Case History 18/7/2023
Cortilia renews its platform
Optimised performance and advanced functionality
Cortilia renews its platform: optimised performance and extended functionality
Online shopping platform Cortilia.it has recently completed a project to renew its web interface, improving the user experience and providing a solid base for future development. The project was carried out in collaboration with WebScience, with the aim of offering a better performing platform optimised for different devices and introducing new features to serve users.
CONTEXT AND NEEDS
Cortilia.it is one of the leading online shopping platforms, connecting sustainable producers and conscious consumers. Currently, the service is available in over 800 municipalities in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Piedmont, Veneto, Liguria and Lazio, serving over 100,000 customers. The company has distinguished itself for its speed of delivery, ensuring that orders are delivered within 24 hours. In addition, a same-day delivery service was introduced in Milan and some neighboring municipalities. Cortilia.it became a benefit company in 2020 and achieved B Corp certification in 2022, demonstrating its commitment to sustainability.
However, despite the company's success, the Cortilia.it web platform needed improvement.
"We started the project to renew our web platform to meet the needs of our customers, offering them an even more intuitive, fast and secure online shopping experience", says Umberto Poli, Digital Product Manager at Cortilia. "It was crucial to overcome the challenges related to the performance and optimisation of the website for mobile devices, to ensure an excellent service that lives up to our customers's expectations."
Lack of optimisation for different devices and poor SEO performance were affecting the website's search engine ranking. Furthermore, tracking traffic on the site was difficult due to the limitations of the front-end. It was clear that the user interface needed to be modernised. Not an easy challenge, not least because of the difficulty in rebuilding the know-how related to the pre-existing solutions.
APPROACH AND SOLUTIONS
According to Elton Dervishi, Client Manager at WebScience, "We worked closely with the Cortilia team to develop an agile solution that met their needs. Through the adoption of cutting-edge technology, we were able to completely overhaul the front-end of the site, improving performance and user experience."
To achieve the objectives, an in-depth assessment of the existing functionality and code was initially carried out in order to recover front-end know-how. Several frameworks were examined and Next.js emerged as the most suitable choice. The framework is innovative but already widely used: it contributes to the success of platforms such as TikTok and Twitch. Through the adoption of React and Next.js, the front-end of the site was completely revamped, enabling a smooth and high-performance user experience.
At the functional level, one of the main new features introduced is a new microservice for search, integrated with the backend and based on ElasticSearch. This enhanced functionality offers users a better search experience, with a new user interface and new filters.
The redesign project was managed in an agile way, with close collaboration with Cortilia's internal team. The implementation of test automation on 83% of the overall written code is an excellent guarantee of the excellence of the solutions.
RESULTS AND BENEFITS
"We wanted to invest in modernising our website to offer our customers a better online shopping experience. Thanks to the increased scalability of the system, we achieved an improvement in overall performance. Furthermore, thanks to the adoption of a state-of-the-art technology stack, the flexibility and maintainability of the system has improved and the motivation of the people within our IT department has increased"- says Alexio Cassani, CTO of Cortilia.it.
Since the launch of the revamped platform on 1 May, significant performance improvements have been achieved. On the mobile version, the score on Google PageSpeed Insights increased from 4 to 40. Not an optimal score, but still higher than many competitors. On desktop, the score increased from 40 to 81 on Google PageSpeed Insights, which is an excellent result compared to other players in the industry.
Looking to the future, the renewed Cortilia.it platform promises further benefits for the company and its customers. A significant improvement in site traffic is expected thanks to the implementation of advanced SEO solutions and increased visibility on search engines. In addition, enhanced search functionality within the site will allow users to more effectively access the products they want, enhancing the online shopping experience. In parallel, the company is working on optimising the consumption of cloud resources, helping to reduce the environmental impact of the digital solution.
Despite the positive results, the Cortilia team is not stopping there. The next evolutionary steps will notably include further performance improvements for the mobile version, by means of code streamlining.
The makeover of the Cortilia.it web platform marked an important step forward, providing a better user experience and a high-performance website. Cortilia.it is increasingly positioning itself as an industry leader, offering conscious consumers a convenient and sustainable way to shop online.