Heuver - A future-proof e-commerce platform

Replatforming Heuver.com into a new integrated e-commerce platform

Building a completely new e-commerce platform in 6 months while the old one had to keep running: that’s what we managed for tire specialist Heuver Banden. The growing need among Heuver's customers for digital ordering options could no longer be met by a 10-year-old system. Neither did business logic, technology, and processes fit any longer together.

Starting with Magnolia DXP and other tools, we developed a future-proof platform with excellent user experience for Heuver's international customers, providing data links to various internal systems. Together we ensured digital transformation at its finest.
 

Staying ahead of the competion

Heuver is one of the largest total suppliers of professional tires and rims in Europe. To stay ahead of its competition in the dynamic and innovative international market, it’s important for Heuver to work just as dynamically and innovatively and serve its customers optimally. 

Noticeable in almost every industry, there was a growing demand among Heuver's customers for opportunities for digital self-service. Efficient at a time that is convenient for the customer with the same level of customer service and advice as in a real-life conversation with a sales representative. 

The need to lay a proper foundation for the online future was met with a completely new, future-proof eCommerce platform to replace the old webshop.

Goals

Some key points have been identified in the development of the platform in advance.

• An excellent link between systems such as an Enterprise Service Bus (Talend) including ERP (Microsoft Dynamics) and CRM (Salesforce).
   
• The ‘old’ online environment had to remain live during the development of the new international platform with underlying ERP with more than 10 translations.

Important is that the platform performs optimally in terms of usability and security because quality and personal service are key at Heuver. Providing a seamless and responsive user experience on all devices. There must be room for further development, in the form of a loyalty program or new technology, for example.

The intersection of business and architecture

It was important to identify Heuver's functionalities and requirements as soon as possible to achieve this project within the deadlines. A focus team went to work on both the commercial and the technical side. Utilizing strategic sessions, mapping the (business) processes, and defining the role of technology and platforms.

Parallel, our designers worked on the User Experience (UX) and the user interface of the new platform. This made it possible to finalize the technical design early on and connect it with other partners relatively easily.

 

Technical development

The Heuver e-commerce platform runs on Magnolia DXP. A robust enterprise system that is ideally suited for interfacing with various systems. Enabling Heuver to offer multiple sites to visitors from a single CMS system. Parallel to this project, we developed and put sites of tire brands Aeolus and Barkley live, of which Heuver is an exclusive distributor.

The Magnolia platform consists of 12 domains and is connected to a data integration layer behind which Salesforce and Microsoft Axapta, among others, are connected. We use Keycloak, Azure, Kubernetes, and various Akamai functionalities, among others: Web Application Firewall (WAF), Content Delivery Network (CDN), and Image Manager.

Heuver's administrative, financial, commercial, and logistics processes are housed in one software solution: the ERP system. During the development of the eCommerce platform, Heuver's ERP system was renewed. A major challenge, given the fact this development was a potential impediment to our deadline. To prevent this change from slowing down our process, we chose to temporarily incorporate part of the back-end functionality in a proxy.

 

New functionalities

• An authentication and authorization system that allows Heuver, in a back-end CRM system, to add a customer to the platform at the touch of a button so they can log in as a user immediately.
• Akamai WAF and Akamai Image Manager to provide (international) users with a fast and secure user experience. Very user-friendly search and filtering functionality based on Elasticsearch.
• Allows real-time data retrieval and greatly improved search speed over the old platform.
• Customers can use a single sign-on (SSO) to directly use the loyalty program whereby savings points from orders can be used to earn products in the bonus shop.

The intersection of business and architecture

It was important to identify Heuver's functionalities and requirements as soon as possible to achieve this project within the deadlines. A focus team went to work on both the commercial and the technical side. Utilizing strategic sessions, mapping the (business) processes, and defining the role of technology and platforms.

Parallel, our designers worked on the User Experience (UX) and the user interface of the new platform. This made it possible to finalize the technical design early on and connect it with other partners relatively easily.

 

Technical development

The Heuver e-commerce platform runs on Magnolia DXP. A robust enterprise system that is ideally suited for interfacing with various systems. Enabling Heuver to offer multiple sites to visitors from a single CMS system. Parallel to this project, we developed and put sites of tire brands Aeolus and Barkley live, of which Heuver is an exclusive distributor.

The Magnolia platform consists of 12 domains and is connected to a data integration layer behind which Salesforce and Microsoft Axapta, among others, are connected. We use Keycloak, Azure, Kubernetes, and various Akamai functionalities, among others: Web Application Firewall (WAF), Content Delivery Network (CDN), and Image Manager.

Heuver's administrative, financial, commercial, and logistics processes are housed in one software solution: the ERP system. During the development of the eCommerce platform, Heuver's ERP system was renewed. A major challenge, given the fact this development was a potential impediment to our deadline. To prevent this change from slowing down our process, we chose to temporarily incorporate part of the back-end functionality in a proxy.

 

New functionalities

• An authentication and authorization system that allows Heuver, in a back-end CRM system, to add a customer to the platform at the touch of a button so they can log in as a user immediately.
• Akamai WAF and Akamai Image Manager to provide (international) users with a fast and secure user experience. Very user-friendly search and filtering functionality based on Elasticsearch.
• Allows real-time data retrieval and greatly improved search speed over the old platform.
• Customers can use a single sign-on (SSO) to directly use the loyalty program whereby savings points from orders can be used to earn products in the bonus shop.

Redefined for the Future

By bringing various specialists together in this project, we managed to develop a future-proof eCommerce platform in which all business logic, processes, and technology fit together seamlessly in a short period of time.

We managed to get the following results.

• Conversion rate increased by 28.37.
• Average load time improved by 21%
• The number of page views to transactions was reduced by 23.58%
• 10% fewer follow-up search refinements: customers find what they are looking for faster.

A platform that offers endless possibilities for Heuver to implement more functionalities. With a focus on now and the future, Heuver’s customers are all the time provided with the right knowledge and products. Contributing to reaching their goals.