Objective
Build a web application aggregating apparel for sale by major retailers and allow shoppers to filter by what ‘disguises’ or ‘flaunts’ specific body parts.
Scope
- Develop a script that imports and parses apparel data provided by major retailers like Nordstrom and Macy’s.
- Develop a website application that will:
- Display data in an admin portal where the apparel items can be curated (i.e ‘this dress disguises chest and stomach and flaunts legs’).
- Display items curated by an admin to visitors of the website.
- Enable visitors of the website to quickly find items that ‘disguise’ and ‘flaunt’ specific body parts, while providing all basic filtering features that come with an apparel store.
- Generate an affiliate link so that when the visitor completes a transaction on a 3rd party retailer website, the origin of sale is captured.
- Allow visitors of the website to create their own account to ‘favorite’ items as well as subscribe to updates.
- Develop a blog subdomain that will:
- Allow administrators to post blogs and monitor ad and seo traffic performance.
Process
- The Discovery phase of LookPerfit.com included:
- Database architecturing, ensuring additional retailers could be added to the website with minimal investment required
- Site architecturing and sitemap generation
- User flows
- Developing interactive wireframes, emulating user flows for desktop, tablet and mobile devices
- Establishing affiliate link relationship with Rakuten and getting application approval from Nordstrom & Macy’s
- Determining MVP (Minimal Viable Product) for a blogging subdomain
- The Design phase included:
- Working directly with the Perfit owners to review its branding guidelines to select the styles & specifications of each element within Lookperfit.com
- Creating Visual Designs for all frontend pages, for desktop, tablet and mobile
- The Development Phase of the application and the blog portal was developed over a 6 month period. BuildThis used its internal project management system, Function Point, to manage and track Perfit deliverables.
- Prior to and after deployment, extensive testing was performed on a staging environment which included Quality Assurance Testing the application on all major devices and browsers. This included the 3 latest versions of droid phones, iphones, tablets, and desktop computers. Testing was also performed on the latest versions of Chrome, Safari, Edge (desktop) and Firefox.
Tech Stack
- Backend: Laravel/PHP, Python, Rakuten Affiliate Marketing
- Frontend: Vue/JavaScript, HTML, SCSS/CSS
- Cloud Platform: AWS
- Tools: Visual Studio Code, Git/GitHub, Sequel Pro, Insomnia, Laravel Forge
Analysis
- The LookPerfit.com web application brings in major retailers like Nordstrom & Macy’s, and gives the shopper the ability to sort out clothing based on what body type they want to ‘disguise’ or ‘flaunt’.
- The blog portal is generating organic traffic and the application started generated revenue since the day it officially launched (January 14, 2019).
Future/ Current Relationship
- After the launch of LookPerfit.com, The Perfit Team signed on for maintenance and has a schedule of enhancement requests that will be implemented throughout the year.
