Poczta Kartkowa – extensive modernization of a legacy WordPress eCommerce site

Ani Gasparyan

Last updated on December 25, 2025 | 12 min read

• DevsData LLC helped Poczta Kartkowa transform its aging WordPress eCommerce platform into a stable and maintainable system.
• With improved performance and reliable integrations for payments and deliveries, the platform now operates with greater stability.

Introduction

Poczta Kartkowa, a Polish online store offering personalized greeting cards, had built a strong online presence through its WordPress-based eCommerce platform. As the company introduced new card categories, gift bundles, and personalization features, traffic grew significantly during holidays and special occasions. To keep up with this demand, the platform needed technical upgrades to improve speed, reliability, and integrations with payment and delivery services.

DevsData LLC was engaged to strengthen the platform’s stability, improve critical workflows, and enhance integrations with payment and delivery services. The project focused on modernizing the system’s foundation without altering its visual layer, allowing Poczta Kartkowa to serve customers reliably while gaining the technical capacity to support future growth.

Client overview

Poczta Kartkowa is a Polish eCommerce shop focused on greeting cards and gift items. Through its online platform, customers can browse a wide selection of designs and personalize their cards. The company’s offering combines the ease of digital ordering with the personal touch of physical products, helping customers mark special occasions in a memorable way.

Over the years, Poczta Kartkowa has grown into a recognizable brand within its niche. By integrating its store with delivery services and maintaining a diverse product catalog, it has built a loyal customer base. The company’s continued expansion created a need for stronger technical foundations, including improvements to backend architecture and database performance.

Project scope

Poczta Kartkowa engaged DevsData LLC to revamp and stabilize its WordPress eCommerce platform while maintaining the existing customer-facing design. The objective was to establish a stronger technical foundation that would enable the store to handle higher traffic volumes, process orders reliably, and support new business features as the company expanded.

The company chose DevsData LLC for its extensive experience with complex WordPress and eCommerce systems, as well as its proven track record in delivering stable, high-performance platforms for online businesses. DevsData LLC’s ability to combine technical improvements with minimal disruption to ongoing operations was a key factor in the decision.

The scope of work included upgrading WordPress and its plugin ecosystem, refactoring custom functionalities into more maintainable modules, and enhancing the store’s performance during seasonal traffic peaks.

It also covered enhancing integrations with payment gateways and postal services, streamlining order workflows, and introducing monitoring and maintenance practices. Together, these measures aimed to give the platform greater stability and longevity. The project lasted four months, starting with urgent fixes and continuing with phased improvements to performance and system structure.

Challenge

As Poczta Kartkowa’s store expanded, its WordPress platform needed to handle a growing product catalog and higher traffic volumes. In Poland’s rapidly growing eCommerce sector, even a few seconds of delay during checkout can lead to abandoned carts and lost sales. Seasonal peaks, particularly during holidays, put extra pressure on the system and its checkout process.

Another set of challenges involved the technical foundation itself. The platform relied on a mix of custom features and third-party plugins that were difficult to maintain, including outdated extensions for payments and shipping management. These dependencies made updates risky and time-consuming. Integrations with payment gateways and postal services also required greater reliability, as even minor disruptions could impact order fulfillment and customer trust.

The project had to address these challenges step by step, keeping the site available for customers while modernization work was carried out in the background.

DevsData LLC’s approach

To meet the company’s needs, DevsData LLC designed a clear plan that combined stabilization with forward-looking improvements. The approach focused on strengthening system reliability, and long-term performance without disrupting ongoing business operations.

System audit and planning

The work began with a comprehensive review of the WordPress environment. The team prepared a roadmap that prioritized urgent fixes and outlined the steps for gradual modernization, so essential functions would not be interrupted.

Modular refactoring

Custom business logic was separated from the theme and plugin files. By rebuilding these features as dedicated modules, the platform became safer to update and easier to maintain, giving the client confidence in applying future changes.

Performance and reliability focus

Caching, database optimization, and background task handling were built into the plan to improve speed and support higher traffic volumes. As a result, peak shopping periods, such as holidays, no longer caused slowdowns or system instability.

Long-term maintainability

The plan included structured testing, automated backups, and documentation. These measures allowed the client’s team to manage the system more effectively and reduce reliance on emergency technical support.

Execution

With the plan in place, DevsData LLC delivered the modernization in several stages, keeping the store accessible to customers throughout the process. The work involved upgrading WordPress to the latest stable version, optimizing PHP-based backend logic, and updating the MySQL database for faster queries and improved reliability. On the frontend, minor adjustments were made in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to maintain compatibility with newer plugins and performance improvements. Continuous testing and deployment pipelines were also introduced to streamline future updates and minimize downtime.

Stabilization phase

Critical fixes were applied to checkout and order processing to restore reliability and reduce immediate risks. This gave the business a stable foundation before more complex changes were introduced.

Refactoring and upgrades

Custom functionalities were rebuilt into separate plugins, and WordPress, along with key extensions, was upgraded in stages. Each upgrade was tested in a staging environment before being released. This method reduced the risk of incompatibility and gave the client predictable outcomes at every stage.

Performance improvements

Caching layers were introduced, database queries were optimized, and non-essential tasks such as email notifications were moved to background processes. These steps collectively shortened page load times and made browsing and checkout more efficient for customers.

Integration testing

Payment and postal service integrations were tested across multiple scenarios. Safeguards such as retries and fallback mechanisms were introduced, so even in the case of errors or delays, the order workflows would continue uninterrupted.

Monitoring and operations

Error tracking, uptime alerts, and automated backups were implemented, giving the client ongoing visibility into the platform. This proactive setup helped identify and address issues before they could impact customers.

Results

The project was completed in four months, delivering rapid stabilization and lasting improvements that provided the client with a stronger foundation for growth.

• Reliable checkout and order processing

The checkout flow was stabilized, removing disruptions, such as failed payment confirmations and delayed order status updates that had previously affected purchases. Customers were able to complete orders smoothly, which reduced abandoned carts and improved satisfaction.

• Improved performance and faster load times

Optimizations in caching and database handling reduced page load times by up to half. This created a more responsive shopping experience and helped the store perform consistently during traffic surges.

• Resilience under seasonal demand

The system handled peak traffic without interruptions, allowing the business to run campaigns and holiday promotions with confidence. This directly supported higher-order volumes during critical periods.

• Stronger payment and delivery integrations

Payment gateways and postal services operated more reliably, supported by built-in safeguards and error handling. This provided customers with a consistent and dependable checkout and delivery experience.

• Proactive monitoring and support tools

The addition of error tracking, alerts, and backups gave the business visibility into system health. Problems could be detected early, reducing downtime and lowering support costs.

Overall, the project strengthened the store’s technical foundation and created a more dependable platform for both the business team and its customers.

Business Impact

The modernization of Poczta Kartkowa’s eCommerce system created lasting business value. Customers gained a more reliable platform, which built confidence and encouraged repeat purchases. Seasonal campaigns, a vital part of the company’s sales cycle, could now run without the risk of downtime, protecting revenue during high-demand periods.

For the business team, the improvements reduced the time spent on manual troubleshooting and emergency fixes. Reliable integrations with payment and delivery providers simplified operations and lowered the risk of lost orders.

With proactive monitoring and a maintainable codebase, Poczta Kartkowa gained a platform capable of supporting future expansion and new features without jeopardizing day-to-day stability.

Key highlights of business impact

Contact Us

DevsData LLC has delivered more than 100 projects for over 80 clients across Europe, North America, and Latin America. Our experience spans eCommerce modernization, custom software development, and IT recruitment for organizations of all sizes.

We help businesses update their digital platforms, improve performance, and create systems that support everyday work and new business goals. Our engineers and project managers bring hands-on experience from a wide range of industries.

If your company plans to upgrade a WordPress platform or needs technical support for a larger web project, our team can assist.

Contact us at general@devsdata.com or visit www.devsdata.com to learn more about how we can support your next initiative.