In 2009, mgm technology partners were assigned the technical responsibility for the online store. Within a period of only four months, mgm accomplished the entire relaunch on the Java-based mgm e-commerce platform. Since then, online sales have more than doubled the company’s business volume and have now positioned the online store as the most successful KICKZ.COM sales channel.

Rising significance of online business calls for review of the technology basis

There are many companies whose online business started off with a digital product catalog and a shopping basket function – and a few customers. Driven by the dynamic growth in e-commerce, the online market leaders in particular have experienced stellar gains in customer traffic in the meantime. Today’s customers are characterized by their high expectations of online providers. As developments at KICKZ.COM ran exactly such a course, the following challenges had to be addressed:

• Achieving technical scalability for business growth
  Standard shop products and their typical implementation are frequently designed to handle no more than 1,000 orders per day and a similar number of concurrent visitors.
• Operating reliability in spite of dynamic business environment
  Successful online retailers adapt their offerings on a daily basis. In many instances, teams with more than ten editors are engaged in constantly updating the shop. Standardized operating processes and technologies must be implemented to ensure that the shop is operational 24/7.
• Stronger sales thanks to end-to-end processes
  Customers expect high online service quality. Shop offerings that factor in warehousing availability and draw on a fully integrated merchandise management hold key advantages. A highly motivated and well informed call center rounds off the ideal package.
• Affiliate programs with billing and accounting control
  Affiliate programs can generate additional business growth. With regard to technology considerations, it is advisable to implement billing and accounting control mechanisms with affiliate partners.
• Ongoing onsite search engine optimization (SEO):
  Search engine optimization measures (SEO) are often planned by special agencies. With a look to technical design and implementation, the information architecture (structuring of the online offers) or the URL design should also be optimized for multimedia content.

Partnering closely with KICKZ.COM, the mgm team is responsible for the further development and operation of the online shop.

The mgm online shop: Functional and non-functional highlights

In serving KICKZ.COM, mgm technology partners deployed their track proven e-commerce platform:

• The online shop is based on open source components (Java) that have proven their worth in environ-ments involving in excess of 10,000 orders per day as well as several thousand concurrent shop visitors.
• Facet search (based on a Lucene index) is integrated into the merchandise management system and guarantees the availability of customer ordered products.
• Thanks to social media integration and multimedia content KICKZ.COM attracts more than 20,000 visitors daily in the main customer age bracket of 14 to 30 years.

Availability and operating costs

“Since the go-live in October 2009, the shop has been available 24/7. Strong visitor traffic and dynamic sales growth are a clear indication of satisfied KICKZ customers,“ enthuses Michael Gendreyzig, responsible project manager at mgm technology partners.
In spite of the high traffic volume, KICKZ.COM is able to operate the mgm e-commerce platform in a cost efficient manner. The utilization of flexible standard products calls for additional computing power that would necessitate more extensive hardware resources as every single request is connected with a check as to the functionalities that are activated or deactivated. By contrast, the mgm shop can execute each request immediately as there is no need to check alternative configuration options. Thanks to these strengths the entire KICKZ.COM shop is now running on two medium size servers.

The bottom line

“Thanks to mgm technology partners we can concentrate on the further development of our offerings, and also on new online markets,“ as Christian Grosse, founder and managing director of KICKZ.COM comments on the cooperation. “The decisive advantage for business success here is the fact that we can plan all of our online activities with the mgm team well in advance – which means that at least the technology will not pull any surprises on us.“

* This reference has been officially confirmed by KICKZ.COM.