Back in the day when the web was supposed to solve everybody’s problems, a site like Made.com would be cherished. In today’s world of risk-averse scaleable solutions, Ampersand have used open source technology to deliver an incredibly usable and great-looking site, showing that free spirit and entrepreneurism do still exist.
Nick Gallon, Future Media Technical Manager, BBC
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Ampersand put together a solid solution for made.com,
and then implemented it to a very tight deadline with such
an ethic of organisation and professionalism.Andy Skipper, CTO, Made.com
[Made.com has] a good experience throughout, combining usability with an attractive and stylish design.
Graham Charlton, Editor, eConsultancy.com
Based in London and Shanghai, Made.com make designer furniture accessible to everyone, by cutting out the middlemen they can offer prices that are 70% lower than the high street. A democratic voting process allows customers to choose which products are to be manufactured next and advanced order management allows customers to trace the progress of their order through manufacturing and the supply chain.
Made.com approached us during the very first weeks of the business, in February of last year. With a definite and very tight deadline, we were tasked with completing development in time for an already scheduled, large-scale PR and marketing push. The development project required significant bespoke development; including content management, front-end development and the creation of a product voting system.
Through thorough planning and hands-on project management, we delivered the initial release of Made.com on time and within budget. Since launch we have worked with the Made.com team to deliver regular, incremental releases using a broadly Agile methodology.
Significant development projects have included a cash back referral scheme, a custom checkout process and integration with OpenERP for the tracking of product manufacturing and supply chain progress. More recently, we have migrated Made.com to a commercial edition of the Magento platform and continue to implement progressively more robust automated testing suites and deployment processes.
“A good experience throughout, combining usability with an attractive and stylish design” says Graham Charlton of eConsultancy.com about Made.com.
The Made.com site launched on time and has seen exponential growth since its launch in March last year. The robust technical solution we built, and continue to support, has stood up to ever increasing levels of traffic and transactions. We remain heavily involved in the development of the Made.com website, including the building of roadmaps with the client to improve the customer experience.
Made.com has processed tens of thousands of orders since launch and the site’s success has fuelled the growth of the team at Made.com from 6 to 30 people in just one year. Thanks to the success of the platform, the business now sells the equivalent of one container of goods each and every day.
