Development of B2B store for Volkswagen Group Original Teile Logistik, Vertrieb & Services GmbH

Development & support of a multi-brand B2B online store incl. SAP connection for Volkswagen Group OTLG

In 2018, Volkswagen Group Original Teile Logistik, Vertrieb & Services GmbH from Baunatal commissioned the Frankfurt-based eCommerce specialist eWorks GmbH with an exciting online store project: they were looking for an OXID agency with many years of experience to implement a multi-brand B2B web store. After intensive workshops with various online store agencies and a convincing offer, eWorks was awarded the contract to develop the new OTLG store as an OXID service provider. OTLG wanted to have a professional B2B store created so that service partners, workshops and dealers could order wheels, tires, workshop equipment and other accessories from the various group brands in the future. The choice fell on the proven store system OXID eShop in the powerful "Enterprise B2B Edition", not least because of its unlimited customizability and integrated client system.

At the beginning of the project, it quickly became clear that the biggest challenge would lie in the conceptual differences of the multi-brand company itself: the needs of several brands, including OTLG itself, were to be united under the umbrella of a single online store. eWorks started with comprehensive workshops, a detailed requirements analysis and the technical conception of the necessary OXID programming. The aim was to work out the similarities and differences between the brand requirements and implement them in customized OXID modules. eWorks organized the necessary workshops, documented the requirements, planned and developed the technical solution with OXID eShop, PHP and MySQL. It was also taken into account that other group brands would be able to migrate to the developed e-commerce platform at any time in the future. Once this preliminary conceptual work had been completed, the OXID developers were able to set up the online store.

The project implementation began with the paradox of reconciling user-friendliness ("usability") and regulatory requirements: Store customers should be able to order products from all group brands in a common shopping cart, while legal requirements demanded strict separation of the brands in the backend because they are legally independent, sometimes even competing corporations. While store customers should therefore find everything under one roof in the front end, a strict separation of all data and business processes by brand was absolutely essential for store administration in the back end. However, the store customer does not notice this complexity, but places products from the various group brands in his shopping cart and orders them at will. The powerful OXID client system proved to be the perfect B2B platform for the efficient and secure implementation of this authorization concept, as it can hermetically seal off the various brand stores from one another.

Speaking of SAP: Although connections between OXID eShop and SAP or other ERP or merchandise management systems are not uncommon, this project eclipsed everything known: because not a single SAP system had to be addressed, but almost a dozen (!) different SAP installations - sometimes even several SAP systems for a single store order. And while the vast majority of online store connections to ERP systems are technical one-way streets, the eWorks OXID programmers had to develop bidirectional interfaces here because the SAP systems not only had to accept OXID orders, but also be able to restructure them: for example, on the SAP side, articles had to be replaced fully automatically with successor articles, tire sets of four had to be replaced with four individual tires or similar changes had to be made. These many SAP interfaces in turn gave rise to performance problems in the ordering process, which were solved with technical ingenuity by completely asynchronizing the checkout through OXID programming.

In addition to the SAP connection, numerous other interface programs were required, such as the connection to several PIM systems ("Product Information Management") for product data import and to a CRM system ("Customer Relationship Management") for customer data exchange. Last but not least, the OXID authentication was reprogrammed and now authenticates against OTLG's central ADFS system ("Active Directory Federation Services") for the purpose of single sign-on (SSO).

In addition to the numerous connections, interfaces, imports, exports and countless data model extensions in the backend, the store frontend has also been raised to a new level: The highlight is the powerful Elasticsearch search in combination with the multidimensional article filters, which adapt to the available selection options in real time. It also includes a tailor-made bonus points system that calculates and visualizes bonus points based on complex configurations - which include the products themselves as well as their assigned categories and promotions. Discounts have also been implemented, which are calculated and visualized directly in the OXID prices - time-dependent, brand-specific and fully configurable for the store operator. These and many other functions make the OXID store a modern B2B online shop that meets the highest demands.

In the final project phase, the joint OXID platform was expanded to include brand-specific requirements - only visible to the requesting brand in each case. For example, an action-based navigation concept. Or a B2B article listing so that power users can list, filter, search and order tens of thousands of articles in a table - with high performance. Or a highly specialized wheel store that enables the storage and retrieval of complete wheels - including a "wheel planning system" that extends the OXID store with pre-orders that can only be transferred to SAP at a specified time and can still be processed until then. Another highlight is the subscription function, with which popular products are regularly created fully automatically as new orders. Customers are always kept in the loop: they receive detailed e-mail notifications from the order through to each individual process step. The OXID eShop client system enabled flexible customization to specific brand requirements, sharing functionality between brands and reducing development costs.

Compared to the extensive PHP programming, which took several person-years to complete, the store web design almost faded into the background: each brand brought its own individual corporate design (CD), which was "merely" adapted, expanded, implemented and fully responsively integrated into the OXID store. The exception was all cross-brand store pages, such as the shared shopping cart: here eWorks was allowed to create and implement a completely new, cross-brand design that represents all group brands uniformly.

Despite technical challenges such as the special features of a multi-brand store and the connection of numerous SAP systems, the OTLG store was completed and put into operation on time - thanks to the strong eWorks team. The eWorks eCommerce team (over a dozen OXID developers) programmed the countless OXID modules, while additional PHP programmers from other eWorks PHP teams developed the numerous interfaces and connections, C# developers from the eWorks Microsoft team integrated the AD-SSO connection and certified Excel developers from the eWorks Office team took care of the Excel imports and exports. Real teamwork!

After the OTLG store saw the light of day, further group brands were successively integrated - and further brands on the OXID platform are not ruled out in the future either. eWorks has been supporting operations ever since with continuous online store support and additional OXID programming in order to constantly improve the security and functionality of the store. As an OXID partner from the very beginning, eWorks supports the store operation, installs store updates, jumps in immediately if necessary, provides technical advice and programs all desired additional functions with OXID eShop, PHP, Symfony, MySQL, Linux, JavaScript, HTML/CSS and other technologies.

eWorks stands for the development and support of professional online stores with comprehensive expertise and a dedicated team - for all industries and company sizes. If you are also looking for an experienced web store agency, would like to have an online store created or would like to calculate the costs of an online store, eWorks is at your disposal as an eCommerce agency with many years of experience. We not only offer professional store development with Shopware or OXID eShop, but also many years of comprehensive support and assistance - from a single source. Our team is constantly looking for additional PHP programmers to provide you with the best possible service at all times. You can rely on our many years of experience in the creation and support of online stores since 1998.