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Platform

Ecommerce store for selling contemporary art

An e-commerce store that allows buyers to experience the process of buying fine art online.

Expertise

MVP Development

Website Development

UX & UI audit

Product Maintenance

Quality Assurance

Timeframe

MVP release in 4 months / ongoing

Industry

Art

Prerequisites

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted virtually every industry to enhance the digital presence in order to maintain sales levels from previous years. Despite a significant 22% decrease in global artwork sales in 2020, amounting to $50.3 billion, the global art market made a smooth recovery in 2021, reaching $65.1 billion in global revenue. This marked a 29% increase from 2020 and surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

Over the past 2 years, it appears that many art sellers have successfully adapted to this new strategy and have become adept at selling online, suggesting that this shift is here to stay.

Our client, PLATFORM, was one of the businesses that swiftly responded to the global situation. The e-commerce website store specializes in selling artworks represented by American galleries and features creations from both emerging and established artists.

Prerequisites
PLATFORM - entering the online market
PLATFORM - entering the online market
Requirements
Challenge
Process
Technical Requirements

For the PLATFORM project, we provided a team consisting of:

  • 1 Team Leader,
  • 5 Frontend Developers,
  • 3 Backend Developers,
  • 2 QA Specialists,
  • 1 Project Manager.

To ensure continuity and logical progress, we adopted the following steps:

  1. Market & stack research – This stage involved understanding user needs, analyzing competitors' offerings, exploring tools and technologies, and focusing on UX & UI. It allowed us to choose the most suitable technology for developing the expected functionality.
  2. Product discovery – Next, we shaped our MVP, aiming to deliver it within a maximum of 6 months. Minor parts of the discovery phase occurred during the subsequent stages of the process.
  3. Backlog creation – We identified key deliverables, broke them down into smaller parts, and organized them into several 2-week plans with set priorities. Regular reviews were scheduled for future stages of the project.
  4. Backend + Frontend development – We chose NextJS, NodeJS, and ReduxJS for the frontend application, and Django and Python + Wagtail CMS for the backend. Notable features included server-side rendering with NextJS, React for page transitions and monogram animations, and a combination of pagination and infinite scroll, keeping search-friendliness in mind at the same time.
  5. Integrations – The development team integrated Klarna for payments, Art Shipper for shipping, Omnisend for marketing campaigns, and BigQuery for SQL inquiries. BigCommerce was selected as the main e-commerce platform, synchronized with Wagtail CMS to meet non-standard client requirements. This integration allowed seamless data flow between both platforms through webhooks. Finally, Django facilitated merging data from both platforms for display on the front end. 
  6. Product maintenance – After launching the MVP, our focus shifted to maintenance mode as PLATFORM planned regular launches of new artworks. Developers ensured scalability, considering that old art pieces were retained on the website without the option for purchase.
The Challenge

The concept behind the store is to be the sole destination for purchasing artwork by the most desirable young artists online, free from the elitist barriers often associated with the art world. The site was meticulously designed to showcase artwork in its finest form, employing tools, images, and information to make it accessible and exciting for anyone – from seasoned collectors to first-time art buyers – to explore and purchase the high-quality art available on Platform. 

This is why the client specifically requested a website that could replicate the white cube experience online. Achieving this required impeccable image resolution and an exceptionally high loading speed, challenges that are typically difficult to address simultaneously. Furthermore, numerous desired features deviated from the norm for a standard eCommerce platform, necessitating a multitude of connections between various tools. 

The client aimed to create and launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) within a tight 6-month timeframe and under a strict budget.

Beyond the intricacies of the MVP concept, the rigid and inflexible deadline, and the constrained budget, PLATFORM also sought assurance that the development team could work with technologies consistent with other projects within their organization. 

In the end, with proper planning and role assignment, we managed to bypass the restrictions and achieve meaningful results in 4 months.

Our Process

The client’s request could have come to life only after extensive research, backend and frontend collaboration, and integrations with external systems. This e-commerce solution, specifically designed for the art market and powered by BigCommerce, delivers a high-performance, visually stunning online experience. With extremely high image resolution paired with rapid page loading, art pieces are showcased in breathtaking detail while ensuring a smooth browsing experience, crucial for customer engagement. 

Access control ensures a convenient experience for VIPs and partners, providing them with a unique and exclusive experience that fosters loyalty. Simultaneously, early access links for 'early birds' can drive pre-launch interest and sales.

The gem of the site is a ‘Preview in your space’ feature, allowing customers to upload a picture of their space and see how art pieces would look in their own environment before making a purchase. This significantly enhances buyer confidence.

Additionally, there’s a custom checkout process, consistent with the site's artistic theme, ensuring a seamless and visually cohesive journey from browsing to purchase, ultimately improving conversion rates.

Separate Admin and Supplier interfaces prove to be highly beneficial when managing their daily tasks. The intuitive admin interface simplifies product and content management while also providing easy access to customer data – a key for tailored marketing and sales strategies. This is where integrations with email marketing and Google Analytics come into play. These technologies provide powerful tools for customer engagement and behavior insights, essential for targeted marketing campaigns and understanding customer preferences.

In turn, the supplier interface offers a streamlined process for artists and vendors to manage their profiles and artworks, enhancing the efficiency of inventory management.

As a result, the solution we developed for PLATFORM is perfectly tailored to the art world, enhancing the presentation, management, and sale of artwork in a digital space.

what partners say about us?

The code and the work were good quality and really what we were looking for. They were able to bring technical design thinking to the project. Project management was tight and I always knew what was happening.
Daniel Kiyoi
CEO & Founder Magic Dust
Apptension was flexible and professional. When I needed to quickly add capacity, it took a week or two at worst - often days. The cooperation enabled me to slowly scale up my own IT team, and the company was very helpful until the last moments of the transition.
Mateusz Oleksiuk
CEO LESS_
The technical creativity delivered by the team at Apptension was invaluable in the formation of our mixed reality start-up Hyper.
Nathan Sparshott
Co-Founder & CEO of Hyper
The SaaS Boilerplate Apptension built was a huge reason we were so successful, because all these little seemingly unrelated tasks and integrations needed to happen. If we had been working with anybody else, It would have probably taken months to do the same work.
Kwame Nyanning
CEO blkbx.
We needed their help to build the backend services and capabilities needed to deliver a production level on demand. Their ability to produce high-quality work with consistency while dealing with a new type of project was impressive.
Kelly O’Conor
Product Lead, Siberia
The project’s success has resulted in a long-term partnership for design and development. Apptension is a fantastic partner, who is willing to go above and beyond in order to deliver what the client needs.
Catarina Rocha
p(r)oud solutions
Apptension fared well in our project, working with our bespoke CMS and complex requirements. The designs were implemented well and the schedule was kept tight.
Christian Marc Schmidt
Partner at Schema
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Platform
Ecommerce store for selling contemporary art
About
An e-commerce store that allows buyers to experience the process of buying fine art online.

Expertise

MVP Development

Website Development

UX & UI audit

Product Maintenance

Quality Assurance

Timeframe

MVP release in 4 months / ongoing

Industry

Art

Frontend@Tech stack, next.js, node.js, redux

Backend@Tech stack, django, djangorest, Python, wagtailcms, bigquery, bigcommerce

django
flask
react native
node.js
next.js
python
gatsby.js
vue.js
react.js
javascript
aws
docker
serverless
figma
photoshop
illustrator
after effects
firebase
blender
graphql
nuxt.js
Scss
typescript
apollo
saas boilerplate
styled components
D3
bigcommerce
bigquery
Wagtail CMS
Django Rest
redux
gsap
i18next
kubernetes
Google Cloud
Platform
rabbitmq
celery
Before
After
Prerequisites
Prerequisites

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted virtually every industry to enhance the digital presence in order to maintain sales levels from previous years. Despite a significant 22% decrease in global artwork sales in 2020, amounting to $50.3 billion, the global art market made a smooth recovery in 2021, reaching $65.1 billion in global revenue. This marked a 29% increase from 2020 and surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

Over the past 2 years, it appears that many art sellers have successfully adapted to this new strategy and have become adept at selling online, suggesting that this shift is here to stay.

Our client, PLATFORM, was one of the businesses that swiftly responded to the global situation. The e-commerce website store specializes in selling artworks represented by American galleries and features creations from both emerging and established artists.

Challenge
The challenge

The concept behind the store is to be the sole destination for purchasing artwork by the most desirable young artists online, free from the elitist barriers often associated with the art world. The site was meticulously designed to showcase artwork in its finest form, employing tools, images, and information to make it accessible and exciting for anyone – from seasoned collectors to first-time art buyers – to explore and purchase the high-quality art available on Platform. 

This is why the client specifically requested a website that could replicate the white cube experience online. Achieving this required impeccable image resolution and an exceptionally high loading speed, challenges that are typically difficult to address simultaneously. Furthermore, numerous desired features deviated from the norm for a standard eCommerce platform, necessitating a multitude of connections between various tools. 

The client aimed to create and launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) within a tight 6-month timeframe and under a strict budget.

Beyond the intricacies of the MVP concept, the rigid and inflexible deadline, and the constrained budget, PLATFORM also sought assurance that the development team could work with technologies consistent with other projects within their organization. 

In the end, with proper planning and role assignment, we managed to bypass the restrictions and achieve meaningful results in 4 months.

Requirements
The process

For the PLATFORM project, we provided a team consisting of:

  • 1 Team Leader,
  • 5 Frontend Developers,
  • 3 Backend Developers,
  • 2 QA Specialists,
  • 1 Project Manager.

To ensure continuity and logical progress, we adopted the following steps:

  1. Market & stack research – This stage involved understanding user needs, analyzing competitors' offerings, exploring tools and technologies, and focusing on UX & UI. It allowed us to choose the most suitable technology for developing the expected functionality.
  2. Product discovery – Next, we shaped our MVP, aiming to deliver it within a maximum of 6 months. Minor parts of the discovery phase occurred during the subsequent stages of the process.
  3. Backlog creation – We identified key deliverables, broke them down into smaller parts, and organized them into several 2-week plans with set priorities. Regular reviews were scheduled for future stages of the project.
  4. Backend + Frontend development – We chose NextJS, NodeJS, and ReduxJS for the frontend application, and Django and Python + Wagtail CMS for the backend. Notable features included server-side rendering with NextJS, React for page transitions and monogram animations, and a combination of pagination and infinite scroll, keeping search-friendliness in mind at the same time.
  5. Integrations – The development team integrated Klarna for payments, Art Shipper for shipping, Omnisend for marketing campaigns, and BigQuery for SQL inquiries. BigCommerce was selected as the main e-commerce platform, synchronized with Wagtail CMS to meet non-standard client requirements. This integration allowed seamless data flow between both platforms through webhooks. Finally, Django facilitated merging data from both platforms for display on the front end. 
  6. Product maintenance – After launching the MVP, our focus shifted to maintenance mode as PLATFORM planned regular launches of new artworks. Developers ensured scalability, considering that old art pieces were retained on the website without the option for purchase.
Roadmap
Solution
The solution

The client’s request could have come to life only after extensive research, backend and frontend collaboration, and integrations with external systems. This e-commerce solution, specifically designed for the art market and powered by BigCommerce, delivers a high-performance, visually stunning online experience. With extremely high image resolution paired with rapid page loading, art pieces are showcased in breathtaking detail while ensuring a smooth browsing experience, crucial for customer engagement. 

Access control ensures a convenient experience for VIPs and partners, providing them with a unique and exclusive experience that fosters loyalty. Simultaneously, early access links for 'early birds' can drive pre-launch interest and sales.

The gem of the site is a ‘Preview in your space’ feature, allowing customers to upload a picture of their space and see how art pieces would look in their own environment before making a purchase. This significantly enhances buyer confidence.

Additionally, there’s a custom checkout process, consistent with the site's artistic theme, ensuring a seamless and visually cohesive journey from browsing to purchase, ultimately improving conversion rates.

Separate Admin and Supplier interfaces prove to be highly beneficial when managing their daily tasks. The intuitive admin interface simplifies product and content management while also providing easy access to customer data – a key for tailored marketing and sales strategies. This is where integrations with email marketing and Google Analytics come into play. These technologies provide powerful tools for customer engagement and behavior insights, essential for targeted marketing campaigns and understanding customer preferences.

In turn, the supplier interface offers a streamlined process for artists and vendors to manage their profiles and artworks, enhancing the efficiency of inventory management.

As a result, the solution we developed for PLATFORM is perfectly tailored to the art world, enhancing the presentation, management, and sale of artwork in a digital space.

WHAT The CLIENT Said ABOUT this project?

what partners say about us?

The code and the work were good quality and really what we were looking for. They were able to bring technical design thinking to the project. Project management was tight and I always knew what was happening.
Daniel Kiyoi
CEO & Founder Magic Dust
Apptension was flexible and professional. When I needed to quickly add capacity, it took a week or two at worst - often days. The cooperation enabled me to slowly scale up my own IT team, and the company was very helpful until the last moments of the transition.
Mateusz Oleksiuk
CEO LESS_
The technical creativity delivered by the team at Apptension was invaluable in the formation of our mixed reality start-up Hyper.
Nathan Sparshott
Co-Founder & CEO of Hyper
The SaaS Boilerplate Apptension built was a huge reason we were so successful, because all these little seemingly unrelated tasks and integrations needed to happen. If we had been working with anybody else, It would have probably taken months to do the same work.
Kwame Nyanning
CEO blkbx.
We needed their help to build the backend services and capabilities needed to deliver a production level on demand. Their ability to produce high-quality work with consistency while dealing with a new type of project was impressive.
Kelly O’Conor
Product Lead, Siberia
The project’s success has resulted in a long-term partnership for design and development. Apptension is a fantastic partner, who is willing to go above and beyond in order to deliver what the client needs.
Catarina Rocha
p(r)oud solutions
Apptension fared well in our project, working with our bespoke CMS and complex requirements. The designs were implemented well and the schedule was kept tight.
Christian Marc Schmidt
Partner at Schema

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