In early 2024 Umbraco Commerce (UC) was a relatively new product. It provided features to build a storefront in Umbraco, but we soon discovered that using it was a rough ride. It had glaring bugs, an incomplete feature set, almost no documentation, and was Europe-focused. It was also expensive, especially considering that you have to build your own product browser and cart. Around that time Pentec Health asked us to add a store to the ZOIA Healthcare Umbraco website. Given the state of UC we decided to build our own solution tailored specifically for ZOIA.
The shopping experience is familiar and clean, offering a product browser with categories, pricing, images, and descriptions. Out of stock items are clearly indicated. Paging is used to allow for bookmarking specific filters. And search is centralized and global to the entire store. Visitors are instantly at home.
Viewing a product is also a familiar experience. Staples like product image, clear pricing, and description are front and center. One click add to cart and quantity choices are featured. And when a product is out of stock, authenticated users have the option to be notified when the product is back in stock.
Managing your cart is simple, and when you're ready to check out, the process is straightforward and focused on speed, using simple steps and minimal options. This is one of the reasons we chose to integrate with Stripe for payments. Their flow perfectly fits with our view of what a checkout should be.
And once the order is placed, customers can view the status and order history right from their profile.
The intuitive user experience also extends to the back office. Store configuration options are in one place, including Stripe integration settings, custom shipping methods, page assignments, and contact information. And shopping stages are used to segment orders making them easy to find and process. The stages of an order include: Shopping cart, Payment pending, Paid, Shipped, and Cancelled. Customers are notified of changes in order state so they're always up-to-date.
There is also a powerful coupon code system which allows managers to create a myriad of offers for customers, from simple discounts, to buy one get one (BOGO) specials, free item based on category/price/product, and more.
ZOIA is also a premiere provider of renal support food products for local governments and organizations, so their store also has rich B2B support, allowing ZOIA to service various types of organization accounts, large and recurring orders, proxy ordering for organization members, invoiced and deferred payments, and more.
Visit the ZOIA Healthcare marketplace to check it out yourself. If you're interested in a storefront for your products, let us know. We can help!
There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!
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