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Sonepar

Headless, omnichannel build by Publicis Sapient standardizes 80 subsidiary brand's solutions

Sonepar Electrifies Their Digital Presence with Global Omnichannel Commerce Platform


CLIENT

Sonepar

SERVICES

Digital Experience Strategy & Design
Conversion Rate Optimization
Solution Design and Architecture
Custom Development
Multi-site
B2B
Multi-currency
Back-end Integrations
Managed Services
Omnichannel Strategy
Headless Implementation

PARTNERS

Bloomreach 

CoreMedia

Cloudinary 

MongoDB

Talon.One

SYSTEM INTEGRATIONS
AWARDS &
RECOGNITION

Background

Sonepar. a global leader in B2B electrical solution distribution, operates over 80 brands in more than 40 countries. Historically, Sonepar functioned as a decentralized holding company with each brand managing independent webshops.


In a commerce landscape where seamless digital experiences are crucial to a brand’s growth, Sonepar needed to consolidate their sprawling digital ecosystem and build a system that increased efficiency and provided more centralized and user-friendly customer experiences. 

Together, Corra &

Sonepar

achieved:

+
-
14
%
Increase in conversion rate
+
-
$
1
Billion
Increase in platform run rate
+
-
10
%
Increase in average order value
+
-
Increased add-to-cart
SEE HOW WE DID IT

Challenge

Optimizing Performance and Taking Inventory of Desired Features

Sonepar's decentralized approach meant varied sales volumes across channels and brands, while some subsidiary brands had no transactional commerce platform. These disparities created operational inefficiencies and inflated costs related to upgrades and maintenance while making accommodating the wide variance in brands' digital maturity difficult.  

The decentralized approach also created inefficiencies in branding and marketing, as no two brands could share resources or design assets. The problem of a lack of shared resources extended through the technical sphere as well. One brand's ROI-creating decision to implement a new and more intuitive product search feature couldn’t easily be implemented for another brand. The digital ecosystem had diverse and ineffective operating models with many incompatible IT systems.

Given the diverse range of customers, from small/medium installers to large industrial installers, and the extensive catalog sizes (ranging from 500K to over 4 million SKUs), Sonepar needed a scalable solution that could solve different problems for various brands.

Solution

Headless Architecture and CMS Facilitate Omnichannel, MVP Reference Build

To streamline operations and efficiently consolidate Sonepar’s 80 subsidiary brand sites into a cohesive group of similarly functional commerce experiences, there needed to be a way to quickly make changes and update sites, as well as a more quick and efficient way to launch new sites.

To achieve those goals, Publicis Sapient built an omnichannel MVP reference build with a headless architecture that allows Sonepar to quickly iterate content-rich, omnichannel experiences for all of their subsidiary brands. The reference build serves as a foundation and template that Sonepar can use to create consistent yet varied transactional commerce solutions for all the subsidiary brands. 

Headless architecture allows MVP build to efficiently iterate subsidiary brand sites

Solution

Agile Methodology Drives Efficiency, Increase Productivity

By creating Agile teams working on each feature, the omnichannel reference build was completed quickly and with a flexible and adaptable working style where the most important items in the backlog were tackled first.



The Agile methodology allowed Publicis Sapient’s teams to deliver value to Sonepar’s stakeholders by meeting with them frequently and taking their strategic initiatives into account when deciding which items to implement from the backlog. Once the initial implementation was completed, Publicis Sapient’s teams were able to educate Sonepar and subsidiary brands' various teams about how to use the omnichannel reference build to implement unique experiences for their specific brand. 


By having individual teams working on specific features, the time-to-market was increased and an MVP reference build was delivered. 

Technology partners helped give this B2B experience D2C flair

Solution

Technological Partners Provide Key Capabilities, Deliver Unique Experiences

An advantage to using a headless frontend and composable architecture is that Sonepar can choose the best-in-breed components for all their functionalities, allowing all 80 of their subsidiary brands to deliver one-of-a-kind B2B shopping experiences to their customers. 

Some of the key technological partners and vendors in this engagement were Bloomreach’s product discovery functionality, Cloudinary’s asset delivery capability, CoreMedia was the headless CMS, Talon.One for loyalty and promotional marketing, and MongoDB as the cloud database. 

The ability to individually choose the best component for each specific capability is a luxury only afforded by a composable architecture. When implemented correctly, a composable solution delivers unparalleled ROI because it affords brands and merchants the ability to create unique and brand-specific experiences that drive revenue and provide value to users and developers. 

Managed Services Deliver Digital Transformation

This project was delivered through Publicis Sapient’s Digital Factory managed services program which takes a holistic, data-driven methodology, and a customer-centered approach to deliver impactful digital transformations.  Cross-functional teams, including developers, designers, and data scientists, collaborate closely, integrating DevOps practices for continuous integration and deployment to ensure that progress and innovation are a constant part of the working relationship. Data analytics and AI drive insights and automation and are a core tool in every decision to ensure that the choices made are supported by data and will provide meaningful results. The customer-centric approach focuses on continuous feedback loops so that the updates and enhancements of the roadmap are aligned with executive stakeholders. Publicis Sapient’s Digital Factory is a proven process that delivers change at scale. 

Results

The implementation of the global platfor delivered significant value to Sonepar and its customers, with measurable improvements across several metrics including operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and important conversion KPIs. After the digital transformation, Sonepar has a performant and scalable reference build that can deliver unique and brand-specific storefronts to all of Sonepar’s 80 subsidiary brands. This digital transformation unified Sonepar’s digital footprint and allows them to move the customer experience landscape of B2B forward. 

The omnichannel platform is the transformation engine of Sonepar, enabling a constant dialogue with customers anytime, from any device or physical touchpoints. It equips sales associates with a digital arsenal to be the best partners for customers on the job site, enhancing productivity and service levels.

Jeremie Profeta,

Chief Transformation Officer, Sonepar

The opportunity to pilot the omnichannel platform in France brings new customer benefits like nationwide click & collect. It transforms our business with a marketplace approach and accelerates our digital transformation by moving to an API-first strategy, driving overall business transformation

Olivier Thivent,

Digital Transformation Director, Sonepar France

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