BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE ECOMMERCE PLATFORM BASED ON THE ‘BUY NOW, PAY LATER’ MODEL WITH MAGENTO

Laybyland launched their ecommerce business in 2012, having been ambitious for leading the Australian e-retail market with “Buy now, pay later” models. This models fills exactly the targeted customer needs, bringing the best business performance.

Laybyland has marked themselves spectacular growth throughout nine-year-operating in the Australian market, from about 10,000 products in the two stores to 400,000 products daily supplied on four existing stores.

SECOMM profoundly appreciates the credibility of Laybyland in having provided solutions and implemented all projects for the Laybyland system-wide since 2014.

Demand for a robust system

In 2014, after the 2-year-ecommerce-operation, the business realized that converting the current CMS system was a must for a complete and robust retail system in Australia; simultaneously, this old CMS performance had no longer smooth functioning to control much more extensive ecommerce data.

Therefore, migrating to an ecommerce-intensive platform would be a sustainable development strategy to conquer the Aussie market swiftly.

Replatforming from Drupal CMS to Magento Enterprise 1.13 

The ecommerce scale had become oversized for a typical Drupal CMS platform. This critical reason required the brand priority to develop a comprehensive system, ensuring the continuity of every operational process. SECOMM kicked off the first steps from basic ecommerce features, building a standard foundation on the later Laybyland web system. Key solutions for the development process include:0Applying Magento Enterprise platform version 1.13

• Picking Search Engine Solr with high flexibility and scalability, providing outstanding searching performance
• Using AWS infrastructure with high security to support data management via a cloud platform
• Using FPC Redis engine to maintain website performance inside 99.99% of the time
• Comprehensively building modules to integrate Magento with existing payment gateways and the ERP system.
• Integrating more payment systems: Debit Success, Afterpay, ZipMoney, Paypal, etc
• Building Laybyland proprietary process – Lay-by payment allows customers to plan their payment frequency when placing orders on laybyland.com.au
• Applying responsive design with a simplified interface but still professionalism

After perfecting the system in 2014, all the Laybyland sites had continuously been monitored and maintained 24/7 by SECOMM. In 2017, after successfully mylayby.com acquiring, SECOMM proceeded to implement the Lay-by process for this new site, then mylayby.co.nz website in New Zealand. Also, SECOMM had continuously maintained Magento versions to stay refreshed and modernized with the latest bug-fix update from the Magento community.

Successful migration to Magento 2.3.x since 2020 

The Magento 2.x migration need partly stemmed from the fact that all Magento 1.x versions would be officially discontinued in mid-2020 and no longer received any technical support, feature or security update from the developer community. Additionally, to keep up with cutting-edge technologies as well as increase business value to the Laybyland ecommerce system, SECOMM has undertaken the Magento 2.x migration project for all four sites with the following prominent solutions:

• Converting the entire data and function systems from Magento Enterprise 1.14 to Magento Commerce 2.3. Particularly for the database, it was necessary to migrate from 3 sources: Magento default, 3rd parties and vendors.
• Completely replacing Solr search engine with Elasticsearch to optimize search-processing speed.
• Daily updating a large amount of product data (more than 100000 products per website) from the current Bonar ERP system.
• Building more custom features for the Lay-by payment method.
• Developing the feature of verifying bank accounts before making Lay-by payments to ensure the user-authenticity.

Layawayland – American version of Laybyland

Layawayland has officially come into operation intending to conquer the US market following the Lay-by payment success in Australia and New Zealand. With the featured Lay-by payment, customers can easily buy products and make planned orders for more than 50,000 genuine products. For the interface, SECOMM designed and refined UI/UX components and branding elements to ensure consistency inside the Laybyland system but still owns suitable characteristics for American customers. For the function, Layawayland would reuse the modules from the Laybyland site to inherit almost all the features
with the most reasonable time and cost. However, the current Laybyland.com website worked on Magento Commerce 2.3 (paid version), while Layawayland uses Magento Open Source 2.4.1 (free version). Therefore, the development team must thoroughly understand the whole system to carry out the migration process meticulously, carefully and scientifically, ensuring that the modules are fully converted and efficiently operated.

Develop an online marketplace using the Marketplacer platform

After several years of operating with the B2C model on the Magento 2 platform, Laybyland transitioned to the online multi-vendor marketplace model. Following thorough discussions and consideration, SECOMM and Laybyland jointly selected Marketplacer platform to implement this business model. 

One of the reasons behind the choice lies in Marketplacer’s specialization in providing specific features and solutions to help businesses build and develop their online marketplaces. Moreover, the Laybyland system has huge traffic and data, making it a great choice for a dedicated platform for online marketplace deployment.

Another advantage of Marketplacer is its unique extension called The Marketplacer Connected Technology, which allows businesses to build online marketplaces by integrating with existing systems. This extension will eliminate the need to build and set up an entirely new system. Currently, this extension facilitates integration with systems like Salesforce Commerce Cloud, BigCommerce, commercetools, and Adobe Commerce (Magento). As a result, SECOMM seamlessly transformed Laybyland’s Magento 2 eCommerce website into a powerful online marketplace by integrating it seamlessly with Marketplacer as well as some customizations specific to Laybyland business.

The integration process always involves data synchronization between the two systems, Magento 2 and Marketplacer. SECOMM efficiently implemented this process, helping Laybyland optimize data management and eCommerce system operations. The overall data synchronization process unfolds as follows:

• Firstly, SECOMM outlined a data synchronization flow chart that includes the basic setup steps required. The synchronization process is divided into two parts: Data synchronization from Magento 2 to Marketplacer and Data synchronization from Marketplacer to Magento 2.
• The synchronization process from Magento 2 to Marketplacer will encompass data related to orders, product categories, and product attribute sets.
• The synchronization process from Marketplacer to Magento 2 will involve data on sellers, products, brands, and relevant updates related to products.

Data synchronization between Magento 2 and Marketplacer

In addition, SECOMM creates webhooks to alert about changes (add new or update) related to product data from Marketplacer. These changing data will be used to update the Magento 2 system daily. Likewise, orders on Marketplacer that include products not yet synchronized from Magento 2 will still be created and updated on Marketplacer based on the order data within the Magento 2 system. 

Contrasting the former B2C business model with the current online marketplace model, Laybyland has introduced the Layby payment method. While this method still allows customers to divide payments and settle in installments, Layby distinguishes itself from Buy Now Pay Later by requiring customers to complete the final installment before the order is processed. Specifically, five days after customers finalize their Layby plans, the Laybyland system will check inventory on Marketplacer’s seller items, and then create, process, and fulfill orders. The implementation of the Layby method aims to offer sellers increased assurance, enhancing both responsibility and the overall shopping experience for buyers.

The enduring partnership has lasted over a decade 

Over a decade, the collaborative partnership between SECOMM and Laybyland has grown robust and substantial, yielding significant successes and delivering long-term value for both parties. This partnership represents a concerted effort from SECOMM and Laybyland, from the transition from Drupal CMS to Magento 1, followed by the migration to Magento 2, to the development of the Layawayland project for the U.S. market, and most recently, the transformation of Laybyland into a leading multi-vendor marketplace in the Australia and New Zealand region. 

SECOMM has consistently provided high-quality solutions and services, ensuring that Laybyland runs their system smoothly and securely. SECOMM’s in-depth understanding of the eCommerce industry and proficient technical skills in Magento and Marketplacer have played a pivotal role in Laybyland’s achievements. 

The flexibility, professionalism, and proactive support from SECOMM have successfully turned challenges into opportunities, converting the seemingly impossible into the achievable. Together, both partners have collaboratively built a resilient and flexible eCommerce system, fostering ongoing innovation and continuous development. This collaboration extends beyond technology, encapsulating a strategic partnership that promises sustained value for both Laybyland and SECOMM in the years ahead.