For inspiration, we conducted our own research to see who had created a similar e-commerce feature. We found various examples of organizations offering services similar to Balducci’s Build a Gift, but we were disappointed by the approaches we found. Nothing struck us as intuitive and polished. Few, if any, dealt with the situation we had where customers could order items individually or use the same online catalog for filling their custom gift. Since we wanted to provide Balducci’s customers with the best possible experience, we ultimately opted to build our own solution.
This past week, we implemented and launched Build a Gift, a new custom website feature for our client, Balducci’s Food Lover’s Market. Balducci’s was looking to enhance their customers' experience by offering a new product option where they can create their own gift baskets. Instead of only offering prearranged gift baskets, Balducci’s wanted to grant creative liberty to their customers and allow them to arrange their own gift baskets, including selecting the type of vessel and the products themselves.
When determining the functionality of Build a Gift, we knew we needed to build something that leveraged Drupal Commerce 2’s existing framework for a seamless integration. Our goal was to create something that was easy to use for both our client and their customer base. Build a Gift allows for easy product upload, updating and management. The existing product catalog is used with a modification to indicate whether or not each product could be included in a custom gift basket, requiring minimal change to the Balducci’s team’s product workflow.
Our story with Balducci’s Food Lover's Market doesn’t end here! For more information on our work with the gourmet market, please read our Balducci's case study. And to learn about what types of custom solutions we can build for your organization, please contact us today for a consultation!