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Swen Schollenbruch

The Internet World Expo in Munich, as a small but fine counterpart to the dmexco, has now been an integral part of communicode's trade fair calendar for the second year running. Spread over two halls, more than 17,000 visitors from e-commerce solution providers to payment service providers, logistics and agencies were able to have the entire digital supply chain presented to them over 2 days. 

Together with our partner Shopware, everything at communicode this year was characterized by agile, i.e. growing product information management (PIM) and the connection to Shopware as an e-commerce platform. Presented with concentrated communicode consulting competence by consultants and account managers at the Shopware stand. 

The new Shopware Connector for infuniq PIM as an interface between central product data management (infuniq PIM) and the sales platform enables new or changed data records such as products, graphic elements and detailed information to be transferred even faster and more directly from the PIM system to the e-commerce platform. This minimizes the time lag between receipt of the information in the company and availability in the shop and optimizes the sales potential. 

The realization that the introduction and use of a PIM system does not have to be an impenetrable mammoth project with uncertain time, budgetary and human resources follows the second aspect that communicode presented at the trade fair. 

Agile PIM combines valid and centrally available data storage paired with a short time-to-market and manageable costs. 

You can read more about communicode's Agile PIM and how it can enrich the corporate culture and how new, efficient processes take account of the ever more rapidly changing market and environmental variables here and of course you are very welcome to contact us for further information: <a href=" https://agile-pim.de" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">agile-pim.de</a> 

According to Stephan Franke, Director of Business Development at communicode and responsible for the PIM/DAM division, there is still a great need for advice from companies: 
“It is inevitable that the introduction of a PIM system will have a major impact on the relevant business processes. In addition, a short time-to-market applies to a PIM system to the same extent as it does to an e-commerce solution, for example. Therefore, an agile implementation methodology, in which the various data pots, business processes, target channels and, above all, employees are gradually involved in small steps, is the key to success. In this way, a first ROI is achieved after a very short project duration. 

Internet World has shown that this approach exactly meets the needs of the market. This is reflected both in the interesting discussions with companies from various industries and in the interest in systems such as infuniq PIM, which enable such an introduction.” 
Not only in relation to PIM, but above all the interest in the possibilities of Shopware and communicode's consulting and implementation services in this regard underline that the e-commerce market in Germany is still on a solid growth course. 
With sales of EUR 18.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017, this was around EUR 1.5 billion higher than in the same period of the previous year, which also represented a record result. 
<a href="https://de.statista.com/statista/statistics/data/study/726939/survey/sales-in-interactive-commerce-in-germany-quarterly-figures)" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" >Source: Statista, retrieved on 03/12/2018</a> 

So we are well prepared for 2018 to be able to advise and support our new and existing customers optimally on all topics related to digitization and e-commerce trends and strategies. 
This was shown by the positive feedback from visitors and partner companies, for which we would like to take this opportunity to thank the visitors and Shopware for their once again very professional and friendly support and assistance. 


Munich 2019: We are happy to be there again 😉 

Less time and costs, but more business value. Introducing or optimizing a product information management strategy is cross-departmental change management and always a further step towards digital transformation. In this webinar, we will show you our Agile PIM method.

Webinar: Agile PIM

Together with our partner Shopware, everything this year was all about agile Product Information Management (PIM) and the connection to the Shopware e-commerce platform. 

communicode AG Mitarbeiter auf der Internetworld

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Internet World 2018 – A Retrospective

**Even though this was "only" my 5th Community Day, I have to say how professional everything has become over the years. From the selection of the speakers, the processes, the catering, to the networking - simply an all-round successful day.**

At the same time, it felt a little as if the first day of school and family celebrations were at an e-commerce fair, because after two years you could finally meet old friends again and meet new, previously purely virtual contacts in person.

The keynote by Sebastian Hamann gave an outlook on further planning, of which international growth, additional staff and a new branch in New York were only a small part. In addition, Daniel Nögel was mainly concerned with new features such as the Flow Builder, delayed flows, for example to only send evaluation forms after a waiting period in which the customer can return the goods, new metrics for customer-specific prices, approval processes for content pages, the new enterprise cloud for SaaS and PaaS solutions for enterprise installations, device-specific content (in the future, high-resolution videos can be replaced with low-res videos or images for mobile viewing) and much more.
Stefan Hamann honored the best plugins in the Shopware Store, including a new address validation by the partner Kraftware, which enables supported address input based on Google addresses and thus minimizes incorrect addresses.

Shopware United gave insights into their events, activities and plans, encouraging along the way to join the union of partners in the Shopware universe.

All in all, it was once again shown that Shopware is on the right track to continuing the success story, not only with the new support from industry giants such as Ben Marks or Marcus Diekmann, but also with a clear vision.

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The lecture by Laura Winterling, CEO of Space Time Concepts, former astronaut instructor (ESA), pilot and paramedic, was also quite impressive, providing an insight into astronaut training, recruiting and the skills required. If you think in general that what is most important here is that astronauts are NOT allowed to make any mistakes, it was much more about the fact that the focus was not on perfection but on excellence. So the goal is not to avoid making mistakes and fear and doubt as a result, but to accept that mistakes can happen when making decisions, to accept them and to have the courage to face the consequences.
Anyone who is interested in a similar situation in the software development of the first Apollo moon travel programs should read the story of Margaret Hamilton, among other things, at <a href="https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/ingeniouswomen /apollosfrauen/margarethamilton/index.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow, ">https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/ingeniouswomen/apollosfrauen/margarethamilton/index.html</a> .

It continued with Ken Hughes, who was there live in 2019, who compares customer relationships with a love relationship and shares funny personal experiences, marketing best practices and tips on how professional and private relationships can be strengthened. It's amazing how closely the two are related, but how the language differs fundamentally in some cases. After all, who would use words like "recovery" or "loyalty campaigns" in a private relationship that was in crisis?

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Last but not least was the Fireside Talk with Dirk Nowitzki.
I can still remember sitting in uni in China in 2011 watching the NBA Finals on CCTV and the Mavericks becoming NBA champions and Dirk Nowitzki MVP! As time goes by...
He is said to have kept his feet on the ground and that is how he presented himself in the interview. You didn't experience a detached world star, but a good-humoured person on a sabbatical "in between 2 projects". And so it was about his career path, risks he took, what he learned from mistakes, how he motivates himself and what he wants to pass on to his children.

Really a good guy and a worthy conclusion for the Shopware Community Day 2022.
Afterwards we went to the after show party with many participants, where you could exchange ideas with other partner agencies and review the day over a beer.
Whether all visitors have found their way out of the crooked club after the event will be seen at the latest at the SCD 2023.


Finally! After two years of corona-related remote community days, we went back to the beautiful Münsterland on May 25th.

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That was the Shopware Community Day 2022

**Having your own web shop as a figurehead with an appealing look and user guidance is now also common practice in the B2B context. While it has long been said that B2B and B2C are growing together, this has long been a fundamental requirement in the eyes of buyers. The outstanding customer experience, as exemplified by the big B2C brands, marketplaces, Amazon and Co., is also expected as a buyer and user in the B2B world. After all, it is the same person who also makes private online purchases.**

So far so good. Declining brand loyalty, younger buyers who are increasingly researching online and buying where the process is easiest, and the disappearance of classic procurement processes have fueled this trend in recent years, even before Corona.

However, once the product has been sold, the service stops and unused potential opens up. With an after-sales shop, this potential can be used in a targeted manner, both in the B2C and in the B2B area.

##After the purchase is before the purchase

The after-sales shop, if it exists, is often in a different domain. Some of them are getting on in years and are not kept in the current corporate design. The customer often needs different login data than for the primary shop and there is no exchange of customer information, such as information on maintenance intervals, self-service functions (downloading invoices or delivery notes, changing addresses, etc.) or cross-selling and upselling opportunities. In practice, the list can be expanded at will.

Due to ever-increasing competition and price pressure on the main products, they often find themselves in a permanent downward price spiral, which is also promoted by the transparency of online trading. While sales in this area can hardly be increased due to lower margins, the after-sales segment offers an alternative solution: additional sales can be generated and customer loyalty strengthened by means of supplementary and replacement products, combined with forward-looking service. In this way, price wars for the main products can be compensated for to a large extent.

Factors such as customer loyalty, a service portal tailored to the customer's wishes and strengthening the brand through uniform and user-centered support throughout the product lifecycle help here. The faster provision of spare parts and services through the connection to the purchased products as well as proactive information about service intervals and successor products enable constant sales with existing customers, which are known to be cheaper to keep than to win new ones.

##With Shopware to a successful after-sales shop

However, the implementation and the way out of the dilemma for sales often fail not because of the idea, but because of the technology. Monolithic shop systems, some of which are based on old versions, make rapid implementation or connection complicated. A lack of resources in IT for a comprehensive change in these structures does not make the situation any better.

Shopware 6 provides a basis to connect these worlds and create an after-sales web shop that is able to communicate with the existing shop through the API-first approach and break down data silos. For example, the interfaces that access customer data such as order history, individual discounts and conditions or search results are built in a targeted manner, instead of having to implement comprehensive integration. A shop can be relaunched or started in the first place after a short time, which complements the existing shop and increases customer loyalty in addition to sales.

Essential for this is the increase in the degree of automation in the shop in order to gain more time for other tasks and reduce error rates as a side effect. Automation tools in Shopware, such as the Flow Builder and Rule Builder, help to set up recurring individual processes, define triggers and actions, and thereby increase the efficiency of the shop.

Because hardly anyone wants to do complicated, manual and repetitive tasks that only arise because the tools used do not communicate with each other or are built in such a way that a look under the hood is only worthwhile with a lot of background knowledge. There is also potential here for increasing employee satisfaction, because e-commerce should be fun, not just during the purchasing process, but also in day-to-day work with it.

##Strategically to a successful after-sales shop

What applies to the customer relationship itself also applies to the implementation of the project: people buy from people. In addition to the pure technological basis, you should always rely on a partner who not only considers the isolated need, but always has an eye on the famous big picture: On the one hand, the entire system landscape beyond the actual shop, such as ERP, PIM, DAM or CMS systems , all of which are intertwined and each contribute their best to the overall success. On the other hand, there is the consulting aspect, which conveys the good feeling of being understood and being guided to the goal from the very first conversation.

**Especially for companies and corporations whose complex IT structures need a clear way to successfully design the development in e-commerce, communicode is committed to a future-proof solution with Shopware, which both understands the important business processes and makes them profitable knows how to link. With our expertise from more than 18 years as a full-service digital agency, we support our customers with all our project experience and agile working methods. We know the motivation for new business models and understand how to make their complexity more manageable with essential fixed points.**

With an after-sales shop, unused sales potential can be used in a targeted manner, both in the B2C and in the B2B area.

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Swen Schollenbruch

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Internet World 2018 – A Retrospective

That was the Shopware Community Day 2022

Increase customer loyalty and sales: the after-sales shop