Elfa International reenergises its brand

To read a Swedish language version of this case study, click here.

Founded in 1948 and employing around 650 people, Elfa International is a shelving and storage company based in Sweden, with approved resellers in Norway, Finland, Denmark, France, Germany and Poland. The brand Elfa includes a drawer system, a shelving system and made-to-measure sliding doors. These three systems can be combined to create flexible storage solutions for wardrobes, kitchens, and utility rooms. Around three quarters of Elfa’s products are sold through resellers in the furniture, DIY and timber trade.

Paving the way for growth
As part of a wider strategy for business growth, Elfa embarked on a drive to improve its brand recognition. “We wanted a way to increase brand awareness in new markets such as France and Poland, as well as reinvigorating our offering in Scandinavia, where we’re better known,” says Anette Alsteryd, Chief Information Officer at Elfa International. “We also wanted to inspire our customers, explain the Elfa concept to them, and improve our product offering.”

As part of its rebranding initiative, the company wanted to increase its online presence. “E-commerce was an important part of the new brand identity,” explains Anette Alsteryd. “Since we don’t operate from outlets, one of the key pain points we encountered when expanding into new markets was gaining business customers in countries where we were relatively unknown.

“We wanted a professional website that would drive the business-to-customer [B2C] sales at the heart of our company by increasing brand awareness beyond our established geographical boundaries. We also wanted an e-commerce platform that would support our plans to introduce full business-to-business [B2B] functionality in the future.”

In order to achieve these objectives, the company needed a flexible, consolidated e-commerce platform for both B2B and B2C with multi-language support.

Building a professional e-commerce platform
Before embarking on its rebranding project, Elfa conducted a thorough pre-study to determine its requirements. “We went to a number of solution vendors and asked for demonstrations,” says Anette Alsteryd. “Ultimately, we decided that the total IBM WebSphere Commerce solution offered by Fiwe best suited our requirements for future expansion.”

Elfa engaged IBM Premier Business Partner Fiwe to implement its new e-commerce platform, hosted at Elfa’s data centre. The total solution comprises IBM WebSphere Commerce software, with a Tacton Configurator Server web planning application handling pricing structure, and images served from Adobe Scene7 On-Demand.

“In order to replace the old content management system, we built a content management plugin, which Elfa then implemented,” says Stefan Collryd, Project Manager at Fiwe. “The plugin enabled the whole site to be developed and easily maintained within WebSphere Commerce.”

The new site was launched first in Sweden and later rolled out across seven different European countries. Elfa customers across Europe are now able to plan their own storage solutions online via the company’s web planner. The planner application provides a 3D configuration model based on the room dimensions that customers enter. Customers can then add and manipulate storage units according to their own specifications.

“With our new web planner, customers can choose to design their storage solutions from scratch, either by room type, or using pre-programmed wizards that guide them step-by-step through the design process,” explains Anette Alsteryd. “When their storage plan is finished, customers can either email it to an approved Elfa reseller, or print off the schematic and bring it into an Elfa reseller themselves.

The backend of the web application has been designed so that it can be embedded into Elfa’s resellers’ websites. In addition, Elfa has full visibility of the storage solutions its customers design in the web planner.

“Thanks to the close co-operation between our IT staff and Fiwe, the implementation of the project went very smoothly,” says Anette Alsteryd. “The solution was delivered according to schedule and on budget, and we were very satisfied with the efficiency of the process.”

Selling the Elfa concept
Elfa’s e-commerce website is already serving as an important tool in the company’s business customer sales pitch.

“We’re getting a massive influx of traffic to the new site, which makes it a lot easier to win business customers in the new markets we’re targeting,” continues Anette Alsteryd.

“By showing potential resellers a professional e-commerce platform with B2C functionality and online support built in, we’ve found it’s much easier for them to understand and commit to the Elfa business concept. They can also run our web planner on computer terminals at their stores, which helps to catch shoppers’ attention and increase customer conversion rates.”

On a practical level, Elfa has found the WebSphere platform to be precisely as reliable as the product demonstration suggested. “WebSphere’s reliability is one of the good things about our solution,” says Anette Alsteryd. “Where we have lower market penetration and fewer stores, the website is a great way to publicise our brand identity. Since the site is so critical to our sales and brand awareness in new markets, it’s very important that it’s available 24/7.”

Planning for the future
With the B2C site up and running, the company is well-placed to start leveraging the online sales statistics that will enable targeting marketing, product improvements and increased business growth.

“The public are already engaging positively with the web planner application,” says Anette Alsteryd. “The next step is to roll out B2B functionality, which will enable the application to plug into our resellers’ websites. As soon as this goes live, we’ll begin capturing and analysing the sales data with a suite of business analytics software, and use the results to fine-tune our marketing strategy and product design.”

Based on the interest generated by its new e-commerce site, Elfa is keen to continue to build on the solution as part of its overall transformative business strategy.

“In a few months’ time, we’re planning to improve the search functionality on the web planner to help customers find the products they want more easily,” concludes Anette Alsteryd. “However, what we’re most excited about is the potential for web sales analytics. By integrating our customer and sales information from our e-commerce sites, we’ll be able to optimise our marketing strategy, improve our product offering, and increase our growth at the profit line.”