BIOMARIS relies on automation

BIOMARIS:Leading specialist in thalasso facial and body care

Founded in 1937, BIOMARIS is one of Germany’s oldest cosmetics businesses. The skincare ranges the company produces are based on active ingredients from the sea. They are developed, produced, and marketed from Bremen, where the company has its own research laboratory. BIOMARIS markets its products via its online store and its own outlets on the North Sea and Baltic coasts. It sells the product range to over 900 cosmetics institutes, domestic health resorts, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical wholesalers too. BIOMARIS also works with international business partners around the world.

Where online shopping is concerned, BIOMARIS promotes its products via all channels. Measures are also in place to encourage a shift to digital. For example, vouchers from the offline stores can also be redeemed in the online store.

The challenge

The old BIOMARIS online store was based on Magento 1.3. As the business had grown, the commercial demands had become more complex. Firstly, the company operates a complex discount structure. For example, there are coupon codes with individual expiration dates. There are also automatically generated vouchers for birthdays and newsletter subscriptions. In addition, there are discounts for diverse monthly offers and different discount types for prices (promotional price, top price, offer price), all displayed differently. BIOMARIS also offers vouchers for its offline stores and free gifts based on order value (rewards). Plus, customers have the option of ordering product samples in the online store.

Secondly, like the discount structure, the business’s workflows are challenging too. Individual tags need to be placed and status settings made, while a range of different emails needs to be sent. To cope with these challenges and to secure its future, BIOMARIS decided to migrate to Shopware 6. The business cites several reasons for choosing the store system:

• Cutting-edge technology and standards

• Adaptability and scalability

• Extended functionality for marketing and sales

• German documentation and support

• Secure investment with built-in futureproofing

Shopware 6: State-of-the-art, innovative and future-oriented

With Shopware 6 as the basis for its online store, BIOMARIS has been able to integrate more features. Flow Builder and Rule Builder have allowed the business to automate a lot of its marketing activities. The switch has also accelerated the “time to market” of individual measures. The store system’s API-first approach makes it easy to connect ERP interfaces to the store. This allows BIOMARIS to manage its business activities in one central location.

When it comes to the frontend, Shopware 6 offers unlimited design possibilities. The business is now able to tailor its product pages to suit its preferences. The product pages now include the shelf life and INCI declaration (ingredients) as well as details such as product range, skin type, and active ingredients. Customers can use these to filter the range or to search for products by running an enterprise search.

Higher sales thanks to Shopware 6

Implementing Shopware 6 has not only improved the usability of the BIOMARIS online store – it has also increased the conversion rate for both desktop (10%) and mobile devices (30%). The business has recorded a double-digit increase in sales and the number of orders has risen. Following the introduction of optimized processes, the business is also anticipating major time savings when it comes to running the online store.

What next?

Following the switch to Shopware 6, BIOMARIS has ambitious plans for the future. As well as finalizing the ERP integration, the business wants to improve the technical basis of the store. On top of this, the team is looking to implement stronger customization measures and to expand the B2C store to cover B2B as well.

Hendrik Schmidtpott of BIOMARIS is delighted with the move: “With the switch to Shopware 6, we have placed ourselves in an ideal position for digital transformation and strengthened our digital competence. The flexible system architecture will enable us to react to the changing demands of the market and to drive our growth forward.”