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~ Intershop ~

VBH DIGITALIZATION:

A BET ON E-COMMERCE

TO EXPAND GLOBALLY!

Text: Frank Calviño // Photos: VBH
VBH is a German brand known worldwide for its expertise in windows and door fittings.

With over 2000 employees globally, the company’s pillars are simple yet demanding: to
offer a product range that exceeds market quality requirements, provide an extensive range
of services, and combine all this with a customer-oriented international sales and support
network. VBH’s caring and commitment manifest in its goal to provide the best and most
fitting solution for each client’s needs, and this in turn, has positioned VBH as an industry
leader in Germany and Central Europe with an annual turnover of € 550 million (2022). But
what about the rest of the world? And more importantly, what about the future?

recisely because of that desire to secure its “But to be honest, one of the main issues we faced was
future and grow larger, VBH decided to that in Germany, especially small businesses, they were
Pexpand internationally via e-commerce. To very traditional. They didn’t like to buy their B2B products
learn how they achieve all this, we had the amazing or services via e-commerce. They didn’t want to use the
opportunity to speak directly with Oliver Maisch, computer to order. But we know that this is the future, and
CIO at VBH and the man behind the digitalization we needed to lay down the basics for a fully digital operation.
of this brand. Also, digitalization provides another direct benefit: it allows
for industry knowledge to be online and easily accessible to
Why did VBH decide to create an e-commerce and everybody and decreases the cost and internal training time of
bet on e-commerce as a future-proof sales channel for new employees.”
the brand?
“The reasons for investing in e-commerce were the aim of Maisch continues: “Finally, we needed a stable platform that
consolidating the individual and partially digital channels was independent of one or two people inside the company.
that have emerged over the years into one fully digital and Also, we wanted something standardized that could be taken
efficient channel on the other hand, to do justice to the future by anyone with knowledge of the e-commerce solution and be
organization of work, including the associated processes, worked on. This was key for us, as our previous e-commerce
in view of the nationwide and EU-wide reduction in the was a custom solution made by a programmer with whom
labour supply (due to the upcoming retirement of the Baby we later lost contact. This left us in a situation in which no
Boomers),” says Maisch. one knew exactly how to improve or develop upon his code.
That’s why I say we needed an e-commerce solution that was
Did this decision also have to do with the current reliable and did not depend on one or two people inside the
challenges VBH is facing as a company? company.”
“Partially, yes. The main challenges we are currently dealing
with as a company are the implementation of digital And why choose Intershop for your e-commerce
transformation beyond the mere provision of technical initiative?
possibilities in an industry in which some of the framework “We were convinced by the scope of configuration options
conditions and process structures are still quite traditional, Intershop provides, in view of the desire for a central
their data and process organization and design as well as platform partner and the different requirements and
updating customer segmentation in a digital context. framework conditions of the individual VBH national
companies. So, Intershop seems like the right combination

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