Building and scaling a best-in-class DTC online store

One of the world's largest tobacco companies was looking for a technical partner to build a direct-to-consumer experience for their new vaping brand, at the time only sold through point of sale at third-party retailers.

Volume7 was chosen to lead that initiative because of our broad skill set, with specific experience delivering e-commerce solutions. Over the course of 2 years, we led the development efforts in creating a best-in-class shopping experience, as well as developing the supporting infrastructure for scale and geographic expansion.

We worked with the leadership team to identify customer requirements and frequent pain points, and established a roadmap broken down by feature sprints. Initially focused on the online shopping experience itself, we quickly ramped up to building the supporting infrastructure: inventory management, discounts, fulfillment, testing, etc. As the project increased in scope and complexity, we gradually scaled our allocated resources to meet those changing needs.

• Feature-packed online store powered by Shopify
  • Subscriptions
  • Product personalization with visual editor
  • Tiered loyalty program
  • Automated discounts, exclusive access, and early releases
  • Referrals with store credits
  • Blog
• Retail store locator with geolocation
• In-store/curb-side pickup (Click and collect)
• Real-time inventory management with locale-specific products
• Bi-directional fulfillment network with carriers
• No-code product management console
• Fully automated end-to-end testing pipeline
• Logging, alerting, and monitoring setup

The client enhanced its brand recognition with a fresh and consistent user experience across all consumer touchpoints, and is now equipped with a suite of services built to streamline their supply chain allowing for scale and efficiency. They've also significantly increased their market value share and have built a loyal customer base that's rapidly growing.