Winterhalter + Fenner Redefines Customer-Centricity with Spryker

Winterhalter + Fenner partnered with Spryker and valantic to launch a flexible, multi-store B2B platform with intuitive navigation and self-service tools that powers up to 80% of their sales.

Winterhalter + Fenner Redefines Customer-Centricity with Spryker

Winterhalter + Fenner partnered with Spryker and valantic to launch a flexible, multi-store B2B platform with intuitive navigation and self-service tools that powers up to 80% of their sales.

80%

Of sales through the webshop

220000+

Products in stock

Shops on one instance

Introduction

A Promise of Quality in E-commerce

Winterhalter + Fenner is committed to winning the trust of its customers by guaranteeing a high standard of quality and innovative strength. This includes pursuing the highest technical standard in e-commerce. So when the rigidity of their previous commerce system was unable to adapt to the changes of a dynamic industry, they decided to replatform to create a new, sustainable, and innovative technological foundation that would enable Winterhalter + Fenner to adapt to the individual needs of its customers at any time. This solution, built by Spryker, now sets a new standard in the industry with its customer-centric navigation concept.

Company

Introducing Winterhalter + Fenner

Winterhalter + Fenner AG is one of the leading electrical wholesalers in Switzerland with the subsidiaries of Dysbox SA, ElectroLAN SA, Electroplast SA, and Fabbri SA forming Sonepar Suisse. Sonepar Suisse is part of the French Sonepar Group and is active in over 48 countries and employs about 48,000 people. As electrical specialists, they offer more than 220,000 items from leading national and international suppliers, including electrotechnical components, installation materials, products for data networks, and photovoltaic systems.

“ By using future-oriented technologies, we have laid the foundation for a sustainable and progressive solution and can adapt it individually to the needs of our customers at any time. ”

David von Ow

,

Managing Director

“ Thanks to this successful collaboration, our first-class platform is getting a new look. By focusing on optimal user guidance, the usual outstanding range of functions can now be used even more efficiently and offers our customers individual administration options and tools for self-management. ”

David von Ow

,

Managing Director

CHALLENGE

Rethinking Navigation with Customer-Centricity at the Forefront

The user interface of Winterhalter + Fenner's previous digital commerce system, particularly the navigation structure, did not support their goals of being more than just a standard store. Their main challenge was presenting an enormous portfolio of 220,000 products in a user-friendly way, which required a rethink of the navigation structure. They hoped to catalogue products in the way customers search for them, rather than how the industry catalog dictates people should search for them. In addition to this customer focus, the quality of the technical implementation was of the utmost importance to Winterhalter + Fenner, as they wanted to create a future-oriented and easy-to-maintain system that could be easily adapted and optimized according to future ideas.

SOLUTION

From MVP to large B2B platform

Winterhalter + Fenner worked with Spryker to create a commerce platform that manages five stores in one place. To allow for an early go-live date, the web store was first built as an MVP and then tested and further developed. In addition to the five interfaces, this platform also integrated the entire Winterhalter + Fenner website and incorporated a new CMS, with a dedicated app is connected via the Spryker data exchange. Their customers benefit from an optimized search function, an intuitive assortment structure, and numerous B2B features such as role-based workflows, customer-specific pricing, and multi-carts.

Top Features of Their Digital Commerce Include:

Navigation Concept:

Operation was designed according to a one-click philosophy, making it efficient and streamlined. In addition, the search is always supported in a customer-friendly way by intelligent search, filter, and configuration functions.

Configuration Tool:

Enables customers to configure individual electrical switches and sockets as they wish. Simply select the preferred manufacturer and then put together the desired combination themselves using drag & drop.

Lamp Finder:

Guides customers quickly to the right illuminant. Filters such as bases and shapes are displayed as images to make them easy to understand. With each selection made, the combinations that are still possible are automatically calculated and displayed.

Results

New Standards, New Possibilities

Winterhalter + Fenner already generates up to 80 percent of its sales online. As the heart of their e-commerce strategy, the new platform is extremely fast and efficient, setting new standards for a customer-centric UX with a positive uptick in user adoption of the platform after go-live. But Winterhalter + Fenner’s digital development is far from over. The optimized and partially automated maintenance process and the modular architecture now give this electrical pioneer the flexibility to further develop the platform precisely and quickly.

Our Partner

valantic as a Key Implementation Partner

The collaboration between Winterhalter + Fenner and valantic was key to replatforming on Spryker and laying the foundation for follow-up projects. valantic, the agency implementing Spryker, supported Winterhalter + Fenner in developing strategy, technical realization, and implementation, and supports the ongoing development of the B2B platform. The design and UX expertise of valantic was particularly helpful in upgrading the navigation to make it more intuitive—a unique selling point of the platform.