Redefining Interior eCommerce: Codilar's Scalable Solution for HomeLane
Company Overview
HomeLane, a pioneer in modular home interior design since 2014, serves over 30 cities across India. The company specializes in transforming living spaces with customized kitchens, wardrobes, and more. By combining physical showrooms with an advanced digital platform, HomeLane simplifies the home design journey through consultations, 3D visualizations, and project management.
To realize its vision of delivering a seamless, customer-centric experience, HomeLane sought a technology partner to develop a scalable eCommerce platform tailored to its unique catalog, pricing models, and operational complexities. Codilar, an award-winning eCommerce agency, partnered with HomeLane to create a transformative solution.
Objectives & Challenges
HomeLane desperately needed a dedicated platform to improve customer experience and streamline operations, supporting their growing business. The entire solution stood on four main pillars, but came with significant technical challenges.
Centralized Catalog Data : A unified catalog system that acts like a single source for 3D design, payment, budgeting, and other tools.
Custom Pricing Model Support : A city-specific, tailored pricing based on HomeLane's vast vendor network.
Vendor and Inventory Data Integration :Vendor inventory, cost, and location-specific catalog variation tracking for consistent and accurate product data.
Designer-Customer Collaboration : An interactive interface that allows designers and shoppers to browse, wishlist, and pick items for each individual project.
Fulfilling the objectives was possible, but it came with a number of challenges:
Data Fragmentation : As the catalog data was stored across separate systems, synchronizing the product information was a huge challenge.
Limited Access to Product Catalogs : Shoppers did not have the option to individually browse or customize the products, making it a clunky experience.
Scalability Issues : Automated data communication and integration between internal and external systems were missing from the existing setup.
Codilar faced the challenge of building a highly customized, cohesive solution on Magento (Adobe Commerce) that would not only resolve their existing requirements but also scale to support the business growth and additional functionalities.
Codilar's Solution Approach
Codilar took a methodical and phased approach to the project that allowed constant feedback and optimization throughout the process. After several prolonged discussions with team HomeLane, Codilar was able to map out a solution framework on Adobe Commerce as the technology comes with a huge library of third-party extensions, exceptional customization options, and a highly evolving ecosystem. The project was taken to the finish line in two phases.
Phase One : Building the Core Functionalities
Developing the platform’s core structure was the primary focus of phase one along with various key deliverables.
1. Unified Catalog System:
From immersive 3D product preview to budgeting and payment, Codilar ensured data consistency across multiple tools to centralize HomeLane’s catalog. It significantly reduced data inconsistencies while delivering more accurate product and pricing information.
2. Customizable Pricing Mechanism:
With a city-specific pricing model, Codilar could finally streamline HomeLane’s huge network of vendors, empowering shoppers to access accurate and localized pricing. This system played a crucial role in the project as it delivered transparency and helped shoppers make informed decisions, leading to improved customer trust.
3. Vendor and Inventory Integration:
Our skilled ecommerce experts implemented a real-time inventory management system to centralize the data from multiple vendors, enabling HomeLane to track and update product availability in real-time to reduce stock inconsistencies. The process was further smoothened by allowing vendors to also update the stock information and pricing directly.
4. Customer and Designer Interface:
With a new, interactive interface, designers and customers could collaborate by browsing, selecting, and wishlisting products. It enables customers and designers to discuss and select products for specific interior projects in real time. This interactive approach transformed the customer journey entirely.
With continuous discussions with HomeLand’s team and refinement of the functionalities based on their feedback, these components were built to perfection. After development, Codilar performed System Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure optimal user satisfaction and system performance.
Phase Two : Advanced Customizations and Constant Improvements
After developing the core structure, the second phase of the project began – building state-of-the-art customizations and handling edge cases.
1. Multi-Website, City-Specific Customization:
Codilar transformed the existing platform into an efficient multi-website structure, where each city has a separate storefront to operate. With every site containing its own unique catalogs, pricing, and vendor list, it equips HomeLane to customize shopping experiences by city and leverage the local market dynamics while operating everything from a single platform
2. Enhanced Data Management and Reporting:
To monitor critical data like inventory updates, vendor availability, and catalog performance, we built a cohesive reporting suite that provided much-needed insights into operational metrics to HomeLane. It came in handy to understand and handle market demands, pricing trends, and inventory across different cities. HomeLane could make informed decisions with this new data-driven approach, enhancing its operational efficiency and customer service.
3. System Integrations:
Alongside vendor integrations, Codilar connected HomeLane’s billing and design systems with the platform while integrating Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for customer interaction tracking and SAP for backend data flow. These integrations automated a number of manual works, lessening the room for errors while also saving a significant amount of time.
4. Ongoing Maintenance and Support:
Team Codilar’s commitment to excellence and growth goes beyond building a bespoke ecommerce platform. It continues to provide maintenance and support to HomeLane’s solution, recognizing scopes for improvement and implementing solutions as required to ensure a robust platform that adapts to the market needs.
Solution Highlights
Unified Catalog System:
Thanks to the centralized catalog system, HomeLane had access to all product data under one roof, which enhanced data consistency across all user interfaces
Real-Time Vendor and Inventory Management:
The ability to track and update the inventory turned out to be a game changer as it helped in reducing out-of-stock products and boosting customer trust.
Location-Specific Pricing Model:
With a location-specific pricing model, HomeLane could make the entire system more dynamic and customer-friendly. Not only did it improve the customer journey, but also helped with purchase decisions
Multi-Website Architecture:
HomeLane could cater to a diverse market more efficiently as a unified system of distinct city-specific websites ensured streamlined operation and enhanced overall efficiency.
Project Outcomes and Business Impact
The fruitful collaboration between HomeLane and Codilar resulted in a number of key outcomes.
Boosted Operational Efficiency
Thanks to the centralized catalog system, HomeLane could automate a number of time-consuming manual tasks, increasing the company’s operational efficiency. It also enabled the vendors to communicate more succinctly with fewer inventory discrepancies.
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
Cutting-edge and customer-centric features like collaborative wishlisting and 3D visualization helped with HomeLane’s overall customer experience. As it enabled shoppers to be more involved with product selection and purchase, the engagement got a huge boost..
Improved Inventory Management
Thanks to the real-time inventory updates, the vendor relationship was highly strengthened. With the new system developed by Codilar, managing product availability and pricing within the platform became effortless for vendors, resulting in fewer delays and more accuracy.
Strategic Decisions Based on Data-Driven Insights
The powerful reporting and analytics solutions built for HomeLane offer a deep insight into vendor performance, customer behavior, and product demand trends for specific cities that empower HomeLane to make more data-driven, strategic decisions.
Conclusion
Codilar’s collaboration with HomeLane not only demonstrates the positive and transformative impact of a bespoke ecommerce solution but also conveys the expertise Codilar brings into building sophisticated, result-driven digital commerce systems. From discussion to delivery, Codilar streamlined the complex process to deliver a modern, scalable, and user-friendly platform, making HomeLane a leader in the world of interior design.
Testimonial
Codilar has demonstrated great expertise in developing our Magento based catalog platform. Their team successfully implemented complex customizations, efficiently addressing our diverse business workflows and requirements in quick time.”