Industry
About project
From zero to hero.
This pretty much sums up the story behind building the largest eCommerce Platform in the region. From envisioning the idea and building the foundation for the entire build-from-scratch product to building the product itself, we bring you the story of creating the eCommerce platform that will significantly impact eCommerce market in the region and beyond.
Challenge
One of the largest non-government employers in Serbia, recognized the expansion of eCommerce during the pandemic and started their next mission — to build the biggest eCommerce platform in the Balkans. Their ultimate goal was to provide a unique user experience at every stage of their user journey – from browsing the products, via ordering, to the payment and the delivery.
On top of superior user experience, this platform strives to achieve sophisticated design, outstanding user support, safe transactions and on-time delivery, allowing them to build a unique eCommerce platform that will stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the biggest world eCommerce platforms such as the eCommerce giant Amazon. After working with Boston Consulting Group on creating a roadmap and a business model on how to turn their vision into reality, Delta Holding approached HTEC to help them build on that momentum.
Solution
MVP was built from ground up in less than 9 months and released in mid of 2021.
We rolled out the entire process of scrum development, product discovery, and product delivery.
In the early phase, we not only conducted the tech advisory but also suggested the most appropriate foundation for the entire build-from-scratch product. The synergy of our product team and BCG’s consultants led to all the major MVP initiatives, designed UI and AU and the entire look-and-feel, and carried out the entire product discovery. As a true business partner, we not only developed a desired solution but also recognized new opportunities while offering consultation and continuous support along the way.
We set a few goals we wanted to reach on this project:
The client’s mission extends beyond building a go-to place for online shopping in the region and beyond — their ambition is to create a whole ecosystem consisting of marketplace, Retail, Logistics, AdTech and FinTech departments all unified in one system offering a variety of products and services.
The engineering excellence behind the solution consists of Solution Architects, DevOps, Backend and Frontend developers, Data scientists, QA Automation and Manual engineers, Product, Project and Engineering Managers, UI/UX Specialists and Scrum Masters and several younger aspirants.
As true allies in battle we empowered each other to continue in the same and even better regime of planning and organizing. Of course, although hurdles and crisis have appeared throughout the whole transition process, we have always seen them as opportunities for growth, rather than threats.
– Vojislav Mokrić
Engineering Manager at HTEC Group
Success
The world-class eCommerce platform distinguishes itself by:
- A plethora of goods across a variety of categories
- A superior and innovative new user experience
Customers in the region (and soon beyond) can now easily browse and purchase 100,000+ various products without having painful experiences with order and delivery. On top of this, the solution offers a superb last mile experience and hundreds of different Pick-Up-Drop-Off or Lockers locations in Serbia to customers in Serbia. Also, since the platform is designed as a highly bespoke solution, its stakeholders can easily scale and customize their operations.
The client’s ambition is to internationalize the platform on several new regional markets and do something never achieved before — unite several smaller markets under the same umbrella despite heavy regulatory work needed!
HTEC Group and the client have become strategic partners with the aim to bring the existing solution to an ever-higher level. Our deep domain knowledge of the entire ecosystem will help us continue to provide high value to our client and empower them to make a difference in the local region and beyond.
To learn more about how we helped our client achieve great success in the world of eCommerce, read Building the Largest eCommerce Platform in the Region from the Ground up.
When you are building something as big and spectacular as this platform, then you need strong, stable and well-organized team. Although we are still in the beginning and there is a long run in front of us. I am very happy that we succeeded to build excellent base thanks to professional collaboration and understanding we have. Together, we have learnt a lot, and great successes are yet to come.
– Bela Klasnja
