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Website maintenance for a leading retail chain in Serbia

Client

A leading electronics retailer in Serbia

Industry

Retail & ecommerce

Services

Website maintenance

Tech stack

PHP, Node.js, React, JavaScript, Elasticsearch, MySQL, Linux, Git, Jira

Challenge

Our client is a leading and fast-growing electronics retail chain in Serbia, focused on selling computers, pieces of hardware, home appliances, consumer electronics, and digital equipment via local stores and websites. The company’s website was developed in the mid-2000s and contained a messy, undocumented codebase that was difficult to update and maintain. The client tried to make changes to the front end and improve the performance of the solution since the system was running slowly and incorrectly. However, their internal team had a hard time dealing with the inherited legacy codebase and inconsistent system structure on their own: the website was hosted on premises, the back end was written partially in PHP and partially in Node.js., the front end was partially written in React, and the MySQL database was not optimized. To make matters worse, all code changes were made on the production server, and the version control system was never used. Hence, the client's team was looking for a web development partner to do away with the mess and help with the maintenance of their current website.

Specifically, client reached out to ITRex to:

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Enhance the performance of the system

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Improve the search functionality and filters

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Build functionality for adding visual blocks to static content pages

Solution

When the ITRex engineering team embarked on the project, they were surprised to know that our client's team didn’t use Git—the most essential tool in software development designed to improve collaboration, track changes to the code, and roll back to a previous version if necessary. This didn’t allow our experts to work properly on the project, as the two teams were unable to collaborate effectively and track the latest codebase changes made by each team, thereby interfering with one another’s work. Thus, the first thing we did was adopt Git in the workplace and guide the internal team through it. After implementing Gitflow, we took the following steps to address the customer’s pain points:

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The ITRex team set up a staging environment to provide settings for pre-production tasks such as testing, quality assurance, and risk analysis before deploying changes and updates to production environment. Besides, we split the work into front end and back end, implemented Jira, and assigned roles. All this allowed us to work more efficiently.

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To improve the search functionality, we dived into the data structure, optimized queries, fixed integration with Elasticsearch, and updated search scripts

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Our front-end developers broke down the monolithic front-end architecture into smaller, independent modules (widgets) to enable engineers to deploy and scale components independently. This made the entire system more resilient, manageable, and easier to maintain, and increased the efficiency of the development process.

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We set up a robust data backup system that provides a way to restore data files in case of different data loss incidents

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We fixed the website’s admin panel and added a visual editor that enables content managers to edit static content and add visual blocks without seeking help from front-end developers

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To provide performance monitoring, our team integrated a New Relic full-stack monitoring tool that allows the client's team to monitor, identify issues, and trace them back to their cause to take timely actions

website maintenance for electronics retail

Impact

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We set up and streamlined the software development process and helped the client's team grasp the most important tools for software projects, including Git and Jira, which enables our client to remain efficient and productive in their operations

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ITRex helped the client achieve predictable software deliveries. The ability to plan and schedule sprints helps the client establish a predictable and regular cadence for software development and accurately forecast project timelines.

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Due to the website optimization, page load speed increased by 10 times

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The admin panel modernization allowed content managers to update content pages single-handedly thereby freeing up their frontend developers for high-value tasks