Merlo Coffee

Updating legacy systems for growth

A Coffee icon’s legacy systems were holding them back from hitting growth targets. We removed that bottleneck by updating their customer-facing ecommerce website, introducing a mobile app for loyal customers, and completely overhauling their backend systems.

Shopify

Mobile Development

Strategy

UX/UI Design

Platform Development

R&D

Integration

DevOps

Merlo faced a significant challenge in 2019 when their growth plan goal was to quadruple in size over the next 5 years. With their infrastructure already struggling, as well as numerous  organisational inefficiencies, there was a great need to rethink how Merlo’s digital ecosystem worked.

 

Our team worked with Merlo’s C-Suite to strategise and deliver a completely new idea of what Merlo’s digital world could be. Practically everything was reinvented and updated with a new ecommerce store, new custom marketing tools, a customer-facing app, and an entire new server infrastructure to handle the rapid increase in growth.

Dubbed “Merlo Cloud”, the API consists of 17 microservices built in NodeJS and running on cutting edge Google “Kubernetes'' infrastructure, which work together to securely synchronise information between all of Merlo’s IT infrastructure and its customer facing website and app. Staff can easily manage the customers, orders, products, and more from a single place.

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During 2020, Merlo experienced a massive upswing in online orders, which the new and improved Merlo Cloud took in stride. This sudden growth could not have been handled by the previous infrastructure and really showcased the scalability of the new services.

Merlo is currently expanding their interstate and online presence at an incredible rate, and this platform will support and adapt to their scale for years to come. We are incredibly proud of the platform we built from the ground up and continue to maintain for the Queensland coffee brand.

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“Merlo Coffee was part way through a difficult redevelopment of our website when the need arose to change our supplier. 

 

Digital Makers was referred to us and has quickly become a valued partner in the digital technology side of our business.

 

They think deeply about solutions and have a broad understanding of the business requirements which means the advice they provide is highly considered and practical.

 

With the assistance of Digital Makers we have been able to finalise a new website; including a complex integration into our ERP, Shopify and a migration of our loyalty programme and are now able to look forward to further improvements in our online systems through this valuable partnership.”

Jennifer Brock

Head of IT
Merlo Coffee