VMR Truck Parts: Developing an Online Sales Channel for an Australian Automotive & Spare Parts Retailer

A brief background on VMR Truck Parts

VMR Truck Parts is an Australian retailer of reconditioned, remanufactured, and used parts, suitable for Mack Trucks, used trucks, Volvo trucks, and buses. They are a subsidiary of CMV Truck and Bus dealership, one of Australia’s most noteworthy dealers, who offer a diverse catalog of new and used Mack Trucks, UD Trucks, Volvo Trucks, and Volvo Buses. VMR Truck Parts wanted to streamline its business operation and expand its reach across online channels through its online store.

Challenges

VMR Truck Parts approached nopStation with the project of creating and developing an online store to build its sales presence toward an online customer base. They requested the design and development of their online storefront UX as well as inventory management and communication infrastructure that reflects their business needs. Our team had to conduct an extensive analysis of their requirements and business operations to identify key development challenges.

Handling Inventory and warehouse management: VMR Truck Parts requested several customizations to the way inventory and warehousing are handled to cater to their product portfolio and business operations. They wanted the Inventory management process and warehousing infrastructure to reflect their actual warehousing structure and business needs such as handling suppliers. Our team had to conduct significant R&D to develop an inventory management solution that met their specified requirements.

Developing a way to capture, upload and manage product images: VMR Truck Parts wanted to streamline the process of uploading images of their products and managing them from the admin panel. They also wanted the ability to have image capture support so that they could take product images using their smart device or tablet and upload them directly from within the smart devices. They also wanted the ability to manage and browse product images based on category for more efficient management of resources. Our team had to develop a way to enable all of these media management features along with adding support for hardware image capture.

Using DevExpress to develop custom UX for admin operations: VMR Truck Parts requested that DevExpress be used to create the admin UI for the custom plugins developed for their admin-side management needs. They wanted DevExpress to be used for its extensive UX framework and formatting options for multiple device form factors and screen sizes.

Developing a custom website theme and UX enhancements: Besides these purely functional changes, VMR Truck Parts requested several UI enhancements on several pages and faster loading times. Our team used its UI & UX expertise to conduct R&D on implementing a more intuitive UI/UX for these enhancements along with ensuring fast performance.

Developing custom API endpoints for integration with proprietary systems: VMR Truck Parts wanted the ability to use their website with some of their existing proprietary systems, in order to enable these integration features, we had to develop some custom API endpoints on top of nopCommerce.

Creating a faster product filter and discovery experience: Due to VMR Trucks having an extensive catalog of product categories and associated product SKUs, product filter and discovery were quite difficult with the default filtering options. They requested our team to improve the filtering and product discovery experience while also maintaining responsiveness to ensure a smooth product discovery journey for their customers.

Streamlining product attribute management: Due to having a large and diverse portfolio of products with multiple variants, VMR Trucks must deal with a large number of product attributes to properly set up and manage their products. They requested our team to make the process of creating and managing product attributes more streamlined for their admin users.

Implementing product enquiry and call functionality: Due to being in the Truck and automotive parts business, VMR Truck Parts, have to handle various product enquiry calls through their physical sales channel. To reflect their in-store sales and communication pipeline, they wanted to have the ability to handle product enquiries and communication on their online storefront as well. Our team had to implement a product enquiry and calling system that matched these requirements.

Adding payment support through bank transfer and QuickStream: Due to being an Australian business and having multiple outlets across Victoria, VMR trucks wanted payment support through QuickStream, a payment provider that supports payments through bank transfers, with immense popularity in the Australian region. Our team had developed a way to add Quick Stream payment integration for their nopCommerce storefront.

Our Solution:

To establish a development roadmap for the project, our team conducted extensive R&D along with thorough requirement analysis. We decided to utilize a plugin-driven development approach for adding new features and enhancements on top of nopCommerce with some source code customization.

Developing an Inventory Management plugin: To handle the inventory management requirements of VMR Truck Parts, our team had to conduct extensive R&D to develop an Inventory management plugin for their storefront. This inventory management plugin Integrates inventory levels, suppliers, orders, and warehouses into one place for easy access and organization. Store admins can easily manage and sort through Inventory for all of their product lines. They can also easily see order details and status from this plugin’s menu for more streamlined operations. They can now easily handle adding and managing warehouses and see key contact information for suppliers. Having all of these operations regarding inventory management being in a single plugin creates an optimal plugin-driven inventory solution for the nopCommerce storefront and makes handling backend operations for admins much more convenient.

Image: 1.2 Admin view of the Inventory Management plugin

Developing a Media Manager plugin: To properly implement handle image resources for products, our team decided to implement a Media Management plugin for handling product image management. This media management plugin lets admins easily browse and search through products based on category and upload product images. Our team developed support for hardware image capture as well so that admins can take pictures from their smart devices and upload them directly to a product’s image resources. Admins can also set any product image they want as the default to display on the product page. Uploading and managing Image and media resources through this plugin let admins handle easily setup product images in an efficient way.

Image: 1.3 Admin view of the Media Manager Plugin

Implementing admin-side UX using DevExpress for custom-developed plugins: VMR Truck Parts requested that DevExpress be used for a scalable and adaptable UX for some admin-side operations. Our team used DevExpress to create the backend of the custom plugins such as Media Manager, Inventory Manager, etc. Developing custom views using DevExpress in nopCommerce took significant development effort but our team was ultimately able to create a UX that was adaptable for both desktops, tablets, and other smart devices used by them with advanced display options for columns, rows, and grid lines for added accessibility. This allowed store admins to use both desktop and smart devices to manage admin operations.

Developing a new website theme and UX for the online storefront: For the new online store, our UI engineering team used their UI/UX expertise to implement a new theme based on the VMR Truck Part’s brand and design preferences. We were able to develop a theme based on modern design and minimal typography. Besides the new theme, our team also added additional UX enhancements for their new website through our plugins. For example, our Anywhere slider plugin lets admins configure and show sliders on the homepage. Additionally, our AJAX filter plugin adds fast and optimized product filtering on the category pages that let customers easily filter to find what they are looking for. These UX enhancements and optimizations help improve the customer experience on the website.

Image: 1.4 Custom Themes and UX Design

Developing a Contact and enquiry plugin: One of the key requirements of the project was developing a feature that replicates in-store product enquiries. To implement enquiry functionality for products, our team decided to develop a contact and enquiry plugin. This plugin adds a widget on the product details page with an enquiry and call button. Customers can either call them using the call button or Send in an enquiry by clicking the enquiry button. This feature makes resolving customer queries about products on the online store much faster through direct communication channels.

Image: 1.5 Contact and Enquiry

Admin can also configure shop opening and closing times to reflect operating hours and ensure timely communication.

Implementing AJAX Filter plugin for faster filtering: To improve product filtering and discovery across VMR Truck’s massive product portfolio and catalogs, our team decided to implement a fast and intuitive filtering experience through the development of an AJAX Filter plugin. With this plugin, admins can activate the filter on selected categories. It enables advanced filtering options on category pages, allowing users to filter through price, product attributes, specification attributes, manufacturers, and other parameters.

Image: 1.6 AJAX Filter for Categories

Additionally, it supports customization and configuration of filtering fields and provides the option to collapse/expand filtering fields and display/hide product counts. The plugin offers a more convenient and faster way for users to find what they are looking for when browsing through a large selection of products.

Developing a Product attributes plugin: Our team developed a custom product attribute plugin in order to make product management more streamlined with VMR Trucks’ workflow. This plugin comes with enhanced search and filtering options that provide an effective way of managing their product portfolio.

Added custom Admin side API endpoints for 3rd party integration: To enable the online storefront to work with and sync data with and from other 3rd party systems, our team developed some custom admin-side API endpoints. We implemented these custom endpoints using our Admin REST API plugin for nopCommerce.

Enabling QuickStream bank transfer support through a custom payment plugin: To enable support for QuickStream bank transfers on the storefront, our team developed a quick stream payment plugin. This payment integration enables Quick stream payments using bank transfers, letting customers easily send their payment directly from their bank account securely using QuickStream services.

Results

• Developed a custom Inventory management plugin for handling inventory and supplies
• Developed a Media Manager plugin with support for hardware image capture and upload
• Implemented custom and adaptable admin-side UX using the DevExpress platform
• Developed custom Admin API end endpoints to allow for 3rd party integration
• Developed contact & inquiry plugin to enable customer calling and product queries
• Developed and implemented a custom nopCommerce theme according to brand identity
• Developed AJAX Filter plugin for fast and intuitive product filtering
• Enabled QuickStream bank transfer payment support through custom payment plugin development

nopStation is a Gold Solution Partner of nopCommerce and an eCommerce wing of Brain Station 23 Ltd., a top-ranking software development company, headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. At nopStation, we design, build and enhance eCommerce solutions on top of the nopCommerce platform for clients of all business sizes. As a company, we have technology partnerships with 12+ leading ISVs including, Microsoft, Google, and AWS. We help our customers build their business online by developing the right eCommerce solution using nopCommerce at a competitive price and reasonable timeline.