This would not be the first time when we talk about our experience with Spree Commerce. In one of our posts, we discussed the way we process orders in a Spree-Commerce-based store. We also built a guide that helped hundreds of developers implement elasticsearch in spree: Step-by-Step Guide.

This time, we’ll talk about a different but not less important aspect: our contribution to the Spree Commerce community. These are the people whom without, Spree Commerce wouldn’t exist: the developers. We don’t want to brag, but we are big a part of this community.

There are several ways you can improve the Spree Commerce community. First of all, there’s a special channel in Slack as well as Spree mailing lists. These are the best places for getting valuable advice and consulting. Developers who spend their time on answering questions and helping their “brothers in arms” definitely make a contribution in the Spree community.

However, there’s another, more effective way of contribution: Spree gems development. Gems are ready solutions for various ecommerce platforms. Feel free to follow the link if you want to find these gems. We also did our share and developed gems on the latest Spree version — 3.6.0.

So let’s take a look at these gems and understand the benefit they can bring for your business.

Abandoned Cart

Abandoned Cart gem “spree_abandoned_cart.” The name of this gem speaks for itself. It’s created to get rid of abandoned cards. It can be easily integrated into a service of electronic mail out, such as MailChimp and API Mandrill (transaction platform of MailChimp).

There are 3 steps of this gem implementation:

• Schedule the number and rate of mails;
• Search for orders, which were abandoned in carts, according to the specific criteria;
• Automate the electronic mail out and monitor the process of abandoned carts.

The first step is the responsibility of the marketing team, the rest is up to backend development.

Here’s how our gem works.

• The first email will be sent within the first 2 hours after the customer abandoned the cart.
• The second letter will be sent within 2 days. This time, they will be offered to buy a product, which they abandoned in the cart, with a discount.
• Finally, the last one will be sent in 7 days since the sending of the second letter but with a lower discount.

According to our researches, customers are more likely to use the discount from the second letter. Up to 70% of returns through “abandoned cart” emails occur within the first 2 hours after the purchase. This may be related to the fact that a customer thinks he actually bent the rules of a shop. Nevertheless, he acts according to our plan.

If you want to find out more about this gem, take a look at our article:

Fosdick

Our next gem “spree_fosdick_integration” will allow you to keep your stock records and integrate them with a delivery service.

Much work has been done to integrate Spree Commerce platform with Fosdick API. In case you don’t know, Fosdick is one of the most popular goods packing services in the USA.

However, it wasn’t a trivial task. The thing is that Fosdick doesn’t have its own REST API. It works with several API on services unitycart.com and customerstatus.com. At the same time, their documentation is not publicly available. That’s why we had to spend a few weeks on negotiating with Fosdick Fulfillment representatives in order to achieve the results.

As a result, customers got a few separate interfaces:

• For sending orders;
• For returns monitoring and delivery status tracking.

This allows customers to get notifications when their order has been sent. Besides that, they can also follow their order using its tracking number.

If you want to dive deeper into the implementation of this gem, our article is at your disposal:

Granify

You probably have heard about Granify’s service. It’s a Canadian startup that allows tracking customers activity and their purchases as well as showing the promotion offers. spree_granify gem will help your business get more customers.

Project founders implemented an algorithm of showing messages, which depends on customers behavioral factors. The secret of this algorithm should be in a script that follows the cursor movement and predicts customers actions. Isn’t that just pure magic?

Our developers went even further and made an integration of Spree Commerce and Granify. Having installed our gem, you’ll be able to start using all these benefits right away.

Product filters

The main goal of spree_products_filters gem is simple but very important. It allows extending the standard functionality of products filtering on the main page. This gem allows adding such filters as options, properties, and min-max price. It also provides a possibility to sort out the products according to these criteria.

All these functions play an integral role for any online store. However, the question is: “Can all these features be found in the box version?” The answer is “No.” Spree Commerce from the box (default gem) has only the standard functionality. All other features can be found in different gems.

Such features as API, admin panel, and frontend were implemented in the different gems. This means that even if you have your own frontend, you won’t need to rebuild the box version. Just don’t use a ready solution.

As a result, our main gem is not overloaded as it has a bunch of cool features in separate gems. This allows you to choose which functionality you want to use and which you don’t.

Take into account the fact that Spree Commerce is a platform for shops of medium and premium segments. To make your platform a unique one, you can always change the set of gems. We have a lot of experience and can help you to find the best solution for your business.

The Bottom Line

In this article, we gave only a brief description of our contribution to Spree Commerce community. Most important thing is that you can try it by your own. All you need to do is to install our gem. And yes, it’s absolutely free!

We’re always open to dialogue. We can answer any question that is related to Spree Commerce development and even have a partnership agreement with Spark Solutions, the main contributor of the Spree community.

We hope you enjoyed today’s article. If so, please support it with claps and by hitting the subscribe button below!