AFG DISTRIBUTION

MAGENTO | ECOMMERCE | MULTISITE

CLIENT BACKGROUND

Founded in 1999, AFG Distribution markets themselves as a “one-stop shop alternative wholesaler” for vape and smoke shops. From tobacco tasters to apparel, incense burners, tapestries, wall decor, e-cigarettes, vaporizers, kits, and accessories, AFG Distribution carries over 9,000 alternative products ranging from the current trends and cutting-edge new products to go-to staple products and brands. AFG is headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.

THE PROBLEM

Because their catalog contains a large range of products and brands, AFG has 6 different websites (in addition to their primary site) that they maintain, each focusing on a different product line and different target audience. These sites include:

These sites were already set up on Magento’s multi-site platform, but each site had its own technical and site performance issues. Each site also had a different Magento theme, thus resulting in a different look-and-feel instead of a cohesive, unified branding throughout their sites.

Additionally, AFG’s websites experienced constant security threats to their servers, encountering roughly 80,000 bot level hits on a daily basis. This slowed down AFG’s websites and gave their team nothing but headaches.

AFG Distribution was unhappy with the developer that was working with them to resolve these issues and reached out to Logic Solutions for assistance.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

  • Upgraded and enhanced AFG Distribution’s Magento sites
  • Helped create a unified branding and styling across all multi-sites
  • Bolstered server security and improved site performance
  • Resolved conflicting module and extension code
  • Integration with Netsuite

TECHNOLOGIES

Magento multi-site, integration with Netsuite

THE SOLUTION

Logic Solutions took over all maintenance of AFG’s websites. Logic’s developers installed a single robust, flexible Magento theme that could be used on all sites while still allowing to create various look-and-feel. Logic then worked with AFG’s graphic designers and web staff to update all of their Magento stores whilst utilizing the new theme.

Additionally, Logic helped AFG clean up their numerous site issues. Logic’s technical team investigated the slow performance problems, resolved server issues, and moved the site to Amazon Web Services (AWS). These efforts helped to bolster AFG’s server security, which resulted in a significant decrease in the number of security threats to their servers. Now AFG Distribution’s sites load quickly and consistently.

Logic also found a number of issues with the site’s code that conflicted with the Magento modules and extensions on the sites. AFG had over 50 extensions on their multi-site, many of them conflicted with each other or were outdated. Logic resolved these conflicts, cleaned up old extensions, and fixed the code issues. Logic also trained AFG’s website administrators on how to not run into these issues in the future.

AFG has an incredibly talented development team that handled most of the design refresh and catalog updates themselves. But they found it reassuring to have technical and integration experts like Logic that they could go to whenever they ran across issues they couldn’t resolve.

At the moment, AFG currently has 5 Magento sites in production with another 2 in development. Logic is looking forward to the continued relationship with AFG and helping them build sturdy, powerful eCommerce websites.

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