(Delivered in 12 weeks with a $37K budget, resulting in +18% customer retention and +12% order frequency)
About the Client
Tops Online is the leading online grocery retailer in Thailand, operating as part of Central Retail Corporation, one of Southeast Asia’s largest retail groups. The company manages:
- A nationwide delivery network
- Millions of monthly online visitors
- Hundreds of thousands of active online shoppers
- A large omnichannel retail operation with 200+ stores
Tops consistently ranks as Thailand’s #1 online grocery service and competes in a fast-growing market where customer expectations around speed, convenience, and delivery precision continuously rise.
Main Challenges We’ve Faced
To strengthen customer loyalty and create a new recurring revenue stream, the company decided to launch Tops Prime, a subscription-based delivery program inspired by global leaders like Amazon Fresh and Walmart+.
With rising delivery costs and increasing competition from global subscription-based services, the company needed a way to increase customer lifetime value and lock in repeat purchases without increasing operational overhead.
The goal was ambitious:
Deliver a fully functioning subscription product across Web, iOS, and Android in just 12 weeks within a budget of $37,000.
Business Challenge: Introducing Subscriptions Without Risking Daily Revenue
The client wanted to roll out a monthly delivery subscription that includes:
- Unlimited free deliveries
- Priority delivery slots
- Faster checkout and order processing
- A premium customer experience
However, Tops operated a highly complex e-commerce ecosystem where:
- Any checkout changes impact tens of thousands of orders per day
- Delivery capacity is tightly linked with logistics operations
- Even a minor UX change can influence conversion and revenue
The challenge was to design a subscription product that brings real customer value without disrupting existing revenue-critical flows.
Technical Challenge: Adding Recurring Billing to a High-Load Headless Magento Stack
The e-commerce platform relied on:
- Magento 2 Commerce Cloud
- React.js PWA
- A sophisticated OMS
- 2C2P payment gateway
- Separate iOS and Android native applications
- A highly customized backend with multiple third-party extensions
High-level architecture of a subscription delivery platform built on headless Magento
The biggest technical challenges included:
- Building a recurring billing and scheduling engine from scratch
- Creating reliable payment retry logic and real-time 2C2P notifications
- Ensuring synchronization between Magento, OMS, and mobile apps
- Introducing new subscription logic without breaking existing checkout or cart logic
- Maintaining performance for high traffic
This required a deep architectural understanding and careful sequencing of changes.
Delivery Challenge: Shipping Web, Mobile, and Backend in Parallel Under a Fixed Deadline
Challenges included:
- Managing time zones and communication across multiple stakeholders
- Ensuring alignment between business expectations and technical constraints
- Running parallel development for Web, iOS, Android, and backend
- Completing full testing across all systems
- Preparing the subscription launch for a nationwide marketing campaign
Delivering in 12 weeks required strict scope control, fast decision-making, and parallel workstreams.
What We Did
Instead of modifying core checkout logic early, we decided to isolate subscription logic into a separate engine and integrate it gradually. This minimized risk while allowing parallel development across teams.
We have allocated the following team:
- 2 backend developers
- 2 frontend developers
- 2 mobile developers: iOS (Swift), Android (Kotlin)
- 1 QA engineer
- 1 PM
Tops’ logistics + operations + marketing teams
Solution 1: Custom Subscription Engine for Magento 2
We built a dedicated subscription module responsible for:
- Monthly subscription creation and renewal
- Recurring billing workflow
- Billing retry logic and failure handling
- Delivery calendar and scheduling logic
- Automatic email and SMS notifications
- Subscription plan management
- Full admin dashboard for customer support teams
We solved this challenge in the following way:
We designed a modular architecture split into billing, scheduling, notifications, and customer state management layers.
This allowed us to deploy the subscription feature incrementally, without touching core checkout workflows until the final integration stage.
This architecture also ensured:
- High stability
- Predictable renewals
- Accurate reporting
- Error isolation
- Scalability as subscription numbers grow
Solution 2: Subscription Integration Into Checkout + Mobile Apps
The second part of the project involved extending all customer touchpoints.
Web & PWA (React.js)
We added:
- A subscription purchase option directly in checkout
- Dynamic price adjustments
- Delivery slot priority
- Real-time validation of availability
- A subscription summary widget
Customer Dashboard received:
- Pause subscription
- Cancel subscription
- Resume subscription
- Upcoming renewal date
- Payment status
- History of previous renewals
Mobile Apps (iOS & Android)
We added:
- Subscription view and purchase flow
- API-based subscription management
- Native screens for renewal status
- Real-time integration with the Magento backend
We solved this challenge in the following way:
We created a unified API contract for all platforms, providing mock endpoints early so the mobile team could begin integration even before backend development was fully complete.
This reduced dependencies, allowed parallel work, and accelerated delivery.
Solution 3: Full Cross-System Integration (OMS, Payment, Logistics)
To support seamless deliveries, subscription benefits needed to affect:
- Delivery routing
- Priority slot allocation
- Order management logic
- Payment flows
We solved this challenge in the following way:
- We implemented a subscription priority flag across all systems:
- OMS recognizes subscription orders automatically
- Logistics received priority routing instructions
- The payment gateway handled recurring charges
- Notifications were triggered for renewals, failures, and expirations
This unified implementation ensured consistent behavior across all systems, not just the storefront.
Key Results and Business Value
1: Delivered in 12 Weeks (+30% Faster Than Original Estimate)
Despite complexity, parallel workflows enabled launching the full subscription model in only 3 months, ready for a major marketing campaign.
2: Subscription Feature Developed for $37,000 (Fixed Budget)
The project was delivered on time and within a strict budget, ensuring high ROI for the client.
3: Customer retention increased by 18% within the first 3 months after launch, driven by recurring deliveries and priority checkout experience.
Customers subscribed at a stable rate, increasing repeat orders and brand loyalty.
4: Increased Order Frequency (+12% Among Subscribers)
Subscribers placed more frequent and higher-value orders due to waived delivery fees.
5: New Recurring Revenue Stream
Monthly subscription payments provided predictable, stable revenue and improved financial forecasting.
6: Operational Cost Reduction
Automated renewals and centralized subscription support decreased manual workload for operations and customer service.
Features Delivered
1: Subscription Delivery Plan (Monthly Unlimited Deliveries)
Fully integrated into checkout, customer dashboard, and mobile apps.
2: Recurring Billing Engine (2C2P Integration)
Payment retries, failure handling, and real-time notifications.
3: Priority Delivery Scheduling
Subscribers received earlier delivery slots and faster processing.
4: Subscription Management Dashboard
Pause, cancel, resume, renewal overview, payment details.
5: Unified API Layer for Web & Mobile
Stable communication across Magento, mobile apps, and OMS.
6: Admin Panel for Customer Service
Manual adjustments, renewals, refunds, and subscription status management.
7: Automated Email & SMS Notifications
Renewals, failures, upcoming charges, pausing/canceling confirmations.
8: PWA Enhancements for Seamless UX
Optimized performance and mobile-friendly experience.
The Technology We Used
Backend & Core Platform
- Magento 2 Commerce Cloud
- PHP 7
- Custom subscription engine
- OMS integration
- 2C2P payment gateway
Frontend
- React.js
- Express.js
- Webpack
- PWA architecture
- HTML/CSS
Mobile
- Android (Kotlin)
- iOS (Swift)
- Subscription API integration
Infrastructure
- RestAPI microservices
- Notification services (SMS & email)
- Cloud-based AWS hosting
This solution is relevant for:
- Grocery and FMCG retailers
- Marketplaces with delivery operations
- Magento-based stores looking to increase LTV
- Businesses planning subscription or loyalty programs
This project shows that subscription models can be launched quickly and safely, even in complex ecosystems, if the architecture, sequencing, and team coordination are in place. They are done right.
📅 Book a free 30-minute call to find out how we can help you increase customer retention
