Case Study LOBO HOME: B2B Shop, PIM & Configurator

LOBO HOME GmbH is a family business that has been successful in the wholesale market for over 30 years and has been selling high-quality door and frame assortments under the LOBO Türen brand since 2000. In 2021, LOBO Türen GmbH was renamed LOBO HOME GmbH and the new product brands LOBO DOORS and LOBO FLOORS were combined under the umbrella brand LOBO HOME. In the course of this relaunch of the brand and the expansion of the product range, the company’s website was also to be redesigned. In February 2021, we started our joint project with LOBO HOME. In addition to the relaunch of the website based on Shopware 6 and the creation of a B2B online store with Shopware 6 Enterprise, a PIM system Pimcore PIM was to be implemented as central product data management and a 3D configurator was to be integrated into Shopware. In addition, the existing ERP system was to be integrated.

LOBO HOME distributes its high-quality products in numerous product variants to a specialized trade audience throughout Germany. The new website is therefore intended to strengthen the brands LOBO HOME, LOBO DOORS and LOBO FLOORS on the one hand, and on the other hand to support the company’s sales partners at the point of sale and ensure quick and easy access to the LOBO HOME range. The website, B2B online store, PIM system and online configurator therefore had to be individually adapted to the company’s needs. Particular challenges lay in the complexity of the project, the integration and customization of the configurator, and the orchestration of communication between the different systems.
Since the new website was to be launched at the same time as the new umbrella brand LOBO HOME, this first project phase had to be implemented very quickly. There were only two months from the project launch in February 2021 to the go-live of the website.

Together with the dedicated team of LOBO HOME, we implemented this exciting project in the agile process model Scrum.
Thousands of project hours were recorded and 1,385 tickets were created in the extensive project. 45 colleagues from three business units logged their times on the project.

Shopware 6 Enterprise Edition

Both the website relaunch and the B2B online store were implemented using the Shopware 6 Enterprise e-commerce system. For this purpose, two sales channels were created in the same Shopware instance, so that products, data, media and categories can be played out in both channels. For the website, the store functionalities have been deactivated. Based on the comprehensive CMS functionalities and the B2B suite of Shopware 6 Enterprise Edition, numerous individual customizations were implemented. The features that were implemented as part of the project include various individual customer requests in order to offer customers in the B2B sector additional services that go beyond the products. For example, a comprehensive customer account area is available in which LOBO HOME customers can access information such as current and archived orders through various settings and views.

configuratorware

In order to better support dealers and sales partners at the point of sale, an online configurator for doors and frames has been integrated into the store.

Through configuratorware’s 3D online configurator, individual design options and configurations of doors and frames can be mapped online in a three-dimensional 360° view.
The configurator was customized to take into account the complexity of the products or configuration options and the numerous dependencies.
configuratorware is connected to Pimcore via an individual interface so that the images for the configurator can be transferred regularly from the DAM system.

Pimcore PIM & DAM

LOBO HOME uses Pimcore in the Community Edition as a central instance for the management and provision of product data and digital assets for the online store and the online configurator.

Product data and categories are transferred from the Pimcore PIM to the Shopware 6 Enterprise store system.
Celigo’s iPaaS solution integrator.io acts as middleware for connecting Pimcore to Shopware.
From the Pimcore DAM, images and 3D files are provided for the online store and the 3D online configurator of configuratorware.
In total, the project currently manages about 210,000 data objects and about 13,000 assets in Pimcore.

Celigo

Celigo’s integrator.io integration platform is a middleware that enables data exchange between different systems. In our project with LOBO HOME, iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service) is used to ensure automated and predictable data transfer between Pimcore and Shopware 6.

UX & UI

A special feature of the new website of LOBO HOME is the high design standard, which is expressed in a clear, modern look. However, the website and online store are not only convincing because of their visual appearance, but also because of their consistent user centricity.

UI services:

Creation of the online CI (font, colors, fonts, icons, buttons, etc.) and web design based on the re-branding specifications and implementation in Shopware.
Very extensive screen design according to the mobile-first principle and individualization of the Shopware standard (template)
Development and conception of the design for the 3D online configurator of configuratorware in cooperation with redhotmagma

UX services:

Workshop for the identification of the target group
Conception and wireframing of the online configurator in user-centered design
Implementation of complex requirements due to numerous dependencies in coordination with our partner redhotmagma
To better meet the usage needs in B2B, the possibility of a quick configuration was developed
Simple and intuitive use for mobile and desktop

Our joint project with LOBO HOME was characterized by a very good and cooperative partnership. The extensive technical solutions that were developed, interlinked and implemented in agile working methods make the ambitious web project a prime example of digital transformation in the B2B sector. The result is absolutely convincing from our point of view.
We are very pleased to continue to work with the team of LOBO HOME in the future and to accompany the project.