Maven Ecommerce

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the COO of Fun and Function LLC. We design and sell products for children with special needs.

For what projects/services did your company hire Maven Ecommerce, and what were your goals?

We hired Maven to build our site from scratch with Magento as we had previously been using an outdated system. They built it quickly and flawlessly. We continuously work with them on new features and upgrades..

How did you select Maven Ecommerce and what were the deciding factors?

We found them after doing considerable searching online and checked their references. After doing a thorough interview, we thought they were the right team...

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The entire site needed to be built on magento and connected with a good hosting provider. Everything including navigation, multiple checkout methods, search, SEO had to be built out..

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked directly with Andrey, Sergey (project manager), and their programmers.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

They got our site up in weeks and continue to make it better every day!

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

Communication is terrific through Jira, Skype, calls and email. They are very responsive to feedback...

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Communication and expertise in getting the work done. They are always there for us through any emergency.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There were times in the past where we felt that QA could do a better job in mitigating bugs, but things are much better now.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a product owner at a branding merchandise platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Maven Ecommerce?

We were looking for a vendor to build an e-commerce platform for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a Magento e-commerce platform, linking it to our CRM and Akeneo information management system. The platform enables configuration of prices for promotional products. In the UK, the industry is based on an old-school B2B style of selling, where customers don't know the prices upfront. We've combined a variety of data sources from different suppliers and put them into one system. That allows us to immediately show prices for all products to customers, so they don't have to wait for a quote.

The instant pricing is not common among promotional products websites, so it allows us to have an edge in terms of e-commerce. We have direct integration with many suppliers around the UK and Europe, so we have a large variety of products. However, we don't have to spend any time reaching out to those suppliers to get a quote. In addition to developing our main web platform, Maven Ecommerce built a number of other websites for us.

What is the team composition?

We had a project manager, who was our main point of contact. In addition, there were 3–4 other members of their team working with us at various stages of the project.

How did you come to work with Maven Ecommerce?

We found them on Clutch. We reviewed proposals from a number of different companies in the UK and Europe. Maven Ecommerce provided the most comprehensive presentation deck of how our website would look and how they'd customize it to the look and feel of our current website. They also took into account our feature requests, so we decided they’d be the best fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between December 2016 and April 2018.

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

The new platform speeds up our internal process by a factor of a couple of hundred percent. We're no longer required to call suppliers or use a variety of methods to get prices. As soon the quote comes in, we can send it back to the customer within a couple of seconds, so the platform has improved our efficiency dramatically.

How did Maven Ecommerce perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very responsive. We used Slack to stay in touch and we used Jira for project management. They worked long hours and I was very happy with their communication. They're based in Ukraine, but their English is fantastic.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They care about the work they do. It wasn't just us giving them a requirement and them implementing it. They would always challenge it and provide valuable feedback to make sure we go down the right avenue. We've been impressed with their level of pragmatism and their work ethics. They worked hard to meet our needs and implement all the features we wanted.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The work they did for us was perfect, so nothing needs improving in that area. Maybe they could be a bit more proactive in terms of recommendations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Getting a product owner or someone who is fairly competent in technology is helpful, especially if you're working on a complex project. Business owners don't always understand the technology, so having someone who is aware of the technology limitations will speed up the process.

Please describe your organization.

We are an online mosaic tile shop. Our customers order tile samples and orders are based off them. We're located in New Jersey. 

What is your position?

I am the operations manager.

What business challenge were you trying to address with MavenEcommerce?

We wanted to rework our website and move to the Magento platform. We also wanted to be more mobile-friendly.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

MavenEcommerce offered development work for the website in its entirety. The design work was done in collaboration with our marketing manager. MavenEcommerce incorporated our graphics into the site.

How did you come to work with MavenEcommerce?

Our marketing department found them. MavenEcommerce had worked on a few other projects with our team there. We knew that they had extensive Magento knowledge, compared to other vendors we were aware of. The level of competence a developer has in working with this platform can make a big difference.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total cost of the project was between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work is completed. We're still making minor adjustments.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The site went live two months ago [November 2015]. At this time, it's difficult to assess the benefits to our business, but I find that the system we're using is much more robust than what we had before, and we should be able to see a return on investment.

How did MavenEcommerce perform from a project management standpoint?

I'm satisfied with their work. MavenEcommerce are very easy to deal with and very efficient. If there's ever an issue, they will take care of it on the spot. Communication is also easy to establish.

MavenEcommerce is the one that pushes us along the project. Before starting, they made up a schedule for it and, if work ever slowed down, they made us aware of it.

What distinguishes MavenEcommerce from other providers?

They're efficient and know the details of Magento well.

Is there anything MavenEcommerce could have improved or done differently?

I've dealt with other companies, and they're the best. The only minus would be the language barrier since they're based in Ukraine.

Please describe your organization.

We are in Brooklyn, N.Y. We are a team of about 10 and we’re an e-commerce agency. We mostly manage ecommerce from the business side through marketing and everything in between.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the owner of the company.

What were you looking for MavenEcommerce to do for you?

I was looking for a team that is experienced in Magento and focuses on the Magento platform only.

What were your companies’ goals for the project?

The goal was to find a Magento team that is competent in Magento development and, more importantly, a team that is smart. A lot of times, it is very difficult and almost impossible to document everything that you need. You need a team of Magento experts that are smart business-oriented individuals that understand the market needs and is able return a job completed the way you want it.

Could you describe the scope of the work they did for you?

I have used them on a couple of ecommerce projects to design and develop e-commerce sites that are based on the Magento platform.

What was your process for selecting MavenEcommerce with which to work?

For this selection process, I searched on LinkedIn for companies in the Ukraine that do Magento only. I listed about five companies and contacted all of them. I was looking for a company that seemed the most professional and would understand the job. I explained to them what I needed, and then I decided to give three of them a smaller job to see how it worked out. Maven was one of the three, and they were the most expensive, but their proposal and response and ideas beat the other ones. So, I gave them this project and I was happy and have used them a couple of times.

Are you able to give a cost estimate of the project they did for you?

I’ve been using them a couple of months and the total I’ve spent is about $50,000. 

When did you start working with them?

Around August of 2014.

Can you say anything about the work they’ve done for you so far?

Their work is very good. They did well in the sense that normally when you deal with developers, you give them a job and it has a price tag on it. Then, when the job comes back, it isn’t finished, they want to charge you more for the finishing touches. A lot of people can begin, but finishing is the issue. Maven was expensive from the onset, but the job was finished when I got it back. Additionally, other small tasks that weren’t completed, they just finished without charging me or asking me for additional money.

Looking back at the work they’ve done, is there any significant area of improvement they could do on their end or anything they could’ve done differently?

No. I wouldn’t say so.

Please give a brief description of your company.

Fun and Function designs and sells products for children with special needs that are well designed and kid friendly. Our award winning products are sold to parents, schools, and hospitals throughout the United States and beyond. 

What is your role at the company?

I am the chief operating officer of the company.    

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address when you approached MavenEcommerce?

We found it really hard to find responsive developers who knew Magento well and were able to keep up with our increasing demands. We wanted someone to bring our site live and then to maintain and add features as we requested them.

Can you talk about the scope of the project?

MavenEcommerce built a dedicated Mobile-optimized version of our store website for our mobile users. The simplified mobile interface is optimized for easier navigation, shopping, and checkout with user-friendly search and results display adjusted to any device.

They were also charged with adding customization to our product detail pages by having fewer products displayed at once and an easy swipe between product images. Lastly, they added certain features to make the mobile shopping experience more practical.

What was your process for selecting MavenEcommerce with which to work?

We selected MavenEcommerce after doing some research on LinkedIn. 

Can you give a sense of the size of the project in dollar terms or personnel work hours?

We have spent about $60,000 with them during the last year. 

What were the results of the project, and are there any metrics you can share?

As a result of their work, sales have increased by 30 percent. 

How did MavenEcommerce perform?

They have always been there for us with any time sensitive tasks that need to be completed. They are always working to deliver the work we need, even if it’s on the weekends. 

When working with them, was there anything unique or special about them compared to other companies with which you may have worked?

They are very responsive and hold a high level of professionalism.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that they could improve or you would do differently?

It would be great if there would be another developer who could work on smaller projects like ours so that customizations could be done quicker. We don't do enough volume to justify a dedicated developer.