Last Updated on November 6, 2020
Quick Summary: With the growing trends of online shopping and on-demand applications, entrepreneurs are inspired to develop their eCommerce startups. In this article, we share with you our successful case study of a Ruby on Rails eCommerce website. Read in-depth to know why the RoR framework is the ideal-fit for developing an eCommerce website, which open-source Ruby on Rails frameworks you can use, and some more experience-sharing.
Table of Index
2. Ruby on Rails Framework: Perfect for E-commerce Web Development
3. Why Choose Ruby on Rails For eCommerce Web Development Framework
4. Ruby on Rails eCommerce Frameworks
5. Building Ruby on Rails eCommerce Product: A Case Study
7. Core Features in RoR eCommerce Project
Overview
These days, one does not have to wait to plan for shopping to go get a particular product that one needs. Just make a wish, scroll the list, and click to shop! SO SIMPLE!
The other day my relatives were coming over for dinner, and I got an emergency rush to my friend in the hospital. Luckily, it wasn’t a life or death situation, she just needed me by her side when the doctor was injecting her with the medications. However, I got late in returning home and I was short of a few grocery items. I forgot the situation of my pantry in all the hustle, but thankfully with my on-demand grocery app I could get the remnants on time and my feast was ready before my guests arrived.
Such incidence is very casual, but if it was a decade ago, I surely might be regretting my management skills. E-Commerce applications are life-saving sometimes and are life-enjoying most of the time. People are inevitably dependent on these eCommerce platforms for any or all of their needs ranging from electronics, fashion, lifecare, cosmetics, and lots more.
There was a time when we needed one big shopping bag to get all our essentials from the market; Now, all we need is an E-Commerce application.
People are using smart devices for shopping online and this has promoted enormous upgrades to online businesses and eCommerce websites and eCommerce apps. So all, things cut short, people enjoy shopping online from the comfort of sitting at their homes, and even sellers enjoy selling their products online, and doing business in their comfort zones.
As per a Statista report, the e-retail sale in 2020 has surpassed 3.5 trillion and they expect that the share of ECommerce sales in the Global Retail Sales in 2023 will be 22%. The most popular and successful eCommerce shopping platform is Shopify, which is built with the Ruby on Rails framework.
Let us find out what makes Ruby on Rails the best choice for developing an e-commerce web app development.
Ruby on Rails Framework: Perfect for E-commerce web development
Ruby on Rails framework is rising as the most popular services of the IT industry after PHP and ASP.net. According to BuiltWith data, there are 3,738,234 websites made with Ruby on Rails framework, and 45,973 websites, which is 4.6% are in the top 1 million.
A Ruby on Rails eCommerce website will help you win over economies as it will be a cost-effective solution. The RoR framework will optimize your costs and you save big time. You surely want to lead the market chart after the COVID outbreak and the flawed economy. Ruby on Rails framework can help you recover your business market share with its eccentric features and functionalities.
Check out the various types of Ruby on Rails e-commerce platforms:
Types of e-Commerce Projects Build with RoR
Business to Business B2B: Though online wholesale selling is a bit obscure, still, it has become a customary thing in today’s time. The best example of a B2B website is Alibaba. As per the Frost and Sullivan prediction, the B2B market which was at 5.12 trillion sales in 2012, will hit 12 trillion in 2020.
In the past few years of consumerization, we have seen a sweet decline in B2C and contradictorily a hike in B2B channels. Looking at the market drift, 69% of the business consumers are deciding to stop their physical marketing patterns like catalog printing five years from now. Following the B2C footsteps, the B2B also have embraced Ruby on Rails eCommerce development.
Business to Customer B2C: This is the most common business outlet where the business sells products to the end-users. Ruby on Rails eCommerce has a unique interface-centric implementation which is ideal for the modern web stores that deliver an amazing user experience.
Not only the e-commerce stores but the SaaS or the licensed or open-source software support the Business to Customer business model using RoR.
B2BC: This business model combines the B2B, and the B2C business models are gaining popularity recently. Big names like Walmart, Amazon, and AliExpress are turning towards this business model by accepting outside partnerships.
RoR is a versatile framework to combine these business models and establish your B2B2C business startup.
Subscription-based: As per the McKinsey report, every year the subscription-based market witnesses a growth of 100. For example, in 2011 it was $57 million which turned to be $2.6 billion in 2016. Ruby on rails e-commerce proves to be the best fit for the subscription-based business model.
Why Choose Ruby on Rails For eCommerce Web Development Framework
The Fifth Collection, AirBnB, Couchsurfing, Groupon, and many more are big examples of Ruby on Rails e-commerce companies that have successfully proved the potential of RoR framework. The RoR framework makes a perfect choice for validating the idea of your eCommerce website and enables you faster development.
Here are the points that make Ruby on Rails a perfect match for faster eCommerce development:
⦿ Cost-effective
Ruby on Rails is a Free and Open-source web development framework, and so you need not pay for the licensing fee and straightaway start your Ruby on rails eCommerce development by hiring elite developers from a Ruby on Rails development company. This makes RoR a pocket-friendly option for your eCommerce startup.
Hence, you must not fret about loosening your pockets or getting a hole in your pocket for developing your Ruby on Rails eCommerce project.
⦿ Rapid MVP development
The most beneficial aspect of the RoR framework is its speedy ability of Minimum Viable Product development. The Ruby on Rails framework follows convention-over-configuration so that you do not need any excessive configuration like in Django. You get efficient development with the DRY and MVC architecture even with a small team of RoR developers.
⦿ Flexible framework
RoR framework easily enables you to modify your code anytime and there are several plugins available for further modification in your Ruby on Rails ecommerce project. This flexibility of the framework enables you to rework your project code without breaking it from the scratch. You get to enhance and comprehend the functionality on the go.
⦿ Secure development
An online shopping app needs to be highly secure because a user relies on the transaction and payment. Ruby on Rails eCommerce development is reliable because it offers various gems available in the community for secure protection of your eCommerce application. For eg. safer pay-gem for user payment detail protection, brakeman for a security vulnerability, bundler-audit for patch-level verification, and more.
⦿ Vast ecosystem
Ruby on Rails has a vast community of GitHub and there are 150000 RubyGems for adding exclusive functionality in your web projects. There is a wide range of ready-to-use plug-ins for enhancing your website and making it error-free. There are regular updates from the framework and the community provides assistance to overcome any sort of challenges.
⦿ Powerful framework
Ruby on Rails Framework comes with a standard set of policies that make it less prone to challenges even when your project uses heavy coding. You will face no lags and rather assure stability when developing Ruby on Rails eCommerce applications. Thanks to the elimination of configuration that eases your development.
⦿ Ease of development
Ruby on Rails comes with several automation features that simplify your development process like test-automation, and the DRY principle makes the debugging process glitch-free. The RoR framework guides the developers with the best coding practices so that they come to the right development solutions.
Ruby on Rails eCommerce Frameworks
Ruby on Rails comes with few predefined solutions that enable you faster and affordable eCommerce development. Check out the two most used and popular Ruby on Rails eCommerce frameworks:
Spree
The RailsCart project (2007) evolved to become the Spree framework 0.0.9 version and is now available on spreecommerce.org. The Spree framework which is open-source helps you in developing large eCommerce applications with various extensions and 3rd party integrations. You get various features and functionalities with the Ruby on Rails Spree framework for omnichannel marketing, customers, back-office, international sales, analytics, payment, search, taxes, and much more.
Solidus
In 2015, the Solidus framework was forked from the Spree framework and it primarily focuses on high-volume business and storefronts. Solidus is also an open-source Ruby on Rails framework like Spree, but has major distinctions as mentioned below:
Stable code which is ready for production
- Easy Upgradation
- Product management
- Tax calculations
- Better 3rd-party integrations
Some famous use-cases of the companies using the Ruby on Rials Solidus framework are Floyd, Glossier, Wonderbly, etc.
Building Ruby on Rails eCommerce Product: A Case Study
Now that you are aware how RoR framework makes the best-fit for developing an eCommerce project, let me share a case study of Bacancy Technology which gives you an easy understanding of why we motivate you to go for Ruby on Rails eCommerce development.
We developed a Ruby on Rails eCommerce website for a company that sells emergency beacons used in aviation, marine, hikers, boats, cyclists, pilots, combat troops, etc.
Beacons are small gadgets that transmit low-energy Bluetooth signals to nearby transmitters in the range. Here we will share the challenges that we faced during developing this best Ruby on Rails eCommerce platform and how we ensured to find solutions to the problems.
Client Location: USA
Industry: eCommerce
Product: Web application
Scope: Back-end & Front-end
Challenges and Solutions
There was trouble in connecting remote databases to test Beacons with SMS check.
Solution:
We ensured that we connect two remote databases from the remote host and then we displayed the data. You can find this in 406-link and 406-test section.
There was a need to enhance eCommerce integration with Goggle Tag Manager.
Our product had already covered the checkout, purchase, refund, and product as the main module of our project development. Now, we had to integrate this complete eCommerce flow with either, (i). A PDF download, (ii). when a dealer locator page opens, or (iii). when a user clicks a social media link etc.
How to integrate and how to check its reflection was a major problem for us.
Solution:
By doing intensive Research & Development, we explored Google tag manager and added the script of the datalayer.
There was an issue with the FedEx checkout flow and with taxcloud integration. We were displaying multiple shipping methods.
Solution:
If the user selects two different products that have different shipping methods, then it was a bit clumsy to display. The payment flow was not working properly and so we added an electronic card transaction for online transactions, fixed the auto-suggestion for address, and fixed the Google API.
It was taking a hell lot of time to load images, videos, and PDFs.
Solution:
Instead of the S3 bucket, we implemented the Cloudfront which is faster.
Google maps customization.
Solution:
Whenever a user hovers over the address, we enable detailed information on the map with location description.
Core Features in RoR eCommerce Project
The essential features and functionalities that we added in this best Ruby on Rails eCommerce platform were as mentioned below:
- User Roles and Login Permissions
- Remote Database Connections
- Stories and News
- Checkout Flow after the product purchase
- SEO Google tag manager
- Google map functionality
- Multiple Language Support
- SEO tasks like crawling, analytics, schema tags, sitemaps
- CloudFront storage for images and videos
- SMS
Technical stack for RoR eCommerce Project
The technologies and tools that we used in this project are as follows:
Resources and Time Frame
This one is one of our ongoing projects and by far now (past year), 7 Ruby on Rails have been working on it along with a React developer, Quality Analyst, and a Designer.
The client is much satisfied with our quality of work and we hope this project turns out to be a huge success and our client meets his aspired goals.
Conclusion
Bacancy Technology is the best ruby on rails development company and we deliver satisfaction and our RoR enthusiasts are passionate about their work. Leverage the advantage of our full-stack ruby on rails development and see tremendous growth in your business outcomes.
Develop your Ruby on Rails eCommerce project with us and get an extensive set of libraries and plugins to enhance your website functioning. You get an eloquent coding scheme along with scalability as you opt for the RoR framework.
