cloving
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Cloving

Byadmin
Cloving (UK online fashion retailer)

Magento 2 Enhancements for Cloving

The engagement included the following key deliverables:

  • Bulk Returns Slips Generator module to streamline returns processing
  • Display of warehouse / fulfilment details in the Magento admin Sales Order view
  • Inventory ERP integration to synchronise stock and related data
cloving

The team delivered exactly what we needed for Cloving — full warehouse visibility, ERP sync and a huge improvement in how we handle returns. Our dispatch and returns teams are far more efficient, and we’ve seen fewer fulfilment mistakes since going live. Highly recommended.

Cloving

— Head of E-Commerce

CASE STUDY

What we’ve done

Enhanced back-office operational efficiency, inventory accuracy and returns handling through custom modules and ERP integration.

Objective:
The client was running an older version of Magento 2, which had a limited set of features, lacked security patches, and had performance bottlenecks. We undertook an upgrade to the latest stable version of Magento 2 to ensure enhanced security, better performance, and new features.

Challenges:

  • Ensuring compatibility with custom modules and third-party extensions.
  • Migrating the client’s data (products, orders, customer data) seamlessly to the new version without any data loss.
  • Retaining existing theme design and customizations after the upgrade.

Solution:

  • Conducted a full audit of the existing Magento 2 setup to identify any customizations and potential compatibility issues with the new version.
  • Created a backup of the website and all its data before performing the upgrade.
  • Performed the Magento 2 upgrade on a staging environment first, thoroughly testing all features, extensions, and customizations.
  • Ensured all data was migrated correctly, including product catalogs, customer data, and order history.
  • Fixed any issues related to third-party extensions and ensured they were compatible with the new Magento version.

Outcome:

  • The website was upgraded to the latest stable version of Magento 2, ensuring better security, performance, and compatibility with future updates.
  • The upgrade improved page load times, enhanced user experience, and ensured the platform was prepared for future enhancements.
Challenge

Cloving’s operations involved multiple warehouse locations and fulfilment zones. However, the default Magento sales order view did not show which warehouse or fulfilment location an order was assigned to — causing manual lookup, delays in fulfilment and lack of visibility for service operations.

Solution

We developed a custom module that:

  • Adds new fields to the sales order entity capturing the warehouse/fulfilment location code, address or label.
  • Modifies the Admin → Sales → Orders view to display these warehouse details alongside order header information.
  • Hooks into the order-assignment logic (either automatic or manual) so that when an order is allocated to a warehouse, the warehouse detail is stored in the order and shown accordingly.
  • Enables filtering or reporting of orders by warehouse in the admin grid (optional extension).
Results
  • Fulfilment staff and operations teams can immediately see which warehouse (or dispatch location) is handling the order, without additional lookup.
  • Reduced errors where orders were sent from the wrong fulfilment zone.
  • Improved transparency and faster resolution of fulfilment queries.
Challenge

As Cloving scaled, managing stock levels across multiple warehouses, warehouses’ real-time inventory, returns, and restock flows became increasingly complex. The Magento instance required a robust, real-time (or near real-time) integration with an external ERP system to ensure inventory data was accurate and operations could rely on it.

Solution

We implemented a custom Inventory ERP Integration module as follows:

  • Built scheduled CRON tasks (or webhook/listener architecture) to pull current stock levels, stock allocations, reserved quantities (e.g., in-process returns, pending pick), and warehouse location data from the ERP.
  • Pushed Magento stock adjustments back into the ERP when Magento created orders, cancellations or returns.
  • Mapped Magento warehouses/locations to ERP fulfilment nodes, ensuring the warehouse details in orders (see module 1) corresponded to ERP warehouse codes.
  • Included error logging, retry queues and reconciliation dashboards to monitor synchronization success and failures.
  • Ensured performance optimisation so that mass updates did not degrade frontend/checkout performance.
Results
  • Stock levels in Magento closely tracked the ERP – reducing “out-of-stock” surprises at checkout or dispatch.
  • Warehouse allocations in Magento orders corresponded correctly to ERP fulfilment nodes.
  • Returns, cancellations and restocks all flowed through a consistent system, reducing manual stock corrections.
  • Operational efficiency improved: fewer manual stock adjustments and fewer fulfilment mistakes.
Challenge

Clothing and apparel e-commerce typically sees a significant returns volume. For Cloving, processing returns individually (generating a returns slip per order or per item) was time-consuming and error-prone. They required a tool to generate multiple returns slips in bulk (for example for a batch of orders/items) to streamline operations.

Solution

We developed a Bulk Returns Slips Generator module with the following key features:

  • Admin UI interface where operations staff can filter orders (by date range, status, warehouse, product category, etc.) and select multiple orders for which returns slips need to be generated.
  • Automatic creation of PDF returns slips for each selected order (or selected items within orders), using a templated layout with order details, item list, return reason codes, bar-code/QR for scanning, and return shipping instructions.
  • Bulk download / print option: generate all slips at once, zipped or in a single multi-page PDF, for printing or dispatch.
  • Optional emailing of slips to customers (configurable) or exporting data to external fulfilment systems.
  • Logging of which slips were generated, time, user, and linking back to orders for audit.
Results
  • Operations can now generate hundreds of returns slips in minutes rather than manually one-by-one.
  • Reduced errors in returns documentation (correct item list, correct customer address, correct warehouse return destination).
  • Improved turnaround times for returns processing, inspections and restock.
  • Better traceability of returns thanks to linked logs.
Conclusion

Through the implementation of these tailored Magento 2 modules, Cloving.co.uk achieved substantial improvements in operational transparency, speed, and data integrity.
The Warehouse Visibility Module empowered staff with immediate insights for efficient order processing. The ERP Integration ensured real-time synchronization of stock data, eliminating discrepancies between systems. Meanwhile, the Bulk Returns Slips Generator transformed one of the most time-intensive areas—returns management—into an automated, accurate, and scalable workflow.
Overall, this project demonstrates the effectiveness of custom Magento 2 development in bridging operational gaps, automating key workflows, and providing measurable efficiency gains. Cloving’s e-commerce operations are now more connected, agile, and prepared for future growth.

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