Case Study

Interquell Petfood

Interquell Petfood: 16-month major project instead of 6-month MVP
– and everyone is happy

Why switch off a high-end CMS if you want to focus even more on individualized content in your online stores for B2C and B2B customers in the future? What is the best tool to use to build an ambitious loyalty world? And how do you manage to run a store relaunch and the introduction of a new ERP in parallel? Interquell Petfood has found an answer to all these questions together with SHOPMACHER.

Shopware 6

Shop system

Integrated platform project with ERP & loyalty world

approach

Months implementation time

About Interquell Petfood

Interquell Petfood is a leading provider of high-quality pet food dedicated to the health and well-being of dogs and cats. With its four brands Happy Dog, Happy Cat, Goood and FischFit, the company feeds millions of dogs, cats and fish every day. Through its online stores Goood-Petfood.de, Happydog.de and Happycat.de, the company has built up a loyal community – both in the end customer business and in the B2B sector, for example with vets, breeders and retailers.

The challenge

The manufacturer’s online shops were outdated: The previous stores were running on Shopware 5 – a platform whose life cycle was coming to an end and which no longer offered a stable, updatable solution in the medium term. It was clear to Interquell that it needed a modern architecture with better performance, streamlined workflows and long-term update capability. The company was also planning to introduce a new ERP system (Xentral) and build an individual loyalty world – a challenging project that brought together many teams, systems and requirements. “You can think of this project as a bridge that is built from both ends in two sections,” explains Sabine Götz, Lead Consultant New Business at SHOPMACHER. “The trick is to find the perfect fit at the end.”

Clear Prioritization and Focus on Key Business Processes

As the old online shops were unstable, they were to be replaced by a minimum viable product (MVP) within six months. However, after a brief health check of the existing tech stack by SHOPMACHER, it turned out that the websites could be stabilized with minimal effort so that they could continue to operate safely for at least a little while longer. “This gave us time to plan the entire project properly,” explains Sabine Götz, Lead Consultant New Business at SHOPMACHER. “Instead of implementing a rushed job, we were able to take our time to scrutinize, streamline and optimize all systems and their processes and workflows.”

This time was well invested, as the requirements for the new onlien shops were diverse. They not only had to meet the needs of pet owners, but also facilitate collaboration with B2B customers such as vets, breeders, retailers and dog schools – and not just in Germany, but internationally in a total of 15 channels, from the UK to Indonesia and Hungary. For example, an automated approval process for prescription products such as special food was to be implemented with veterinarians.

The content management system was a particular focus of the project. It was important for the pet food supplier to be able to address its different target groups individually in the store. In addition, individual role and rights structures had to be set up for the many international teams. Despite the complex requirements, the project partners jointly decided on an unusual but pragmatic step: the previous content management system was switched off despite its immense range of functions and replaced by the integrated CMS from Shopware 6. “With the old CMS, the caching in particular was not properly implemented,” explains Sabine Götz. “This made the store very slow. To fix the problem, we would have had to completely rebuild the caching.”

In addition, the integrated content management system of Shopware 6 had a major USP in the eyes of those responsible: thanks to the direct connection to the Rule Builder, a tool with which various business rules and processes can be controlled automatically, workflows can be made more efficient and better coordinated. These include, for example, discount campaigns, the adjustment of shipping costs depending on the delivery location or shopping cart, product availability displays for certain customer groups or the dynamic adjustment of available payment options.

Another strategic focus was the introduction of a loyalty world. After a thorough evaluation of all available solutions, Interquell Petfood opted for the Talon.One promotion engine. “During the requirements survey, we saw that the company uses many promotions, including unusual ones,” says Sabine Götz. “Although it’s not impossible to manage all of this with Shopware, there was still a risk that we wouldn’t be able to map one or two promotions in this way and would then have to develop them in a time-consuming and error-prone manner. By implementing Talon, we have created a toolbox that we can use today and in the future to implement any crazy campaign.”

Result

The original six-month MVP ultimately turned into a major 16-month project – with a happy ending. Workflows were automated, processes streamlined and stabilized, order processing made easier, store management simplified and customer loyalty raised to a new level. The connection to Xentral also went without a hitch. In Sabine Götz’s eyes, the fact that the collaboration worked so smoothly is primarily down to perfect team play and a sense of reality: “With such a long project, time keeps moving – and faster than you’d like,” she says. “There are new requirements from stakeholders or external influences that seem to come out of nowhere. It’s important to weigh things up carefully and follow the guiding star of the vision with a certain amount of pragmatism.”

There are already plans for the further expansion of the stores. A product information management system is to be introduced to improve the quality of product data, there are new ideas for the loyalty programme and internationalization is also to be driven forward. Pragmatism and a sense of reality will also be required here.

CHARACTERISTICS

Client:

Interquell Petfood

Result:

3 new stores, 15 sales channels

GoLive:

4/2024

Performance modules:

  • Health check
  • Consulting system architecture
  • Technical conception & requirements management
  • Implementation frontend and backend
  • ERP implementation
  • Loyalty program integration

Technologies:

  • Shop system: Shopware 6
  • ERP: Xentral
  • Promotion engine: Talon.One
  • Payment provider: Mollie
Highlights:
  • Use of SW6 CMS
  • Implementation of Loyalty World on the basis of Talon.One
  • Integration of B2B and B2C store on one platform

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