Partnership
The idea for be Retail Social was conceived in 2018, with the founder and CEO, Simon Iddon, bringing his experience working with international fashion and sportswear retailers to bear when developing the full concept and extensive roadmap during the pandemic.
Iddon needed a technical partner that could both reach a deep understanding of be Retail Social’s business vision and deliver the technology to make it a reality for retailers and consumers. He chose Dootrix.
“We ran a tender with a number of onshore and offshore agencies and were impressed with how Dootrix demonstrated their understanding of our plan and needs,” says Iddon. “Their structured yet flexible approach and breadth of team experience certainly helped as we have several innovative areas and needed their lateral thinking.”
Project
Dootrix began the project with a formal discovery process. Its team of designers, developers, testers and delivery managers, worked closely with be Retail Social to understand the company’s vision, reviewing the static Proof of Concept (PoC) and design ideas. The subsequent technical discovery and investigation established a design language and defined the user journeys within the product to inform the technical design and architecture.
The core areas for development included the app’s back end built around Azure, and the mobile and web applications. Using Azure ensures the app is both highly scalable and secure, both key concerns of large retailers. Dootrix delivered a hybrid storage approach using Azure SQL and Cosmos DB for differing data requirements, with Azure Functions for the APIs and Azure AD B2C for authentication.
Among the standout aspects of the project and implementation was its multi-platform delivery: a web-based platform with a companion mobile app. A lot of thought went into ensuring the app could be integrated easily into multiple retailers’ websites, as did the need for delivering a highly responsive service so multiple users can share experiences in near real-time.
There was also potentially a major challenge with data volumes – the variety of body types combined with the number of clothing lines and colourways mean the potential permutations multiply exponentially into the millions. The Dootrix team mitigated the impact of that by focusing on available items and, if a particular combination was unavailable, providing a substitute closest to the user’s own appearance.
“From a Dootrix standpoint it’s always very rewarding to work alongside a client, helping them to hone their vision to accommodate technical realities and achieve their goals despite the challenges we inevitably encounter,’ says Dootrix’s Technical Lead, Wayne McManus. “be Retail Social has great ideas about how to bridge the virtual and real worlds better and it was a privilege to be a sounding board, partner, and companion on the journey, as well as to deliver the project.”
Outcome
The project gave be Retail Social a product that allowed it to take a fully functioning solution to potential partners in the retail sector. It includes a full range of innovative features that were new to the market, from shareable virtual fitting rooms with live chat to geo-location-triggered notifications on the mobile app.
CEO Simon Iddon is very pleased with how the two teams, be Retail Social and Dootrix, collaborated. “The initial MVP was well received and since then has had many upgrades, including ongoing sprints for further upgrades and improvements. We’ve articulated the gap between real and virtual shopping experiences and identified how that can be bridged; although technical ourselves, we are very open to hear opinions and alternative tacks. We work well as a combined team.”
