Staylime delivers a modern custom theme for Meissner, taking care of Magento 2 migration, custom functionality development, and SEO in the course of the project.
Meissner Sewing Machine Company is a well-recognized producer and distributor of high-quality sewing machines and
vacuums. Over the 90 years of operation, the family-owned business has evolved into one of the largest market players
in the US.
A partner of Todd Lininger Design, our long-term client, Meissner was looking for a full-cycle Magento development
team to deliver a unique Magento theme design and breath new life into their legacy store. As part of their transformation project, the company aimed to
migrate to Magento 2, as well as to enhance its functionality.
With a successful experience of working with Staylime before, Todd Lininger had no doubt our team would be the right match for this mission-critical project, and so immediately approached us with an RFP inquiry.
Having reviewed the initial requirements by Meissner, we conducted a series of workshops with the customer to discuss the project scope and future solution capabilities. The comprehensive proposal for migration, design, frontend development and QA services that Staylime submitted was approved, and so we got down to business.
Project challenges
One of the key tasks of this project was to bring in a modern look and feel to the website, making the user experience
more engaging and fluid, whilst keeping the budget at bay.
Aiming to highlight Meissner’s online presence and increase brand recognition, our UI/UX experts came up with a sleek,
visually striking Magento design concept. However, the layout we proposed involved quite a range of sophisticated UI features
which required additional backend development and so impacted the initial scope.
Enthusiastic about our vision and ideas, the customer decided to give some of them a go. Though the change resulted in a slight release delay and budget overrun, Meissner got a unique, remarkable Magento theme design that is now helping the company stand out from the competition.
Migration to Magento 2
First things first, so we started the project with the primary database migration. Using the official Magento Data
Migration Tool, our engineers transferred the existing data assets to a clean Magento 2 installation, making sure that
none of them were lost or damaged.
As part of the migration, we carefully moved all the data from two Magento 1 extensions, Advanced Product Options
and Class Manager, to Magento 2. To ensure seamless transfer of APO data, Staylime decided to build a custom
migration script from scratch, as no suitable commercial tools were available at that time.
Prior to the solution launch, we re-migrated Magento 2 database, as well as data of Class Manager and Advanced
Product Options extensions to guarantee the completeness and accuracy of information residing in the new Magento
instance.
Related serviceWant to migrate too?
From automated database migration to functionality redevelopment and manual resolution of compatibility issues, Staylime takes on all the pains associated with upgrade to Magento 2.
Back in the day, Meissner was already using the Magento 1 version of the Event Management Extension to sell sewing classes and workshops to their customers in five locations as part of their overall marketing strategy.
Their primary purpose was to attract more customers to their products and gain additional profit at the end of the day. As a part of the project, the extension’s data had to be migrated to its Magento 2 counterpart without losing the completed and upcoming events. Since the original extension had dated architecture, transferring its data to Magento 2 was a hard row to hoe.
Our team developed a custom script that enabled us to seamlessly migrate the data, ensuring its integrity and completeness. Further, we created a custom design of the Event Management Extension, different from the default Luma-oriented design, to be consistent with the Meissner’s style.
Related productWant to sell events with Magento?
Get to know our Event Management Extension for Magento that allows you to sell conferences, concerts, classes, workshops, webinars and more.
Custom Magento theme design was one of the most interesting tasks on this project.
Working on a concept for a company with such a long and exciting history like Meissner’s, we understood it’s vital
to
infuse the corporate website with a modern look and feel, whilst keeping the signature, easily recognizable brand
image in place.
As a result, we worked out a visually clean and simple design that catches the eye thanks to sophisticated
contrasting fonts, beautiful infographics and subtle animations.
To appeal to visitors at the emotional level, our designers used the palette of corporate colors that are
well-familiar to Meissner’s customers and partners.
To implement the proposed Magento theme design on the frontend, our team offered Meissner to build a proprietary mega menu from
scratch so that it could easily cover all the custom features we envisioned.
However, to meet the budget constraints, we opted for Magento 2 Mega Menu by Weltpixel, a lightweight
ready-made
solution that still required a few tweaks.
Working in an iterative manner, we styled the extension to match Meissner brand identity, and then configured all the
necessary product categories and subcategories in a flexible dropdown menu. This approach allowed us to reduce the
development efforts three times in comparison with custom development yet ensure fast and intuitive navigation with
little sacrifice.
To further contribute to a seamless and enjoyable user experience, we implemented gradual scrolling that now makes it easy and fun for customers to browse through the site pages and discover Meissner products.
Custom functionality enablement
To support Meissner’s digital strategy with the required features and tools, and ensure an engaging and intuitive
customer journey, our team selected and installed a whole range of third-party Magento 2 extensions.
They include but are not limited to:
Amasty Improved Layered Navigation and Mageworx Search Autocomplete for simple and intuitive store browsing
and search.
Magento 2 File Downloads and Product Attachments to make product pages more detailed and informative with
additional content and media materials.
MageFan Login as Customer and Mageside Subscribe at Checkout to allow for fast and easy logging in and
subscriptions for customers.
Eltrino Region Manager to configure different billing and shipping rules based on the state the customer is in.
Apptrian Facebook Pixel and Pinterest Pixel to create and run targeted ad campaigns in social media based on
users’ browsing history.
Wyomind Payment Method Rules and a proprietary Todd Lininger Design Payments functionality for easy online payments
on the website.
Mageworx Advanced Product Options Suite
to enable easy setup and management of product options and combinations.
Amasty Call for Price and MageArray Price Match to manage price information display.
Related serviceNeed something custom?
Whether you are driven by the need of having unique functionality that is missing in any of the existing 5,660 extensions on the marketplace and myriads more beyond, or building an extension from scratch for sale, we’re happy to help by rendering a full spectrum of Magento extension development & customization services.
Maintaining high positions in search engines is vital for any business with online presence, especially
when the time to upgrade the website comes — you don’t want to lose traffic and rankings you’ve been working on so
hard. Our customer was no exception, and so we took care of Magento SEO aspects on this project too.
Our engineers opted for Mageworx SEO Suite Ultimate as an all-round SEO solution for Magento websites to
help Meissner manage SEO activities and keep on improving website visibility further.
As part of the pre-live SEO, Staylime also transferred the existing SEO settings to Magento 2, having performed
the following tasks:
Transfer of titles, descriptions, headings, tags, and analytics
Robots.txt files configuration
Sitemap generator service enablement
Link status check
Microdata transfer
Page validation
Pagination
Sitemaps check
Results
Well-designed from both technological and aesthetic perspectives, the new website for Meissner has been successfully
launched by Staylime.
We made it possible to deliver a professionally looking, full-fledged ecommerce solution, having walked a fine line between business requirements and budget limitations and having delivered an eye-catching Magento theme design.
Delighted with the outcome, the customer continues discussing potential opportunities:
