Sysmex

Worldwide distribution of laboratory diagnostics with Shopware

Sysmex makes the world a little bit better. In addition to contributing to research and development in science, the global company manufacturers laboratory diagnostic systems and provides haematology, oncology and coagulation analysers for their customers.

Sysmex Europe GmbH is the European branch of the Japanese parent company, which operates in 60 locations worldwide. The European centre is responsible for distributing complex analysis instruments and IT solutions for the medical laboratory industry in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

In November 2016, Sysmex Europe launched a B2B online shop in order to open a new sales channel for Europe.

Shop software for worldwide sales in B2B

One of the many reasons why Sysmex decided to work with Shopware includes the extreme adaptability of the system. Another aspect that spoke favourably of Shopware was the company’s reputation as a reliable eCommerce platform with world-class support.

The project was implemented by Shopware Solution Partner, sitegeist. “Shopware is a robust framework with a moderate learning curve.” - Stephanie Heinecke, Senior Project Manager at sitegeist

Branching from one main shop, which behaves as a command centre, Sysmex operates a total of 12 subshops with over 4,000 products in 38 separate categories. To meet the individual requirements of different countries, each subshop is country-specific, which includes local adjustments such as taxation, county-specific surcharges and discounts and individual freight cost calculations.

The demands of the Sysmex shop system were high due to the company’s complex digital landscape; for this reason, they chose to work with Shopware Enterprise, which was also able to handle the challenging prerequisite of integrating the company’s internal ERP system.

“As a solution, Shopware fits perfectly into the digital landscape of Sysmex. – EMEA-wide and beyond,” Ines Lühmann, Team Leader of Online Marketing

Complex B2B functionality calls for customizations

The shop was tailored with special features to meet the needs of Sysmex. This even started with the registration process, which requires that a double-opt-in procedure be expanded with DocCheck validation. DocCheck is a commercial identification service that provides medical and pharmaceutical professionals with access to websites with specialist information from pharmaceutical companies of medical specialist publishes, provided they cooperate with the DocCheck Medical Services.

Individual list and detail views were created for the product presentation. Due to the complexity of the products, the had to be programmed with an individual filter functionality, which extended the customized views. The product pages were also expanded to include specific store and shipping conditions, special charges as well as rental items.

The company’s array of business segments and markets demand complex handling with numerous customer groups and data sets. To make the operation as easy as possible, a few adjustments were made to the backend and an interface to the ERP was developed.

“Along with outstanding consultation, the cooperation was very customer-oriented. The international alignment of the teams made the rollout in the United States much easier” - Jens Behrens, Director of Marketing Communication

Shopping experience also important in B2B

Although Shopping Worlds aren’t as important for laboratory diagnostics as in traditional retail, the shopping experience should nevertheless be as comfortable as possible for Sysmex customers.

To offer their customers a simplified shopping process, Sysmex employs a number of different Shopware Premium Plugins. This includes, for instance, Advanced Cart so that their customers can create individual wish-lists that can be shared per email or social media.

To promote long-term customer retention, Hitado – a company of the Sysmex Group – uses the Premium Plugin Bonus System in order to award customers with points for every purchase. Hitado is able to determine the intervals at which points are awarded and points are automatically assigned to registered users.

Due to the large number of products available in the Sysmex shop and the complexity of their names, products can be challenging to find. The error-tolerant suggestion function of Smart Search makes searching for product names very easy. Thanks to the plugin, each product is easier to find, even with typographical error or incomplete search terms.

Time-to-market varies according to project requirements

Due to the different requirements of each subshop, the project implementation length for each varied between 4 – 22 months, with the investment volume reaching 100,000 Euros for the most complex subshop.

Sysmex was convinced of the competence of the project teams: “The competent consultation from both Shopware and our agency, sitegeist, led to a successful and rapid launch of our multiple online shop instances – for us, it was a clear win-win situation!” - Jens Behrens, Director Marketing Communication