High-end audio company Bang & Olufsen is revamping its digital platform with a view to creating a state of the art omni-channel retail presence.
Working with tech provider commercetools, B&O is building out a flexible platform that will help it not only delivery online and mobile experiences, but to also integrate with its stores to create an omni-channel experience.
For the new website, B&O opted for commercetools because of its headless architecture and the omnichannel experience that can be created thanks to the platform’s flexible microservices. The integration with commercetools and ‘React’ as frontend technology started in August 2018. The English version of the site went live in February.
“We wanted maximum flexibility for the future of our e-commerce strategy,” says Tomas Antvorskov Krag, Director, E-Commerce at Bang & Olufsen. “With the commeretools’ headless approach we create inspiring shopping experiences for our customers. As a next step, we can flexibly integrate the physical stores of our retailers.”
The first step was to merge the online presence of the Bang & Olufsen and Beoplay brands. ‘Discussing with our solution partner Kruso, it quickly turned out that commercetools perfectly covered the requirements of the new website.
Smooth transition
Due to the headless architecture of the commercetools platform, which means the frontend and the backend are separated from each other, the implementation could be started immediately. Thus, innovations are implemented step by step and B&O can work already on the next steps simultaneously. Contentful was chosen as a content management system (CMS). As it is an API-driven CaaS platform (content as a service) and a headless solution it perfectly matches the commercetools API interfaces.
“We are pleased to accompany a traditional supplier such as Bang & Olufsen on its next steps towards the future of digital commerce,” says Dirk Hoerig, Co-Founder and CEO commercetools. “High-quality products like these not only require stylish presentation options in the store. The online presence must reflect the sonic brilliance and the astounding design. With commercetools, Bang & Olufsen provides the basis – and remains flexible for tomorrow’s e-commerce solutions. “
Great things to come
The next steps will be to combine offline and online business. The idea is to integrate a “Click & Collect” system, where customers can order online and pick up the goods in the store. Reversely, it will be possible to order products that are out of stock in the digital catalogue and get them delivered home.
“The integration of the real-life shops means that the cash register systems must be connected to the online system via flexible API interfaces,” explains Hoerig. “commercetools provides such solutions as flexibly adaptable microservices – one of the reasons why Bang & Olufsen chose our software.”