Context

Paprcuts, a startup based in Berlin that produces and sells sustainable accessories made of Tyvek, a thin but strong material known as “synthetic paper”, turned to us to upgrade its e-shop and start sales in France. NFQ front-end solutions helped Paprcuts create a modern e-shop image that is attractive to customers, while its back-end development work helped build a multi-channel business model and enter the French market. This is a great example of technological business development solutions and IT experts’ skills bringing companies tangible results.

Business problem

When the company came to us in August 2018, the e-commerce system it was using simply could not cope with the ever-increasing orders for its products, so Paprcuts could no longer grow and expand to other countries. The e-shop it had been using up to that point was also not meeting expectations. The company, which makes and sells modern accessories, wanted a stylish, modern e-shop with a good user experience. Stuck in that technology trap, the startup’s ambition was to launch a redesigned e-shop and start sales in France in time for Christmas.

Technological solution

NFQ’s team of experts faced the challenge of creating a new e-commerce system and a sophisticated, user-friendly e-shop design for Paprcuts in less than six months.

Developers at NFQ used Sylius as the framework for the e-commerce system and for an Akeneo PIM product information management system. The new platform has great flexibility, making it easy to divide the e-commerce system into smaller parts. Then several different e-stores can be administered from a single platform. This type of technological solution is especially useful for businesses that want to expand abroad and is perfectly suited for a multi-channel model. In Sylius, NFQ IT specialists programmed and configured processes for product sales, warehouse information management, and discount promotion.

Made from eco-friendly material, Paprcuts accessories are not ordinary products, and the startup needed an out-of-the-ordinary e-shop to sell them. NFQ developed a single-page application (SPA) e-shop whose distinctive design and style perfectly reflected the company’s offerings, while intuitive navigation delivered a good user experience.

SPA websites always have difficulties with SEO positioning. While it is claimed that search engines know how to interpret and handle SPA content, in practice things are different. In light of that and using a server-side rendering solution, our IT experts adapted the Paprcuts website for search engines.

Results

• After preparing a plan and in continuous dialogue with the client, NFQ delivered an MVP version within three and a half months.

• Paprcuts was ready for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Christmas shopping period with a new e-commerce system that could handle growing numbers of orders and with a stylish SPA e-shop.

• Thanks to NFQ’s specialists, Paprcuts was able to expand its business to France, become visible in online searches, and enhance its e-shop with a variety of creative solutions that appeal to Paprcuts customers.

• In four years working with Paprcuts, NFQ’s developers have not only built a sales process management system but have also added more useful business features to the e-commerce platform. A great example is gifts for Paprcuts customers. NFQ specialists developed a function that lets the e-shop administrator set a purchase amount after which a customer gets a gift or a discount on their whole shopping cart. It uses elements of gamification: as shoppers add products to their cart, they can see they are unlocking one or more gifts that were visually hidden at first. This innovation boosted Paprcuts sales and helped promote less popular products. In the first month after it was introduced, the number of purchases that were started and not completed, also known as abandoned carts, fell by 32.38%.