Garmin's lifestyle e-commerce website has been renewed by LogiNet

Garmin.hu wanted to lay down the foundations for further dynamic growth by building an e-commerce ecosystem where the integration of systems and automated operation is achieved. This was not possible with its previous web store and ERP system. They also wanted to innovate the e-commerce site in terms of design, at the same time better emphasising the premium brand message and implementing the guideline defined by Garmin as an international brand. The solution was to introduce the Logishop webshop, the Cégmenedzser ERP and the iLogistics fulfilment logistics system, which were to be implemented simultaneously. Due to the complexity of the tasks, the ERP was finally launched in early summer 2022,while the e-commerce website was launched in September.

Objectives

Navi-Gate Ltd., Garmin’s leading domestic distributor, which is the world's leading manufacturer of civil navigation devices and smart watches, and the representative of Fusion, a manufacturer of Tacx indoor trainers and marine sound systems, was unable to meet the growing B2C and B2B customer demand with its previous webshop and logistics support, and therefore was looking for a new solution. 

The problem with Garmin's existing warehouse was that it was not scalable, and they thought that this could be solved by a fulfilment system that could be integrated with their ERP system. Since the logistics software could not be linked to their legacy ERP system, they decided to implement a new one at the same time replacing the webshop, which had become obsolete.

They chose the Enterprise Resource Planning System from Cégmenedzser. Their decision was also influenced by the fact that the ERP provided possibility for integration with the LogiNet Logishop webshop: the webshop included the B2C and B2B functionality they needed, as well as the option to customise and extend it in the future. 

Garmin was thinking in terms of an ecosystem instead of old temporary solutions, with 23 employees and a turnover of HUF 7.5 billion in 2021. Zoltán Zempléni, Garmin’s CEO, said that the company did not want to expand in human resources, but in automation. It was important for them to make their future expansion as cost-effective as possible, and to automate as many processes as possible, such as logistics and marketing.

Challenges

Implementation and integration of ERP, webshop and fulfilment system

The simultaneous implementation of the 3 systems (Logishop, Cégmendzser ERP, iLogistics) was a major challenge for Garmin, both in terms of resource dedication and transition. Logishop had a pre-built Cégmenedzser integration, i.e. the two-way synchronisation between the ERP system and the webshop was already in place, which speeded up the processes.

However, the iLogistics fulfilment logistics system was a new player, which needed to be integrated with the ERP. The plan was to implement the three systems at the same time, but due to the complexity of the tasks involved, this has changed: the ERP was launched in early summer 2022, iLogistics a few weeks later and the webshop in September.

Customer dedication

The implementation of all three systems has meant a significant customer dedication and workload for Garmin. The in-house management of the project would have been handled differently in hindsight, according to Zoltán Zempléni, the Commercial Manager.

More resources would be allocated to the individual processes, especially in marketing and the commercial unit, and the advice of developers would be followed more closely. This, in his opinion, would have helped to avoid a phased start-up with each system (ERP in May, iLogistics shortly afterwards, webshop in September), which required the simultaneous use of two systems, and to switch to the new ones simultaneously, as originally planned. 

Transposition of the Garmin Ltd. corporate brand guide

The Hungarian company wanted to implement the solutions, functions and design that were present in the foreign company for the garmin.hu webshop too. This was made more difficult by the fact that the Garmin Ltd. webshop was the product of a custom development, from the product end page to the presentation of the related products. Some improvements were needed within Logishop, both in terms of design and functionality, in order to meet the client's requirements.

Management of product variants

The garmin.hu webshop contains 2000-2300 products. Based on the example of garmin.com, they wanted to display product variants on the product end page. The necessary conditions for implementation had to be created in the ERP, and therefore developments in the ERP system were necessary. 

Solution

The development of the garmin.hu webshop took almost 4 months, and due to the longer lead time for uploading products, content and photos, it was not ready until September 2022.  

The Logishop Standard solution has been enhanced with unique features:

Clean design, new banner types

User-friendly and responsive interface for the renewed webshop. The new webshop also emphasises the premium brand message better.

The new website now features a stronger brand identity and a more prominent brand image, while the new website also highlights the new website presence and the Garmin brand identity.

In line with the requirements, new banner bars were added to the main page, which are not part of the Logishop Standard type. 

Logishop’s admin interface allows editing the content assigned to each banner bar (product, category, list, CMS content can be assigned to the banners.)

Transparent product end page, easy to upload product descriptions

Product image viewer newly added to the webshop, adapted to your specific needs.

The Hungarian webshop uses the product descriptions of garmin.com for the products, and the import of foreign language content has been simplified and made faster. In contrast to the previous webshop, where product descriptions could only be transferred by code, this administrative process has been skipped in the new webshop. For product descriptions, the content is simply copied and pasted into the webshop and then translated.

Customer registration

In Logishop's user profile, registered users can set up their profile, billing and shipping details, check their open and previous orders and create a list of favourites. Following the launch, more than 70 resellers with over 300 B2C customers have registered to the online store.  

Synchronised operation between Logishop and ERP

The product category structure is built in the Cégmenedzser ERP system, which is synchronised with Logishop's system, so that the classification of products is fully synchronised between the two systems.

Products and descriptions are also uploaded to the webshop from the ERP, so that it is always sufficient to modify the data in the ERP system to update them on the web. The same is true for the images of the products, which are also extracted directly from ERP. The individual product properties are also stored in the Cégmenedzser and configured to be displayed on the web interface.

The communication is two-way, the Logishop webshop also sends data to ERP, for example orders placed on the web are included in the Cégmenedzser customer orders.

Technology stack

• Back-end technologies: PHP8.1, Symfony5 framework, Doctrine ORM, Twig templating; MariaDB relational database; Redis cache, Elastic search engine, S3-based storage (MinIO)
• Frontend technologies: Nuxt.js (Vue.js), Vuex, Axios, Javascript, CSS (SCSS), HTML5
• Public interface: Nuxt.js (Vue.js), Javascript (ES6+), Vuex, Axios, Vue module SCSS
• Admin interface: jQuery, ES6, Twig; BEM, SCSS

The garmin.hu webshop has been well received by B2B and B2C customers, resulting in an increase in orders, a new design and a user-friendly interface.