MKM Building Supplies, the UK’s leading B2B building supplies merchant with over 100 independent branches, approached us with a challenge: building an entirely new commerce platform for its website. 

This platform had to be secure yet scalable, delivering a first-class online shopping experience for existing customers while catering for MKM’s burgeoning B2C market. Key areas of focus were integration, personalisation, reporting, and supporting local stock and pricing, owing to MKM’s branch autonomy and local-first experience – both at the core of the brand’s DNA.  

More than that, we needed to build a technology roadmap with a headless (microservice) architecture as an end-state goal. Finally, we had to facilitate effective tooling, training and support to allow the business team to own and run the platform. 

Plus, we were operating within complex B2B business rules around customer-specific price terms, decentralised management of stock and local delivery zones, all of which needed to be considered. 

A combination of MACH-certified independent software vendors (ISVs) including a commerce platform, frontend-as-a-service, and content management and personalisation solutions formed a headless MACH architecture. 

This custom-built composable architecture allowed us to migrate MKM to BigCommerce in rapid time without compromising on business identity or user experience. What’s more, we were able to reduce costs and risks of system dependency while unlocking opportunities within new channels. 

We relied on several third-party plugins, payment and CMS connectors to build the platform. The problem was, that these weren’t due to launch until mid-project. We needed to be agile and adaptable, so we started by identifying high-level requirements and technical architecture as our priority.  

We built the new headless architecture around four key components. First up, the BigCommerce platform, which powered the eCommerce and secure checkout capabilities of the site, while VueStorefront made up the site’s front-end commerce experience.  

Then, the Bloomreach suite, which delivered the site’s CMS, search, merch, and email capabilities. Finally, a Middleware layer tied all the systems together and powered several bespoke engines catering to MKM’s unique business rules. 

Our engineers and solution experts collaborated daily with the MKM team throughout implementation to refine the project and address any unknowns. In less than a year, the project was complete.