Top Events – Web shop & renting platform
Nominee
Case summary
Top Events was an exciting project which included user experience optimization and creating a seamless ERP integration. User-centric design principles deliver a clean interface, powerful product search and filtering, and optimized shopping experience.
Case description
_Transforming Efficiency and Engagement_Understanding the importance of streamlining Top Event’s operations, the project involved the integration of their existing Easy Job ERP system into the website. This integration allowed for seamless data transfer and real-time updates of availability and pricing of products and rentals.
We also worked closely with Top Events to implement a wide range of information and system changes throughout the ERP, incorporating valuable enhancements and ensuring alignment with their evolving needs. The project also required optimizing user experience by adding content hub options, including a blog, inspiration section, and references, to enhance communication and engagement.
_User-Centric Design and Enhanced Experience_
The web application introduced a new fresh and clean design that captivates users with its modern aesthetics and intuitive interface and provides various features to enhance search functionality, including a synonym table that ensures accurate and relevant search results.
Understanding that users have different preferences and requirements when searching for products or services, it incorporates two distinct channels to cater to their needs effectively:
- The "Inspiration" section served as an introduction for users who were unsure about their specific search criteria, providing them with ideas and suggestions to explore. This selection is curated manually by the content creation team of Top Events.
- Users can also use a faceted search and options on product categories, enabling them to narrow down their search based on specific criteria. This enhances the user experience with visual filters such as price range, location, date, or other relevant attributes to refine their search and find precisely what they were looking for.
_Streamlined checkout experience_
Top Event’s business model allows customers to buy or rent the products in the shop and pricing depends on the time span of the rental. Using the custom ERP integration, we build a custom, multi-staged checkout seamlessly interacting with the inventory management system. This provides customers with real-time information on product availability as they select their desired dates. It also incorporates a dynamic delivery or pickup logic that intelligently determined the available options based on factors such as the total cart value and the specific products selected.
Case goals and results
_Improve user experience and process efficiency_The primary goal of the web shop project was to provide better support to clients and streamline internal processes, ultimately enhancing the overall efficiency of the business. To achieve this, we focused on creating a platform that offered flexible possibilities for content and product placements. The client gained the ability to easily customize and adjust the layout of their web shop, ensuring that products and content were strategically displayed to increase engagement and sales.
_Product options and self-service checkout_
The project aimed at enhancing user experience through suggested product options on the detail page, enabling customers to explore related items, upsell opportunities, and complementary products, elevating the shopping experience. Furthermore, the new web shop enabled direct online payment capabilities and customers to easily reorder the same order or items, improving the self-service and reducing requests to the Top Events sales team.
Challenges
_ERP and API Integration_Coordinating the migration process and ensuring seamless data synchronization between the new ERP and the web shop required close collaboration and technical expertise and resulted in a custom connector between Drupal commerce and the Easy Job API.
_Optimizing Product Structure_
With over 1200 different products and at least 50 distinct categories, each with numerous attributes reflected in filters and product descriptions, we were to enable customers to easily navigate the web shop, find relevant products, and make informed purchasing decisions. We resolved this by improving on drupal/better_exposed_filter and collecting our additions in a custom, public module.
Community contributions
- We developed the Payrexx payment integration for Drupal commerce (https://www.drupal.org/project/commerce_payrexx_integration). The module was built in cooperation with Payrexx based on their official SDK and API.- We provide our additions to drupal/better_exposed_filter as a separate module on Github (https://github.com/iqual-ch/iq_bef_extensions) and hope that some features will be moved into better_exposed_filters.
- We will also make the Easy Job ERP connector available on Github.
Hosting
iqual client hosting environment