The Business Challenge
In 2017, Davey Coach, a well-established and successful bus dealership since 1992, was facing a critical challenge with its online parts division. Their eCommerce site, built on Magento, was underperforming, missing upgrades, and hindering their ability to effectively serve their B2B customers.
The platform was plagued by a number of issues. A formal audit revealed a poor Google PageSpeed score of only 57/100 for mobile, 54 W3C code errors, and a lack of fundamental performance optimizations. For their customers, this translated into a slow, frustrating user experience. Crucially, core business functionality like the “Add to Quote” feature was broken, creating a direct barrier to sales.
My Role: The Expert Diagnostician & Developer
I was brought in as an eCommerce Consultant and Lead Developer to lead a full-scale turnaround of the parts.daveycoach.com website. My role was twofold: first, to conduct a comprehensive audit to diagnose the root causes of the site’s problems, and second, to personally execute the development work required to fix them.
Process & Execution: A Data-Driven Turnaround
Our approach was methodical, transparent, and focused on delivering measurable improvements.
- The Audit – Establishing a Baseline: The engagement began with a formal Level 1 Front-End Audit. This provided the Davey Coach team with a data-driven report card on their site’s health, giving us a clear and objective baseline for performance, code quality, and best practices.
- The Roadmap – From Findings to Action: The audit’s findings were combined with the client’s needs to create a prioritized “To Do List” that served as a clear project roadmap. This ensured that our development efforts were focused on the highest-impact items first, from critical bug fixes to valuable user experience enhancements.
- The Execution – Delivering Key Improvements: I systematically worked through the to-do list, which included:
- Repairing Critical Functionality: Fixing the “Add to Quote” system to ensure the primary business function of the site was operational.
- Enhancing Product Discovery: Implementing a new “Shop by Category” feature on the homepage to improve navigation and help customers find the parts they needed faster.
- Performance Optimization: Implementing CSS/JS merging and minification to improve the site’s PageSpeed score and overall load times.
- Improving User Experience: Updating the homepage slider, fixing product image displays, adding social media links, and making the mobile navigation more intuitive.
- Correcting code errors: Resolving all of the W3C code errors within templates, styling rules, and 3rd party embeds.
- Installing all missing patches: These patches provide crucial security updates and close known vulnerabilities in the platform.
The Result: A Revitalized B2B eCommerce Platform
This focused engagement successfully transformed an underperforming website into a more stable, performant, and user-friendly sales channel. By repairing critical business functions and dramatically improving the user journey, we empowered Davey Coach’s parts division to better serve its customers online. This project stands as a clear example of how a strategic, data-driven approach can effectively rescue and revitalize a legacy eCommerce platform, extending its value and improving business outcomes.