Tunnel Shop — E‑commerce with Social Shopping

Project Context

In 2013, Sign&Hold (a large shopping mall operator) faced the usual retail problem: low weekday footfall and weekend overcrowding. The project came thanks to prior work with a Moscow fashion magazine, giving trust and domain insight.

Goal

Design an innovative solution to:

• Attract buyers to the mall on weekdays
• Blend online and offline shopping experiences
• Offer personalized service via stylist‑consultant system
• Use modern web tech for a wow effect

Solution

Personal Shopping Mechanics

Profiles for stylist‑sales, ratings/reviews, lookbooks; booking system with availability calendar; online → appointment → offline purchase flow; pre‑visit curation and history.

Modern UX (2013)

Parallax effects, smooth transitions, visual depth; zoom and magnifier for product detail; multiple angles and high‑res zoom; smart filters by color, size chart, style, price, and brand.

Content Strategy

Trend reviews, stylist picks, fashion week highlights, style guides, video/photo.

Architecture

Backend: Django store + CMS, stylist profiles, booking calendar, PostgreSQL with optimized queries and indexes.

Frontend: responsive layout, Parallax.js, JS interactivity, AJAX updates; interactive calendar, ratings, zoom, dynamic filters.

Project Management

Lead a 3–5 dev team; architecture, code reviews, process setup; client comms, requirements, sprint planning; coordination with design/content; train staff; define success metrics.

Results

Business: weekday traffic up, unique differentiator, higher service quality, loyal audience. Tech: complex booking and slot system, social mechanics in e‑comm, modern UX with parallax, scalable Django architecture.

Takeaways

Hybrid online/offline strategies can outperform classic e‑commerce. Personal stylist profiles with ratings and booking — an early idea that later became standard in salons, banks, etc.