#credera

Ganz, the maker of Webkinz®, relaunched its online store with the help of Broadleaf Commerce, an enterprise open source ecommerce platform, and Credera, the implementation partner. The eCommerce initiative highlighted the platform's flexibility to support a complex enterprise. Broadleaf Commerce easily accommodated mixed shopping orders of virtual (i.e., eStore points) and physical currencies, and a promotions builder to discount orders that contain both physical and virtual products.

"Ganz likes that Broadleaf Commerce has a flexible framework. Broadleaf Commerce leaves you space to extend the application, and easily add and change features. That is a big advantage. Other eCommerce platforms are not as easy to extend and may require customers to use applications he or she may not want," said Roy Reshef, Software Architect, Ganz.

"Broadleaf Commerce was created with extension and flexibility in mind. Developers can easily extend services to modify business rules and extend entities to add fields that address unique business requirements," said Jeff Fischer, Chief Technology Officer, Broadleaf Commerce. "In regards to Ganz, handling virtual and physical currencies in orders introduced complexity that the Broadleaf Commerce platform was able to address."

Ganz, Broadleaf Commerce, and Credera worked together to achieve a successful outcome. Ganz provided the majority of the development team while Broadleaf Commerce and Credera provided technical leadership, strategic guidance, and additional technical resources as needed.

"I viewed Broadleaf Commerce and Credera as one team. Whenever the Ganz team had questions or needed advice, Broadleaf Commerce and Credera were very responsive and able to answer our requests quickly. Ganz could not have completed the Broadleaf Commerce implementation without the support of the Broadleaf Commerce and Credera development teams," said Paul Blamire, Director of QA and eCommerce, Ganz.

"I am very happy with the experience I had with Broadleaf Commerce and Credera. If I were to implement an eCommerce application again, I would go through this exercise with the same partners," said Reshef. "Ganz now has a simplified application compared to the complexity we had with our home grown eCommerce engine. We can better accommodate future feature changes and business needs."