AutoChemicals — car care store

About the project

AutoChemicals is an online store for automotive chemicals and car care products built on OpenCart 3. The project covered store migration, a storefront redesign and catalogue expansion using Prom.ua exports. Interface development ran alongside the preparation of product descriptions, attributes, photographs, videos, categories and manufacturer data.

What was delivered

The homepage, header, menu and product page were updated. The catalogue gained price and manufacturer filters, product counts, sorting and pagination that preserve selected conditions. On mobile screens, the filter form opens in a slide-out panel. Live search displays up to six matching products as the customer types.

• The product page includes a gallery, quantity selection, options and tabs for descriptions, specifications and reviews.
• Videos and additional photographs have separate tabs, with a dedicated section for product tags.
• A recently viewed carousel uses the browsing history held in the current session.
• Email-code sign-in and a separate quick-order flow were implemented.
• Checkout includes Nova Poshta city and branch suggestions, coupon entry and a sticky order summary.

A quick order creates an enquiry containing the product and the customer’s contact details. Guests confirm their email with a code; signed-in customers can submit without another code. The enquiry is stored in the database and emailed to the administrator. A paginated list in the administration area provides actions for processing these enquiries.

Technical approach

Python import tools combine exported data, match it against the existing catalogue, create products and manufacturers, and download photographs. The source identifier is stored in the product model field and used on subsequent runs. Following the full import, the database contained 9,687 products.

Content processing includes cleaning HTML descriptions and downloading images into the store. Specifications from export files and lists within descriptions were transferred to OpenCart attributes. A separate media table stores videos and additional photographs; the product controller passes these records to the Twig template for the relevant tabs.

Nova Poshta suggestions use a server-side controller with a one-hour cache and client-side JavaScript. Checkout totals come from OpenCart’s total extensions, while coupons are checked by server-side logic. Sign-in uses a six-digit code with an expiry time, a resend interval and a limit on verification attempts.

SEO and performance

SEO URLs were generated for products, categories and manufacturers from their Ukrainian names. The generator transliterates names and appends an identifier where identical slugs need to be distinguished. Description headings and lists were normalised, and unnecessary styles and formatting markup were removed.

Live search waits briefly before sending a request, and delivery reference data is cached. The recently viewed carousel uses CSS scroll-snap and navigation buttons. Catalogue images are stored with the shop and have cached previews.

The resulting catalogue, search, filters and checkout work with OpenCart data. A reusable import process supports catalogue updates, while the shorter purchase flow has its own enquiry management interface in the administration area.