Rescued a complex, integrated ecommerce platform and extended it
Secure and efficient ecommerce platform with back-office integrations for the highly regulated veterinary pharmaceutical sector.
Location: London, UK
Aftercare: Hosting, support, and maintenance
User experience research
Secure and enhanced ecommerce functionality for restricted products
Built in account and budget management features
Legacy system migration
Back-office integrations
Bova Chemist was founded in 1968 in Cronulla, Australia by Colin and Patricia Bova, and it started off as a regular pharmacy. Inherited by their youngest son Nick in 2008, Bova has grown to be the largest veterinary compounder in Australia. In 2017, the company launched Bova UK, a specials veterinary medications manufacturer for the UK market. Bova is the first pharmaceutical company providing sterile specials (drugs made on demand to bespoke specifications) for the UK veterinary market.
We received a recommendation to use BrightMinded’s services at a crucial time when we were stuck with our website, and their work really blew us away! They built us a website and a fully integrated ecommerce platform from scratch.
The brief
Bova UK had requested another web developer to build their new site, but the resulting solution was not extensible enough to suit Bova’s requirements. They needed an alternative solution fast. BrightMinded was asked to create a new website with private ecommerce capabilities linked to UPS parcel services and to Xero accounting software to provide a complete digital operations platform for the company.
The project involved building a working marketing website with a full ecommerce platform for highly specialised products. BrightMinded created a WordPress site and extended it with on-account purchasing, PDF paperwork generation and authentication. We also created integrations to Xero (accounting), WooCommerce (ecommerce), Stripe (payments), UPS (logistics) and MailChimp (newsletter sign up).
Challenges
Bova customers needed ID-based account validation to be allowed to enter the ‘shop’ (proof of RCVS membership). Thus, the solution lets customers sign up through several ‘states’ with email notifications as the account is validated and enabled.
The product orders needed customisable prescription fields – WooCommerce was extended to enable these. Orders also needed to generate paperwork for the labs as well as picking and packing slips. Some orders needed additional notices and click through agreements where specific drugs were concerned.
WooCommerce needed a new ‘account-based’ payment method closely integrated with Xero allowing for customisable credit limits, payment terms and VAT. This required accounting package integration and WooCommerce extension building.
What we did
We built a highly integrated ecommerce platform, generating many efficiencies for the company and a great user experience for their clients. Bova have a distinctive and highly regulated business model requiring a uniquely customised ecommerce solution. It is a small operation serving a fairly large client base, so they are dependent on efficiency. The new ecommerce platform makes it easy to find and purchase the exact required pharmaceuticals.
We couldn’t be more impressed with the outcome. Anyone who’s looking for a bespoke software solution to serve their business needs should turn to the team at BrightMinded.
Second phase
BrightMinded was asked to add a second phase with upgrades to the site. The BrightMinded team also support Bova with small enhancements that come up in the daily operation of the business.
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