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Anjani Kumar Singh
Featured

Zigly · April – July 2025

Replatforming the website

Moving from a legacy Magento site to Shopify so a five-person team could spend its time on the customer journey instead of the platform.

Employer and timeframe: Zigly · April – July 2025 (phase 1 live 15 July 2025), with services and pharmacy added in later phases.

Problem
A slow, error-prone website; engagement under 20 seconds, bounce close to 65%; paid campaigns paused
Role
Product and design lead; planned the engineering work (four developers, one QA)
Key decision
Replatform to Shopify with ready integrations, rather than keep repairing Magento
Result
Bounce 65% → 28%; engagement under 20 seconds → about 3.5 minutes; conversion now 4%

Business context

Most of Zigly's sales came from stores, and online was a small share. A website that converted would be the cheapest way to grow without new stores. It was also the precondition for restarting paid acquisition, which had been paused because the site couldn't turn traffic into orders.

The problem

The site could not turn visits into orders. The issues went beyond looks: the journey broke at several steps, and every fix on Magento was slow and costly. Most visitors left before they reached a product.

Who it affected

  • Pet parents, mostly on mobile (about 90% of traffic), who couldn't browse, search or check out smoothly.
  • The business, which had switched off its most scalable acquisition channel.
  • The engineering team, whose time went into keeping the old platform running.

Goals and how success was measured

Success was measured on bounce rate, engagement time, conversion and daily orders, and on whether paid campaigns could restart.

Role and scope

  • Product and design lead for the replatform: the case for change, the phase plan, the journey and catalogue design, and the choice of checkout and integrations.
  • Planned and tracked the engineering work in Jira with daily stand-ups. The four developers built the storefront and integrations; QA covered release testing.
  • Worked with the Unicommerce, Fastrr and courier teams on the connectors.

Discovery and evidence

  • Engagement, bounce and campaign data showed visitors leaving before reaching a product.
  • A step-by-step walk-through of the Magento journey showed where it broke.
  • Together they set phase 1's priorities: speed, a clean catalogue and a checkout that completes.

Options considered

  • Keep repairing Magento Every fix was slow and costly, and the team's time would stay tied up in upkeep. Not chosen.
  • Replatform to Shopify with ready connectors ChosenProven platform, with existing connectors to Unicommerce (orders and stock) and Fastrr (checkout). The team's time could go to the customer journey.

The solution

  1. Fix the basics first: speed, a journey that doesn't break, a checkout that completes.
  2. Buy, then integrate: proven SaaS tools, with engineering time spent on connecting them well.
  3. Launch in phases: products first, then services, then pharmacy.
  4. Promise only what can be delivered: a pincode serviceability check before purchase.
  • Phase1Live15 July 2025ScopeFood and accessories catalogue, pincode serviceability, Fastrr checkout, Unicommerce connector, courier partners (Shiprocket, Shadowfax, Prozo)
  • Phase2LiveOctober 2025ScopeVet and grooming booking (see the booking case study)
  • Phase3LiveJanuary 2026ScopeE-pharmacy (see the e-pharmacy case study)

Technical and operational considerations

Architecture: Shopify storefront, Fastrr checkout, Unicommerce and courier partners
  • Orders are created in Shopify after Fastrr checkout. Unicommerce pulls them every 10 minutes, allocates each to a location, and pushes stock levels back to Shopify.
  • Keeping the storefront and the order system separate meant later features (booking, pharmacy, tracking) could be added on top rather than built from scratch.

Execution and collaboration

  • Phase 1 went from start to live in about three and a half months.
  • The catalogue, checkout and connectors went out as the first release; services and pharmacy were held for later phases.

Outcomes

  • Bounce rateBefore (Magento)About 65%After (Shopify)28%
  • Engagement timeBefore (Magento)Under 20 secondsAfter (Shopify)About 3.5 minutes
  • Conversion rateBefore (Magento)Very lowAfter (Shopify)4%
  • Daily product ordersBefore (Magento)April 2025 levelAfter (Shopify)About 25×
  • Daily online orders, including appointments and medicinesBefore (Magento)April 2025 levelAfter (Shopify)About 52×

Today's daily online order mix: products about 48%, medicines about 36%, appointments about 16%.

Order growth is from a small base, and came from the new website together with the services and pharmacy added to it.