The focus of online shopping mall development and creation is shifting from simply implementing product sales features to simultaneously enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency.

As AI-powered product discovery and recommendations, customer data-based personalization, and the integration of order and inventory management systems emerge as key features, the importance of designing shopping malls tailored to a company’s business structure and customer characteristics is also growing.

Caiman, an online shopping mall development and establishment specialist, announced that it has been operating as an official partner of NHN Commerce’s Godomall and Shopby for over 8 years, carrying out customized shopping mall establishment and maintenance that reflects company-specific requirements.

Targeting mid-sized and large enterprises, Caiman develops online shopping malls and corporate websites, providing services that consider not only planning, design, and development, but also post-launch operations and management.

One of the prominent areas in recent shopping mall development is the personalization feature. Moving away from the approach of providing the same products and contents to all users, it is a method of proposing products and content tailored to individual customers based on available data such as age, purchase history, and product interests.

However, the company explained that for the efficient operation of personalization features, it is necessary to jointly review how customer data will be secured and managed, and for what actual purposes it will be utilized.

Depending on project characteristics, Caiman applies various features such as age-specific product recommendations, product curation, hot deals, and time sales.

For food or health-related shopping malls, features like regular delivery, recurring billing, and survey-based product recommendations can be reviewed, while fashion shopping malls can be configured with seasonal exhibitions, lookbooks, and product-specific content.

Caiman explained that rather than uniformly introducing trending features, it is important to select and design features that fit a company's products, customer base, and sales methods.

With the expanded use of AI and automation technology, the importance of administrator systems is also growing.

This is because if data such as product information, orders, customer inquiries, promotions, inventory, and settlements are dispersed across multiple systems, the work process can become complicated and management burdens can increase.

Accordingly, in the shopping mall establishment stage, it is necessary to jointly consider external service integration possibilities, data management methods, and administrator features that can reduce repetitive tasks. The company explained that AI features also require systematic product information and data structures to increase their usability during actual operations.

Caiman is conducting development by considering not only the screens used by consumers, but also the functions and workflow of the administrator page.

After reviewing necessary features by industry such as product registration, order management, customer consultation, exhibition operation, product curation, and supplier management, the system is configured to match the client's operating method.

For B2B and wholesale shopping malls, functions different from general consumer shopping malls may be required, such as price settings by business partner, bulk orders, price negotiation, credit transactions, and settlement by supplier.

For companies operating employee-only closed malls or offline stores together, separate operational requirements such as member-specific access rights, store information, and in-store pickup must also be considered.

Configuring the purchase process concisely in a mobile environment is also a major development factor. The company explained that since complex steps from product search to order and payment increase the likelihood of cart abandonment, it is necessary to design product information placement, order procedures, and payment/delivery information guidance suitable for the mobile environment.

Maintenance and scalability after shopping mall establishment are also becoming important. This is because there are many cases where new functions are needed during operation, or improvements and updates to existing systems are required.

If scalability and maintenance are not sufficiently considered in the initial design stage, the possibility of structural changes or additional costs arising during future feature additions may increase.

Caiman performs not only the establishment of new shopping malls, but also the maintenance and functional improvements of existing shopping malls. It also supports work to improve necessary functions after analyzing the existing structure of shopping malls developed by other companies.

During the development process, quality assurance personnel manage schedules and deliverables and conduct step-by-step verification, and projects are executed with actual operating environments in mind after establishment, according to the company.

A Caiman representative stated, "What is important in online shopping mall development is not unconditionally applying the latest technology, but providing a convenient purchasing environment for customers and an efficient operating structure for companies," adding, "We support customized development reflecting industry-specific requirements and commerce trends so that functions can be expanded in line with future business changes."

[ⓒ Global Economic Times. 무단전재-재배포 금지]