Development of an online catalog for reserving premium alcohol

Client

Maxxium Russia is the Russian division of an international alliance of two leading companies producing strong alcohol in the middle and premium segments — Beam Suntory and Edrington.

The problem

An outdated site with an unattractive design and an uninformative catalog. It was difficult for customers to navigate positions and brands.

The site was not a point of contact with the key target audience — buyers of premium alcohol; it did not make it possible to collect their contacts and offer additional services.

Solution

• UX analytics and website redesign.

• Introduction of the MVP system into the project.

• PWA development for the correct display of the site on any device.

• Implementing Magento to manage reservations.

• Elasticsearch integration.

Website redesign

The new site design is based on Baymard Institute's UX research.

The target audience is wealthy connoisseurs of expensive and high-quality alcohol.

Design

Distance selling alcohol is prohibited by Russian law, so for Maxxium, instead of an online store, designers have developed a virtual elite club with a laconic design in the spirit of premium brands.

“Submit a request” function

As of November 2019, customers are still unable to purchase items through the Maxxium website. The “Submit a request” function allows them to get more detailed information about the manufacturer and the drink: blend, taste, aging, price per bottle, and the ability to book at the nearest or selected points of sale.

The feature has been added to Magento and the Mindbox CRM system, and the corresponding button has appeared on all product cards. Thanks to this feature, Maxxium Russia got access to the target audience and gathered contacts to form club offers.

PWA development

Thanks to PWA technology, an adaptable front was created.

PWA allows Maxxium customers to comfortably interact with the site via any device and stores all useful information on the main and internal pages. When switching between desktop and tablet, the user does not “lose” the necessary pages and useful information.

Magento implementation

The Magento 2 platform is at the center of Maxxium's new architecture. Its functionality meets the client's needs for storing and managing information, integrating with the necessary mechanisms and work tools.

After changes in legislation, Magento 2 will allow you to create a full-fledged B2B portal based on the current website and catalog.

Elasticsearch integration

Users will definitely find the catalog items they are looking for: by brand, type of drink, manufacturer — even if they make a mistake or a typo in the search box.

Elasticsearch was chosen as the tool, the most functional and popular mechanism for storing and searching data.

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About our work

“We've been working with kt.team for over a year and have come a long way since then, from the quick launch of a small site to an introductory catalog and several integrations. The team promptly responded to our requests and amendments to the technical specifications; together we tested several hypotheses and selected the most working ones.

Our project is not overloaded; unlike other projects kt.team works with, we have an enormous catalog. But we need to target a specific audience with high demands; we are limited by legislation and the specifics of our field. All this did not prevent us from working together to create a project with a modern design and functionality that is convenient for both Maxxium users and employees.”

Andrey Ivanov, Head of Digital Transformation at Maxxium

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