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~ Intershop ~

the continuous focus on customer experience have helped Focus on scalability
to build a very engaged customer base. Our attractive As with many entrepreneurial and fast-growing companies,
campaigns and competitive prices are also key drivers for the initial focus was on the commercial side of the
success. At the same time, we invest a lot of time and energy business and not so much on structure, standardisation
in localising our proposition. In addition to providing and automation. You want the flexibility to quickly adapt
local payment and delivery options, we create our own to changes. However, to continue to grow, it’s important
unique product content, and we have our own photo and to streamline and automate processes. Structured data and
video team. We translate in house, and we have a customer data quality are also very important. “We experienced that
service team that covers local market languages. And here, too,” says Vos. “When I entered the company, we had
we also connect with customers at local events, through our home-grown systems that were basically at the end of
sponsorships and in social media, where we have built up their lifetime. We went back to the drawing board. We re-
a follower base of over 1.5 million motorcycle enthusiasts. evaluated our front- and back-end architecture and decided
This is how we can differentiate ourselves from other to re-platform to make sure our business would remain
retailers.” scalable.”

PIERCE has been profitable from the start, with an In their search for such a platform, PIERCE ended up with
annual growth rate of 30-50%. “The company has Intershop. “We were looking for a scalable and future-proof
grown organically, and we have gradually expanded our platform solution with a rich feature set. We wanted to be
geographical footprint. As a pure online player, it is easier able to handle spikes in visitor volumes, for example, during
to expand the business internationally compared to more Black Friday campaigns. On top of that, with close to 40
traditional retailers. Even though we try to be as close to shops across Europe, you need a system with good tooling
our customers as we can, we are still highly centralised, and to manage that set-up efficiently,” explains Vos.
we use the same processes, systems and tools that make it
easier to get into new markets,” says Vos. Replatforming is a complex trajectory. Currently, modern
e-commerce platforms put high demands on process and
Becoming an international company data integration. Vos agrees: “Your master data needs to be
As PIERCE’s business grew, so did the company itself. The of high quality. We approached our re-platforming step by
company’s headquarters are still located in Sweden, but step, minimising risks. With a partner, we first tackled our
they now have other offices and operations across Europe. Product Information Management (PIM) tool, followed
“In 2016, we decided to move our warehouse operation by our e-commerce platform and Customer Relationship
to Poland. This central location in Europe offers multiple Management (CRM) system. During this process, we
benefits. It is strategically located close to important formed a team in Poland that will manage the platform in
markets, and we have access to a flexible labour pool. We the future. Right now, we are focused on transferring all
also operate a dedicated line haul set-up and inject parcels knowledge to our internal team, finalising the rollout.”
with many local carriers like PostNord (Sweden) or PostNL
(Netherlands), which our customers prefer. This allows PIERCE decided to start deployment with the smallest
us to bypass transport hubs and be in full control of the markets and to gradually take on larger markets. This way,
delivery experience. The line haul trucks collect returns and the migration to the Intershop platform could be monitored
cross-dock orders from our suppliers on the way back to and evaluated closely. Vos: “As a purely online player, our
Poland. We then consolidate the cross-dock orders in our web shops are our only sales channel. If something goes
warehouse for shipment to the customer, so it’s an efficient wrong, we instantly feel the consequences. Therefore,
and integrated distribution set-up.” we wanted to take a controlled migration approach and
minimise the risk. We are constantly evaluating site
Shipping from one centralised warehouse also brings some performance, SEO and conversion before deploying larger
challenges. “We can fulfil orders all over Europe within markets. No matter how thorough your planning is, you
reasonable lead times, even though we might be slower always face unexpected obstacles. That is why we preferred a
than some of our local competitors. It’s a balancing act to controlled, step by step approach over a big bang launch.”
meet customer expectations while, at the same time, trying
to keep costs down. We are continuously finetuning that Progressive Web App
balance,” says Vos. “Recently, we added next-day delivery as At PIERCE, customer experience is at the heart of the
a Prime service on our platform,” he adds. strategy. In this field, the Swedish motorcycle company
wants to be a frontrunner. It, therefore, continuously focuses
PIERCE was one of the first to move to Poland, where on improving its online shops. What does this mean? Vos
it now owns a 37.000m2 custom-built warehouse. Large explains: “To start, it is a no-brainer that you have to offer
players such as Zalando and Amazon followed their the best experience across all devices. For us, m-commerce
successful example. is huge. 70% of our traffic and about half of our orders come

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