Enterprise eCommerce Platform

Overview

A major electronics manufacturer's eCommerce platform had grown into a monolithic application that was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and evolve. Multiple teams were blocked waiting for deployments, feature development was slow, and the codebase had become fragile. The business needed to accelerate innovation while maintaining stability for their high-revenue platform.

We led the migration to a micro-frontend architecture, breaking the monolith into independent, deployable modules owned by different teams. Each team gained autonomy over their domain while maintaining a cohesive user experience. We implemented a sophisticated module federation system, shared design system, and comprehensive testing strategy.

The new architecture enabled teams to ship features independently, dramatically increasing development velocity while actually improving platform stability through better isolation and testing.

Objectives

Migrate monolithic frontend to micro-frontend architecture
Enable independent team deployments without coordination
Maintain consistent UX across all modules
Reduce deployment time from hours to minutes
Improve development velocity by at least 40%

Challenges & Approach

Challenge

Managing shared dependencies across micro-frontends

Solution

Implemented Webpack Module Federation with versioned shared libraries and careful dependency management

Challenge

Maintaining consistent UX across independent teams

Solution

Built comprehensive design system with component library, shared styles, and automated visual regression testing

Challenge

Handling authentication and routing across modules

Solution

Created shell application managing global state, routing, and authentication with clean module boundaries

Challenge

Ensuring performance with multiple bundles

Solution

Optimized bundle splitting, implemented strategic preloading, and used shared chunks for common dependencies

Outcomes & Impact

50% reduction in average feature delivery time

Independent deployments for 6 teams without coordination

Deployment time reduced from 3 hours to 15 minutes

35% improvement in developer productivity

Zero regressions in production over 6 months

Key Learnings

Micro-frontends are not a silver bullet—they introduce complexity that must be carefully managed. The key to success is clear module boundaries and strong team ownership. We learned that over-sharing code between micro-frontends creates coupling that defeats the purpose. Instead, some duplication is acceptable if it preserves autonomy.

A robust shared design system is non-negotiable for micro-frontend success. Without it, UX consistency suffers and development efficiency decreases. We also learned that comprehensive end-to-end testing becomes more critical, as integration issues can hide in the boundaries between modules. Investing in testing infrastructure early pays massive dividends.