Executive summary Executive summary
Client background
PrettyLittleThing is a UK-based fashion retailer that offers clothing aimed specifically at women. As a result of its rapid expansion to new markets, the company became one of the top 3 fastest-growing fashion retailers in the UK. It operates in the UK, Ireland, Australia, the US, and France.
Business challenge
PrettyLittleThing needed to become more effective at matching the needs of their customer base which was quickly increasing due to rapid business growth. To achieve this, they needed to develop, scale, and improve several software solutions.
Value delivered
N-iX helped the client develop a product information management (PIM) system, as well as mobile retail and marketplace applications. This has helped PrettyLittleThing improve their business efficiency by automating product management processes, and increase their revenue by offering excellent shopping experiences to customers.
Success story in detail
PrettyLittleThing was going through rapid business growth. The company aimed to scale existing software products, add new features, and ensure their solutions' high performance and security. This would help them effectively match the needs of the growing customer base, resulting in higher customer satisfaction, retention, and attraction.
Product information management system
The N-iX team has helped PrettyLittleThing develop a product information management system based on an open-source solution. The system contains about 270K product models and 1.5 million product variations. It manages all product data (product name, price, attributes, etc.) and distributes it efficiently through all channels, such as the retail app, points of sale, etc. It also includes functionality that facilitates product search by product details.
We have substituted out-of-the-box product import and export functionalities with batch creation and batch update to increase the processing speed. This has enabled users to create and update products by simply uploading a CSV file, automating the process.
Also, we have implemented automatic word replacement to streamline product searches in specific countries or regions.
Furthermore, our developers have implemented automatic discount calculation and automatic product validation if the required categories were met.
N-iX software engineers have implemented a related product functionality that helps PrettyLittleThing provide more accurate and personalized offers to their customers. The feature allows the procurement team to adjust the displayed products after a user purchases something on the e-commerce website or app.
Additionally, we have implemented the Redis cache and optimized product requests. This has helped us significantly increase system performance and accelerate the product feed processing from 24 to 1 hour.
Cross-platform mobile retail application
We have assisted the client in developing cross-platform (iOS and Android) mobile applications using React Native. Our engineers have provided integration with native libraries to remove development restrictions. We have started the development of the white-label version of the mobile application as an e-commerce platform for multiple brands, so it can be later rebranded and utilized by other companies.
Additionally, we have completed integrations with multiple marketing tools, namely, Contentsquare, Webloyalty, Adjust, and Exponea. This has helped the client improve the effectiveness of their marketing strategies.
N-iX has improved the Checkout API module which increased application performance by 3 times. Also, we have helped the client solve the authentication issues for iOS users. By enabling all users to quickly and easily access the application, the client was able to increase sales and double their monthly revenue from the mobile retail application.
Mobile marketplace applications
Together with PrettylittleThing, N-iX engineers have developed iOS and Android marketplace applications that allow customers to register their stores and sell clothing items. We have been working on synchronizing these solutions with the client’s retail application to facilitate authentication. It would allow users that are registered in one of the applications to easily access the other one.
We have rewritten the modal window component by adding a separate library and rewriting the entire functionality. We have also implemented a wish list functionality for the applications. Finally, the N-iX team has thoroughly analyzed the navigation architecture component of the applications to identify and fix any present issues. As a result, the client was able to provide a smoother and more intuitive shopping experience, which, in turn, increased the number of completed transactions and helped attract new customers.
N-iX engineers have helped PrettyLittleThing develop, improve, and maintain multiple solutions, including product information management, mobile retail applications, and marketplace mobile applications. This has helped the client improve their business in several ways, namely:
- Automated product creation with the new PIM system that allows creating and updating products via CSV file upload and automatically sends updates to the client’s e-commerce website and the PLT retail app;
- Automated product management across multiple countries with automatic word replacement, as well as country-based price and discount calculation;
- Doubled the company’s monthly revenue from the mobile retail application by improving its performance and fixing authentication issues;
- Increased monthly transactions and new users of the mobile marketplace application by adding new features and improving its navigation.