A multi-store pet-care platform that stays fast and secure
Over a four-year partnership, Encomage turned a fragile, upgrade-resistant codebase into a resilient commerce foundation.
THE CLIENT
Healthful Pets is a UK-based e-commerce retailer specializing in natural supplements, treats, grooming and wellness products for dogs, cats and other pets. What started as a single storefront grew into a multi-store operation running on one shared, heavily customized Magento 2 codebase — raising the stakes on every upgrade, integration and checkout flow, since a single fault could ripple across the entire business.
The challenge
As the catalog, traffic and store count grew, the platform's complexity began working against the business. Every unresolved issue translated directly into lost orders, eroded trust, or exposure to fraud.
- Checkout was freezing across payment gateways. High-severity freezes hit Braintree, Stripe and PayPal. Each freeze, payment failure or failed order creation was an abandoned basket — revenue lost at the single most critical step of the funnel.
- The storefront didn't match the back office. Catalog sync and Algolia indexing gaps meant the front end didn't reliably reflect real stock and catalog states, so shoppers saw inaccurate availability and search results — driving lost trust and avoidable support load.
- The platform was hard to upgrade and under active attack. Complex Magento 2 upgrade cycles risked destabilizing a live store, while template injections, bot abuse and card-testing attacks targeted checkout daily.
The solution
Encomage embedded as Healthful Pets' long-term engineering partner, running a system-level optimization program across the platform. Each workstream answered a specific operational risk.
Multi-store architecture management.
Managed the complexity of running multiple storefronts on a single shared codebase — handling store-specific configurations, theme variations and checkout behaviors while preventing code divergence.
Platform modernization.
Executed successive Magento 2 core upgrade cycles through rigorous dependency audits and regression testing, so the store could keep evolving without breaking on live traffic.
Active security defense.
Ran forensic investigations of malicious payloads, hardened checkout input fields, and introduced rate-limiting and stricter payment authentication to shut down card-testing and bot abuse — without disrupting the customer journey.
Integration & checkout optimization.
Remedied asynchronous callback and transactional flaws to stabilize payment paths, while maintaining deep interoperability with Linnworks ERP, Klaviyo and Loyalty Lion.
Operational autonomy.
Moved hardcoded template elements into flexible, CMS-driven admin structures and migrated the blog to a native Magefan solution — so the team can manage content without code deployments.
Stabilized checkout across Braintree, Stripe and PayPal. After the payment-path and callback fixes, the funnel's most critical step recorded zero freezes in twelve months.
At a glance
Client
Healthful Pets
Industry
E-commerce — Pet Care & Wellness
Region / size
United Kingdom · Specialist SMB retailer
Services
Magento engineering & lifecycle upgrades · Multi-store architecture · E-commerce security & fraud prevention · Platform & checkout optimization
Technologies
Magento 2, PHP, Algolia, Braintree / Stripe / PayPal, Linnworks, Klaviyo
Timeline
4-year partnership / ongoing
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THE RESULT
Four years on, Healthful Pets runs on a Magento foundation built to last — upgraded and patched without destabilizing daily trade, reliable across every payment provider, with a storefront that finally reflects real inventory, and a team that ships its own content.
0 freezes
Stable checkout across 3 payment gateways (Braintree, Stripe, PayPal), hardened against freezes and failed orders.
Fewer drop-offs
Payment-path and callback fixes removed a key source of lost revenue at checkout.
In sync
Front end matches the back office: accurate stock, catalog and Algolia search after sync/indexing gaps were closed.
No deploys
CMS-driven admin gives the team independent control of layouts, banners and content.
Services on this project
The Encomage services that delivered this outcome. Keep only the ones that apply and link each to its service page — one, two, or three.
We go beyond building online stores by supporting e-commerce growth. Our team helps you to integrate payment gateways, shipping methods, and ERP systems to achieve your goals.
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See It In Action
Catalog and Algolia search now mirror the back office in real time — accurate stock and results, so shoppers stop hitting phantom availability or empty searches.
Several storefronts, one shared Magento 2 codebase — each with its own config, theme and checkout behavior, kept in sync without letting the code diverge.
CMS-driven admin puts banners, layouts and content in the team's hands — updates that once needed a developer and a deployment now ship in-house.
IN THE CLIENTS WORDS
“Encomage has completed the work in a timely manner, keeping the client informed through a project board. The team is approachable, responsive, and thorough. Encomage's technical expertise and commitment to the partnership have been crucial to the project's success.”
Kay Johnson
Owner
TECHNOLOGIES
