Driving Flanco’s continuous innovation in IT&C retail
80% lower
infrastructure costs compared to the traditional setup
Zero downtime
during Black Friday
The Overview
Flanco is one of Romania's largest electro-IT retailers and one of the most established names in the local market. Founded in 1994, the company introduced the large-format electro-IT store concept to Romania and was among the first retailers to grow Black Friday into a major shopping event in the country.
Our partnership with Flanco has been ongoing for more than nine years. In that time, we have worked together on a series of eCommerce projects focused on scalability, operational efficiency, and platform modernization.
The work has spanned everything from preparing the business for major sales events to improving website performance and supporting the move from Magento 1 to Magento 2. The result is a digital commerce setup that supports continued growth without being held back by infrastructure.
The Market
The retail market has shifted from "having an online presence" to running an eCommerce operation that can handle peak demand without compromise. For a company that helped shape Black Friday in Romania, the bar for performance during that period sits higher than for most other retailers.
The Challenges
The challenges Flanco faced were both seasonal and structural.
- Traffic spikes during Black Friday and high-volume campaigns.
Year-over-year growth in online traffic meant the cost of downtime grew with every campaign. Maintaining a consistent customer experience during peak load became a business-critical priority. - Magento ecosystem optimization.
The existing platform needed work across performance, security, integrations with core business systems, and operational efficiency. - Platform migration to Magento 2.
Magento 1 had reached the limits of what it could support given Flanco's growing data volumes, customer experience expectations, and order management requirements.
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The Solution
To support Black Friday and similar high-traffic campaigns, we developed a customized, scalable application built specifically for events with large volumes of traffic, concurrent users, and orders per second.
The solution was built on Microsoft Azure and open-source technologies and designed to integrate with Flanco’s existing on-premises infrastructure. This allowed website traffic to be redirected smoothly to the cloud-based version during major events, giving the business the flexibility needed during peak periods without affecting the rest of the ecosystem.
Over time, we continued to optimize the platform through performance testing and feature enhancements, including real-time stock reporting and automated QA testing.
In parallel, we carried out a full audit of Flanco’s Magento environment, covering platform usage, security, performance, and best practices. Based on the findings, we implemented a series of improvements, including:
- checkout process optimization
- integrations with eMAG Marketplace and suppliers such as NOD
- electronic billing generation
- RMA functionality
- cache optimization
- Flanco card integration
As part of Flanco’s broader eCommerce roadmap, we also supported the migration of the online store from Magento 1 to Magento 2. The move was driven by the need for a more stable platform that could better support current market demands and deliver a simpler, more efficient customer experience.
The Results
By moving part of its website infrastructure to the cloud for major commercial events, Flanco achieved up to 80% lower costs compared to its traditional infrastructure model. Just as importantly, the company recorded zero downtime during Black Friday, a key advantage during one of the busiest sales periods of the year.
The improvements made to the Magento platform and website also contributed to a significant increase in online orders. This, in turn, supported the expansion of supplier collaboration needed to meet growing demand.
The migration to Magento 2 further improved platform stability, simplified the shopping experience, and allowed for a more efficient order management flow. Together, our solutions gave Flanco a stronger and more scalable eCommerce setup, better equipped to support future growth.
Our partnership with Flanco has been ongoing for more than 9 years. During this time, we worked together on several eCommerce projects focused on scalability, operational efficiency, and platform modernization.
From preparing the business for major sales events such as Black Friday to improving website performance and supporting the transition to Magento 2, these initiatives helped Flanco strengthen its digital commerce capabilities and support long-term growth.
"In our quest to find the right technological partner for our needs, we had several exchanges with different other companies in the market. We were immediately attracted by the technological architecture proposed by Zitec, as well as by the team brought forward."
The Process
In hindsight, it’s clear that they weren’t only looking for a new eCommerce platform. They were seeking a strategic partner who could help them rethink their digital operations while maximizing ROI.
“Digitalization has always been seen as a fundamental part of our strategy, not a response to a specific challenge. From the beginning, we set up a strong infrastructure to support both our back-end systems and customer-facing technologies. Partnering with Zitec and adopting the VTEX platform has positioned us to scale efficiently while keeping operations smooth. The success of this project came down to the close collaboration between our teams and Zitec’s capacity to understand our brand core and communicate openly and professionally, focusing on results. The results have been outstanding, positioning us as leaders in digital service in Romania.”
The company’s Senior eCommerce Manager
This transformation was part of a broader initiative to modernize operations in response to new consumer demands, amplified by the pandemic and informed by successful strategies from similar markets. Here’s what followed:
- At first, we listened.
- Then, we took on a consultative approach to audit the operations.
- We engaged with key stakeholders, from external and internal tech teams from Zitec and VTEX, to the business teams and their vendors, for a smooth and efficient transition that met the retailer’s goals.
- We rolled out a plan that addresses the essentials: immediate needs, scaling capabilities, cost efficiency, and future feature enhancements.
- Transparency was non-negotiable. We worked closely with the retailer to evaluate the total cost of ownership for a set of solutions so that no hidden costs or surprises would arise down the line.
- Instead of jumping straight into a major overhaul, we assessed other options, including upgrading the existing system.
The decision to move to VTEX was grounded in real-world analysis that showed it to be the most flexible, cost-efficient, and scalable option for the retailer.
Thanks to our agile, iterative approach, we launched an MVP in just four months (half the projected time) without compromising quality. This allowed for real-time market feedback, customer testing, and continuous platform refinement.
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