MonAlbumPhoto (MAP) is one of the photo album online sale’s leaders, managing the whole chain from A to Z, from customized products creation to printing and forwarding. Created in 2004 by Pierre Antoine and Alexandre Bataille, it has been acquired by M6 via Ventadis in 2010. These four last years, it has grown a lot, with a turnover that was from 5 to 25M€.

CHALLENGES

On an online printing market that keeps shifting (new competitors and devices, social networks focused on the image), MAP always wants to innovate. The company wanted to redesign and improve its ecommerce platform, with very specific business needs requiring an ad-hoc answer to:

• Offer a simple and efficient conversion tunnel, and a system tailored for the company’s products
• Enable products diversification and business partnerships, as well as the internationalization
• Ensure the perfect connection between the customization interface and the conversation funnel
• Manage the seasonal workload peaks
• Switching from old to new system with no data loss or service interruption.

METHODOLOGY AND OUTPUTS

We used a sequential approach in order to respond to industrialization and system stability constraints. But we also followed agile principles, with regular collaboration and communication: it ensured fast-track arbitration and a very precise follow-up of the project’s status.

After a full audit of the data models and Information System, we developed from scratch the new system composed of: a responsive front-end (desktop, tablets and mobile), a REST API, an online editor, a very powerful faceted search engine, a middle and back-office for final printing generation e-business management. We connected the platform to external APIs (payment portals, carriers), the internal CRM, the customization software...

We implemented the best development practices: Test-Driven Development, continuous integration tools, numerous workload tests, tests on real data sets, caching mechanisms, code and database queries optimization...

Regarding experience, after auditing the existing platform and benchmarking many sites, we worked thoroughly on the users journey, but also the editorial contents, products discovery, recommendation and inspiration.

RESULTS

Our customized platform meets every need MAP had (complex prices calculation, advanced promotion and countries zones management, front customization, orders follow-up, customer support…). Thanks to our development expertise, the performance objectives are met even during the seasonal peaks and communication campaigns. 

The consideration given to the user experience and to the platform conception strengthens the photos emotional charge for the user.

Moreover, we have identified new features such as connecting via Instagram, Flickr or Facebook. Thus, the user can very easily print its social contents, and MAP has a very precise knowledge of its behavior.