Mageworx

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the technical director of an e-commerce company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MageWorx?

They assist us with many ongoing projects involving e-commerce stores with missing marketing functionality. We hired them to fill that gap.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They offer online SEO optimization features. Some of our clients have Magento stores and are missing out on some crucial SEO functionalities that would improve the index, generate custom redirects, and set up canonical tags. 

Their team has closely studied where common SEO pitfalls are within the e-commerce industry to give Magento sites increased functionality. They offer enhancement plug-ins that they build and install on our site that provide those services. 

How did you come to work with MageWorx?

We found them online where they were offering enhanced plug-ins and optimizations. After seeing that they could provide top service and support, we tried their services on our site. That was a big success, so we kept them on to address client sites as well.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $10,000 over the years. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since March 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The sites they’ve worked on are now ranking higher on Google because they’ve optimized them for SEO. That indicates that Google is finding it easier to index the websites and create more conversions and traffic. That’s led to increased revenues for our partners. 

How did MageWorx perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is friendly and able to look critically at a problem to deliver the best possible product. Even our internal team has remarked about how their product is superior to similar solutions on the market. They use a ticketing system to make sure that problems are resolved in a timely manner. All of their work is logged and tracked for increased visibility on our end as well. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their support team gets back to us very quickly with information and assistance. We have a strong relationship with our account manager as well. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. They should continue with what they’re doing currently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them with confidence. If you opt to give them a test project, I think you’ll be very impressed with what they can deliver.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the President and Co-Owner of Strapworks LLC. Our company manufactures an endless variety of straps for customers all over the world. We also sell webbing and hardware for individuals and companies alike to manufacture their own products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MageWorx ?

We needed an Advanced Options Module to work within the Magento framework and allow our customers to choose a variety of dependent options to customize their straps and then add it to their cart. The possible combinations of options are in the millions.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create a seamless and effort-free option system that any customer could use without a problem. This system would feed into our backend system and include order processing, inventory, and shipping.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They showed us that they had previously worked with Magento Option Systems and could easily modify existing software to fit our needs.

Describe the project in detail.

The majority of the project was getting everyone on the same page as to how the system needed to work from frontend to backend. From customer use to client use, everyone needed to be able to easily use the system. There are millions of combinations and it took time to figure out how to get the Magento system to handle that quantity without affecting the load times of the site or the customer experience.

Explain how the solution addressed your business challenge.

Instead of having several product pages for customers to go through a multi-stage process to pick their preferences and add it to their cart, Mageworx's system has allowed us to have a one-page preference system and make the selection much more efficient and clear to the customer. The process was meant to drastically increase conversion rates on all products with options.

What was the team composition?

We worked with our project lead the entire time. Arthur [Project Lead, MageWorx] did a great job of translating what we were asking for and his team understood exactly what we needed. He was available at every step and bump in the road. His response time was within 24-48 hours at all times, and most of the time it was instant.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

We have yet to launch, but everyone is excited about the look and feel of the new system. It really will increase ease-of-use and efficiency for our customers.

How effective was the project management?

The workflow was perfect the entire time; they were always very helpful. They never said no and were always wonderful in supporting our ideas. The communication was the best we've ever had from a developer.

Mageworx did a great job of communicating with us every step of the process. I also appreciated that they continued to work outside the framework of the original scoped project to make sure we were happy customers and received a fully functioning product. They also happily worked with other vendors involved to make sure it didn't affect any other software and that it integrated with other software.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their willingness to continue to work on all changes, issues, bugs, and other requests that came throughout the entire project. I really feel they have our best interest in mind, and will not quit until they have a completely satisfied client.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

Don't go anywhere else, choose Mageworx for your Magento development work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Freigeist Ventures is a small venture capital fund. We invest money into startups. I am the CTO. There is a television show here in Germany similar to Shark Tank, and my partner is a judge on the show.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MageWorx?

We were looking for custom Magento store development for an e-commerce startup.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the startups we had invested in was a company that made specialty homemade ice cream in their factory. We needed to implement a new shop for them with a special UI and UX, and I asked MageWorx to implement this shop based on Magento 2.

Another project was also a food start-up. The shop wasn’t implemented very well by the original developers, and we needed urgent help with it. They jumped right in and helped get it onto the television show. We are now talking with them about redoing the whole shop.

What is the team dynamic?

Arthur [Mezhohov, Sales] was my contact partner, and he managed everything very well.

How did you come to work with MageWorx?

We needed plugins for a certain component, as well as special functions in Magento for e-commerce sites. We decided that MageWorx's plugins were the best.

How much have you invested in them?

We've spent around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

During the first show for the ice cream startup, we had around 40 servers running the system with a lot of CPU power, as we had around 80,000 simultaneous users in those 15 minutes of television airtime.

How did MageWorx perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. I communicated with Arthur, as there was a bit of a language barrier with the developers. However, the management aspect was excellent. We used Skype, as well as email, to communicate more details. We also shared things like graphics with Google Docs and used development tools like GitHub.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We gave them the parameters regarding what to implement, as well as the graphic design. They managed the project well and executed the UI and shop pixel perfectly, which was exactly what we needed for this project. They delivered on that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The projects they worked on were excellent, and I can’t think of anything they should improve on. There are plans to work with them on more projects for other startups in our portfolio.

To give advice for potential clients, as of today, everyone works with a source code management system, such as Github or Bitbucket, and communication tools like Slack and Skype. It's a pretty standard process, and there weren't any specialties I had to apply for them to do better work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a Toronto-based company dealing in digital marketing, including content marketing and SEO. We deal with various clients, from startups to publicly-traded companies, providing lead generation, content production, promotion, and internet marketing as a whole. I am responsible for organic search.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MageWorx?

We were searching for a company which could help us find solutions to generate business for our clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MageWorx has provided development of additional pages through special customization of the Magento SEO Suite Ultimate. The existing functionality did not allow us to implement what we had in mind, so we asked them to customize their own module, which took about 2 months. We had some talks about the customization of the newly-created pages in April and again in June.

These pages were meant to help people locate stores based on their location. In Ontario, we have also built a platform around the Toronto Liquor Board. The only way to buy alcohol is to visit bars or beer stores. People searching based on their locations are able to land on the pages specifically designed by MageWorx. It was a unique project, since no one in Canada had introduced such a scheme for diverting traffic from the Liquor Board, and diverting it to companies which have licenses to deliver alcohol.

MageWorx was the only company able to customize this module, and deliver the end-solution, helping both our client and ourselves.

The end-result is to have location-specific pages, but everything is built on highly-customizable templates. We identified special locations on the basis of high-density areas, and the abundance or absence of liquor stores in those locations. We handed this algorithm to MageWorx, and they were able to create these templates and implement them into the actual landing pages. There were some issues with the GPS coordinates, but the team solved it.

The customization of the Magento SEO Suite Ultimate was the first step. They also randomized the feature for our dynamic templates, and added some rules. They managed to make the CSV files function in a way that allowed people to easily locate pages within the website. Regardless where the search was made, someone could always choose another location, or order wine or other liquors as a present for someone else, and deliver them to their home. This was easy to implement with the special Excel files which MageWorx created.

The second stage was done in June. They created the functionality to generate previews for categories and product pages. This was based on the templates and rules they created. The reviews someone might see on an e-commerce website are mostly based on different user experiences, but there wasn’t a universal approach for making them available on all pages, regardless of the product or category. Sometimes, our clients asked us for a way to have stars and reviews show up within searches for any page, but this wasn’t possible, since we cannot simply add stars to pages like About Us or Contact. It’s impossible without special templates for the Magento platform. MageWorx managed to do it as part of the SEO Suite, which was customized as we needed.

How did you come to work with MageWorx?

I was given the task of finding a company which could understand our specific requirements, and Googled a couple of names. The main reason for choosing MageWorx was that they already specialized in the Magento module we were using for all other projects, and were familiar with it. In order to find a better price, I looked at other companies, but, unfortunately, they could not deliver, or even provide a time and cost estimate for the customization. This is why we decided to go with MageWorx.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of all their services was around $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in April and their most recent deliverable was in June. Occasionally, we talk to them about further customization of the pages they built.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The outcome of the customization we ordered from MageWorx was that many more people started landing on our client’s website. Based on the statistics we gathered in July, there was a 25% increase in organic traffic through the pages developed by MageWorx. This occurred in only a matter of months.

How did MageWorx perform from a project management standpoint?

I would give them a 4.9 out of 5. MageWorx worked brilliantly, and the only thing which could be improved is the timely communication. I am sure that this is more of an objective limitation, since most of their developers are based in Europe, so there is a definite time difference. It wasn’t a problem, since all the deliverables were on time.

We communicated via email, and had some Skype calls as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If I had to use a keyword for describing MageWorx, I would say dedication. The team is dedicated to what they are doing, and have worked overtime in order to deliver. I am sure that they know that they could sell the custom module to other clients, so this is perhaps the reason MageWorx was so eager to help. The price is lower than other companies who didn’t promise anything, asked for twice as much.

Are there any areas they could improve?

MageWorx should employ a 24-hour support line in North America, not just salespeople.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MageWorx?

Hired Mageworx to migrate our store to Magento 2 from Magento 1.

What were your goals for this project?

To improve performance.

SOLUTION

How did you select MageWorx?

We had a module with them and that was the most complicated part of our migration.

Describe the project in detail.

We had to move all the DB and modules and keep the site running. some modules were outdated and needed a major overhaul before the data migration could happen.

What was the team composition?

A project manager and a developer. Later the CEO joined the team due to some complications.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project took longer, but that was the nature of the job. However, Mageworx managed to complete the job with a professional attitude.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I could tell their internal workflow was impressive. But communication with the buyer needs improvement. Most communications were to take place via tickets and that I believe caused delays.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The management. The CEO took personal leadership and got the job done.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Offer open communication via video calls. They can charge the customer for time spent on a video call, but lack of that can cause a delay.