Implementation of Shopware B2B for Tuindeco

Tuindeco International B.V. is a wholesaler of garden timber and related products such as log cabins, sheds and saunas. Tuindeco has subsidiaries in Europe and Asia, and their product range includes more than three and a half thousand different products.

One of Tuindeco's market differentiators is that they constantly secure their stock - so that they always have at least 95% of their entire range on sale. This ensures that customers have a wide range on offer without having to keep large stocks in their warehouses themselves.

About the project

Tuindeco approached us with an extensive roadmap and further plans for the company's digital transformation. Part of this was the development of a B2B e-commerce platform. It was important that Tuindeco's customers had a convenient ordering experience and that the online shop was properly optimised - for both new and regular customers.  

The client wanted the online shop to be not only a classic e-commerce platform, but also a portal for dealers. This channel can be described as a 'one-stop-shop' to streamline doing business with Tuindeco. The look and feel of the new B2B shop is consistent with the styling and visual identity of the brand - to reflect its character and expression even better. One of the goals was to complete the first phase of the project before 1 March - that is, before the start of Tuindeco's busy sales period. The client wanted the B2B shop to be fully functional by then.

Choosing Shopware Enterprise

Before making the final choice of platform, the client did a thorough research of the market and the solutions available to meet its needs. The choice fell on Shopware Enterprise because of its scalability, the API first principle, which makes it easy to connect to external systems, and its wide range of B2B functionalities.

Example: Tuindeco was keen to offer its dealers the possibility of putting together garden gazebos. These are often modular or consist of a basic configuration with various options and accessories. The custom product module in Shopware was used for this purpose.

First version

Prior to the launch of the project, the brand had specific expectations: the new B2B shop was to facilitate orders, enable repeat orders, increase the frequency of purchases and provide insight into stock levels 24/7. We designed a new Shopware 6 Enterprise platform in line with Tuindeco's guidelines and style and started implementation work. The new online shop had to guarantee the best possible B2B shopping experience, as well as having a friendly and intuitive design to influence higher conversions. In the following phases of the collaboration, the shop is being developed, according to a written plan and a shared vision.

Product well described

The product card includes large images, 40 product features and one or more PDF documents. This information comes from the underlying ERP system and all product information is managed by Tuindeco. The Shopware platform presents the available features in a user-friendly way. Different customers may see different content - as different assortment agreements apply, which are downloaded from the base system and shown in the shop. Not yet a Tuindeco customer? Then you will not see any prices in the web shop.

Tuindeco, being in the middle of an ERP migration, needed a scalable and flexible system. Shopware with its API first approach allows great ease in making changes. Tuindeco not only pulls data from the ERP, but is also connected to a PIM system for product catalogue management, where marketing information such as product specifications and images are also collected. As Tuindeco operates and grows internationally, the ability to manage data in different languages is an important element.