Ruby on Rails
ChitChats runs its shipping platform on Ruby on Rails, and supporting each new storefront meant extending that core application rather than building a separate one for each integration. Some storefronts, like WooCommerce, required an actual plugin installed inside their own system, and Ollon updated the Rails application to feed and receive the order and package data those plugins needed. Most other integrations connected directly through each storefront's own API instead, with the Rails application handling that data on ChitChats' side. That ongoing platform work is what let ChitChats keep adding new storefronts without duplicating its core shipping logic for each one.
API integrations
ChitChats, a Canadian shipping platform for online stores, needed integrations with BigCommerce, Etsy, Wix, and Squarespace that pulled rate and tracking data directly from each platform's existing API, without building a separate plugin for each one. Where a storefront's API already covered package creation, tracking, and delivery status, Ollon mapped those calls directly, handling each platform's own authentication method, whether an API key and secret or account credentials. Store owners on any of these platforms got shipping rates and order syncing working with ChitChats within days of connecting their store.
Team augmentation and staff scaling
Internal developer turnover left ChitChats, a shipping integration platform for online stores, short on both technical expertise and available hours just as pandemic driven demand for online retail was accelerating, with more storefront integrations needed than the remaining team could take on alone. Ollon added developers directly into that gap, working inside ChitChats' own conventions, documentation, and testing templates. ChitChats kept shipping new storefront integrations at the pace demand required, staffed by developers who could scale up and back down as the surge in demand required.
Scalability planning
Demand for new storefront integrations kept climbing through the pandemic surge in online retail, faster than ChitChats could staff up to build each one from a blank slate. Ollon standardized the rollout process across platforms, reusing the same documentation format, testing checklist, and setup guide structure for every new storefront instead of designing each one separately. That standard process is what let ChitChats add new platforms at the pace the market demanded, rather than each integration taking as long as the last one to plan and document.
WooCommerce
ChitChats needed shipping tracking available to store owners running WooCommerce, one of its supported platforms with no hosted vendor to help troubleshoot integration issues. Ollon built a WordPress plugin that connected directly to a store's WooCommerce database to pull order and package information, digging through undocumented behavior since the platform's own API coverage did not clearly cover everything package delivery needed. Store owners running WooCommerce ended up with the same delivery tracking as ChitChats' other integrations, despite the extra, undocumented work it took to get there.
Magento
Setting up Magento's connection took more steps for store owners than the other platforms ChitChats connected to, at a time when Ollon was trying to keep every integration usable by people without a technical background. Ollon connected ChitChats to Magento's own API, leaning on screenshots and visual walkthroughs in the setup guide instead of written instructions alone, since store owners found pictures easier to follow than text describing where to click. Store owners on Magento could get through a longer connection process without needing technical help, with the extra setup work absorbed into the guide rather than left for them to puzzle through.
Shopify
Shopify was the first storefront platform Ollon connected to ChitChats' package delivery service, before Ollon had a chance to build a repeatable process for the rest of the project. Ollon connected ChitChats directly to Shopify's own API to handle package creation, tracking, and delivery status. That first integration took around three weeks, more than double what later platforms needed once Ollon had a process worked out from having done it once already.
