Pharmacie Veau: a Sylius e-commerce platform for healthcare professionals

With its online business growing fast, Pharmacie Veau needed to modernize its e-commerce site to meet the healthcare sector’s strict regulatory requirements while offering a modern, reassuring user experience. Our agency Blackbird designed and implemented a fully custom e-commerce platform built on Sylius, a modular framework. Here is a look back at a project that called for rigorous management of regulatory constraints and a complete overhaul of the user experience and visual identity.

The Pharmacie Veau brief

Build a new high-performing, highly customizable online store that meets business requirements.

Synolia Group (Blackbird) x Sylius

For a sector as specialized as online pharmacy, traditional monolithic solutions proved too rigid. Pharmacie Veau needed a platform that could adapt, without compromise, to legal requirements and sensitive user journeys. Sylius, an e-commerce framework built on Symfony, was the clear choice for its modularity, its lightweight design, and its ability to handle complex business logic without weighing down the technical foundation.

Our services: specifications and scoping, technical redesign, visual redesign, UX and UI design, custom development, training, application maintenance.

A robust technical foundation for vital features

• Pharmaceutical validation process: a strict workflow that requires manual validation by the pharmacist in the back office for certain orders.

• Secure patient data management: a secure customer profile system, in line with standards for handling sensitive data (including HDS-certified health data hosting).

• Private consultation space: a secure messaging space where patients and pharmacists can interact confidentially after logging in.

Support from integration all the way to visual identity

Integration and ecosystem: connecting the industry’s key tools

With more than 10,000 SKUs and demanding logistics, the new technical foundation had to be not only reliable but also fully interconnectable. The flexibility of Sylius made it easier to integrate third-party components that are essential to the business:

• Optimized logistics with SendCloud: SendCloud was implemented to centralize and automate shipping management (tracking, labels, carriers), which is essential for handling a large volume of orders in France and internationally.

• Secure payments with Payplug: Payplug was integrated, chosen for its compliance with healthcare sector constraints and its ability to deliver a smooth, secure checkout for end users.

In-depth specification workshops were held upfront to scope all non-native requirements (patient profiles, validation, specific delivery options, etc.). This design phase ensured a clean, scalable architecture and avoided the buildup of technical debt. A complete data migration (products, customers, history) was also carried out to ensure a seamless transition from the old platform.

New visual identity: reassurance and modernity

Blackbird’s UX/UI team designed a fully custom art direction. The ambition was to move away from the cold, institutional codes often associated with the medical field and adopt a warmer, more modern aesthetic inspired by cosmetics e-commerce standards, combining expert advice, reassurance, and the pleasure of shopping.

The approach focused on a more emotional user experience:

• Visual redesign: a clear, airy, and welcoming interface. Subtle micro-animations, carefully crafted layouts, and typography designed to inspire trust improved brand perception.

• Logo evolution: the historic cross symbol was modernized with colorful shapes that add personality and a contemporary feel, strengthening recognition while aligning the pharmacy with a more current brand image.

Results and outlook: Sylius, the future of healthcare e-commerce

The Pharmacie Veau redesign is an excellent example of how Sylius meets the unique challenges of e-commerce in the healthcare sector: fine-grained management of roles and permissions, extensive business customization, strict regulatory compliance (HDS), and integration of critical third-party services.

Thanks to solid strategic scoping, a future-proof technical architecture, and transparent collaboration with the Pharmacie Veau team, the project was a success. The new platform provides a secure, high-performing, and adaptable foundation, ready to support future expansion plans and evolving online regulatory requirements.

 

Have an e-commerce project with demanding business constraints? Discover how our Sylius expertise can transform your online business!

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