How we helped a Slovenian retailer centralize its data from over 200 suppliers in one system

Aleš Sušnik17.02.2020eCommerce

Big Bang d.o.o. is the biggest Slovenian provider of audio-video and computer parts with market shares that extend from 30% all the way to 60%. It has a net of 18 conventional stores and online shops, accessible from www.bigbang.si.

Since they are dealing with a large amount of data about products from multiple information systems and with various suppliers, who are the source of product information, they were searching for some kind of solution that would centralize their data and make data management easier and quicker. In cooperation with Big Bang, our team developed a custom PIM (product information management) solution based on the Pimcore platform, which ensures them quick and efficient collaboration with their suppliers. Furthermore, centralizing the products inside a single platform also has an important influence on the efficiency of the order process.

Business pains

Big Bang has to manage around 500 product groups, which is around 70,000 products. This of course comes with its burdens. The company was dealing with the following issues:

Scattered product data in more than one place
Unstandardized enrichment process of product data
Limited possibilities of adding and maintaining product data by the suppliers
No data versioning
No automatization
No checkup processes
Data exporting not available (for catalogs, price labels, exports for Facebook etc.)
Increased workload while dealing with multiple spreadsheets and emails

Solution?

After initial consultations and workshops with the client, we’ve set up a completely new and customized Pimcore-based portal for their product management – the first production version was ready in only 4 months.

What does the portal offer?

Quick and efficient data creation and enrichment (before the product “hits” the shelves) by Big Bang employees and their suppliers
A direct import of stock and the supplier’s purchase prices
Creating purchase price lists
Automatic transfer of product data to the ERP system
Synchronization of data about daily prices from the ERP system in order to provide product data for all other systems, including the online shop
Simple data collection for catalog preparation

The whole system is customized in a way that it allows different suppliers to edit the same product. It’s up to the company’s administrator to then select the most appropriate and enriched version they want to publish.

Another welcoming feature are automated processes. These include: pinning products to categories, selecting the correct attribute set based on product groups and daily synchronizations of stock and purchase and selling prices.

We also programmed an innovative extension for defining rules that allows the user to take different actions. For example, you can select one or multiple attributes (product brand, size, color, cost of the product, etc.) and add one or multiple services to the select group of attributes (eg. home delivery or different types of warranties).

The system now consists of:

around 500 product groups
70,000 products
more than 4,000 purchase price lists
more than 200 suppliers
more than 100,000 images

… and a great deal of data more, which is now, figuratively speaking, stored under one roof.

Business results

This new solution resulted in many benefits for Big Bang, including saved time, increased business productivity, improved product data enrichment process and centralized database of all crucial data. A crucial benefit lies in the fact that all product data is kept in one place, which has simplified work across multiple systems. It will take some time for all the data to be edited and simplified, but some users can already focus on other important business initiatives and increasing productivity across the company.

While developing the Pimcore-based portal we came up with more useful features and are currently in the process of adding those in order to further optimize and simplify processes. Don’t miss our future posts for an update on this project. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a data optimization system for your e-commerce store? Send us an inquiry!

Aleš Sušnik

You won’t find Aleš in our offices anymore, but we know that no matter where he is now, he is doing a phenomenal job. We’ve kept a piece of them with us as a memory. :)

How we helped a Slovenian retailer centralize its data from over 200 suppliers in one system

Business pains

Solution?

Business results

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Aleš Sušnik

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