Vejii (ShopVejii)
Multi-vendor vegan marketplace for the US and Canada: 500+ national brands and local artisans, grocery delivery to 48 states.
Overview
Vejii, trading as ShopVejii, was an online plant-based marketplace for the United States and Canada. The pitch was one place for everything vegan: over 500 national brands and local artisans, 2,661 products on the homepage counter in May 2021, grocery delivery to 48 states, and no membership fees or minimum orders. Products came from individual vendor stores and from Vejii Express, a line sent out within two business days.
The 2021 marketplace ran on WordPress and WooCommerce with WCFM Frontend Manager for vendors: a vendor registration page and a sold-by store name on every product card. Around it sat Algolia search, public shopping lists, product bundles, gift cards, a refer-a-friend program, an age gate for the wine department, a link to the Canadian store, and two custom order plugins that are not published on WordPress.org.
By July 2022 ShopVejii had moved to Shopify, split into US, Canadian and UK storefronts, with a prompt that offered visitors from Canada their local store. Vendor registration and vendor terms carried over, joined by a rewards program, Zendesk help, a Klaviyo sign-up offer and free shipping inside the Vejii Express two-day ground zone. The marketplace is no longer trading.
What was built
- Multi-vendor WooCommerce marketplace on WCFM Frontend Manager, with a vendor registration page and the vendor store named on each product card.
- Deep category tree covering plant-based meat and seafood, dairy alternatives, frozen and prepared food, pantry, snacks, beverages, supplements, personal and home care, baby, pet supplies and wine, with brand pages and a mega menu.
- Algolia-powered product search with autocomplete across the catalogue.
- Shopper features: public shopping lists (Add to List), product bundles such as meal kits and Mother's Day bundles, gift cards and a refer-a-friend program.
- Age verification for the wine department and a country selector linking the Canadian store.
- Custom order plugins outside the WordPress.org directory: Orders to UNFI, named for the natural-foods distributor UNFI, and Order Item Manager.
- Marketing and tracking: Klaviyo, Pixel Caffeine for the Facebook pixel, Google Ads conversion tracking, Gravity Forms and Contact Form 7.
- 2022 Shopify storefronts for the US, Canada and the UK with a geolocation prompt, Smile.io rewards, Revy bundles, Route, an age verifier, affiliate referrals and a Zendesk help widget.
Stack
Frontend
- Flatsome
- Theme framework under the marketplace's own vegan theme and child theme in 2021
- Max Mega Menu
- Multi-level category menu for the large WooCommerce catalogue
- PLAK theme
- Shopify theme behind the 2022 US storefront, credited to PlakTheme in the footer
Data
- Algolia
- Search index with autocomplete, connected through WP Search with Algolia
Integrations & Payments
- Klaviyo
- Email sign-up and marketing on both the WooCommerce and Shopify versions
- Pixel Caffeine
- Facebook pixel and product catalogue tracking for the WooCommerce store
- Google Ads tracking
- Conversion tracking plugin that reported WooCommerce orders to Google Ads
- MStore API
- Installed plugin that exposes WooCommerce to native iOS and Android shopping apps
- Smile.io
- Rewards program linked from the 2022 Shopify footer
- Zendesk
- Customer help widget embedded on the 2022 Shopify storefront
- Route
- Shipping widget from Route loaded on the 2022 Shopify storefront
- Shop Pay, PayPal, Venmo
- Wallet and card options accepted at the 2022 Shopify checkout
CMS & Commerce
- WordPress
- Content and plugin platform of the marketplace in its 2020 - 2021 version
- WooCommerce
- Catalogue, cart, checkout and brands for the marketplace
- WCFM
- Frontend Manager for vendors: registration and per-vendor stores
- WPC Product Bundles
- Meal kits and Mother's Day bundles sold as single products
- TI Wishlist Premium
- Public shopping lists behind the Add to List buttons
- PW Gift Cards
- Gift cards sold as products and redeemed at WooCommerce checkout
- WPGens Refer a Friend
- Referral program that let shoppers invite friends to the marketplace
- Age Gate
- Age verification plugin guarding the wine department of the marketplace
- Custom order plugins
- Orders to UNFI and Order Item Manager, not in the WordPress.org directory
- Shopify
- Separate US, Canada and UK storefronts from 2022
- Revy, Hulk Age Verifier
- Bundles and age verification apps on the Shopify version
Engineering highlights
Vendor attribution was part of the catalogue itself: every product card named the vendor store it came from, so many sellers could share one storefront and one checkout.
Order handling went beyond stock WooCommerce with two custom plugins, Orders to UNFI (version 1.0.8) and Order Item Manager (version 1.0.5), neither of which exists in the WordPress.org directory.
The 2022 Shopify rebuild split the business by market into separate US, Canada and UK stores, with a geolocation prompt that offered Canadian visitors their own store.