Custom Shopping Cart Development with a Microservices Approach
Within 17 years in ecommerce development, ScienceSoft provides consultancy on implementation of custom ecommerce solutions.
custom shopping cart: the concept
A shopping cart (also referred to as an ecommerce website or a webstore) is a web application used for digital commerce. A microservices approach to shopping cart development is applied when one needs flexibility in designing business logic and user experience for their online presence. A custom-built solution with decoupled microservices architecture is easier to evolve in the long run.
Introduction to the microservices-based architecture of a shopping cart
At its core, a microservices-based solution is a number of loosely coupled services interacting via a communication protocol and each responsible for a separate function. A custom shopping cart is built by putting each piece of ecommerce functionality into a separate service. These functional blocks connect to customer-facing digital touchpoints via APIs.
Ecommerce feature set to build: fundamental and advanced
You obtain a shopping cart solution attractive for customers and returning the best value for investment when you secure fundamental ecommerce functionality and add advanced capabilities for a competitive edge.
Website management
Fundamental features
- Role-based admin access and permissions.
- Catalog management.
- Product bundles.
- Price promotions, e-coupons.
- High-level customer segmentation.
- International payment gateways.
- Integration of shipping carriers.
- Order and return management.
- Multicurrency and multilanguage support.
- Descriptive analytics and reporting.
Advanced features
- Personalized online merchandising.
- Tiered pricing.
- Contextual landing pages for marketing initiatives.
- Micro-behavioral customer segmentation.
- Unified order management for multiple sales channels.
- Predictive analytics for demand forecasting, marketing and promotional campaign planning, etc.
User experience management
Fundamental features
- Template-based web design.
- Layered navigation and filtered search.
- Variable products.
- Customizable product pages supporting various content formats (text, imagery, video).
- Point-based loyalty program.
- Knowledge repository (e.g., FAQ).
- Social media integration.
- User-generated content (product reviews).
- Registered and guest checkout.
- Automated tax calculation.
Advanced features
- Branded website design built on any front-end framework of choice.
- Product search enhanced with machine learning.
- 3D product visualization.
- AR-powered shopping experience.
- AI-powered product suggestions.
- AI-powered bots across chats, messengers in social media, phone.
- A store locator for omnichannel shopping experience.
- A custom checkout flow with upsells and customer-specific fill-in fields.
- User experience surveys triggered by user actions.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
- Micro-behavioral customer segmentation to detect specific patterns of customer behavior and decipher personal characteristics underlying them.
- Product search to proactively understand a customer’s search intention and suggest relevant products.
- Copywriting to quickly create and test different versions of product descriptions and promotional content and choose the best selling ones.
- Customer journey analysis across multiple digital touchpoints to understand their contribution to the revenue pipeline and allocate the marketing budget wisely.
Personalization
- On-site upselling and cross-selling automation to optimize online merchandising of large product catalogs.
- Personalized marketing experience to be relevant and helpful to different customer micro-segments.
- Multiple landing page variations to match different marketing intentions.
- Quick personalized response to negative customer experience to restore trust and make a repeat visit possible.
Voice Recognition
- Voice-assisted shopping to let customers buy convenience products hands-free and place repeat orders instantly.
- Voice-controlled commands to improve the experience with video tutorials or assembly guides.
- Product recommendations made by a voice assistant to remind customers of products they previously bought.
Augmented Reality
- Interactive 3D product presentation to bridge the gap between online and offline experience and secure a confident product choice.
- AR-powered assembly instructions to deliver strong post-purchase support and reinforce customer trust.
Tips to succeed with a custom shopping cart
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Hire strong consultants at the start of the development project to achieve the best ROI from custom shopping cart development. |
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Build your online store iteratively – start with an MVP, launch fast and advance it gradually responding to customer preferences that you continuously monitor. |
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Having opted for microservices architecture, take a full advantage of a possibility to shift your customer experience strategy along the way – the deployment of new features is fast and doesn’t disturb the solution operation. |
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Don’t follow blindly technology trends but get the feasibility of advanced technologies and approaches studied thoroughly to invest profitably. |
Trust custom shopping cart development to experts
Building a custom ecommerce solution with microservices requires a meticulous business analysis stage and solid architectural experience at the development stage. With 17 years of expertise in ecommerce technologies, ScienceSoft offers end-to-end services in custom shopping cart development.
- Investigating business needs and mapping them into ecommerce features.
- Providing a feasibility study of a custom microservices-based solution.
- Defining responsibilities and functions of each microservice and designing a high-level architecture of the end system.
- Designing a storefront on a modern front-end stack to achieve a desired website look and bring to life planned user experience design.
- Architecting microservices for a custom ecommerce solution.
- Establishing API communication between microservices.
- Applying several testing layers to quality check a modular solution and launch it bug-free.
About ScienceSoft
Founded in 1989, ScienceSoft is a reputable IT provider with a worldwide presence and a vast service offering. Having set ecommerce as one of the strategic business directions, our team keeps apace with technology advances in the domain and meets diverse business needs of e-retailers with best-suited ecommerce solutions.