Roast & Ground eCommerce Store
Elevating Workplace Coffee Sales with a Stable, Mobile-First Online Store
Project Brief
The Roast & Ground eCommerce store is a crucial online platform that delivers premium workplace coffee solutions, snacks, accessories, and cleaning supplies to businesses across the UK. Unlike their corporate marketing website, this store is tailored for seamless online ordering, helping new and returning customers efficiently browse, select, and purchase products. Built on OpenCart, the store handles a diverse catalog—from artisan coffee beans to commercial-grade descalers and cleaning equipment.
The Opportunity
Roast & Ground needed reliable technical support and forward-looking improvements to keep their store competitive and user-centric. The key challenges included:
- Technical Stability: Address bugs and inconsistencies that interrupted the shopping experience.
- Payment Gateway Reliability: Fix errors in checkout, especially payment failures, and streamline transactions.
- Sales Growth Enablement: Improve UI/UX for product listings and browsing.
- Mobile Device Compatibility: Ensure a consistent experience across smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
The Opportunity
Roast & Ground needed reliable technical support and forward-looking improvements to keep their store competitive and user-centric. The key challenges included:
- Technical Stability: Address bugs and inconsistencies that interrupted the shopping experience.
- Payment Gateway Reliability: Fix errors in checkout, especially payment failures, and streamline transactions.
- Sales Growth Enablement: Improve UI/UX for product listings and browsing.
- Mobile Device Compatibility: Ensure a consistent experience across smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
The Solution
Smart Web Agency was brought on board as the long-term digital partner to support, maintain, and enhance the Roast & Ground store. Our role focused on resolving immediate technical issues while laying the foundation for scalable performance and smoother user journeys.
Key Contributions:
- Payment Gateway Support & Integration: Fixed persistent transaction failures across Stripe, PayPal, and SagePay; ensured full PCI compliance and stability.
- Custom Twig Template Development: Modified templates to enhance category layouts, product detail pages, and search UX, aligning with the brand’s premium identity.
- Bug Fixes & Mobile Optimization: Patched admin and front-end issues and introduced custom mobile styling using Bootstrap and lightweight scripts.
- Performance Optimization: Compressed image assets, minimized scripts, and optimized database queries to enhance speed and reliability.
Software Stack
- Platform: OpenCart 3.x
- Templating Engine: Twig
- Languages: PHP, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS
- Database: MySQL
- Payment Gateways: Stripe, PayPal, SagePay
- Hosting: cPanel-based Shared/Cloud Hosting
- Version Control: Git (via private repositories)
Core Features of the Platform
- Mobile-Friendly Checkout Reengineered the mobile shopping experience for better flow and reduced friction during checkout.
- Admin Support Tools Improved order visibility, inventory tracking, and customer reporting through admin dashboard fixes.
- Security Enhancements Applied timely patches and server-level configurations to close vulnerabilities and boost data protection.
- Version-Safe Upgrade Upgraded OpenCart without affecting existing plugins and themes to ensure continuity and stability.
Mobile First Approach
Recognizing the increasing number of mobile users, we placed significant emphasis on responsive design and mobile usability:
- Rebuilt key shopping flows for smaller screens
- Reduced load times with media compression
- Optimized tap targets and forms for ease of use
- Verified browser/device compatibility across major platforms
The Result
Our maintenance and enhancement efforts delivered clear, measurable improvements:
- 99.9% uptime post-maintenance, ensuring high availability
- 40% fewer failed transactions thanks to stable payment gateway integration
- 30% reduction in mobile bounce rate, signaling better engagement
- Enhanced admin efficiency, saving hours weekly in order and catalog management
Client Review
"Have been working with Rehan for a year and a half. Helps us with any questions we have and is always available when we need him. Thank you Rehan, always going the extra mile for us and the team! :)"
Conclusion
The ongoing collaboration between Roast & Ground and Smart Web Agency highlights our strength in eCommerce maintenance, problem-solving, and platform optimization. By blending performance-focused development with custom templating and mobile-first improvements, we helped transform Roast & Ground’s OpenCart store into a stable, secure, and conversion-driven online platform. We continue to support their business goals by making sure the shop runs efficiently and evolves with customer needs.