Custom Magento integrations for E-bikes4you

Product Availability Management Customization

The BelVG developers have done significant work configuring a product availability feature. By default, two standard statuses are implemented in Magento — “In stock” and “Out of stock.” But the client requested us to broaden this functionality.

At the client’s demand, we added the “On request” status by implementing it through a custom attribute.

This availability status is used mainly for backorders and is updated automatically based on the custom entry rules. It can be customized via the API. We also added an extra point to the checkout agreement to ensure a customer agrees to wait for a product to return in stock.

In addition to the basic “On request” status, there can also be additional options. Depending on the planned date of the product’s arrival, the status can be “Will be available in a week,” “At the end of the month,” “Available from: *date*,” and so on.

All the stock statuses are updated automatically when a customer selects different options of configurable products. This functionality works for both the shopping cart and the checkout page. Product quantity is set via Comarch by API. And stock status is updated automatically according to the product’s availability or when an order was placed, and the product is no longer available.

Shipping and Payment Functionality Customization

We’ve implemented two main payment methods on the site. One of them is a standard bank card gateway for Magento. But the main functionality is Adyen, which offers payment options like card, Paypal, and Amazon.

The payever platform is also used on the site. Another payment service implemented is easyCredit, allowing customers to pay in 6 to 60 monthly installments.

As for the shipping methods, E-bikes4you offers delivery and in-store pickup. We’ve customized the in-store pickup option. When the buyer selects it, the store address is used as the shipping address. The customer enters only the billing address.

The delivery functionality is implemented via the standard Shipping Table Rates system for Magento, which allows specifying the address, parcel weight, and shipping cost.

The BelVG team modified this system by adding the option to calculate the price depending on the item type. For example, bikes have their own delivery cost scale, different from accessories.

Some European countries have special shipping regulations for batteries as dangerous items, and delivering them there is forbidden. So we’ve customized the price chart functionality for them as well.

As a result, the delivery cost can be adjusted depending on parcel weight, order amount, and destination country and recalculated depending on the item type.

Checkout Customization

Since E-bikes4you is a multistore in four different languages, customers submit their addresses in different languages, and the spelling can vary significantly, including specific characters. And it was important for the client to bring geographical names to Comarch in a unified format to automate the checkout process.

To avoid slowing down the checkout, our developers came up with the following solution. We used the third-party server application TNT ExpressConnect to bring all the addresses to the correct format.

When the customer enters the address while placing the order and submits it, the request is sent asynchronously to the TNT service via a message broker. It allows to avoid awaiting a response from a third-party service and its associated problems.

TNT searches for the address by postal code and transmits the updated data to Comarch in the unified format in the Latin alphabet without umlauts, dots, and other untypical symbols. Then it updates the address in the placed order info.

If the city isn’t found, the admin panel will display a message about it. And if everything’s ok, the store administrator can see how the address was originally written and how TNT fixed it. He can check the order history and, if necessary, make adjustments.

Ongoing Support of the Websites

Our developers continue to maintain the E-bikes4you website: fixing bugs, improving some features, and updating modules.

For example, we’ve integrated the third-party BikeFit feature with Magento. This module helps you choose the ideal size of the bike according to the customer parameters:

• weight,
• height.

Also, the seller is adjusting the suspension and saddle height based on the customer’s parameters before shipping the bike.

The module is multi-language and supports bike color selection.