B2B sales platform & Pimcore implementation for Air-Com Pneumatyka

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Air-Com Pneumatyka-Automatyka manufactures and distributes pneumatic components and equipment. The company’s offer includes over 400K items. What makes them one of the main dealers in the Polish market. They have 3 stationary branches, mobile Reps all over Poland, and a dynamic partners’ network.

Tasks and objectives

Air-Com Pneumatyka is growing on many levels and areas to expand their online sales. To respond better and meet their customers' needs, we planned and implemented a complex B2B sales platform. At once, we developed the Pimcore platform to enable efficient product information management. Since the store catalogue has over 400 thousand products, we needed to organize the records into 40 major categories. As of now, users can download from Pimcore any products’ attributes and features and present them on their sales platform.

The B2B / B2C platform connected with the Pimcore system effectively supports the online sales of Air-Com Pneumatyka.

The work on the project started with a pre-implementation analysis. First, we described the needs and expectations of both Parties - our Client and their contractors. Then, the project’s functional design followed. We have developed a complex B2B store built in Edito CMS. To improve and combine products and better handle product information management, we implemented Pimcore and integrated it with the original sales platform.

As we were designing the store’s structure, we made sure that users’ navigation was intuitive, fast, and practical. To achieve better search capabilities, we used Elasticsearch. It is an intelligent search engine with several useful features, e.g.:

• autocomplete for names of products,
• hints display regarding product’s category,
• search for an item by its name or product code (SKU no.),
• it catches spelling mistakes and typos and provides suggestions.

For the Client’s request, we have also designed a quick shopping function. Customers can mark many product categories at once, search and add products to their shopping list. It enables them to place a quick order in three ways:

1. by adding products to the cart while inserting the product’s name or code (SKU no.),
2. by uploading a file (.txt, .xls or .csv) with a ready order,
3. copying and pasting product symbols.

To show the product catalog categories better, we use a tree structure menu (placed on the website) with a drop-down and scrollable feature. The layout type is very transparent and aesthetic. As a result it lets users see and find any category type. Besides, the store has a very complex product listing, which supports making bulk purchases. Users can just select products, enter their quantity, and add them all to the cart.

The company uses the Subiekt GT system, therefore we had to connect it with the new B2B platform. Our Client wanted to streamline creating the customer profiles and orders while updating it automatically in all systems. Now, the system itself generates orders and invoices. Platform administrators can set up individual price lists and change them anytime.

Discount groups from the Subiekt GT application upload themselves to the new sales platform. It is beneficial to customers, as they can see the prices and discounts they received and can apply during the purchase.

Now, the company can check potential clients’ credibility because of the B2B & API GUS integration. They can see whether a company exists and operates on the market. If the verification process goes well, our Client’s employees can move on with processing orders. Because of that, the orders go smoothly, which reduces the overall delivery time for buying customers.

Besides these integrations, we connected the platform to:

• Google analytical and marketing tools,
• Freshmail (e-mail marketing system),
• Przelewy24 platform (a popular and fast payment service).

The B2B store is responsive which means that users can quickly and effortlessly place their orders from any mobile device or location. The feature is perfect for company Reps working remotely in the field. It significantly reduces the shipping ETA for customers’ orders.

Main benefits for the Client

• Modern B2B e-commerce system connected to other platforms in the company,
• Efficient product information management because of Pimcore integration,
• Support for B2B sales process via bespoke B2B features,
• User-friendly, responsive, and functional platform’s design,
• More efficient data analysis, and much easier reporting.