Absolute Antibody

Introduction

Absolute Antibody, established in Oxford in 2012, specialises in antibody sequencing, engineering, and recombinant manufacturing, serving pharmaceutical clients worldwide. As their product catalog expanded to over 50,000 SKUs, they faced challenges with a legacy WooCommerce system that relied heavily on third-party tools to sync products from their in-house database. This setup led to inefficiencies and prolonged synchronisation times, hindering their operational agility.

The challenges

• Complex Product Structure: The unique nature of Absolute Antibody’s offerings required a sophisticated product architecture that the existing system couldn’t support.

• Inefficient Data Synchronisation: Syncing a vast number of SKUs with the in-house database was time-consuming, taking up to 8-12 hours for a full update.

• Outdated User Experience: The website’s design and functionality did not align with modern user expectations, affecting customer engagement and satisfaction.

The solutions

To address these challenges, Hexagon Webworks undertook a comprehensive overhaul of Absolute Antibody’s digital platform:

• Custom WooCommerce Development: We re-engineered WooCommerce to accommodate a three-tier product structure, utilising grouped and variable products to mirror the complexity of their catalog.

• API Bridge Integration: Developed a Laravel-powered API bridge that connects to a Microsoft Access Database middleware solution. This innovation reduced full data sync times to 4-6 hours and enabled incremental updates, ensuring the website reflects real-time inventory changes.

• Enhanced Search Functionality: Integrated Elasticsearch to index all product data, resulting in faster load times and improved search capabilities for users.

• Responsive Web Design: Implemented a mobile-friendly, custom WordPress theme to provide a seamless user experience across all devices.

The results

The transformation yielded significant benefits:

• Operational Efficiency: The new API bridge streamlined data synchronisation, reducing full sync times by half and allowing for multiple updates daily.

• Improved User Engagement: The responsive design and enhanced search functionality led to increased user satisfaction and higher conversion rates.

• Scalable Infrastructure: The customised WooCommerce platform now supports the complex product structures and is poised to scale with future growth.

Through this collaboration, Absolute Antibody has achieved a robust, efficient, and user-friendly e-commerce platform that aligns with their mission to make recombinant antibody technology accessible to all.