The German company PITLOCK produces advanced anti-theft security devices for bicycles.

Contrary to traditional bicycle locks, it protects not only the bicycle as a whole but also individual valuable bicycle elements, such as gears, brakes, or wheels.

PITLOCK’s security installation only takes a few minutes and can only be unlocked with an encoded key.

Although PITLOCK serves customers from all over the world, their key market is the German market.

PITLOCK challenges

The PITLOCK company sold anti-theft security using an online store powered by Magento 1. As the end of Magento 1’s support and its interface was not adapted to the presentation of complicated products offered by PITLOCK, we decided to migrate the store to Magento 2.

Staying with Magento 1 without further updating was risky because of security (lack of official security patches and updates) and business continuity (the possibility of irreversible failure).

The project scope included not only in migration of the existing store, but also in making the best use of the functionality of the new version of the Magento 2 engine and ensuring the possibility of further development in the future.

One of the important points was the creation of a separate B2B version of the store, facilitating sales of products through a network of distributors.

Distributors can register via the form and, after being approved by the admin team, find themselves on the map showing the location of the distributors. Each cooperating company receives an individual discount.

PITLOCK choosen Aurora Creation, because he required partnership relation and Auroras proactive aproach.

Design stage

One of the reasons for resigning from Magento 1 was not a very attractive design. Magento 2 allows much more design possibilities.

The first step in the design process was creating a user journey from the very beginning, i.e. the user path through the website. In order to facilitate navigation, we have redesigned the information architecture, the way of dividing products, and the filtering options. The new category tree is also more user-friendly.

All of this was aimed at making it easier for customers to navigate the store.

After creating the site assumptions, we moved on to the wireframing stage.

This is the stage in which we draw the layout of individual elements on black and white sketches (wireframes) that can be easily modified.

After obtaining the final composition of individual elements, we moved to create the final appearance of the page, i.e. applying branding to the skeleton: colors, fonts, styles, graphics, etc. The way the product is presented has also changed.

To make it more attractive, we decided to show PITLOCK’s products in use, i.e. installed on a bicycle. This allows you to better understand the innovative idea of ​​the product and the unique way it works.

The new online store required a lot of work in the area of ​​appearance design, which allowed for a deep modification of the standard Magento look.

Magento 2 implementation

The implementation of Magento 2 required installing the new application from scratch as it is not possible to update the older version directly. After installation, we started the configuration process: payment methods available to customers, currencies in which the offer is presented, language versions, etc.

The next step was to implement the previously prepared design. The advantage of Magento 2 is a wide selection of ready-to-use additional modules – both commercial and in the open-source model. The use of ready-made modules allows shortening the implementation time.

After launching and configuring additional modules, the next step was to migrate data from the current version of the store.

Not only the catalog of products and their descriptions have been transferred, but most of all user accounts their data, previous purchase history, etc.

Integration with ERP Orgamax

One of the important elements of the project was the integration of the new online store with the German ERP system called Orgamax.

In order to reduce the costs of monthly service and shorten the development time, we used a ready-made module.

Thanks to the integration, customer orders, and their data are automatically sent to the ERP system in order to issue relevant commercial documents.

Optimization and start

Fully prepared for operation store was launched in a test environment and had extensive verification to make sure that it was free from bugs.

We have also optimized it, both in terms of SEO, speed, and security.

After making sure that all security-related functions are properly configured, the ready store was launched in the production environment.

The results

• In addition to the online B2C sales channel, PITLOCK now also has a B2B channel
• The website has a modern design presenting a rather unusual and complicated product, which is advanced anti-theft security devices for bicycles
• The new website works much faster than the previous version
• The UX of the new online store is very high
• The website includes a map of distributors, to which partners can subscribe themselves
• The modern Magento 2 platform is constantly developed and thanks to it the PITLOCK online store is ready for further sales development