Retail and E-commerce

From Monolith to MACH: How a Retail Giant Replatformed to a Headless Commerce Architecture with Node.js

Industry E-commerce & Retail

  • Client Revenues

    $10B+ Client Revenues

  • Successful Years

    12+ Successful Years

  • IT Ninjas

    1000+ IT Ninjas

  • Successful Projects

    5000+ Projects

Client's Testimonial

"The move to headless was a massive undertaking, and the Developers.dev team was the perfect partner. Their Node.js engineers are true experts in building high-performance APIs. Our site speed is now in the top 1% of the industry, and our marketing team can finally operate at the speed they want to. The impact on our bottom line was immediate and significant."

CEO & Co-Founder Testimonial

Jessica Lee, Head of E-commerce

Client Overview

A leading Australian retail brand with over $100M in annual online revenue. Their traditional, monolithic e-commerce platform (Magento) was slow, difficult to update, and provided a poor mobile experience. They wanted to move to a modern, headless architecture to improve site performance, enable omnichannel experiences, and accelerate their marketing team's ability to launch new campaigns.

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Problem

Problem

The client's website had an average page load time of over 6 seconds, leading to a high bounce rate and a mobile conversion rate that was 50% lower than desktop. The tightly coupled front-end and back-end meant that even small content changes required developer intervention and a lengthy deployment process.

Key Challenges

Two-sided Marketplace

Poor Performance:

The slow site speed was directly impacting SEO rankings and sales.

Payment Gateway Integration

Lack of Agility:

The marketing team was unable to quickly launch new landing pages or A/B tests.

User Verification System

Omnichannel Gap:

They couldn't easily extend their e-commerce experience to new channels like mobile apps or in-store kiosks.

MVP Timeline

High Maintenance Costs:

The aging monolithic platform was becoming increasingly expensive to maintain and scale.

Custom Car Sharing Solution on Google Cloud

Our Solution

We provided a cross-functional "Headless Commerce Pod" that included Node.js back-end developers, a React front-end specialist, and a cloud solutions expert. We architected a MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) solution.

💻 API-First Back-End:

We used Node.js and Express.js to build a robust set of GraphQL APIs that would serve as the single source of truth for all product, inventory, and customer data.

🌐 Decoupled Front-End:

A new, lightning-fast front-end was built using React and Next.js, which consumed data from the Node.js APIs.

☁️ Cloud-Native Infrastructure:

The entire solution was deployed on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), using Kubernetes for container orchestration to ensure high availability and auto-scaling.

✍️ Headless CMS Integration:

We integrated Contentful as a headless CMS, allowing the marketing team to manage content independently of the development team.

Implementation and Execution

UI/UX Design Sprint

API Layer Development:

The project was executed in three main phases: API development, front-end development, and data migration.

Lean-Agile Approach

PWA Frontend Build:

We used a strangler pattern to gradually migrate traffic from the old Magento site to the new headless solution, minimizing risk.

Microservices on Google Cloud Platform

Cloud Deployment:

Our team worked closely with the client's in-house marketing and design teams in a highly collaborative process.

Native iOS and Android Apps

Integration Refinement:

We implemented a comprehensive automated testing suite using Cypress for end-to-end testing of the user journey.

DevSecOps Integration

Load Testing:

The new platform was launched in just under eight months, with a seamless transition for customers.

Weekly Client Builds

Phased Rollout:

Post-launch, we provided a dedicated support team to monitor performance and address any issues.

Positive Outcome

🚀 25% Increase in Conversion Rate:

The dramatic improvement in site speed and user experience led to a significant uplift in sales.

⚡ Sub-1-Second Load Times:

The average page load time dropped from 6 seconds to under 1 second.

📈 Marketing Agility:

The marketing team can now build and launch new campaign pages in hours instead of weeks.

📱 Omnichannel Ready:

The client launched a new mobile app powered by the same Node.js APIs just three months after the website went live.

Positive Outcomes for Car Sharing MVP

Why Choose Us

🧠 Headless Expertise:

🛠️ Full-Stack Capabilities:

🔗 API-First Mindset:

⚡ Performance Engineering:

🤝 Collaborative Partnership:

☁️ Cloud-Native Prowess:

🎯 Business Outcome Focus:

✅ Process Maturity:

🧑‍💻 Long-Term Support:

Conclusion

By embracing a modern, Node.js-powered headless architecture, the retail brand transformed its digital presence. The partnership with Developers.dev enabled them to not only solve their immediate performance issues but also build a flexible, future-proof platform for sustained growth.