Digital catalog and e-commerce to boost the drive to store

In the consumer electronics sector, 24/7 access to the entire catalog and to rich, up-to-date product information is a crucial competitive factor, even for sector brands that do not have a proprietary retail network, but are distributed by large consumer electronics retail chains and general retailers.

In this framework, the main goal of an e-commerce website is to generate awareness for the entire offering, then encourage omni-channel purchase at each touchpoint, even of third parties: an info-commerce where the customer can naturally finalize the purchase in a self-service manner, but the main scope of which is the drive to store, to the points of sale where the products are mainly distributed.

The company that engaged Lutech in a project to revise the technology of the entire digital e-commerce platform is a well-known Italian brand in the consumer electronics sector, a leader in the production of accessories for mobile phones. Its commercial strategy provides for the use of as many touchpoints as possible, of which those at large-scale retail stores are certainly the most functional for the business.

The client’s objective was, primarily, to create a complete and exhaustive information aggregation hub that would provide a global view of the offering through exhaustive product sheets: detailed information, videos, galleries, chat support, to improve the customer experience in the webrooming phase.

The redesign of the user experience at UI/UX level, together with the structuring of a new e-commerce platform, has played a key role in achieving greater involvement, necessary to meet the KPIs set, including, of course, increasing the drive to store.

The customer chose to internalize the B2C e-commerce service with SAP Commerce, using the existing in-house technologies (SAP ERP ECC, SAP Commerce B2B), for both its brands: the project therefore involved two multi-language and multi-currency B2C websites, one of which is open to European commerce, while the “main” site continues to offer products in Italy, but also drives info-commerce in the rest of Europe.

For both brands, a complete user experience design was required, which would be as close as possible to the most innovative market best practices.

The back-end side, moreover, was intended to intervene on some application elements to speed up the flow of information and prepare the platform for a unification aimed at collecting the largest amount of customer experience-related data.

Specifically, Lutech not only implemented the new e-commerce on SAP platform, with the corresponding integrations, but also supported and guided the client in defining the customer journey flows through restyling of the UI/UX structure.

The redesign of the front-end was preceded by analysis of different areas:

• Technical and process assessment through an analysis of the technological infrastructure present upon taking charge of the project
• Analysis of internal processes, to define the communication methods of the e-commerce platform with CRM, ERP, logistics system and product management software, and external processes, to identify solutions and methods of integration with the payment gateway, analytics, marketing automation systems, etc.
• Analysis of functional business and marketing requirements

More specifically, the analysis of the UI/UX structure involved the following:

• Use of a “heat map” to obtain a precise idea of the navigation functionality.
• Investigation and identification of critical issues that may arise in the user purchase and engagement flow.
• Service design, content and image management.
• Meeting the functional requirements of e-commerce and communication.

SAP Commerce was naturally integrated with the existing SAP ERP ECC and the SAP Commerce B2B model. The use of solutions from the same vendor not only allowed a more streamlined process, but also ensured the activation of typical and exclusive features

that make SAP Commerce B2C one of the leading solutions on the market, including: enhanced search, flexible promotions, customization of content, offers and recommendations using real-time insights, powerful merchandising capabilities that constantly adapt the positioning of products using predefined business objectives, management of multi-language catalogs.

The process involved the use of the SAP DataHub data communication module for the component which sends orders and monitors the status of shipments and for receiving the product catalog between B2C and B2B.

Lutech’s value component was completed with the choice of an external service provider for the management of payment gateways and customer service. The SAP Commerce add-on for the Smartedit Content Management System was also implemented in order to create specific objects for better management of the user interface and the creation of a special plugin for the integration of the catalog with the Amazon marketplace in FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant) mode.

This project has allowed the brand to offer customized digital commerce experiences and speed up the digital transformation, significantly accelerating time to value.