When one of Estonia’s largest convenience store chains , R-Kiosk (Reitan Convenience Estonia AS), turned to Web Systems in 2021, the situation was critical, with malware operating on the website, causing the page to go down every ten days or so. The hosting provider restored the old backup each time, but the malware soon returned. What was needed was immediate technical intervention and a clear plan to stabilise the R-Kiosk website and keep it secure in the future. From this emergency situation, we have now grown a 5-year IT partnership that has seen us build a brand new website for R-Kioski, many customised modules and keep the system up and running on a daily basis.
Client and project background
R-Kiosk is a trademark of Reitan Convenience Estonia AS and one of the best known convenience chains in Estonia. R-Kiosk offers its customers coffee, quick meals, drinks, magazines, cigarettes, transport tickets and hundreds of everyday products “on the go”. The company is part of the international Reitan Convenience group, which has tens of thousands of outlets across the Nordic and Baltic countries.
The R-Kioski website serves several target groups at once:
- End consumers, looking for the nearest kiosk, look at food menus, coffee card offers and promotions.
- Potential franchisees who are looking into how to become an R-Kiosk entrepreneur and what conditions to meet.
- Jobseekers who look at vacancies, success stories and R-Kiosk values before applying.
- Business customers who use the R-Kioski B2B digital voucher system to motivate their employees and thank their customers.
- Mobile app users, who can find the app’s manuals, terms and conditions and Apple App Store and Google Play links on the site.
The cooperation with Web Systems started in 2021 with an emergency response and quickly grew into a long-term IT partnership. After the initial security issue was resolved, we took over the maintenance and management of the entire site and built a completely new website in the same year.
Challenge: malware, outdated design and broad functionality on a single platform
R-Kiosk already had a website in 2021, but it no longer met the company’s needs or modern standards. The situation was critical on several fronts:
- Persistent malware problem: the page went down on average every ten days. The hosting provider restored the old backup, but the malware came back. The real cause of the problem had not been fixed.
- Outdated design and user experience: the existing visuals no longer matched the face of the R-Kiosk brand, the mobile view was incomplete and the content management was inconvenient for the marketing team.
- Multiple audiences on a single site: the site had to serve end consumers, franchisees, job seekers, business customers and mobile users all at the same time. Each group needed different content, separate content feeds and their own user base.
- Multilingual: content had to be available in both Estonian and Russian, and all campaigns and news had to move in sync between the two languages.
- Franchising: a separate “Becoming an entrepreneur” section was needed to present the terms and conditions of the franchise and receive enquiries from potential franchisees.
- The jobs platform: vacancies, success stories and motivation page had to be clearly structured to support R-Kiosk recruitment across Estonia.
- B2B digital voucher system: business customers wanted to subscribe, manage and share vouchers through a separate environment.
- Location map: dozens of R-Kioski stores across Estonia had to be displayed on a user-friendly map with opening hours and services.
- Constant campaign flow: the marketing team regularly publishes new campaigns, offers and social media content, for which the CMS needs to be particularly flexible.
In addition to the technical requirements, it was important that the solution would be manageable in the long term and not require developer intervention for every minor change. The marketing team needed to be able to manage campaigns, news, food menus and coffee menus directly from the CMS, without technical constraints getting in the way.
Solution: a WordPress base, a custom theme and several custom modules
We started with a thorough mapping exercise: user groups, audience journeys, content flow, integrations and content management needs. Based on the mapping, we chose WordPress as a strong and flexible foundation on which to build a fully custom theme and separate modules for the specificities of R-Kiosk. Multilingualism has been solved using WPML, which synchronizes Estonian and Russian content bilingually. Why thorough planning is the basis for the success of a website, we have also written about in the Website Planning Guide.
Cleaning up debris and creating a secure foundation
As a first step, we went through the existing WordPress core, theme, all plugins and database. We removed malicious code, closed the security holes where intrusions were occurring, and set up automatic scanning and monitoring. After that, we also took over daily maintenance, updates, backups and performance monitoring to ensure long-term security, not just a one-off fix. The R-Kiosk site has been running stably since then, without crashing repeatedly.
Custom theme for R-Kioski brand
A typical WordPress theme would not have been able to cover R-Kiosk’s multiple audiences, custom modules and brand specificity. Therefore, we built a fully custom theme that follows the R-Kiosk brand guidelines in every detail: colours, fonts, icons and animations. The entire user interface is designed according to R-Kiosk’s customers’ expectations: homepage, promotions section, location map, franchise platform, job offers environment and B2B digital voucher system. The design is mobile-first, which means that each element works first on mobile and then on desktop. Read also about our website design service.
Franchise platform “Becoming an entrepreneur”
One of the key business lines of R-Kioski is the franchise model, new entrepreneurs opening their own R-Kioski store. To this end, we have built a dedicated franchise section with detailed information on R-Kioski franchise opportunities, a presentation of terms and conditions and the possibility to submit an enquiry directly on the site. The enquiries are passed on to the R-Kioski team, who can then work with potential franchisees. This section is a dedicated user section designed specifically for those who are exploring the possibilities of becoming an entrepreneur.
Job vacancies environment “Come and work”
R-Kiosk is a large employer with a constant need for recruitment across Estonia, which means that the website must also strongly support recruitment. We built a “Come to work” section that brings together three main sub-sections: vacancies (location and role-based offers), success stories (stories of current R-Kiosk employees and growth paths) and motivation (why come to work at R-Kiosk, what the benefits and opportunities are). Recruitment is conveniently managed directly from the CMS for staff.
B2B digital voucher system
Business customers can order digital vouchers from R-Kiosk, which can be used to motivate employees, thank customers or as part of promotions. For this purpose, we built a dedicated B2B section where business customers can explore offers, submit an enquiry and continue working directly with the R-Kiosk team. This is a functionality that would not be available in a regular pre-made e-commerce site, as it required custom development and separate logic.
Location map and content management
The R-Kioski store map shows all the outlets in Estonia with opening hours and additional information. The map is integrated with R-Kiosk’s own database, so that adding a new store or changing opening hours is done in one place and is displayed correctly everywhere. Users can find the nearest kiosk based on their location or search for a specific city and street.
Mobile app support and Instagram feed
R-Kiosk has its own mobile app (iOS App Store and Google Play), for which the homepage provides a user manual, terms of use and download links. In addition, we integrated an Instagram feed into the homepage, which automatically displays the latest social media posts from R-Kiosk, keeping the content on the page constantly updated without manual intervention from the marketing team.
Other key technical features
- News and press releases section: media and public-facing content with a separate environment, managed directly from CMS.
- Food menu and coffee menu: constantly updated product information with pictures, prices and promotional labels.
- Campaign management: the marketing team can publish new offers directly from the CMS, including time-bound campaigns with start and end dates.
- Google Tag Manager: analytics and conversion tracking are set up consistently across the site.
- GDPR-compliant cookie consent: the user can choose cookie preferences (mandatory, analytical, anonymised) and data will be treated in accordance with EU requirements.
- About the company section: the essence of R-Kiosk, management and owners, values and sustainability, all company information is clearly structured.
- Landing pages: in addition to the main landing page, we have over the years built a number of campaign- and product-specific landing pages that allow the marketing team to quickly make new initiatives visible.
- Security: HTTPS, regular backups, automatic malware scanning, monthly updates of WordPress and plugins.
The result: 5+ years of IT partnership that keeps growing
The first public live version of the new R-Kiosk website will go live in 2021. This was preceded by an extensive testing phase where we checked all modules, content flows and multilingual logic. Since going live, collaboration has continued uninterrupted. Between 2021 and 2025, we have continuously updated the R-Kiosk site with new modules, brand updates, campaign platforms and user experience improvements. Today, rkiosk.ee is an everyday tool for R-Kiosk, serving end consumers, franchisees, job seekers and business customers alike.
2025. In 2010, the R-Kiosk team will be discussing new opportunities, further development, an e-shop solution and an expansion of the overall IT partner role. The long-term cooperation, which started in 2021, has grown into a trusted partnership where R-Kiosk’s business can focus on the core and we take care of the technical side.
Project details
- Client: Reitan Convenience Estonia AS (R-Kiosk)
- Sector: convenience, retail, franchise model
- Platform: WordPress + fully custom theme (custom theme)
- Technologies: WordPress, WPML, PHP, JavaScript, HTML5, SCSS, Google Tag Manager
- Customized modules: franchise platform, job offers environment, B2B digital vouchers, location map, mobile app support.
- Integrations: instagram feed, Google Tag Manager, GDPR-compliant cookie consent, App Store and Google Play references
- Content management: WordPress CMS, flexible campaign and news management for the marketing team
- Services: website development, web design, custom modules development, long-term maintenance.
- Delivery date: 2021 (initial stabilisation + new website), development and maintenance continues to today.
- Team: project manager, front-end developers, back-end developers, designer, technical support specialists.
- Website: rkiosk.ee
For similar large-scale web projects, we stand by our clients’ side every step of the way, from website creation and web design to SEO services and long-term maintenance.