Businesses are changing fast, and they must adapt quickly to meet customer demands while maintaining operational efficiency. As our company specializes in supplying digital gift cards, we are responsible for delivering thousands of gift cards every hour. Previously, we relied on physical gift cards, which were not only expensive to manage and deliver but also risky, as they could be lost in the post. To address these issues, I was in charge of digitalizing our gift card delivery process and building a robust Advance Voucher Management System (AVMS).
The Need for Digitalization
This transformation became even more critical as we expanded our Choice products(Choice is now one of the most popular brand in the UK Gift card market: New Challenges with the Platform), necessitating a robust voucher management system to handle the entire process. The shift from physical/manual to digital gift cards was driven by several factors:
Cost Efficiency: Digital vouchers eliminate the need for manual purchase, management and shipping, significantly reducing costs.
Speed: Digital delivery ensures instant access to gift cards, enhancing customer satisfaction.
Risk Mitigation: Digital vouchers eliminate the risk of physical cards being lost or stolen during delivery.
Challenges in Digital Voucher Management
As we entered the digital gift card market, we discovered a diverse ecosystem of suppliers offering digital gift cards through APIs. Some retailers, like Amazon, had their own proprietary APIs, while others relied on third-party processors. These processors use different technologies, creating potential roadblocks in our voucher delivery system.
Additionally, digital vouchers came in various formats—some as URLs, others as codes, and some requiring a code and PIN combination. Given these complexities, a flexible and scalable architecture was needed. So, microservices architecture came to my mind as a natural solution.
AVMS Architecture
To accommodate two distinct client types(B2C and B2B) requiring vouchers from our ecosystem, I designed a dual API gateway structure:
API Gateway for Internal Application (B2C): This gateway serves our internal applications, such as the Choice platform. For example, when a customer decides to redeem a Choice gift card for an Argos gift card, the Choice platform would connect to this gateway.
API Gateway for 3rd-Party Application:(B2B) This is for external clients who require digital vouchers for their own platforms. This gateway comes with enhanced security and additional microservices to cater to third-party integrations.
Key Microservices in the Voucher Management System
Each gateway is supported by four common core microservices, with an additional service for third-party API connections:
Order Service: This service handles all incoming orders, whether from internal or external platforms.
Catalogue Service: This service provides details about our gift card offering and allows internal teams to manage the retailer catalogue.
Stock Service: This service manages stock levels and works with the order process to ensure availability. Many retailers do not offer API-based gift cards, requiring our team to upload vouchers received via Excel files manually.
The stock service leverages two specialized microservices:
Manual Stock Management: Manage manually uploaded vouchers.
On-Demand Voucher Service: Handle vouchers supplied in real-time through API integrations.
Distribution Service: This service manages voucher delivery via email, offering both standard and customizable templates based on client requirements.
Account Service: This service facilitates account management for external clients, allowing them to configure API connections, create additional accounts, and top up balances.
Given the diverse technologies used by different retailers and processors, isolating them into separate services ensured system resilience. If one retailer or processor faced issues, the rest of the system remained unaffected.
Designing and leading the development of this voucher management system has been an incredibly rewarding experience. The transition from physical to digital gift cards has streamlined operations, reduced costs, and enhanced reliability. By leveraging microservices architecture, we have built a scalable, flexible, and resilient system capable of adapting to the dynamic nature of digital gift card distribution.