Project Summary

For a mid-sized Australian retailer operating in the B2B and B2C channels, we transformed a static content-managed website built on Umbraco into a fully functional, API-driven eCommerce platform. Given that Umbraco is a powerful CMS but lacks native eCommerce features, we architected and delivered a custom backend tailored to the client’s operational needs — from product management and pricing automation to multi-channel integration with major retail APIs.

Our work combined .NET-based server-side enhancements with dynamic JavaScript-based frontend improvements and robust API communication pipelines — delivering a performant, extensible, and highly integrated digital commerce solution.

Client Background

The client operates across multiple verticals including office supplies, consumer electronics, and grocery accessories. They required a tailored eCommerce system that would allow them to:

• Manage a large product catalog efficiently
• Automate price changes based on business rules
• Sync products with major retail partners (e.g., Woolworths and Officeworks)
• Offer reliable checkout, shipping, and tracking functionality
• Avoid migrating away from Umbraco, their preferred CMS platform

Objectives

• Extend Umbraco to support eCommerce-like capabilities
• Allow CSV-based bulk product uploads with structured metadata
• Build a rules engine for category-based percentage price updates
• Integrate with major third-party marketplaces via APIs (Woolworths, Officeworks)
• Implement shipping and tracking via Australia Post APIs
• Enable secure, flexible payments via multiple gateways (eWay, Afterpay)
• Improve backend and frontend performance for large catalogs

Our Approach

Custom eCommerce Engine in Umbraco

We built a tailored backend architecture within Umbraco to simulate full eCommerce capabilities:

• Developed a custom product module to manage thousands of SKUs with advanced properties (e.g., multiple price points, stock levels, specifications)
• Created an admin-friendly CSV import utility, allowing bulk uploads of products with category mapping, pricing tiers, and media attachments
• Implemented category-specific pricing rules, enabling global markup/markdown actions via a percentage-based engine — invaluable during promotions or supplier cost changes

API Integrations with Retail Partners

We developed custom API integrations to push product feeds to:

• Woolworths
• Officeworks

Each integration handled:

• Product creation and updates
• Stock syncing
• Pricing validation and mapping
• Category translation (between internal schema and each retailer’s API requirements)

These APIs operated on scheduled jobs (cron-based), built in .NET Core, with asynchronous execution and logging.

Shipping & Tracking with Australia Post

We integrated Australia Post APIs to offer:

• Real-time shipping rate calculation
• Label generation
• Automated tracking updates sent to customers and synced with the admin backend

The API layer was abstracted for possible future extensions (e.g., adding Toll or StarTrack).

Payment Gateway Integration

We integrated two major Australian payment systems:

• eWay for traditional card payments
• Afterpay for interest-free installment payments

This was done using secure .NET API clients with tokenization, fraud detection hooks, and success/failure handling callbacks integrated into the custom checkout flow.

Performance Optimization

We optimized server-side logic and frontend rendering to support high-volume operations:

• Applied caching strategies to product listings using MemoryCache in .NET
• Implemented lazy loading and deferred rendering on the frontend using Vue.js for product tiles
• Reduced CSV processing time through multi-threaded parsing and validation routines

Technology Stack

Results

• Built a full-fledged custom eCommerce backend on top of Umbraco
• Reduced product upload time by 80% using bulk CSV import
• Improved revenue control with automated pricing rules by category
• Enabled real-time stock and product sync with major B2B channels
• Delivered a stable, secure, multi-payment checkout solution
• Improved frontend responsiveness and SEO performance significantly

Client Confidentiality

In accordance with our NDA agreement, this case study omits any client-specific identifiers, names, or visuals. The architectural and implementation details provided reflect the nature and depth of work delivered.

Conclusion

This project demonstrates our ability to work flexibly within a non-eCommerce CMS (Umbraco) and turn it into a fully functioning, scalable commerce system. Through custom module development, smart automation, and deep API integration, we delivered an enterprise-grade solution that met both operational and business growth objectives — without requiring a platform migration.