Virtual Webstore with 3D Model Viewer

Customer

A supplier of retail solutions from Australia. The company created innovative solutions for various retail product groups (general merchandise, apparel, household appliances, grocery, consumer electronics, etc.). The Customer’s products are utilized globally.

Challenge

Nowadays information technologies are deeper and deeper integrating into our life. Millions of people use internet for shopping. Information technologies make shopping much faster and convenient. However, in general, internet stores look similar to each other. The Customer decided to bring fun part of real shopping back, when you’re walking over the store, looking on shelves, and finding what you need, by introducing Virtual Store — 3D online shop. The application enables users to walk around shop shelves in virtual space, which is innovative approach for online shopping. However, there was a problem that the Customer had product vision only, with no clear requirements for the final product. Therefore, ScienceSoft’s task was not only to code the Customer’s solution, but also to create it first.

Solution

It was decided to adopt ScienceSoft's ecommerce development competencies for this project. 2 specialists were assigned to the project on Analysis and Planning stage: business analyst (to clarify the Customer’s requirements and create functional specification document) and system architect (to investigate possible solutions, make prototype and technical design).Various approaches were investigated during this stage (e.g. Silverlight, Flash, etc.). Finally it was decided that Virtual Store would be online enabled standalone windows application (using .NET Framework 3.0, WPF for visualization and data processing of XAML information generated on server). Virtual Store would communicate with Application Server, storing shopping data. All this system would be integrated with the Customer’s data processing system.

Results

ScienceSoft created 3D online shop, covering all necessary functionality. A user is enabled to move in virtual shop, browse and zoom any product he likes. Detailed information on chosen product is available by clicking on selected item. To implement this system ScienceSoft assigned a team of 13 people. As a result, the product was developed in time and with high quality of deliverables. Currently, ScienceSoft carries out support of the 1st version of the product and, in parallel, development of the 2nd version.

Technologies and Tools

Virtual Store application: .NET Framework 3.0, WPF, WCF

Server: IIS 6.0, .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, ASP.NET 2.0, XML Web Services, XAML generation, WCF