"O Farmakopoios Mou" is shaping the path of online pharmacies in Greece.
The pharmacy has been operating since 1977; the online edition launched in 2012. With unique offers and a huge product range, it needed mechanisms few could deliver.
In 2017 it took the next step. To reward its customers' trust, and with our help, the site was refreshed and modernized.
Netstudio's admin, dressed up at its best
The refreshed e-shop uses Netstudio's new admin, built from a blank page based on years of customer feedback. A complete redesign of an admin that is easy to use and offers limitless capability isn't a small task. We started with the most important thing an e-shop needs — fast, bulk editing of hundreds of products — and saved the client real time.
Then we focused on quick access to and search of orders, while making customer-service info easy to find. With hundreds of thousands of orders on the site, this was a real challenge. We finished with detailed reports that let admins set policies, export and print orders, plus settings that give the client serious flexibility at any time.
Demanding design
Design was one of the first challenges of the project. We had to pay close attention to detail to land a modern, "clean" e-shop while keeping the look and identity the client had built up over the years. We focused hard on usability so visitors could find what they want fast — starting with the menu structure across hundreds of categories. We also gave direct access to the most popular brands and to the site's many offers, so customers can find what they need quickly.
we haven't lost the identity we built over the previous years.
Inviting design
Design was a real challenge. We had to nail the detail to capture the client's tone and aesthetic.
Findastic is a tool we've been building since 2010. It does a huge amount and gets better every release. With more than 2,000 categories and filters, the pharmacy site couldn't have worked properly without FindasticTM — no other system could keep up with the speed required. We delivered one of the biggest upgrades to date, aimed at faster speeds across an even larger dataset, and that turned into the engine's biggest challenge so far.
Beyond the speed, we improved smart search so suggestions appear as the visitor types, helping them find or refine what they're looking for.
Netstudio Promotion
Another mechanism designed by our team is Netstudio Promotion. Demands here were even higher: the pharmacy wanted to offer the best to its customers, and we welcomed the challenge. We built — and keep building — the mechanisms that let the client run their commercial policy exactly the way they want, with the flexibility to adapt to a constantly changing Greek market. For better promotion of the site, the platform supports discount coupons and matching messages at checkout that surface the offers a customer has unlocked.
Customer and product migration
O Farmakopoios Mou is one of the largest pharmacies in Greece, with many years online. Migrating the customer base, products, and other data to the new site was essential. Despite the difficulty, we completed the migration successfully and built mechanisms for bulk export to CSV or XLS at any time. A key factor was the cooperation of the previous agency: we managed to migrate the registered customers' passwords without changing the encryption, so customers didn't need to reset or re-register.
Brand pages
Brands have a special place on the new site. Custom-designed pages for the major brands let visitors find what they want at any time, and a single search page makes finding any brand fast and easy.
Top-tier speed
Page-load speed is critical and can make the difference for a successful site. Over the years we've developed and tested many techniques. As our techniques improved, we hit new ceilings — this site has some of the best response times of anything we've built.
Extensive beta testing
A large e-shop receiving hundreds of orders a day couldn't ask for anything less than a smooth platform migration. That meant a long beta period during which friends and partners had access to the new site and helped us improve it before going live to the public.
What the client said about working with Netstudio
"We decided to rebuild ofarmakopoiosmou.gr and change agencies. In picking a new partner we set goals we wanted the new site and partner to deliver:
- Rebuild on an open-source platform.
- A practical, easy admin system.
- Keep the site's tone and identity.
- A faster site.
- More flexible, smarter search.
- Direct, effective, fast support.
- A technological and visual modernization.
- Speed and flexibility in implementing ideas and new tools.
- Confidentiality.
- Excellent communication and service.
- A mobile-friendly site.
We saw the Netstudio team as organized and tight-knit, made up of people with knowledge, experience, and a love for what they do. We liked how they approached us, and we felt their vision and philosophy aligned with ours. We got every guarantee we asked for around delivery.
Even though migrating the site from one agency to another carried significant risk, we can say we're satisfied and vindicated by choosing Netstudio for this project. The migration was successful, no data was lost, and there were no major issues that would have endangered our reputation or the proper handling of orders.
The project was delivered as described, on spec, with every tool intact and functional. The Netstudio team also designed, built, and gave us — at no extra cost — several pioneering marketing tools that help us implement our ideas and understand the market faster and more easily.
Support from Netstudio is excellent. There hasn't been a single moment when we felt unsupported. The technical team is always there, ready and patient, to listen, understand, explain, and resolve anything that comes up.
We're also very pleased with the visual side: the site looks more modern and clean, invites purchase, and at the same time we haven't lost the identity we built over the previous years.
Given the site's complexity, speed is very good, and search as it now stands is one of our key competitive advantages. We're also satisfied with the responsive behavior — we've seen our shares grow on devices beyond desktop.
A key requirement for us was an admin system that covered all our needs while staying simple and easy to use, since all our staff had to adapt to it from day one. Netstudio nailed it.
We'd recommend Netstudio for everything we've seen them deliver in the months we've been working together — but mostly for the integrity Mr. Karampelas and his team have shown. Our experience so far has proved they're honest people, worth trusting and building with."
