How do you give pet owners the material they need?

Flamingo Pet Products in Olen (Belgium) is the place to be for non-food pet products. Toys, collars, cat flaps, food and drink bowls, Flamingo’s got whatever it is you’re looking for. They are also active on an international level: they deliver their products to 55 countries and their website is available in six languages. The pet product specialist needed a new B2B webshop, as its old system was outdated and not user-friendly. So in October 2021, the company came to us wondering if we could help build it a new online home.
Flamingo-Headerfoto | iO

Client

Flamingo Pet Products

Solution

New B2B webshop, ERP integration, import product data through a PIM system

A new look & feel, a new webshop

Right before Flamingo Pet Products came to us, the company had undergone a complete rebranding, which it wanted to roll out by the end of 2020. This meant we had to get the new B2B webshop up and running quickly. Therefore, we chose, together with Flamingo, to complete the webshop build in several phases. The first phase would be fairly basic but could be set up relatively quickly so the new webshop could be presented at the same time as the rebranding.

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The project in numbers

10-11

Time to market in months (Large project scope and lots of custom development)

1200+

Number of registered B2B customers

8500

Product offers

A step-by-step approach

As mentioned before, the build of the new B2B webshop was split up into several phases – 4, to be exact:

Phase 1: setting up an online product catalogue. We used Shopware as a starting point but left all e-commerce functionalities such as sign-up, check-out and pricing hidden.

Phase 2: activating all e-commerce functionalities. Flamingo Pet Products now has a fully-functioning B2B webshop.

Phase 3: developing additional functionalities for the webshop. This phase is still ongoing at the time of writing.

Phase 4: adding a ‘consumer mode’ to the B2B webshop. This consumer mode will allow Flamingo’s B2C retailers to help customers order Flamingo products that aren’t in stock in their physical shops. Additionally, the consumer mode will also hide all B2B information.

We chose Shopware to build Flamingo’s new B2B webshop because the e-commerce platform allows us to quickly build a new website. Moreover, Shopware’s CMS is very user-friendly.

A custom portal for B2B customers

The new Flamingo Pet Products’ B2B webshop can now be used by existing and new customers. Existing customers can easily log in to the webshop with their customer ID, physical address and email address.

New customers can create an account by filling in a form. Before new customers can place orders, an employee of Flamingo Pet Products has to check and validate their information first.

Incentive to create an account

When webshop visitors aren’t logged in, they can not see the product prices. Ordering is also not an option without an account. This way, B2B visitors are encouraged to create an account.

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Additional functionalities for a better user experience

To make the new B2B webshop even more user-friendly, we are developing several additional functionalities such as:

  • Notifications for customers when a product is back in stock.

  • Additional filtering for products.

  • The possibility for Flamingo Pet Products to track missed sales opportunities within their ERP system.

  • Further automation of the flow that validates new customers’ accounts.

Happy customers

Flamingo Pet Products’ customers are happy with the new B2B shop. In just a few weeks, the webshop’s number of registered customers more than doubled – growing from 500 to over 1200 active users (!).

Conclusion

Flamingo Pet Products’ new webshop is another example of how important it is to have a user-friendly platform. At the time of writing, the B2B webshop has been live for almost 8 months and already has more active users than the old webshop ever had. We can’t wait to see what the effects of the next round of UX improvements will be.

Do you have a Shopware project you need help with?

Or are you looking to give your B2C or B2B customers the best possible user experience on your platform? If so, don’t hesitate to contact our experts. Together, we will outline a strong strategy for your business.

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