Animates

Platform

Adobe Commerce

SERVICES

AI & Personalisation, Applications & Extensions, Audit and Review, Client Success, Customer Insights, Digital Transformation, Platform Implementation, Strategy, Subscriptions & Loyalty, Systems Architecture, Technology

Animates understand that life is better with pets. The joy when your dog greets you at the door or the comfort of your cat curled up on your lap. They understand the unconditional love that pets bring to our lives, each and every day. They're dedicated to providing their customers with everything they need to become great pet parents, supporting the pet community with fundraising, donations and local events.

They’ve dedicated themselves to creating an awesome experience for people and their pets; to provide their customers with everything they need to become great pet parents, whether it is products; services and advice that they need. It’s what has made Animates, New Zealand’s leading pet retailer.

The partnership between Overdose. and Animates aimed to enhance the customer experience through a range of digital initiatives. These included implementing a 90-minute "Click and Collect" offering and introducing Same-Day-Delivery in major cities in New Zealand through a partnership with NZ Post's Evening Delivery and Starshipit.

Built on Adobe Commerce Cloud, the two companies worked together to refine their delivery options, including Repeat Delivery subscriptions, Home Delivery, and Click and Collect, with a focus on ensuring stock availability was visible to customers throughout the purchasing journey. A priority was also placed on fulfilling Same-Day-Delivery orders and implementing address validation with NZ Post to guarantee accurate delivery. The integration of Starshipit allowed for flexibility and scalability as the market grows.

Integrations

In collaboration with Animates, Overdose. successfully carried out a platform migration from Magento Open Source to Adobe Commerce Cloud. This change aimed to enhance the online shopping experience for Animates customers and support future growth. The integration of Starshipit and NZ Post eShip ensured a flexible and scalable delivery platform, offering the convenience of Same-Day-Delivery to online customers. This new system lays the foundation for the integration of additional delivery providers in the future, further expanding the range of options available to Animates customers.

Challenges

CHALLENGE #001

Custom Headless Starshipit Integration

Animates required a specialized integration between the headless Starshipit platform and the Adobe Commerce Orders portal to facilitate in-store staff fulfillment of all orders through the Same-Day-Delivery delivery method.

SOLUTION

Overdose. designed and implemented a custom integration that streamlines the shipping label printing process for Animates using starshipit and NZ Post eShip. This integration was designed to accommodate the specific requirements of Animates and was configured to provide each store with its own independent order visibility and priority for Same-Day-Delivery fulfillment. To ensure accurate and reliable deliveries, all order addresses were validated against both NZ Post and Google Maps.

The implementation was executed with caution, taking into consideration the lessons learned from the previous Commerce Cloud migration, and with thorough testing and a dedicated team of developers available for support during User Acceptance Testing and post-launch. This ensured a smooth and successful integration for Animates.

CHALLENGE #002

Adobe Live Search

Animates aimed to utilize the newly introduced Adobe Live Search feature as part of the Adobe Commerce Cloud platform.

SOLUTION

Overdose. was tasked with the implementation of the Adobe Live Search feature, one of the first in the world, which required the migration of existing custom Elasticsearch-powered search functionality to the modern feature set. Our senior developers were responsible for customizing the search bar to support searching for products, categories, video and written blog articles, content pages, and stores. The goal was to provide users with a more seamless and efficient search experience, and our team worked diligently to deliver a solution that met the client's requirements.

CHALLENGE #003

Inherited Codebase with Major Upgrades and Migration

Overdose. was assigned the task of completing this project, which had already had some functionality and foundation implemented. Our first step was to review and understand the existing setup in order to ensure a seamless upgrade to the latest version on the Adobe Commerce platform.

SOLUTION

Overdose. and Animates partnered with their integration partners to ensure a seamless transition to the new Adobe Live Search functionality as part of Adobe Commerce Cloud. The teams dedicated a significant amount of time to thoroughly understand the codebase and its customizations, reviewing and modifying all tables, scheduled tasks, and extensions to optimize performance. During the delivery timeline, extensive testing was conducted, with thousands of test cases completed as part of the user acceptance testing process. A comprehensive testing strategy, deployment plan, and 24-hour launch window with round-the-clock support were established to minimize potential issues. The launch was supported by senior resources, with regular late-night and early-morning checkpoints to ensure a successful transition to the new platform.

Insights

FY22 (July 2021 - June 2022) compared with FY21 (July 2020 - June 2021).

Increased Click & Collect revenue

+218%

Increased total online sales revenue

+119%

Increased Subscriptions revenue

+90%

Increased number of subscriptions

+50%