DM Order Systems, a specialized delivery company operating out of Philadelphia, approached A+L in the summer of 2023 to rebuild their store. DM had taken a DIY approach involving a lot of hands-on work for their small staff. They have a large inventory and were spending an inordinate amount of time processing orders and checking stock. As sales increased, this process became a burden.
DM needed a system with a higher level of complexity, so they asked us to build an automated system similar to PostMates. Their in-house designer also needed the ability to update products and promotions without breaking the site. This was a complicated undertaking calling for specialized tools and knowledge. We couldn’t disrupt their current site, so we migrated their content to start on a fresh server.
Before building the new store, we created a basic menu site to give customers a better experience in the short term. This was a simple, image-based site with scrolling menu shortcuts at the top. Once folks were on that version of the site, we started to roll out the full store to groups of users by creating a temporary pin system. Customers would login to their existing account, create a pin, then follow a menu link to the new version of the site and login with that. This gave us valuable customer feedback on the store while we fleshed out the account set-up experience. Once everything was in good working order, we migrated over accounts in batches to the new site.
We’ve created and maintained woo-commerce stores for many clients over the years, but DM provided some unique challenges. As they operate in both PA and southern NJ, they needed a system able to calculate two different tax rates based on the customer’s location. In addition to that challenge, state laws also required two different sets of Terms and Conditions.
To simplify this, we integrated their sign-up process with DocuSign. DocuSign allows for a secure uploading system which we used for ID for verification. DocuSign is able to maintain these documents so the client can rest easy knowing their data is secure. We created two sets of documents for customers in each state. ID verification was also required as DM offers age-restricted products. License scanning was rolled into the Terms and Conditions form so customers can complete sign-up in one smooth workflow for manual review by DM’s team.
DM had initially requested an 18+ version of the site as well as a 21+ to prevent underage customers from accessing certain products. We built two separate landing pages for the account types and automated the exclusion of age-restricted products for the under 21 site. Once DM’s popularity began to take off, we all met to discuss next steps and decided it would be better to focus on offering their entire catalog rather than maintaining two different variations.
DM’s woo-commerce set up is more robust than most. In addition to the standard online credit-card and PayPal transactions, DM allows their customers to pay with cash/card on delivery as well as crypto. This created two distinct checkout workflows: Cash or card on delivery would automatically trigger DM to fill the order; crypto and other online payments required the customer to pay prior to their order being sent out.
We built an interactive check out page to direct customers to different confirmation pages based on payment type. For payment on delivery, they would be directed to a page with a banner stating “Your order is being packed!” For cards and PayPal, the confirmation page included a banner that said “Please complete your transaction before we pack your order.” We set up external links for secure card checkout, and installed a crypto widget for up to the minute price conversions.
Both the sign-up and order processes required automated emails, so we set up about half-a-dozen messages that are triggered by hitting certain stages in the workflow. The content of these messages is fully customizable so DM can change verbiage whenever necessary.
While working on solutions for all of this, we encountered a happy problem: DM was getting more popular. Flooded with new users and orders, they wanted to give more details about their expanding product offerings. Advanced search functionality was already implemented to track their inventory, so we just needed to create more fields for descriptions. We added lists of product attributes and created a tagging system, allowing customers to filter results more narrowly. We also built drop-down menus for products with multiple size options to condense the number of individual items.
With more sales coming in, DM wanted to reward frequent customers with promo codes. We’ve created promo codes for nearly every web store we’ve worked on, so that was simple. Far more challenging was creating customizable combo specials. We created separate pages for each combo and tagged all applicable products in inventory to populate drop-down lists for customers. Selecting a combo deal automatically triggers a discount on the checkout page so customers don’t fumble with a code.
This project has been an invaluable experience for both A+L and DM. We’ve watched a small business blossom while expanding our own. We can do this because we’re a nimble team of quick learners with decades of combined experience. No matter what size project you have, we can scale up as you need and work with you every step of the way. Reach out today and see what we can build together.