Multifunctional B2B solution for 14 eshops
In this case study, you'll find out
The company DSI Slovakia s.r.o. was founded in 1993. It grew on TDK audio and video tapes and later added Kenwood car radios, JBL speakers and Zelmer home appliances to its products. Today, it's the exclusive distributor for 15 international brands, and it supplies even the largest electronics retailers in Slovakia, such as Nay.sk, Datart.sk, Hej.sk, Alza.sk and Mall.sk.
DSI currently operates from 1 warehouse and offers almost 2000 products, for which it also sells accessories. In order to handle all processes as efficiently as possible, it uses an ERP system to manage them. It originally worked with a solution by NRSYS, but in 2021 they decided to replace it with an I6 from CyberSoft, and then connect a new eshop with it.
Already during the migration process from NRSYS to I6, we therefore actively communicated with the client about the organization of data in the new system. The aim was to make its subsequent synchronization with the online store as easy as possible.
We were going to connect our eshop solution to an I6 for the first time. Thanks to consistent long-term preparation, properly set up ERP and effective communication with the client, we eventually managed to do it in record time, within 60 days.
We've prepared administration and design for eDSI.sk and .cz, while the store was primarily oriented for the B2B segment from the beginning. In order to support the sale of products of certain brands, we've gradually created 7 more eshops. Each of them has two language mutations. In total, there are 14 online stores running from one administration.
Such a step was necessary especially from the marketing point of view. Each of the brands works with a different target group, and therefore has different advertising campaigns or profiles on social media. However, they're intended primarily for the B2C segment, which generally doesn't know that these products are supplied to the market by the DSI company. Thanks to their "own" eshop, brands can share their goods directly, without a visual link to the distributor, which could be unnecessarily confusing for buyers. The result is clearer communication and better SEO values for keywords associated with the brand.
Thanks to the direct connection of all eshops to I6, product management is carried out directly in its environment. DSI sales representatives can manage wholesale and retail prices, discounts and orders here. At the same time, they choose which products to display in which eshop. The main store, edsi.sk/cz, usually shows all goods, and other eshops show only products of its brand.
Further modifications are made from the administration environment of the eshop. These include, for example, product descriptions and images or banners and content for unique subpages for each brand (About the brand, Sellers, etc.). Since the frontend and the structure of the pages differ only in the color scheme, it's easy to navigate them in the administration. Therefore, only two employees are currently required to manage all stores.
Since 2013, DSI has been publishing its own online magazine, where it publishes original articles, product comparisons, expert contributions and reviews from the technology sphere. The magazine has its own Facebook and Instagram profile, YouTube channel, and is also published in the form of podcasts available on the Spotify platform.
At the same time, the company manages the profiles of almost all its brands on Facebook and Instagram social networks. In addition, JBL also has a profile on the increasingly popular TikTok and the popular JBL Jump Fest event also has special accounts on all three networks.
Frequently shared content includes products directly from the eshop. To make publishing them as easy as possible, administrators can set meta descriptions for each product, which are then displayed on social networks. In the case of content in the form of competitions, they have the option to create discount codes and set the conditions for their application in detail.
Together, DSI creates original posts for up to 19 different accounts, with almost every single one targeting a different audience. Thanks to the features of the eshop, administrators have the opportunity to publish attractive content that is watched by almost 40,000 fans across platforms at the time of writing the case study (July 2023).
Since the beginning of its operation, the eshop has been oriented primarily to the B2B segment. Individual customers have their own accounts created in the system, through which they log in personally, or they're used directly by DSI sales representatives on behalf of customers. Shopping is facilitated by features such as:
Each customer has contractually set different prices for the goods with DSI. These can then be set up by the company's sales representatives directly in the i6 ERP system. The buyers only see their own product prices after logging in, without the need for any recalculation.
Some products offered by DSI are subject to selective distribution. This ensures the exclusive sale of certain goods only in selected stores. Distribution conditions are set by administrators in i6. This allows logged-in customers to only see goods available to them in the offer, which they can then order.
Buyers have a detailed history of orders and previously issued invoices available in their profile, which they can download in PDF format.
In the event that customers have ordered currently unavailable goods, in the system they have the opportunity to see the expected date of its restocking and subsequent dispatch.
Each customer has the option to choose multiple delivery addresses for their goods. DSI sales representatives define them in the i6 environment and this information is then displayed directly in the eshop administration environment. When placing an order, the customer then just selects from these addresses the one that suits them best at the time.
In the system, customers have the opportunity to generate XML of products with different parameters. They can then upload the prepared file with information about the goods directly to their online stores. This preserves the accuracy of the information provided and speeds up the process of publishing products, because administrators of client eshops manually fill in only a minimal amount of data (price, etc.).
Quite often, DSI creates its own articles, photos or videos about the products. This unique content can also be accessed by buyers who can download it and then work with it further on their websites, social networks or eshops. This gives them the opportunity to present products perfectly and provide their customers with all the information to make the right decision when buying.
While wholesale is conditional on registration, end consumers can shop on the eshop even without it. In the eshop, they'll find the complete offer of DSI and at a discounted price, they can also choose displayed or unpacked pieces in the Bazaar category. They are alerted to news, discounted goods or products with free shipping by practical icons next to each product. And if they follow DSI's social networks, they can also often get exclusive discount codes or be the first to learn about interesting gifts for purchases.
The eDSI.sk eshop is an example of a store that can effectively cover the needs of both B2B and B2C segments with one solution. Moreover, thanks to a well set up connection with ERP, the eshops don't require a lot of administrative maintenance. DSI employees can thus do what they do best - sell exclusive brand electronics, which without them might not have made it to the shelves of Slovak stores at all.
We started working with bart.sk in 2020. They prepared a new eshop according to our wishes and then there was a difficult task ahead of us. In a very short time span, replace the ERP, turn off the old eshop and start a new eshop from bart.sk. They helped us to prepare well for this, migrate data to the new ERP and connect it to the new eshop. From one eshop, they subsequently created others for us, while maintaining the simplicity of content management and publication of new products. Now we're going to add more pages, this time not for selling, but rather to support individual brands. Thanks to all these steps, our marketing is well set up and we've maintained our position as the market leader in the field of electronics for a long time.