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Offshore Development Center
We build your dedicated R&D team on a long-term basis, deliver results quickly and cost-effectively, and ensure full transparency on all costs.
Building and scaling an offshore R&D team for a global eCommerce brand
By setting up a dedicated development team, we helped Karma become a leading global shopping technology platform.
Industry
eCommerce
Partnership
2018 – ongoing
Team size
27 at peak
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Table of contents
Customer’s feedback
Company overview
Karma is an international eCommerce technology company that helps millions of shoppers discover discounts, organize wishlists, compare prices and receive automated coupon recommendations across thousands of retailers.
Project objectives
Before contacting us, the customer was struggling with performance scalability and technical limitations that made it difficult to grow as a flagship product.
The system required a major upgrade, including architecture and infrastructure redesign and process optimization.
Our task
- Hire and build a dedicated development team
- Establish development processes
- Drive the product to market leadership
Technology stack
- Backend API: Ruby on Rails, Java, Node.js, AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions
- Frontend: React.js, Express.js (SSR), Swift (Safari extensions)
- Mobile: Flutter
- Databases: AWS RDS (PostgreSQL), Redis, Elasticsearch
- Infrastructure: Kubernetes, AWS, Google Cloud
- Backend scraping: Sidekiq, Puppeteer, CI/CD pipelines with feature environments
- AI: Copilot, Cursor, ChatGPT
Our solution
In the first years of our collaboration, the team grew from four to more than 20 specialists. At its peak, the team reached 27 experts, including:
- Backend developers
- Frontend engineers
- Mobile developers
- DevOps engineers
- QA engineers
- Shop developers
The R&D team handled day-to-day delivery and technical leadership, while the customer’s CTO remained the main product stakeholder.
Technical approach
Our first priority was to resolve deployment bottlenecks and address reliability challenges that were slowing down growth. The DevOps and backend teams rebuilt the platform foundation, introducing scalable architecture and modern orchestration tools to support long-term development and product evolution.
Key technical achievements:
- Cloud and infrastructure modernization
- Migrated hosting from Heroku to AWS, increasing performance and reducing operational costs.
- Shifted service orchestration from Docker Swarm to Kubernetes, enabling resilient and independent environments for development, testing, and production.
- Data architecture Improvement
- Migrated databases from PostgreSQL to AWS RDS, while optimizing Redis and Elasticsearch for improved speed and scalability.
- Migrated databases from PostgreSQL to AWS RDS, while optimizing Redis and Elasticsearch for improved speed and scalability.
- Performance and process automation
- Replaced Phantom.js with Puppeteer for web scraping, making data collection faster and more reliable.
- Swapped AWS SQS for Sidekiq to streamline queue management and reduce complexity.
- Faster and safer development
- Rolled out fully isolated feature environments, allowing multiple teams to demo, test, and release new functionality without disrupting production.
- Rebuilt the frontend using React.js, expanding browser extension coverage to Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Edge. Integrated native Swift code for Safari compatibility.
- Mobile transformation
- Replaced the legacy Xamarin.Forms mobile app, which itself had previously replaced older native applications, with a completely new Flutter application, launched in early 2023. This provided a unified codebase and a seamless user experience across both platforms.
- Replaced the legacy Xamarin.Forms mobile app, which itself had previously replaced older native applications, with a completely new Flutter application, launched in early 2023. This provided a unified codebase and a seamless user experience across both platforms.
To optimize delivery, we moved from traditional sprints to a Kanban-based workflow. This allowed engineering, design, and QA teams to collaborate more efficiently, launch releases in parallel, and reduce lead times for new feature rollouts.
Back-office services covered
Beyond the above, we provided the customer with comprehensive operational support:
- Fully equipped office with parking, modern workstations, and meeting rooms
- Hardware plus allowance for additional equipment
- Payroll management
- Accounting and legal support
- Dedicated HR support for onboarding, retention, and employee well-being
- Competitive benefits package
Results
We set up and scaled an offshore R&D team that fully owned and delivered all technical expertise for the customer’s product development and enhancement.
The product transformed from a legacy monolith into a resilient, cloud-native ecosystem with independent environments, automated pipelines, and full mobile and browser coverage, now serving millions of users globally.
Key outcomes:
- R&D team scaled to 27 specialists in four years
- Highly scalable cloud architecture, enabling reliable operations
- Major reduction in deployment risks and downtime
- Faster release and demo cycles
- Full, cross-platform coverage (mobile and browser)
- Ongoing rollout of new AI-driven features
Karma secured multiple investment rounds and now runs a leading global shopping technology platform with strong investor backing. The R&D team continues to drive development, rolling out new mobile initiatives, AI modules, and platform enhancements.
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