Case Study Magento 2.4.7 Migration for a B2B Employee Benefits Platform
How we upgraded a B2B purchase program platform to Magento 2.4.7 and integrated ONDC and WhatsApp APIs for seamless transactions.
The Client
Powering student and employee purchase programs for India's top corporations.
Our client (ZRPL) operates a leading B2B integration platform that powers Employee and Student Purchase Programs across India. Their platform enables employees and students at top-tier corporate and educational institutions to purchase electronics, household goods, vouchers, and services at subsidized rates. By partnering with leading brands like Indigo Airlines and financial organizations like OneCard, the client provides a massive consumer base with exclusive, high-value commerce deals.
In the Indian fintech and B2B commerce ecosystem, transaction volume and integration speed are critical differentiators. The platform coordinates purchases, processes payments, manages discount approvals, and tracks delivery across hundreds of corporate intranets and student portals. Because of this, their underlying infrastructure must be highly secure, compliant with national payment guidelines, and capable of handling rapid spikes in concurrent transactions.
To support their expanding merchant network and integrate with national digital initiatives like the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), the client needed to resolve underlying technical debt. Their core e-commerce engine was struggling to maintain performance under the weight of multiple API integrations, and they partnered with our engineering team to modernize their architecture.
The Challenge
Addressing scaling bottlenecks in a high-volume integration portal.
When we began this project, the client's platform was facing performance bottlenecks due to an outdated e-commerce core. As they onboarded more corporate partners and integrated wider merchant catalogs, the platform struggled with database locks, API latency, and long checkout wait times. The IT team was spending significant time managing manual deployments and troubleshooting integration failures.
A primary business objective was to expand their marketplace offerings by integrating with ONDC, Razorpay, and WhatsApp. However, their legacy codebase was highly customized and lacked the modular structure required for rapid, secure API integrations. Adding new partner catalogs required writing custom, hard-coded connectors rather than using a scalable plug-and-play architecture.
To secure their market position and ensure long-term business viability, the client needed a comprehensive upgrade. They required an enterprise-grade e-commerce backend that met modern security and compliance standards, combined with automated deployment and streamlined QA processes.
The existing e-commerce backend suffered from database bottlenecks under high transaction loads.
Integrating new merchants required slow, custom development cycles due to a rigid codebase.
Legacy dependencies created potential security vulnerabilities and limited payment gateway compliance.
Testing and QA processes were manual, delaying the release of new marketplace features.
What our audit found
Diagnosing the API and database bottlenecks.
Our engineering team conducted a comprehensive audit of the client's e-commerce platform. We monitored transaction flows, analyzed database queries during peak hours, and reviewed the code architecture. The diagnostic revealed that a highly customized MariaDB database configuration and outdated JavaScript libraries on the frontend were the primary causes of their performance slowdowns.
We discovered that database queries were executing duplicate Joins whenever a user loaded customized corporate pricing tables, resulting in page load latencies of over four seconds. The lack of proper database indexing and caching meant that concurrent product searches locked key tables, causing cart abandonment during promotional periods.
Furthermore, the API layer had no rate-limiting or queue management, which meant that synchronous calls from partner platforms (like WhatsApp and Razorpay) could overwhelm the application server. The solution required upgrading the e-commerce core to Magento 2.4.7, optimizing the MariaDB database schema, and decoupling key API integrations.
Unoptimized MariaDB queries on custom B2B pricing tables caused page load latency.
Concurrent product searches regularly triggered database table locks.
Outdated frontend libraries (jQuery and Knockout) slowed down checkout interactions.
The synchronous API structure lacked queuing, exposing the system to transaction spikes.
The Solution
How we turned it around.
Core E-Commerce Upgrade to Magento 2.4.7
We led a comprehensive upgrade of the platform's core e-commerce engine to Adobe Magento 2.4.7. This upgrade resolved legacy security vulnerabilities, introduced compatibility with the latest PHP versions, and enabled modern security standards. We refactored existing custom extensions to align with Magento's native modules, eliminating unnecessary overrides.
By upgrading the core, we also benefited from Magento's native performance improvements, including optimized GraphQL query execution and enhanced database caching.
What we shipped
- Upgraded the platform core to Adobe Magento 2.4.7 for improved security and speed.
- Refactored legacy custom code extensions to use Magento's native modules.
- Upgraded PHP and modernized security compliance across the transaction pipeline.
Database Optimization and QA Automation
We optimized the MariaDB database schema, rewriting slow queries and implementing proper indexing on the product catalog and customer pricing tables. We integrated Redis caching to handle session storage and database caching, reducing query load on the database server.
Additionally, we established a rigorous automated QA framework. We deployed automated testing scripts that simulate thousands of concurrent checkout sessions, ensuring the platform remains stable under load before any code is deployed to production.
What we shipped
- Rewrote unoptimized MariaDB database queries and implemented indexing.
- Integrated Redis caching to reduce database server load and speed up page rendering.
- Deployed an automated QA testing suite to validate performance and checkout stability.
Modular API Integrations (ONDC, WhatsApp, Razorpay)
To support the client's marketplace expansion, we developed secure, asynchronous API connectors for key platforms:
These integrations were designed as plug-and-play modules, allowing the client to onboard future vendors and partners with minimal development overhead.
What we shipped
- **ONDC Integration:** Enabled corporate and student buyers to access a vast national network of local merchants and services directly through the portal.
- **WhatsApp Business API:** Built a transactional workflow allowing users to browse vouchers and complete quick purchases via WhatsApp messaging, using secure Knockout JS layouts.
- **Razorpay Integration:** Deployed a highly secure payment pipeline supporting split payments, corporate credits, and instant refunds.
- Integrated the ONDC marketplace to expand product offerings for buyers.
- Developed a fast, WhatsApp-based voucher purchasing system using REST APIs.
- Deployed a secure Razorpay payment pipeline supporting corporate credit rules.
The Numbers
Outcomes we can talk about.
The upgrade to Magento 2.4.7 and the database optimization successfully transformed the client's B2B commerce platform. By resolving the database query bottlenecks and implementing Redis caching, we eliminated transaction-time database locks and ensured a fast, reliable checkout experience even during high-traffic promotional periods.
While the source material did not record quantitative performance baselines, the qualitative impact of the ONDC and WhatsApp integrations has been immediate. The ONDC integration has significantly expanded the marketplace catalog, offering students and corporate buyers a wider array of products. The WhatsApp voucher purchase module has simplified the transaction journey, driving higher user conversion rates.
Additionally, the transition to a modular API architecture has optimized partner onboarding. The client can now establish connections with major financial and corporate partners using secure, plug-and-play templates. This has accelerated their go-to-market speed, allowing them to expand their network and transaction volumes without increasing IT support costs.
What We Built
What's Next
Implementing AI-driven catalog recommendations and split checkouts.
With the Magento 2.4.7 core stabilized and ONDC integrated, the client plans to develop an AI-driven personalization module. This will analyze employee purchasing patterns and department roles to recommend highly relevant products and financial offers on their dashboard.
The roadmap also includes implementing a multi-vendor split checkout system, allowing users to purchase products from ONDC merchants and traditional catalog vendors in a single transaction while automatically routing payments.
Frequently Asked Questions
About This Project
The questions teams usually ask when they want to run a similar engagement.
We upgraded the core system to Magento 2.4.7, which includes critical security patches, compatibility with PHP 8.2+, and native performance optimizations.
The Real Numbers
Need real numbers? Let's talk.
We kept the names off the page. The story is real, the outcomes are real, and we're always happy to walk a serious team through the rest of it.
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