Spree-Based E-Commerce Platform
Custom-built storefront and checkout powered by open-source tech and clean architecture.
Project Overview
This project focused on building a feature-rich, fully customizable e-commerce platform using Spree Commerce, an open-source Ruby on Rails framework. The objective was to demonstrate a flexible, scalable, and high-performance storefront capable of powering modern digital retail from storefront to checkout and fulfillment.
The system was designed to handle everything from product variants and discounts to multi-payment gateways, all wrapped in a clean and developer-first structure. It’s a strong demonstration of how open-source stacks can rival mainstream CMS solutions in performance and flexibility.
Challenge
The platform needed to:
Be modular yet robust for both small and large retailers
Support real-time product filtering, discount logic, and secure checkout
Allow backend control over catalog, inventory, and fulfillment pipelines
Integrate third-party tools (shipping APIs, marketing systems, payments)
Deploy flexibly across environments like Heroku, Render, or AWS
All without relying on bloated pre-built CMS platforms.
Our Role
Initial Tech Architecture & Setup
Spree Integration & Customization
Theme & UI Development
Checkout Flow Customization
Payment Gateway & Shipping API Integration
QA Testing & Code Quality Automation
Containerized Deployment & CI/CD Setup
Our Approach
We bootstrapped the project using spree_starter and then modularly built:
A custom UI theme with catalog navigation
Checkout logic tailored to product variants and cart rules
Integration with Stripe and shipping providers
Admin dashboard extensions for inventory and discount management
RSpec tests for key modules, automated via GitHub CI
Docker-based deployment with flexible hosting options
Stack Area | Tools Used |
|---|---|
Backend | Ruby on Rails, Spree Commerce |
Frontend | HTML, SCSS, JavaScript |
Database | PostgreSQL, Redis |
DevOps | Docker, GitHub Actions, Heroku / AWS |
Testing | RSpec, RuboCop, CodeClimate |
Deliverables
Fully customized storefront UI
Admin portal for catalog, inventory & orders
Checkout flow with variant logic + payment gateways
CI/CD enabled codebase
Caching & background job support with Redis
Clean, production-ready codebase following best practices
Outcome
This Spree-powered e-commerce build proves that open-source, lean development can deliver production-quality retail experiences. The codebase is now used as a base framework for internal product demos and MVPs in the e-commerce space reducing future dev time by over 40%.
