Works | 123Bain
How Codilar Helped 123Bain Streamline Commerce with Automation and AWS
Company
Overview
123Bain, legally known as NESSBY SARL, is a niche yet rising name in the French home improvement market. Operating out of Lyon with a secondary office in Paris, the company sells bathroom and wellness fittings directly to homeowners, architects, and renovation firms via its flagship eCommerce platform, 123bain.fr.
With a lean team and no physical showrooms, the brand has focused on digital-first operations since it began trading in 2010. Through the years, its catalog has grown to include third-party brands, as well as a private label line called Kroos. 123Bain is recognized for competitive prices and value-based products, which allowed it to stake a claim in a crowded retail environment by providing factory-direct pricing and a simple shopping experience.
However, this growth came with baggage like technical debt, manual processes, and an infrastructure that simply couldn’t keep up. That’s where Codilar stepped in.
Objectives & Challenges
As 123Bain grew, serious issues with their tech stack became apparent: slow syncs, manual processes, downtime, and added operational pressure. The path forward was clear: modernize the foundation, automate what can be automated, and build resilience for the future.
Outdated Hosting Setup
The legacy on-premises hosting was not up to par. It lacked flexibility, could not scale on demand, and was a recurring cause of downtime, especially during peak periods. Codilar took the challenge to migrate everything over to AWS without disrupting the business.
Manual Product Catalog Management
123Bain was still relying heavily on manual data entry to update its Magento catalog. This not only slowed down product launches but also led to inconsistent or incorrect product information reaching customers. A tighter, automated sync with Pimcore was badly needed.
No Real-Time Data Sync
The lack of a live connection between Pimcore (the PIM) and Magento meant updates had to be exported in batches. This created latency and errors, particularly when product attributes, images, or categories were changed.
Fragmented Backups & No Disaster Recovery
The system didn’t have a reliable backup or recovery plan. There were fragmented procedures in place, but no structured disaster-recovery framework. Any system issue meant real risk, not just to uptime but to the business itself.
No Active Monitoring or Incident Management
If something broke at 3 a.m., the team wouldn’t know until customers started complaining. Codilar had to put 24/7 monitoring in place with clear alerting systems and an 8-hour incident resolution SLA.
Solution Approach
Codilar took a modular approach to modernize 123Bain’s systems without breaking the rhythm of business. The work was split across three main areas: cloud migration, Magento-Pimcore integration, and monitoring & maintenance.
Codilar began with a deep environment assessment to identify risks and plan a zero-downtime migration. After setting up AWS EC2 instances, configuring networking and security groups, we executed a smooth cutover with performance tuning along the way. Traffic switched over without any disruptions.
Building the Magento-Pimcore Connector
This was the heart of the transformation. Codilar built a custom integration framework using asynchronous REST endpoints, RabbitMQ queues, and dynamic mapping layers.
- On the Magento side, Codilar developed endpoints for managing products, attributes, categories, and assets, with built-in logging and notifications.
- On the Pimcore side, we used RabbitMQ producers to enqueue published product and category IDs. These were consumed and pushed into Magento in near real-time.
- A new configuration object, CodilarPimcoreMagentoConnector, was created to store all the environment settings like API tokens, instance URLs, and attribute mappings in one central place.
The goal was to ensure that data synced quickly, with precision, and without involving manual touchpoints.
Monitoring and Disaster Preparedness
Once the system was stable and data pipelines were functioning well, Codilar directed its attention to ongoing support. We implemented 24/7 monitoring across the server and services, equipped with alerting systems to catch and escalate issues before they became full-blown problems.
- Daily automated backups of all databases and media were pushed to Amazon S3
- Varnish was used to speed up HTTP requests
- Redis managed caching and session storage
- Codilar also defined AWS-aligned disaster recovery playbooks to prepare for worst-case scenarios
Solution Highlights
The solution was a full rethink of how 123Bain’s digital engine should work. Codilar designed every piece to make sure that manual friction is reduced, system resiliency is enhanced, and the internal team gets the space to focus on growth instead of grunt work.
Zero-Downtime Migration to AWS
The transition from on-prem to cloud was carried out flawlessly. The transition happened during off-peak hours and was completed without taking the site offline. Post-migration, performance tuning helped the new setup handle spikes and maintain speed even under load.
Real-Time Magento-Pimcore Integration
Instead of old-fashioned batch exports, product data now flows to Magento in real time. The custom connector guarantees that product additions, edits, and deletions are passed to Magento from Pimcore within minutes. The benefits? Speedier product launches and fewer errors.
Resilient Message Queues and Error Handling
Codilar built in RabbitMQ queues with retry logic and custom logging to ensure updates don’t silently fail. If something doesn’t sync, the system knows, and the team gets notified. That level of reliability wasn’t even possible in the old setup.
Daily Backups and Smart Caching
Going beyond just scheduling, we made sure that the backups are automated and shipped to Amazon S3, protecting both the site and its content. Varnish and Redis were layered to efficiently handle caching and session management, resulting in improved load performance and overall stability of the system.
Always-On Monitoring
Codilar rolled out a 24/7 monitoring setup that tracks key server and service health metrics. If anything breaks, alerts are triggered and support is mobilized, backed by a clear 8-hour incident response SLA. It’s like giving the system its own watchdog.
Top Features and Functionalities
Codilar didn’t just integrate systems; we made them smarter, leaner, and easier to manage. Here’s what stood out:
Custom REST Endpoints for Magento
Products, categories, attributes, and assets now flow through dedicated endpoints designed to handle both creation and update scenarios. They also validate Pimcore IDs and create missing data on the fly.
Dynamic Mapping Layer
The connector handles complex data structures like object bricks and localized fields from Pimcore and translates them into formats Magento understands, without manual intervention. This was key to achieving real-time sync without hardcoding.
CodilarPimcoreMagentoConnector Configuration Object
This object acts like the brain of the connector. It stores environment-specific values like API tokens, store views, and class-node mappings. Changing environments or scaling to new store views is now a config update, not a dev project.
Reliable RabbitMQ Messaging
Every event (be it a new product or category change) is pushed into a RabbitMQ with retry handlers and dead-letter queues so that there is never a chance that an event will be missed. It’s designed with volume as well as accuracy in mind.
Integrated Notification Layer
Errors don’t just get logged; they get communicated. Codilar set up custom logging tools and integrated notification endpoints so the team is never caught off guard by silent sync failures or system hiccups.
Results and Impact
The impact of the overhaul was way beyond just technical; it changed how 123Bain operated day-to-day. Manual processes got slashed. Systems stopped failing quietly. Teams moved faster.
Faster Sync and Fewer Errors
- Product sync latency dropped from hours to under 2 minutes
- Data-entry workload was cut by 90%
- Manual exports and the catalog errors they caused were virtually eliminated.
Improved Uptime and Site Performance
- Website uptime stabilized at 99.9%
- Response times improved thanks to Varnish and Redis
- Traffic spikes no longer trigger slowdowns or crashes
Operational Efficiency
- 123Bain can now onboard 2,000 new SKUs in under 4 hours, a process that used to take 3 days
- Internal teams spend far less time chasing sync errors and more time on growth initiatives
Monitoring and Recovery Confidence
- The 24/7 monitoring setup means no more waiting for complaints to find out something’s wrong
- Codilar’s DR playbooks now offer a clear path for incident handling and rollback if ever needed
Conclusion
123Bain’s digital transformation was never about flash—it was about function. Codilar helped the brand rebuild from the backend up, creating a system that’s fast, fault-tolerant, and far easier to scale.
Manual workflows were replaced by automation. Downtime gave way to resilience. What used to take days now takes hours or less. The Magento-Pimcore connector didn’t just bridge two platforms; it connected the dots across people, processes, and performance.
Today, 123Bain runs a tighter, smarter operation where tech works behind the scenes and the team can finally look ahead instead of putting out fires. The future of digital commerce for this niche French retailer? A lot more frictionless than its past.
