BTN de Haas
A working Magento 2 shop in two months
In almost hundred years of history, BTN de Haas has built a reputation of a trustworthy partner for the agricultural sector. The quality of services for customers is the most important aspect for the wholesaler. A new Magento 2 (now known as Adobe Commerce) shop offers a base to keep providing services in the future. For the development of the new environment, BTN de Haas BV was helped with the modules Youwe had built through the years.
The history of BTN de Haas BV goes back to 1925. The wholesaler, who wishes to be a leader in knowledge, service, quality and price, nowadays employs about thirty people. Customers from mostly the northern part of the Netherlands visit the store in Groningen, where the entire range is presented physically and specialists for each department can explain and present the products. Customers are also welcome 24/7 on www.btndehaas.nl.
In 2021, BTN de Haas BV was bought by the French company Winfarm, a large quoted company on the agricultural market. One of its operating companies is Vital Concept, market leader in online sales within the French agricultural sector. BTN de Haas BV and Vital Concept have been working together since the acquisition, among other things their assortment was a hot topic.
Before the takeover, BTN de Haas BV already needed a new solid foundation for its online activities. A foundation that guarantees speed and allows for easier platform upgrades. But with the desire to not make too many changes at first and to not make things more complex than necessary for their loyal customer base. During the migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2, Youwe (as their trusted technical partner) had to monitor user friendliness of the platform in specific.
Youwe made the transfer from Magento 1 to Magento 2 doable for BTN de Haas BV
Our solution
Transfer from Magento 1 to Magento 2
Youwe made the transfer from Magento 1 to Magento 2 doable for BTN de Haas BV by using several modules and a temporary test-site. The wholesaler realized that they needed to leave Magento 1 behind for a durable digital future. The website on Magento 2 had to offer its users the same functionalities: don't change what's good. Partially because their internal capacity was limited, BTN de Haas BV first wanted to get the foundation right and then be able to add new applications to the site later. Always based on the wishes of their target group.
Youwe used the Quick Start Theme to provide the migration of BTN de Haas BV a running start. This Quick Start contains various modules, including some in the area of online presence, performance and integration. Youwe built these modules based on their many years of experience with different clients who had similar wishes. This basic theme with best practices is constantly improved; possible bugs are fixed and functionalities are added – in this way, the package is being prepared for headless programming. For BTN de Haas BV, this modular set-up was attractive in order to quickly be able to upshift digitally.
In order to migrate products and orders from the old to the new environment, Youwe used integration platform Alumio for BTN de Haas BV. The data were read from Magento 1, transferred to Magento 2 format and nicely entered using the API.
Youwe advised BTN de Haas BV to wait with the new platform and don't use it directly for www.btndehaas.nl. Instead first go live with another site and use that for testing: www.werkkledinghavep.nl. The feedback retrieved from there was used to tackle issues and to work toward a succesfull migration of the main domain.
The results
Quickly and easily
Youwe made sure that BTN de Haas BV could quickly and easily switch from Magento 1 to Magento 2. BTN de Haas BV now has a solid, fast, user-friendly and future-proof website, which is permanently optimized based on the feedback coming from loyal customers. Issues are quickly identified and can be fixed appropriately together with Youwe. By switching to Magento 2 in the spring of 2021, some improvements were implemented that simplify online purchases in a B2B environment. The productrange of French sister Vital Concept was added to the website without any problems. BTN de Haas BV is now technically ready for larger future digital steps.
