Hey Dev.to community! Today I'd like to share my experience developing an e-commerce platform for a specialized market - electronic cigarettes and vaping products in Georgia.
Project Overview
Our goal was to create a user-friendly online store that could effectively showcase a diverse catalog of technical products while providing a seamless shopping experience. You can see the result at esigareti.ge.
Technical Challenges We Overcame
- Dynamic Product Catalog Management
One of our biggest challenges was creating a flexible catalog system that could handle products with vastly different specifications and attributes:
- We implemented a custom attributes system using a NoSQL approach
- Created dynamic filtering that adjusts available options based on selected categories
- Built a comparison feature for technically similar products
- Responsive Design for Complex Product Pages
Vaping products have many technical specifications that needed to be displayed clearly on all devices. We created responsive components that adapt to different screen sizes while maintaining the clarity of technical information.
- Payment Integration Challenges
Integrating with Georgian payment systems required custom solutions:
- Built adapters for local payment gateways
- Implemented a multi-step verification process
- Created a custom order tracking system
- Performance Optimization
We faced performance issues with the product catalog that we solved by:
- Implementing lazy loading for product images
- Creating a custom caching system for frequently accessed products
- Using SSR for critical pages to improve initial load time
Technology Stack
- Frontend: React with Next.js for SSR capabilities
- Backend: Node.js with Express
- Database: MongoDB for product catalog, PostgreSQL for orders and user data
- Caching: Redis
- Deployment: Docker containers on AWS
Key Learnings
- Start with user research - Understanding the specific needs of vape enthusiasts helped us design a more intuitive interface
- Prioritize mobile experience - Over 70% of our users shop on mobile devices
- Invest in search functionality - With specialized products, users often search for specific models or technical specifications
- Plan for scalability - Our catalog grew from 50 to over 500 products in the first year
Conclusion
Building a specialized e-commerce platform presents unique challenges beyond typical online stores. The technical decisions we made early on have helped us scale effectively and provide a smooth shopping experience in this niche market.
I'm happy to answer any questions about our development process or technical solutions in the comments!
Top comments (0)