The Challenge
Morplan's eCommerce platform was running on IBM Websphere — an ageing infrastructure that limited feature development, hindered UX improvements, and was falling behind on performance. The business needed a migration that could serve both B2B trade customers and B2C retail shoppers within a single platform, without compromising either experience.
Beyond the technical challenge, the project required aligning multiple departments — IT, marketing, sales, and logistics — around a shared roadmap, while maintaining continuity of trading throughout the transition.
The Approach
I led UX workshops to map existing user journeys and identify pain points across both customer segments. From this research I defined a mobile-first UI that balanced B2B trade functionality — account pricing, bulk ordering, click & collect — with the intuitive shopping experience B2C users expect.
Working in agile sprints with development partners, I owned the product backlog, defined acceptance criteria, and managed stakeholder sign-off at each phase. Key integrations included Akeneo PIM for product data, an AI search and recommendations engine, and a custom AR visualisation tool.
Performance was a core pillar throughout — I identified declining Core Web Vitals as a separate workstream, sourced a specialist agency, and achieved full CWV compliance within three months.
The Outcome
The migrated platform became Morplan's number one sales channel — outperforming all other channels including direct trade accounts. Conversion rates improved significantly, Core Web Vitals achieved compliance within three months, and the AI content engine generated SEO-optimised descriptions for over 9,000 products.
The AR visualisation tool, introduced as part of this project, became a key B2B lead generator — connecting in-store and digital channels in a way that differentiated Morplan in a market with 180+ years of heritage.