Strikkia

Strikkia.no

Strikkia is a Norwegian B2C online retailer that sells tools for knitting, such as yarn, needles, and patterns. The unique service that Strikkia provides is the development of custom-made knitting patterns, along with the selection of matching yarns and essential tools for them.

We worked with the store in the past, and they have reached out again to bring the website to the new level with our expertise in Magento 2.

The Challenge

Our main task was to optimize the website administration and increase the convenience of creating dynamic bundle products. The issue was that with M1, creating bundle products was a long, demanding manual process. The ability to change the price depending on selected yarns or the size of the finished product was very limited.

Therefore, our goal was to automate the bundle product creation process with Magento 2. To achieve this, we had to create a custom bundle-based product designer for the store, including such features as size adjustment, yarn number per color editor, and dynamic yarn addition and subtraction. When new yarns appeared, they would be automatically added as alternatives to the selected pattern according to a set algorithm.

On the buyer's end, the process had to require just a couple of decisions, such as desired size and available color selection, while the tool would automatically adjust the number of yarns for the pattern.

  • Client:Strikkia
  • Year:2020
  • Industry:Clothing & Fashion
  • Location:Norway
  • DataBase: MariaDB
  • Hosting: Maxcluster
  • CI/CD: Jenkins
  • Server: NGINX, Redis, Elasticsearch, Varnish
  • Backend: Magento 2 (PHP, Zend Framework, Symfony, Composer)
  • Frontend: Custom Magento theme based on PHP, HTML5, CSS3 (LESS pre-processor), JavaScript (jQuery, Knockout, RequireJS), Grunt

 

 

 

 

The Solution

We started with identifying the key Magento 1 features missing in Magento 2 and conducting a SWOT analysis to determine the areas of improvement for the Strikkia store. The following areas were agreed for further development:

We took the following steps:
  • Design & branding
  • Product addition time & dynamic pricing
  • Integration with Google Shopping feed
  • SEO optimization (technical & content-wise)
  • Social networks login
  • Current implementation on Magento 1.x
  • ERP system integration
Strikkia-solution

The implementation was divided into several stages because of the set budget and time frames.

The MVP stage consisted of the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2, which was a complex of 3-step migration with core functionality upgrade, full migration with the recovery of core configuration, CMS data, third-party modules, and the initiation of catalog population freeze; customers, order history and stock levels; dynamic bundle implementation based on the tagging system; dynamic upsells; rebranding and redesign with a new theme; technical SEO optimization, and the integration of Klarna checkout v2.

After the successful implementation and site launch, we worked on resolving stock management and planning issues: Embedded ERP was chosen as an optimal solution for the client’s needs. We also proceeded with the integration of Google Shopping feed, social media login, Varnish integration, migration of Klarna API from v2 to v3 for improved checkout, 2FA addition and web-hosting optimization for security improvements, and UX improvement through an “Add to cart” pop-up.

Previous
Updated

Logotype

We've also updated the style of the logo that is more relevant to the theme of the store and will help better identify the type of goods that Strikkia is trading.

The Result

Strikkia-result
Strikkia's website frontend is simple and easy to use due to the following components:
  • Convenient filtering achieved by installing a third-party layered navigation module
  • Advanced product search through Elasticsearch
  • Fast page loading with Redis caching
  • Klarna's intuitive checkout
The complex development is hidden in the admin’s sector of the website, including the following:
  • Custom functionality for generating PackingSlips
  • Direct integration of Logistra Cargonizer API by trollweb
  • Integration of the ERP system
  • Development of a custom bundle product creation system
Additional deliverables were the following:
  • Complete data migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2
  • Bestseller merchandise calculation development and their display on the website
  • Additional DownloadLink development for products
  • Enabled login via social networks (Facebook and Google)
  • Integrated Google Tag Manager for website analytics gathering
  • Integrated Klaviyo for email and SMS marketing