Implementation of Ergonode PIM at home&you

The home&you online shop is based on Magento 2 technology, with many modifications to adapt it to the specific needs of the industry, business model and target group. The implementation of a PIM (Product Information Management) system is part of the company's broader strategy to move away from a typically monolithic architecture, centred around e-commerce carrying out the majority of business processes related to online sales independently, towards a MACH (Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, Headless) approach and the concept of composable commerce, i.e. the dispersion of individual functions between systems dedicated to their implementation.

After converting the home&you online shop to a marketplace model (in partnership with the Mirakl platform), the company faced the challenge of improving the management of its huge product base, which at the start of the project included more than 20,000 own products (so-called 1st party P1) and a growing number of external products (so-called 3rd party P3). The online shop struggled with performance issues, especially during busy periods such as Christmas and Black Friday, and poor data quality of external products. P1 products had extensive product cards with numerous attributes and multimedia, while P3 products were often incomplete and of low quality. The processes involved in completing and verifying data were manual, which was time-consuming and error-prone. Additionally, the lack of standardisation and centralised control over the quality of product data posed a significant challenge.

We carried out an implementation of the Ergonode PIM system, which began with detailed analysis and workshops with the home&you team. Based on the information gathered, we implemented the data model on the Ergonode test instance and then on the production instance. As part of the project, we integrated Ergonode with key systems:

• Ergonode - Magento: We used an off-the-shelf plugin, adapting it to the client's specific needs. We added support for dual indexing of products, enabling SKUs to be mapped with attributes in Magento. We also mapped categories and attributes between systems, preventing duplication and overwriting of data in the shop.

• Ergonode - Mirakl: We created a microservice to synchronise categories, attributes and value lists between Ergonode and the Mirakl platform. We introduced a mechanism that matched existing objects in Mirakl with new, more standardised attributes from PIM. This allows products to be enriched and standardised before being published in the shop.

• Ergonode - Photo server: We made it possible to download product images as links, avoiding duplication and saving storage space. Session photos are stored as links until they are imported into Magento, greatly improving media management.

• Ergonode - Baselinker: We used an off-the-shelf plug-in for Ergonode, which enabled integration with the Baselinker platform (which integrates online shops, warehouse systems and marketplace platforms to automate and synchronise sales processes). 

Process automation was a key part of the implementation. We built a microservice that periodically retrieves data from Ergonode and executes a set of automation rules based on this data. These rules include, among other things, assigning products to categories based on specific attributes, completing attributes using combinations of other attribute values and static text, and conditional completion of attributes. At the time of implementation, more than 700 automation rules were in use, and the resulting graphical interface allowed users to edit rules without editing text files. This had the effect of freeing up many hours of work for specialists previously involved in manual processing of products, leaving the organisation ready to accept more products into the catalogue.

The implementation of Ergonode PIM has brought a number of benefits to home&you:

• Systematisation of the P1 product data model: own products have been organised and enriched, simplifying the work of the team.
• Automation of work with product data: This freed up many hours of work for specialists who had previously been manually processing data.
• Increasing the quality of product data: External product data (P3) was standardised and improved, bringing its quality closer to our own products.
• Increased system efficiency: The separation of functions between dedicated systems has helped to increase the efficiency of the entire e-commerce ecosystem.
• Enabling efficient work on P3 product data: Thanks to the new PIM functionalities, it was possible to manage, enrich and verify external products more efficiently.
• Creating a unified system to store P1 and P3 product data: Ergonode became the central place to manage product data, simplifying processes and providing better control over data.
• Automating the process of completing product images: The new approach to image management allowed for more efficient use of storage space and a more streamlined process for publishing images in the shop.
• Basis for further decentralisation of services: The implementation of PIM has enabled further decentralisation and optimisation of services such as the product search engine.

The project took approximately eight months to complete and met all the business objectives set. It enabled home&you to better manage its growing product base, improve data quality and system performance, resulting in a better customer shopping experience and higher operational efficiency.

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This project is built with our technology partners: