Industry: Furniture Industry

450% More Products with Marketplace Integration

+450%
Added Products
<revenue.grown>
Single Source of Truth
<customers.engaged>
New Sales Channels
<network.enabled>
White chest of drawers with decor and stylish chair near yellow wall

The Challenge

Black Red White is Poland's largest furniture group, responsible for around 20% of all sales in the domestic furniture market. It specializes in the production and distribution of furniture and home furnishings. The company has been offering a diverse selection of products at competitive prices for three decades. Thanks to this, Black Red White has become one of the most recognizable and valued brands on the Polish market. Currently, BRW's offer is available not only in furniture showrooms throughout Poland and in the online store, but also in 55 foreign markets.

Due to the constant expansion of the assortment base, the company wanted to open a marketplace for partners and distributors to acquire new products for the brand’s retail customers. In addition, Black Red White's goal was to launch a new B2C sales channel through Home24, a popular marketplace platform in Germany. It was necessary to organize, standardize and centralize dispersed product information, as well as perform system integrations.

  • Black Red White had several different sources and systems storing product information, which resulted in scattered and inconsistent data, as well as problems with its timeliness.
  • As the product range grew, managing product data became difficult and time-consuming, hence the need to implement a system that would enable the easy editing, updating and publishing of product information across multiple channels.
  • With an ever-growing product range, it became necessary to reduce the time to market for new products, taking into account various channels such as the company's own e-commerce and marketplace.
  • With the growth of Black Red White, there was also a need to introduce a new business model - providing partners and distributors with a marketplace platform and enabling them to sell items in the BRW's online store.
  • It was necessary to integrate all systems in the company and ensure their smooth operation.
Mariusz Nowak
E-commerce and Omnichannel Strategy Director
Black Red White

"Without organizing our product base and implementing system solutions that allow us to import data obtained from our partners in bulk, it would not have been possible to both quickly scale our product range and launch our own marketplace. Pimcore’s integration with Baselinker, on the other hand, made it easier for us to start direct sales in foreign markets. Using the Unilinker integration platform for this purpose gave us the performance and flexibility we needed. Our implementation partner, the Univio team, gave us the right support both in terms of technology selection and in the implementation of these projects."

The Solution

  • At the beginning of our cooperation, we conducted a workshop to identify the needs of Black Red White.
  • In order to effectively manage product information, we implemented a PIM-class system - Pimcore.
  • To ensure full scalability and performance of the PIM system, we used AWS cloud infrastructure and Elasticsearch - a tool designed for advanced data search and indexing.
  • The implementation of the PIM system was divided into two stages. The first involved feeding Black Red White's e-commerce with ERP data. The second involved opening the marketplace to accept products from third-party vendors, making products available for sale on BRW's own e-commerce platform.
  • The PIM system's functionalities also include the automatic grouping of products into coherent structures. This makes it easy to associate items with each other. For example, presented dressers in different colors will be visible as variants of the same product, which can be configured from a single tab, greatly speeding up work.
  • To ensure a seamless flow of data between the PIM system and the marketplace, we have made appropriate integrations.
  • As a result of the integration, the PIM system sends the data model to the marketplace platform, where suppliers complete the product information. PIM then retrieves the updated data and transfers it to the e-commerce, where it is presented to end customers.
  • In order to integrate customer systems such as Pimcore or ERP with the BaseLinker tool, we used the previously implemented Unilinker integration platform. This is Univio's proprietary integration hub, ensuring high efficiency in transferring data between systems.
  • The Unilinker integration platform enables the transfer of key data to BaseLinker: product data and category tree from Pimcore, as well as inventory, prices and invoices from the ERP system.
  • Ultimately, the product information goes to the German marketplace Home24.
Interior of living room with yellow sofa and shelving unit

The Result

+450%
Products Added
As a result of integrating with the marketplace, the product range available in BRW e-commerce has almost quintupled within 3 months (20,000 vs. 90,000).
<revenue.grown>
Single Source of Truth
Centralizing all data in one database and its automatic updates make PIM the sole reliable source of information for the entire organization.
<data.centralized>
New Sales Channels
Integrations with marketplaces have opened up new business opportunities, including those related to cross-border sales.
<sales.supported>
Efficient Data Management
PIM enables efficient management of product information across all distribution channels.
<data.managed>
Time Saved
Data entered into the PIM system is also sent to marketplace and e-commerce platforms.
<time.saved>
Full System Integration
The integration of the PIM with e-commerce and marketplace platforms enables effective data management, swift time-to-market, and adaptation to various channels
<systems.integrated >
Scalable Architecture
The AWS Cloud provides the ability to scale infrastructure up or down based on the volume of product data and system load.
<future.proofed>
Errors Reduced
Thanks to AWS tools for monitoring performance and availability the infrastructure on which the PIM system operates remains stable.
<risks.avoided>
BRW Cross-border model

Cross-Border E-commerce Model for a Furniture Maker

Black Red White

Launching sales in the marketplace for BRW.

<crossborder.enabled>  <risk.mitigated>  <data.unified> 

We Can Help You
As Well

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