugs. One issue is that the payment status is not updating correctly, leading to mismanagement and miscommunication between the business and the user.
Meeting project deadlines had been a challenging task, which could result in delayed launches and compromised quality. We had to address this challenge to ensure successful outcomes.
We optimized the code using various techniques such as image caching and efficient handling of product data. Additionally, we incorporated Sidekiq to move resource-intensive processes to the background, ensuring that the user experience remains smooth and uninterrupted.
We developed and integrated a store credits (wallet) feature into the website, which allowed users to deposit funds into their digital wallet for future purchases whenever there was refund or cancellation of order. We implemented strict security measures to protect user funds and transactions, including encryption, secure tokenization, and regular security audits.
Integrated the website with Facebook's e-commerce features, allowing users to browse and purchase products directly from the Facebook platform. Leveraged Facebook's API to synchronise product catalogues, inventory, and order management systems between the website and the Facebook store.
Collaborated closely with ACS to establish a secure and reliable connection between the app and their system. This enabled the seamless process of sending used products directly from the user's address and, after the renewal process, sending them back to the business.
The app has an admin side that uses Solidus services for better management of listings, user administrations, taxation, shipping, and many others. We corrected the configuration and the code regarding the delivery and the payment statuses to avoid the user's miscommunication with the business.
Adopted an agile project management approach, breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable iterations with regular sprints and checkpoints.
Key Features
The website offers a powerful search algorithm with filter options along with caching strategies for faster results along with database indexing for accurate results making it easy for users to find the perfect item.
We have moved on from the traditional reminder system that included email or messages. Now we give timely push notifications to the user as his rental period is ending so the customer can send the rental clothes to our integrated cloth renewal service ACS(Advanced Clothing Solutions).
The admin interface built with the help of Solidus has made the process of adding products, users, and cancel/refund policies much easier.
Customers uses Advanced Clothing Solutions(ACS) Integration for cloth renewal after being used by the customers and for sending back clothes to ACS.
The platform offers a comprehensive order management system that consolidates orders from all sales channels.
During checkout, the user's selected address will be used to automatically generate delivery charges through our sophisticated algorithm that detects the address and the number of items in the order and performs calculations to give the accurate delivery charges. The platform will provide postal code and city suggestions as the user types, ensuring accurate and convenient delivery information. This feature streamlines the checkout and provides transparency in delivery costs.
Results
Our contribution led to an increase in the speed of the website performance. As a result, it led to decreased bounce-back rates and increased sales.
We have streamlined the process of ordering and returning used products, making it a hassle-free experience for everyone.
Our improved filtering methods have resulted in better management of users' preferences and needs, allowing them to make more informed decisions about what they want to order.
The admin management system has become much more efficient, with the feature of adding specific discount codes and product promotions during particular sales events. This has helped the business to grow and attract more customers.
We integrated stripe and store credits to provide a better user experience for our customers, especially those who had to return items. With the option of store credits, they could receive payment in-store credits, ultimately leading to more business for us.
Technology Stacks
Frontend
Backend
Database
Devops
Server / Hosting
Integrations
Project Management
