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CASE STUDY
Showfields
Client
Showfields
Industry
Retail & E-commerce
Date
Jun 2018
Skills
Ruby on Rails
Graphql
Kubernetes
Microservices
Stripe API
Shopify API
Docker
3 months
MVP implementation time
3
Physical store locations handled
>100
Online brands onboarded
About Client
Showfields has revolutionized the retail landscape by creating the most interesting store in the world—a living, breathing intersection of retail, art, theater, and culture. Founded in 2018, this groundbreaking retail concept transforms traditional shopping into an immersive journey of discovery.
As a next-generation department marketplace, Showfields masterfully curates spaces for emerging and established brands, predominantly featuring digital-first and direct-to-consumer companies. Their flagship store in New York City's NoHo district spans four stories of carefully curated experiences, where commerce meets creativity through interactive installations and artistic displays. What sets Showfields apart is their commitment to reimagining retail for the modern era, creating a revolutionary platform where innovative brands connect with consumers through immersive, storytelling experiences.
About the project
Our team developed a comprehensive backend infrastructure for Showfields that streamlined their complex multi-tenant retail operations. The system serves as the technological foundation for both in-store operations and tenant management, featuring several key components.
A robust payment processing system handles dual-layer transactions: customer purchases within the physical store and recurring tenant payments to Showfields. This ensures smooth financial operations across all business levels.
The platform includes an advanced analytics engine that processes data from in-store cameras and sensors, providing tenants with valuable insights about customer behavior, foot traffic patterns, and engagement metrics. This data-driven approach enables brands to optimize their retail presence and make informed business decisions.
For day-to-day operations, we developed an intuitive tenant dashboard that simplifies inventory management and provides real-time business insights. The system also includes a powerful administrative panel, giving Showfields staff complete control over store operations, tenant management, and system configurations.
Through this integrated backend solution, we've created a seamless technological ecosystem that supports Showfields' innovative retail concept while providing both tenants and administrators with the tools they need for successful operations.
Clients Problem
Showfields approached us with an ambitious vision: creating a revolutionary retail concept that would transform traditional shopping into an immersive, multi-brand experience. This innovative model required sophisticated technological infrastructure from day one.
The challenge was to develop a comprehensive system that could support their unique business model. They needed a solution that could handle complex payment flows: processing customer purchases within the physical store while managing recurring payments from tenant brands to Showfields.
The vision included leveraging cutting-edge technology like cameras and sensors to provide tenants with valuable customer behavior insights - something traditional retail spaces weren't offering. Additionally, they required robust tools for both tenants and administrators to manage their operations effectively.
Building this system from scratch meant creating not just individual features, but an entire ecosystem that would serve as the technological foundation for their groundbreaking retail concept.
Challenges for 2N
- Challenges in Developing a Flexible Point-of-Sale System: The development of a flexible point-of-sale system posed significant challenges due to the constantly evolving payment processing requirements. Frequent adjustments were necessary to align with Showfields' innovative retail concept while ensuring seamless customer transactions.
- Integration with E-commerce Platforms: Integrating with multiple e-commerce platforms was particularly complex. Each new brand at Showfields often had an established online presence on platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce. This required sophisticated synchronization mechanisms to connect our backend with these various systems.
- Inventory Management: Maintaining accurate and up-to-date inventory levels across all platforms was a critical challenge. Robust solutions were needed to ensure inventory remained consistent regardless of where transactions occurred.
- Pricing Consistency: Ensuring consistent pricing between in-store and online channels was essential to maintain customer trust and streamline operations.
- Real-time Updates: Real-time product availability updates were a key requirement, enabling customers to view accurate stock levels at any given moment.
- Product Catalog Synchronization: Managing the synchronization of product catalogs with various e-commerce backends was a significant undertaking, especially given the diversity of platform formats.
- API Flexibility: Creating flexible APIs was crucial to quickly adapting to new platform integrations while maintaining data consistency and overall system stability.
What we did
Point-of-Sale Integration
We developed a flexible POS system that seamlessly integrated with multiple e-commerce platforms. This solution enabled real-time transactions while maintaining perfect synchronization with brands' existing online stores on Shopify and WooCommerce, ensuring consistent inventory and pricing across all channels.
Multi-Platform Synchronization
Our team built a robust synchronization engine that handled real-time data flow between Showfields' backend and various e-commerce platforms. This system managed product catalogs, inventory levels, and pricing updates, ensuring accurate information across all sales channels.
Analytics Engine
We created a sophisticated system that processed data from in-store cameras and sensors. This solution provided valuable insights to tenant brands about customer behavior, foot traffic patterns, and engagement metrics, helping them optimize their retail presence.
Tenant Dashboard
We developed an intuitive dashboard that gave brands complete control over their Showfields presence. The system provided inventory management tools, sales analytics, and performance metrics, all integrated with their existing e-commerce platforms.
Administrative Control Center
Our team built a comprehensive admin panel that gave Showfields staff the tools to manage all aspects of operations. This included tenant management, payment processing oversight, and system-wide configuration controls.
Outcome
The successful implementation of our backend infrastructure played a crucial role in Showfields' growth from an innovative concept to a fully operational next-generation retail platform. Our system processed thousands of in-store transactions while maintaining seamless synchronization with numerous e-commerce platforms, enabling Showfields to host over 40 brands in their first location.
The real-time analytics engine provided unprecedented visibility into customer behavior, helping brands optimize their retail presence based on concrete data. This technology-driven approach to retail space optimization contributed to Showfields' successful expansion to multiple locations, including Miami and Los Angeles, while maintaining operational efficiency at scale.
Our flexible architecture proved its value as Showfields grew, easily accommodating new brands and adapting to evolving retail requirements. The tenant dashboard became a vital tool for brands, with over 95% of tenants actively using the platform for daily operations. The system's stability and scalability supported Showfields' growth from a single New York location to a multi-city retail innovator, processing millions in transactions while maintaining robust platform performance.
The project demonstrated how sophisticated backend infrastructure can enable innovative retail concepts to scale effectively. Our solution's ability to handle complex multi-platform integrations, real-time data synchronization, and comprehensive analytics reporting helped establish Showfields as a pioneer in the retail-as-a-service space, setting new standards for modern retail experiences.
What we accomplished:
- Successfully built and launched a comprehensive backend system that became the technological foundation for a revolutionary retail concept, enabling Showfields to open their first location in New York City and expand to additional markets.
- Developed a flexible POS integration system that seamlessly connected with multiple e-commerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce), processing thousands of transactions while maintaining real-time inventory synchronization across all channels.
- Created a sophisticated analytics platform that transformed raw data from in-store sensors and cameras into actionable insights, helping brands optimize their retail presence through data-driven decisions.
- Implemented a scalable multi-tenant architecture that successfully supported dozens of brands, each with their unique e-commerce setup and inventory management requirements.
- Delivered a robust administrative system that enabled Showfields' staff to efficiently manage all aspects of their operations, from tenant onboarding to payment processing.
- Built a flexible and maintainable codebase that supported Showfields' rapid growth and evolving business requirements, proving essential for their expansion to multiple locations.
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