0815 optimizes the user experience

Austrian ecommerce market leader

The Austrian owner-managed company 0815 Online Handel GmbH is known for high-quality brand-name products at great prices, comprehensive customer service and expert advice. The online retailer’s smart business strategy based on fair prices achieved through high purchasing capacities, its range of over 90,000 products, successful collaboration with suppliers, comprehensive customer care and regular promotions such as the “Weekendknaller” (weekend sensation) make it a force to be reckoned with in the Austrian market. It is this commitment that has made 0815 Online Handel GmbH best-in-class in Austria.

Prior to switching to Shopware 6, 0815 Online Handel GmbH’s online store had been running on an ecommerce solution provided by Sana Commerce. The company’s growing needs in areas such as customer centralization, availability and reaction times necessitated a relaunch. The company compared a range of established and new ecommerce solutions. Aspects that were of particular interest included the number and status of the technologies used, extensibility, programming standard, customization, basic performance of the software and the support provided by the software manufacturer. Shopware 6 emerged as the clear winner.

Project specifics and objectives

0815 Online Handel GmbH is known for its trusted “0815” trademark, sensational offerings, helpful customer service and standout promotions. This led to the following objectives, which were integrated into the Shopware store:

• Strengthening brand awareness with a fresh design and modifications – for a new style of usability and a new user experience
• Support for browsing with relevant and meaningful product information plus filter options
• High-speed application of global price changes
• Support for purchases by B2B retailers
• Shopping cart extensions to allow a persistent shopping cart until completion of payment
• Integration of existing and new services such as ancillary services, shopping cart accessories, indication of stock availability per product, real-time stock inquiries, generation of dynamic product sets in shopping basket, promotion module
• Standalone store – third-party systems dropped? For this period, the store took over subtasks that are relevant to a successful checkout from third-party systems

In addition, the ERP system Microsoft Navision was linked up to the online store via a connector. This means that certain control logic in the ERP system can now be used to directly affect the online store and its products, categories, properties and much more. Shopware 6 was extended with additional relations, entities, fields and logic to support these control options. Examples of the control options include allowing products to be displayed according to the company’s individual requirements (including visibility, buying options and substitutes) based on the underlying logic or, alternatively, time-controlled management of promotions such as the “Weekendknaller”.  

As the objectives included guaranteeing the online store’s basic performance with a high data load and constantly changing data inventories, compatible services such as Elasticsearch, Redis, and RabbitMQ were also used. In addition, complete API support for both the basic system and all in-house developments guaranteed short response times.

Increase in sales and higher conversion rate

Relaunching the Sana Commerce store on Shopware 6 led to a 20% increase in sales in Austria and a 40% increase in sales in Germany. The conversion rate also increased significantly: by 35% in Austria and by 40% in Germany. These figures suggest both a significantly improved customer journey and the acquisition of new customers.

Further benefits by updating to Shopware 6.4

Because 0815 started out with a very early release of the software, bug fixes, changes to the basic logic and extensions would inevitably entail modifications to in-house developments and the connector. But through regular update cycles, the 0815 store continuously gained in stability and security. The update to Shopware 6.4 in particular resulted in a huge improvement in performance, which had a positive impact on sales and conversion rates.

At the same time shopping cart performance was also optimized. Items placed in the cart now stay there until the customer has paid, and there are options to choose a 60 or 36-month extended warranty or to make a small payment to offset the product’s carbon footprint.

Challenges

All of those involved came to the project from same starting point – with no prior knowledge of Shopware 6, which was still very new. Throughout the course of the project, the Shopware team was on hand to help with bug fixes, optimizations, questions and best practices. Quick, detailed replies allowed the project to push ahead non-stop to the go live. Even after the relaunch, all three parties remained in close dialog.

Conclusion

In view of the goals to be achieved, choosing Shopware 6 as the ecommerce solution was the right decision. All-round technological support allowed various critical aspects to be overcome. The resultant end product has enjoyed a successful uptake – as reflected in the increase in conversion rates. This is not the end, however – the project is constantly being expanded in line with user priorities. 0815 is planning to integrate the Shopware Flowbuilder to automate complex processes. There are also plans to roll out a voucher module, a customer loyalty program, payment on account and in installments, and to show variants on the product details page.