Obelink
Online success in every season
Obelink is a renowned company in the world of camping and outdoors. It all started as a small one-man business in 1959.
Obelink now is a business of 72.500m2 and a successful e-commerce website, with the widest range of outdoor products in Europe. An extraordinary achievement, thanks to 60 years of business with a strong vision they grew out to be one of the biggest outdoor companies in Europe and they even have Europe's largest camping and outdoor brick-and-mortar store. But how do you focus on a successful online future with such a successful past?
Obelink's vision is that the holiday fun doesn't just start on the holiday, but already when selecting the necessary items. And that the great outdoor feeling already starts inside - inside at Obelink. A day of shopping at Obelink should be a fun experience for the young and old. No stress, but easily and in peace to find out what makes the holiday and the outdoors even more fun. Of course, this shopping convenience also applies to online shopping: simple, fast, and uncomplicated ordering from home and enjoying it a few days later. Whatever you choose – shop or online – you opt for the Obelink convenience. And this is exactly what we created for them.
Obelink is performing a +100% digital revenue this year. During the peak months, Obelink is getting over 450.000 orders per month.
Our solution
Magento 2
Obelink had a small, customized e-commerce platform that was not future-proof, because of that they made the switch to Magento and Youwe helped them to make that a reality. The modern architecture and API ensure that Magento can be modified modularly. When a component no longer meets future requirements, it can be replaced. This made it the ideal solution to kickstart Obelink's digital transformation.
Personalised shopping experience
Due to the wide range of products, Obelink wanted to set shipping costs per type of product and destination. Youwe made this possible. But Obelink wanted to personalise their way of working even further. They asked Youwe to create a special functionality so that depending on the shipping method, Obelink can send specific emails regarding the shipment to the customer. This allows the customer to be better informed when the shipment company makes an appointment to deliver the order. Also, this makes the whole experience more personalised. When the customer is not happy with the order or products, they can easily return the items via the Obelink site. Youwe has integrated the entire returns process into Magento as well. Customers can submit an application online and Obelink can easily approve the application. This makes the return process easy for both the customer and for Obelink.
Click&collect
All over the world people and businesses are/were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some businesses are accelerating, others are struggling. And as in many countries, brick-and-mortar stores were forced to close their doors. In the Netherlands, most shops needed to close, but luckily, they could start with a click&collect service.
Obelink also wanted to offer the click and collect option to its customers. A first version of the click and collect functionality was made available for Obelink within the existing possibilities of their Magento e-commerce platform within just 10 days. They only wanted this for the Netherlands as Obelink does not want to stimulate any border traffic despite its location near the German border. To ensure that the Obelink distribution center prepares the orders at the time of collection we needed to make adjustments in Alumio's order flows.
Alumio
Obelink even wanted to go a step further than just renewing its e-commerce site. The transition to Magento offered the perfect opportunity to start with a clean slate. How do you connect a new e-commerce platform with the rest of the IT ecosystem? How can you make the entire landscape of applications modular? How are you prepared to connect with new applications and platforms? Obelink chooses to combine their Magento platform with Akeneo (PIM) and Alumio (All-in-One Integration Platform for Digital Commerce).
Like many organisations, Obelink already had a complex set of applications with multiple data silos at the start of the project, including an ERP, WMS, POS, the Magento platform, and a PIM system that was due to be added! Obelink's objective was to create a digital environment ready for rapid expansion. Alumio's integration platform was implemented to unlock the data and connect these systems in a future-proof way. Data, both online and offline, across all systems is synced through Alumio, so it is always up to date. The new infrastructure is robust and flexible, because of this Obelink's IT ecosystem is now future-proof.
Alumio RetailVista
We integrated Alumio RetailVista (their ERP) into Magento. This makes sure all data such as inventory, orders, customers, and shipments are synchronised. The Obelink customer cards are also integrated into the online shop. This allows the customers to use their customer cards and collect points both online and offline. Synchronisation of this data is also done via Alumio. It is possible to use gift cards in the online shop and the store. This is synced by, you guessed it, Alumio.
Roadmap strategy
After the Magento shop was built we helped Obelink with having a better understanding of their digital transformation and strategy. Together we conducted a Strategy Mapping with a roadmap as result. In the roadmap, we determined the next steps and future goals.
The results
The Magento shop is a real success,
and Obelink is performing a +100% digital revenue this year. During the peak months, Obelink is getting over 450.000 orders per month. And that’s not all! These are some of the great results we achieved with building this new fully integrated Magento shop:
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Conversion rate up 10%
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60% More transactions
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Average order value up by 30%
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2x As many visitors
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Average loading time faster by 35%