Ilovehair.pl – Technology for e-commerce with hairdressing products

Ilovehair.pl is an e-commerce store based on the WordPress platform, dedicated to the sale of professional hairdressing products by Hair Saloon Products. As a developer, I designed and implemented this e-commerce solution, combining advanced functionality with technical optimization to ensure smooth shopping and high search engine visibility. This project was created with the needs of the beauty industry in mind, offering reliability, performance, and comprehensive technical support. Below, I present the details of the implementation and the technologies used.

Purpose of ilovehair.pl and its audience

The website ilovehair.pl was created for Hair Saloon Products – an online store offering professional cosmetics and hairdressing accessories. Its purpose is to showcase a wide range of products, streamline the shopping process, and increase the availability of the offer for online customers. The platform targets hairdressers, beauty salons, and individual clients looking for high-quality hair care products. My task was to develop a technical solution based on WordPress that would meet the e-commerce requirements of the beauty industry.

Technical features of ilovehair.pl

As part of the project, I implemented advanced technical solutions that support the operations of the online store:

• Responsiveness and UX – Frontend architecture based on the WooCommerce theme with Tailwind CSS, ensuring compatibility with mobile and desktop devices, compliant with WCAG 2.1 standards.
• Product catalog – WooCommerce product structure with custom taxonomies for categories and attributes, with dynamic filtering via AJAX and pagination optimized for SEO.
• Order process – Shopping cart and checkout with PayU payment gateway integration, server-side validation, and transaction recording in the MySQL database with AES-256 encryption.
• Technical SEO – Optimization for keyword phrases (e.g., “hairdressing products online”), generating dynamic XML sitemaps and accelerated indexing via Google Indexing API.
• Backups and high availability – Automatic backups on Amazon S3 with replication between regions, versioning, and Zstandard compression for operational continuity.
• Performance – Server-side caching with Varnish, multimedia optimization via Cloudflare with WebP format and resource preloading in HTTP/2.
• Recommendation module – Recommended product system based on the k-Nearest Neighbors algorithm, with data cached in Redis for fast rendering.

Technical challenges and their solutions

During the implementation of ilovehair.pl, I encountered several complex technical challenges, which were solved as follows:

• Product catalog load – A large number of SKUs caused loading delays. Solution: I implemented Redis for query caching and Elasticsearch for fast product search.
• Image optimization – High-quality product images slowed down the site. Solution: I used Fastly CDN with Brotli compression and lazy loading via the Intersection Observer API.
• Checkout process during peaks – Increased traffic during promotions caused delays. Solution: I used RabbitMQ for asynchronous order processing and throttling at the Nginx level.
• Outdated cache – Changes to products were not immediately visible. Solution: I implemented Varnish with purge on webhooks and Edge Side Includes for dynamic cart sections.

Technologies used

For the construction and maintenance of ilovehair.pl, I used the following technologies:

• WooCommerce – The core e-commerce platform with custom hooks and filters for specific store requirements.
• Yoast SEO – Metadata optimization, XML sitemap generation, and automatic search engine notifications about product updates.
• UpdraftPlus – Automatic backups on Amazon S3 with replication between regions and AES-256 encryption.
• Cloudflare – CDN with Argo Smart Routing, Brotli compression, and DDoS protection via rate limiting.
• Redis – In-memory caching with sharding and persistent storage for cart, recommendations, and user sessions.
• Varnish – Server-side caching with custom VCL, supporting grace mode and ESI for dynamic sections.
• Lighthouse – Automatic Core Web Vitals audits integrated with CI/CD in GitLab.
• RabbitMQ – Task queuing, such as order processing and email delivery, with retry and dead letter queue mechanisms.
• Elasticsearch – Product search with fuzzy matching and real-time attribute filtering.
• Fastly – Additional CDN for parallel multimedia distribution with geographic optimization.

Management and technical support

Ilovehair.pl is an e-commerce project requiring continuous monitoring and optimization. I regularly update WordPress, WooCommerce, and plugins, conducting tests in a staging environment with full backups on Amazon S3. I use Cloudflare, Redis, and Fastly to ensure high performance under increased traffic, while Varnish and RabbitMQ ensure the stability of dynamic processes, such as checkout and stock updates. I monitor indexing using Elasticsearch, optimize SQL queries with composite indexes, and manage cache on content updates. The platform can be expanded with additional functionalities – such as integration with ERP systems, a product subscription module, or a customer review section – to further support the growth of Hair Saloon Products in the hairdressing industry.

Planning an online store for your hairdressing brand? Need an advanced e-commerce platform with solid technical support? Contact me to discuss details and create a solution that will increase your online sales.