PMG increases turnover and conversions
- +53%More orders
- +27%Conversions
- +22%Turnover increase
Key facts:
Shopware version
Company
Features
Technical features
Benefits of Shopware:
A feature-rich B2B portal
Thanks to Shopware 6, PMG has been able to create a flexible, modern, and robust B2B portal for its dealers. They can view unpaid invoices and easily create support tickets. This means less manual work for customer service and more time to focus on essential tasks.
Improved dealer account management
The new B2B portal not only supports dealers and customer support but also the sales team. Now, sales goals and credit limits can be set for each merchant, and orders can be processed more quickly on behalf of the merchant, with only the merchant's approval required.
Increased sales and conversions
Since implementing the B2B portal, PMG has seen a 52.9% increase in confirmed orders and a 26.7% increase in conversions. Revenue has also increased by 22%.
Short time to market thanks to partner agency
PMG's new B2B portal went live on May 1, 2023, just nine months after the initial pitch presentation. Considering the 41,000 products offered and the many new features of the portal, this is an outstanding achievement. This goal could only be achieved through the successful cooperation with the partner agency Bitfactory, which not only created the UX/ UI design, but also the Shopware frontend and PIM (Pimcore) development.
What next?
PMG: A leading destination for B2B bicycles in the Benelux region
In the bicycle industry, PMG is considered a market leader in the Benelux. The company owns well-known bicycle brands such as Popal, supersuper, Cangoo, Keewee, BSP, and BirdBike. PMG manufactures a wide range of bicycle products, from children's bikes and city bikes to e-bikes and cargo bikes. The company works with more than 1,500 dealers across Europe and operates in ten countries.
The challenge
PMG's previous platform, initially designed for the fashion industry, served the company well until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As human interactions in large groups were restricted, many people turned to outdoor activities, leading to an exponential increase in demand for bicycles. PMG added two more bicycle brands to its product range, doubled its workforce, and entered six additional European markets. Revenue tripled during this time. This rapid growth led to several challenges:
- Account managers were overwhelmed with dealer requests.
- The existing portal couldn't handle the high volume of orders.
- Organizing a multitude of bikes, batches, versions, and parts was a significant challenge.
- Manual tasks piled up in the support and warranty departments, resulting in a loss of visibility into dealer accounts.
Bas Hellendoorn, head of ecommerce at PMG stated, "Due to rapid growth, it became a challenge for us to meet the needs and demands of our dealers and adapt the workflows of our internal teams.
To provide a better experience for their dealers and streamline their business processes, PMG chose Shopware 6.
Shopware 6: An innovative B2B portal for modern B2B needs
PMG's new B2B portal is unique in its form. The PIM system and the ERP system were integrated into the new Shopware CMS to provide dealers with crucial product information. They can now view real-time inventory levels and delivery times. Additionally, they can access their current and previous orders, neatly sorted from A to Z, for improved visibility.
Moreover, handling dealer inquiries has become easier and faster. Previously, dealers had to call support by phone to report defective and undelivered parts. Now, they can simply submit a ticket through the portal or initiate a chat with a support representative if needed. All of these new features resulted in higher customer satisfaction and a 30% increase in sessions per user.
Streamlining business processes with Shopware 6
The new B2B portal benefits not only merchants but also departments such as customer service, marketing, sales, and finance. By allowing merchants to complete many tasks online through the platform, the workload for customer service has been reduced. This allows the customer service department to focus on more urgent and complex tasks. In addition, PMG benefits from the customer specific pricing provided directly through the ERP system. This ensures that the correct dealer prices are displayed without the need for manual intervention by the marketing team.
For the sales team, account managers can easily set sales goals and credit limits for each dealer through the portal. This makes it easy to track annual goals and quotas. They can also enter multiple orders on behalf of the dealer, which the dealer only needs to approve to complete a transaction. This significantly speeds up the sales process, saving time for account managers and bike dealers and strengthening their relationships.
The finance department uses the portal to monitor dealer credit limits. If dealers exceed their limit, they can no longer place orders on credit. The information provided in the portal gives dealers insight into their creditworthiness and saves the finance team a lot of time.
What's next for PMG?
Due to the positive results, PMG plans to enhance the B2B portal further. PMG plans to automate email workflows and build a customer data platform (CDP). In the future, the company intends to provide account managers with more functionality and insight to manage dealer accounts better.
Overall, PMG is delighted with the results of the project, as confirmed by Bas Hellendoorn: "With the new Shopware CMS and the integration with the ERP, Zendesk, and PIM systems, we have been able to save a lot of time for both our organization and the bike dealers and strengthen customer loyalty. We have created a B2C experience in a B2B portal".
The customer specific pricing is already live and received from the ERP system. So the prices displayed are the correct dealer prices, the marketing team doesn’t have to do any manual work in order to arrange this.
