How Codilar Delivered a Unified Commerce Solution for a Leading Automotive Accessories Manufacturer
Company
Overview
One of the most reputable names in the North American automotive accessories industry faced a technical hurdle with their previously successful multi site architecture which put an obstacle in their scalability and success
It was one of the top warehouse distributors of a wide variety of parts and accessories for SUVs trucks and passenger vehicles running nine independent eCommerce stores with their unique brand identity and audiences But managing nine brands separately quickly became a nightmare with varied tech stacks disconnected data systems and huge operational costs
The business needed to break free from the fragmented digital environment and shift to a unified commerce to succeed in todays fast paced digital commerce Thats when they got in touch with Codilar
Objectives & Challenges
The company was dealing with a collection of highly interrelated technical and business challenges in its digital business The challenges stemmed primarily from years of running brand centric sites on multiple platforms and dealing with decentralized systems for data inventory and fulfillment
Siloed Architecture
The enterprises nine brands ran on a mix of platforms like Magento Open Source Shopify and various custom built solutions This created
Duplicated codebases
Inconsistent user experiences
Heavy maintenance requirements
Any system wide change had to be implemented individually across all nine stores significantly increasing time cost and effort
Manual Data Operations
Core product data fitment logic and Amazon listings were all updated using spreadsheets This manual workflow introduced
Frequent human errors
Data version mismatches
Slower time to market for product updates
Integration Sprawl
The backend was a patchwork of legacy systems The company operated four different ERP systems Sage 200 Sage 100 Sage X3 and BPCS each speaking a different integration language REST SOAP FTP These differences required
Bespoke connector development
Complex error handling mechanisms
Time consuming troubleshooting
Additionally ChannelAdvisor was used for marketplace listings adding another layer of technical fragmentation
SEO and URL Fragmentation
Each brands domain carried substantial SEO equity Migrating to a unified platform came with the risk of losing search traffic which would have cost the brand a lot of potential revenue and branding This called for implementing a precise 301 redirect mapping
Deployment and Release Risks
Since the brand owned a number of domains the traditional deployment methods posed high risks which could turn the dream unified commerce journey into a nightmare Every release invited
Potential site downtime
Rollback complexity
Revenue impact during campaigns
Scalability Gaps
The organizations existing system wasnt just outdated it was actively limiting business growth The existing architecture could not support
Real time inventory updates
AI driven recommendations
Modern search and analytics capabilities
Solution Approach
Codilars approach was rooted in centralization modularity and performance The transformation unfolded in three primary phases data consolidation commerce platform unification and customer experience enhancement
Data Platform & Integration
Codilar established Pimcore as the master data platform to centralize and standardize the businesss data architecture consolidating
ACES PIES ACA master data
Fitment logic YMM filters VIN lookups
Digital assets
To eliminate manual workflows We implemented RabbitMQ based asynchronous pipelines product update inventory update and pricing update to drive
Real time product sync
Inventory updates
Pricing logic between Pimcore and Magento
ERP integrations were modernized through
REST based adapters for modern ERPs
Scheduled FTP CSV jobs with checksum validation for legacy systems
For marketplace operations Codilar integrated the Amazon marketplace using RabbitMQ queues and ChannelAdvisors API to normalize orders and sync shipments effectively bridging Pimcore and Magento with seamless data flow to Amazon
Unified Commerce Platform
The enterprises nine brands were consolidated onto a single Magento Commerce On Prem platform drastically reducing complexity
Key implementations
A parent theme with nine child themes for individual brand styling
Leveraged Magentos multi website multi source inventory MSI for unified inventory management across ERP sources
Advanced Elasticsearch for powerful faceted catalog search and auto complete
Enhanced Customer Experience
Codilar rebuilt the customer facing experience to drive engagement and conversion Highlights include
Custom YMM filters and VIN search modules to surface fitment specific results quickly
An efficient AJAX based one page checkout with guest registered flows cart save share capabilities and mobile first design
AI based product recommendations People Also Viewed and People Also Purchased using Magnetos MessageQueue and GraphQL
Enhanced user utilities Out of stock notifications Yotpo reviews and ratings Social logins Facebook Google Zendesk Chat for instant customer support
Solution Highlights
This wasnt a cosmetic overhaul it was a deep architecture redesign Codilar engineered each layer to support future proof scalability performance and automation
Platform Migration with Zero Downtime
Codilar sunset all legacy platforms Magento Open Source Shopify and custom builds and migrated the whole ecosystem to Magento Commerce On Prem To support this the team created powerful ETL scripts using Python and pandas to extract transform and load legacy data into Pimcore and Magento ensuring proper continuity of data across the new architecture We used
Blue green deployment strategy via AWS ALB weighted routing
Terraform managed rollback configurations for faster disaster recovery
DevOps & CI CD
Codilar used a branching strategy based on GitFlow for the implementation and used AWS pipelines for automated builds tests and database migrations which ensured topnotch code quality and deployment consistency throughout the multi site ecosystem
Robust Middleware Layer
A custom Symfony based middleware was developed to sit between Pimcore and Magento handling
Message validation and transformation
Routing across systems
JSON Schema enforcement for field level accuracy in RabbitMQ payloads
Deep System Integrations
Third party systems were stitched together seamlessly
ERP Systems Integrated via REST and FTP CSV with checksum validation
CRM Microsoft Dynamics integrated via REST API for customer and lead sync
Marketplaces Amazon Seller Central through ChannelAdvisor plus AWS backed queues
Shipping & Tax FedEx API for live rates and tracking Avalara AvaTax for tax compliance
Commerce Add Ons and Widgets
In addition to all of the core functionality Codilar created a number of features that enhanced the user experience
Out of Stock Alerts and back in stock notifications
RMA and order cancellation workflows inside Magento
My Garage module to store customer vehicle preferences
Check My Fitment interactive widget for product pages
Amazon SES for transactional emails
Results and Impact
Operational Efficiency
75 percent reduction in deployment time
Zero downtime during releases thanks to automated blue green deployments
Data Accuracy and Latency
less than 2 minute latency across systems for product inventory and order data
less than 0 05 percent message loss with RabbitMQ plus JSON schema validation
System Reliability
Integration failures reduced by 90 percent
Dead letter queues and circuit breakers ensured smoother data flow
Scalability & Performance
System now supports horizontal scaling via ECS auto scaling groups
Search throughput increased by 60 percent due to dedicated Elasticsearch shards
SEO & Traffic Retention
98 percent of top 10 keyword rankings maintained
30 percent increase in organic sessions within six months post migration
User Experience & Conversion Rates
27 percent improvement in conversion rate
12 percent increase in average order value thanks to AI enabled personalization and a simplified checkout
Conclusion
From struggling to manage a fragmented eCommerce model to dominating the global market with a unified digital platform the success story of the automotive accessories manufacturer truly showcases Codilars incredible expertise in tech and eCommerce Codilar not only rebuilt the companys digital backbone using Pimcore Magento Commerce RabbitMQ and a future proof middleware layer but also helped the company become the market leader The re platforming was nothing short of a digital renaissance that met and exceeded expectations
