DIBZ (ACQUIRED)

BUILDING A CUSTOM SHOPIFY SALES-CHANNEL APPLICATION

Client

Dibz is a professional custom marketplace and Shopify sales channel that helps retail businesses sell their dead stock, overstock, and last season's products. Dibz enables brands to convert stagnant inventory into a profitable revenue stream and reduce waste. The company specifically targets brands whose customers actively seek environmentally friendly product options.

Challenge

Dibz was looking for a software development company with experience in Shopify and specifically around Shopify Sales Channel to build their marketplace. The project had previously encountered challenges, including several critical bugs, which hindered the project's launch and the integration of new features. In addition, the Dibz team didn’t have any software documentation and little to no experience integrating with Shopify's payment system.

Dibz needed to create a robust, fault-tolerant way to transfer and sync data between Dibz and their merchant's Shopify stores. These mechanisms were designed to maintain accurate and consistent data flow, overcoming potential data loss or inconsistencies.

Strategy

Given that the project was already in development and had a legacy codebase, we decided as a team, after reviewing their code, that we would build on top of what they currently had. We did an initial code review that involved investigating the codebase thoroughly and identifying the critical parts that needed attention. Based on this analysis, we developed a detailed plan, timeline, and recommendations with pros and cons to address the identified issues without the need to rebuild the app from scratch.

We had experience building Shopify Sales Channels, so we knew the issues that may pop up for Dibz. We used that experience and expertise to help Dibz navigate these challenges. Our Shopify experts ensured that the codebase was developed, rebuilt, and maintained properly, aligning with best practices and industry standards.

/ Dibz (acquired)

Solutions

We quickly established a streamlined and efficient development process to address high-priority tickets. The initial phase of the project, which lasted approximately two weeks, involved conducting a thorough code audit and generating a comprehensive list of recommendations. Our team of developers, quality assurance specialists, and a project manager worked together to present their findings.

To address Dibz’s major problem with performing code changes, our team focused on improving the Shopify sales channel and Shopify integration, allowing the app to process a higher volume of products and data more efficiently. Additionally, we completely rewrote the solution for setting up discounts within the system to enhance usability.

Before we released the updated code, our team performed functional and non-functional tests to verify the implemented fixes and conducted regression testing after merging these changes.

Results

The successful release of the solution helped to extend the visible products count from the initial maximum limit of 250 to over 10,000 with pagination, allowed users to quickly filter and show results of the filtered products, and took user research to improve aspects of the UX/UI that made the app more clear and intuitive.

By prioritizing bug fixes and thorough testing, our team significantly improved the app's overall performance, surpassing the initial client's expectations and leading to great product reviews.

Dibz was recently acquired by Treet.

Review

“During the discovery process, we discovered there was a much larger product list than anticipated. Having such a large list threatened to negatively impact the site speed. As a result, we choose to build a microservice on Laravel to bridge the gap between the product data and the live site, which kept the site lean and quick for a smooth user experience.“