Lucent Innovation

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I represent The Man Company. We are a premium men’s grooming essentials brand in India. We sell online and offline, and my designation is Ecommerce Business Head.

What challenge were you trying to address with Lucent Innovation?

We were looking for a partner who had expertise in Shopify as a platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When I say we were looking for expertise, it wasn’t just about designing and setting up the platform, but they also have the capability to customize the platform based on our business requirements. They had developed the entire website for The Man Company and are also managing it.

What is the team composition?

Our point of contact is the project manager, but there is a day to day account manager as well. Whenever it comes to any kind of technical brainstorming, their co-founder and CTO are also on the call with us.

How did you come to work with Lucent Innovation?

Lucent was referred to us by Shopify as a credible partner who has the ability to customize Shopify based on the client’s requirements.

How much have you invested in them?

We are spending close to $2,200 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

I wasn’t part of the organization at the time when Lucent was onboarded, but I can imagine it was around two to three years back for sure. The work is still ongoing. We are very happy with their services, and we definitely plan to continue working with them, and only with them for now.

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

Because we were looking for a partner who could customize the platform based on our business requirements, I think Lucent really stood up to the expectations. They actually provide solutions to any problems we have which has made a big impact in terms of our online sales. They have come up with innovative ideas that have helped us grow the business and also increase our conversion rates.

 I would give them due credit in all the conversion rates that have improved. For instance, we were struggling to optimize the speed of our mobile site and Lucent came up with a solution that has increased the speed of our website which has improved our ranking on Google as well as increased our conversion rates by almost 25%.

How did Lucent Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

We have calls with them twice a week. They use a project management tool within their organization, but I don’t recall the name of the tool. They’re fairly organized when it comes to any kind of task because they are using this tool. They come back to us in terms of what is feasible and what is not. I don’t see a problem in terms of project management front.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The main differentiator that Lucent brings to the table and the main advantages of working with them is their capability of innovating and customizing Shopify as a platform. Not many service providers, at least in India, are able to offer that. I think that is a differentiator in terms of completely customizing the Shopify platform based on the client’s requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is always room for improvement, but there is very little I can think of. Maybe their testing capabilities could be slightly better, and they could invest a little more energy into adding more of the team in the testing before delivering a project to the client as it would improve client satisfaction.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Any potential client that is considering working with Lucent, I would strongly advise that they clearly share the business problem with them and let Lucent come up with an innovative solution to that problem, rather than dictate solutions and tell them exactly what needs to be done.

As a team, they are very innovative and creative, so it makes sense if you tell them what the business problems are and let them come up with a solution. Their solution could be better than the solution you are already thinking of.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior manager of e-commerce and customer experience at a cosmetics company. In my role, I oversee everything that has to do with our website.

What challenge were you trying to address with Lucent Innovation?

We were working with a previous development agency to re-platform our website from the free version of Shopify to Shopify Plus. However, that team wasn’t able to deliver on all the things that we needed. Lucent Innovation inherited the project and helped us build out our custom site.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Lucent Innovation’s team took over the project, rebuilding the entire site in Shopify Plus. We have a lot of custom scripts that aren’t native to Shopify’s standard functionalities. So, they helped find workarounds to meet our needs. 

Currently, we’ve continued to keep them on hand as our go-to developers. They help us with everything on the back- and frontend, including cleaning up our code to help our SEO and adding features. Their design team also supports us on more complicated pages — just to make sure that layouts are optimized.

What is the team composition? 

We have a US-based customer success manager who recaps all of our high-level strategy and makes sure that we’re hitting all of our dates. 

I also work with a frontend developer on a daily basis. He keeps and organized tracker for all of our upcoming QA tests. That way, we’re sure that our site speed and code quality is good to go when we launch.

Finally, there’s a backend developer who handles the more complicated tasks on the backend.

How did you come to work with Lucent Innovation?

Since we’re a small startup with a limited budget, we wanted to find a development agency abroad that was diligent and could move quickly. It took a lot of research before we landed on Lucent Innovation. 

We explained our key points during the initial phone calls, going over our concerns with re-platforming and explaining how our product needed to be built. In the end, we chose them because we felt reassured by how easy it was to communicate with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $30,000–$50,000 and still keep them on retainer. That costs a few thousand dollars per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in May 2019, and the work is ongoing.

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

They’ve significantly increased our site speed on desktop, helping us jump from a C to an A. It’s harder to get our mobile speed to the same level given the extensive custom code, but we’ve still seen improved performance.

Our Google ranking has also become much stronger thanks to the backend cleanup, which has led to a 30%–40% increase in our conversion rate.

How did Lucent Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s been extremely easy to communicate with them. We use GoodDay to track all of our tasks, such as the status and team members assigned, and then there’s Skype and WhatsApp for when we need instant communication. 

Although there’s a time difference, the team is still always accessible when we need them. If there’s an emergency or we need a bug fixed, we can rely on our US-based customer success manager to help us get in touch with the right developer.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They never hesitate to go the extra mile. Other developers that we’ve worked with often just do the task assigned. Any tweaks or changes would have to be calculated penny by penny until we were happy with the final product.

Lucent Innovation is different because they’re genuinely doing the work to make sure we’re happy with how things look and function. It’s been a fair relationship, and we trust that they don’t take advantage of us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We would like to have them pushback on some of our ideas if they know that there’s a better solution. Working with other brands allows them to have great insights into best practices, so they’re in a strong position to give constructive criticism. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you’re giving them the full details when you’re assigning a task. Things like copy, descriptions, and mock-ups make it easier for them to visualize what you’re asking for. You should also keep them in the loop when making changes because the different parts might affect each other in unexpected ways. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a goods supplier for online sellers on platforms like eBay, Amazon, and Shopify. We supply products and handle order fulfillment logistics.

What challenge were you trying to address with Lucent Innovation?

We hired Lucent Innovation to develop an app that would help us better manage our process. We also wanted it to simplify the onboarding of Shopify merchants.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lucent Innovation developed a web app for us. To start, we decided on the specs and agreed on the plan. On a daily basis, they sent prototypes and designs to receive feedback. Together, we worked on the wireframes, referring to an existing foundation. They used Amazon EC2 and other AWS services. The final product displays our product list, connects to Shopify stores, processes payments and sends orders to our warehouse. 

What is the team composition?

They assigned a representative to be our main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with Lucent Innovation?

We interviewed several companies and wanted to ensure the team completely understood our vision and goals. Lucent Innovation was experienced in developing Shopify apps and their quoted price was the best out of all the companies we considered. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project ran from January–December 2019.

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

The app has been live for a month and we already have nearly 2,000 users, with very few complaints about functionality. Everything has been working as expected and our team hasn’t had any issues with orders or tracking. The lack of problems speaks volumes about the quality of work they delivered.  

How did Lucent Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

We kept in contact through Skype and got very quick replies. Their project management approach was very structured, so we knew exactly what was happening and when to expect work to be completed. We also had a lot of opportunities to review the work. Whenever a piece was done, we’d send our feedback and hash it out until we were satisfied. Their approach to this was the best part about working with them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were willing to help us with things outside of the original scope and were quick to fix any issues. Other companies have been reluctant to add tasks and support other changes, but Lucent Innovation was strong in this aspect. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I was very happy, so nothing comes to mind for them to improve. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Think clearly about what you’re hoping and what you want. Making sure your spec sheets are good from the start will help avoid issues caused by the alternative.

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I'm director for an online jewelry company that sells bracelets and accessories.

What challenge were you trying to address with Lucent Innovation? 

We have a Shopify store and they customize it to be exactly how we want. I’ve used them maybe 20–25 times over the last few years.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

I use Lucent Innovation on an ongoing basis for all areas of our website. They do big and small jobs for us. The base of the site is Shopify, and they customize it so that it’s our own. If we have any issues, we use them to make updates or changes. 

They made an app for us to help serve our customers. Not a mobile app, but a Shopify app that lets us easily download and sort through orders. It pulls out certain orders from all the orders we receive in a day. They also provide graphic design services. They customize the WordPress blog on the website. We create the content and they create the layout and how it looks. 

What is the team composition?

I have one primary point of contact. I email him directly whenever I need something done. I've spoken to a couple of other people, but most communication goes through him.

How did you come to work with Lucent Innovation?

I think I found them on Google. I chose them because of their good reviews.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We’ve been working together since 2015, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Everything on our website has been crafted or adapted by Lucent Innovation. Our company wouldn't be as successful as it is today without the website they built. The Shopify app saves us a lot of time and really makes things easier.

We've used them for five years. I wouldn't keep doing so unless I was really happy with everything they did. There are plenty of other companies that offer the same services, but we've never even looked for anyone else.

How did Lucent Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is great in terms of responsiveness and timeliness. We communicate via email. We usually get a reply within twelve hours even though we're in different time zones. It works well for both of us. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

We’ve never had any problem with the quality of the work, and it's always a good price as well. In addition to their responsiveness, I appreciate their speed in completing tasks. Being an online company, the shop is open 24/7. If something does go wrong with the website, I know I can email them, and they'll get back to me right away. Sometimes I can't believe how quickly they sort problems out. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

I honestly can't think of anything. I can't fault a single thing they've done over the last five years. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

If you have a loose or vague idea of what you want, speak to Lucent Innovation. They'll develop it for you into something more precise. You don't need to know exactly what you want for them to help you get to your end goal. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

Hi, I am the Ecommerce Business Head at Just Lifestyle Pvt Ltd. We are India's largest MBO for Watches and have 76 Stores PAN India (Just Watches/Just In Vogue). I am responsible for managing and growing the business.

For what projects/services did your company hire Lucent Innovation?

They built our website www.justwatches.com

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a full functional E-commerce website.

How did you select this vendor?

After thorough reasearch in the Indian market, we finalised on Lucent due to the experience they had in the industry, quality assurance and a detailed roadmap.

Describe the project in detail.

Our E-commerce Team worked with Lucent in bringing our website to life. Since we fulfill all orders on our website directly from our stores, our website needed to have relevance to the in-store shopping experience. Input,output review rinse repeat is the process we followed in the 4-5 months of working together.

What was the team composition?

1 project manager from the vendors side. Co-ordination between their internal tech teams and us.

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

We have seen some traction in terms of sales on our website. We have recently launched marketing and so far, our customers seem happy using the website.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very good and fluid.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their quality of work, knowledge and expertise were impressive and they had good project management.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Having a more cost effective maintanence plan for websites to continue to use your service till they achieve scale would be a good to have.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of goPure Brands, a consumer products brand owner in the beauty industry. Our brands sell products direct-to-consumer through our websites.

For what projects/services did your company hire Lucent Innovation?

We hired Lucent to design and launch a new website for our main brand.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to launch a successful e-commerce website with quality UX that could handle a large volume of orders.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Lucent developed a website for our main brand very quickly and included all the design and performance features we needed. Their team provides ongoing development and website maintenance as well.

What was the team composition?

Lucent assigned several specialists to our account. 

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our customers have found our website very easy to use.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used their backend project management system. It was very effective in guiding us through the lifecycle of the project. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by the speed of their communication, the great pricing, and the knowledgeable staff.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of any at this time.