Konica Minolta: Major e-commerce relaunch

Presentation Websites E-shop Intranet/Portal Creatives

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We probably don't need to introduce the global IT company Konica Minolta to you. It lacked an e-commerce solution for selling and renting printers in the European market. They have recently focused on small B2B clients, but with the behavior of end customers.

Delivered Services

Presentation Websites

E-shop

Intranet/Portal

Creatives

Initial State

The e-shop had a large number of deficiencies, especially in the conversion path.
The purchasing process on the original e-shop was too complicated.
Information about products and post-purchase service was insufficient, leading to minimal conversions.
The solution did not reflect the requirements for user-friendliness (UX).
Product prices were not transparent, and their display during purchase was conditional on user registration.
The e-commerce platform did not address localization and different product portfolios, individual online marketing, or varying product prices, which significantly complicated scalability and rollouts.

Our Solution

We built a functional platform for online sales and rentals of products.
The e-shop loads in just 0.5 seconds, anywhere in the world.
We reduced operational costs of the solution by 70% by utilizing CDN for the frontend.
We accomplished everything in just 7 months.
We focused on the needs of new and existing customers.
We changed the design, content, and effectively communicated the benefits.
We expanded the portfolio and clearly clarified the final prices of products.
We support the client in successfully managing e-commerce solutions for the European market.
We launched solutions for Belgium and the Netherlands and are now preparing additional language versions.

No audit, no code

Konica had its original e-commerce solution built two years ago. However, due to a significant focus on tooling, it was very costly and did not reflect essential best practices. As a result, the e-shop did not sell the offered printers at all – it did not meet the expected goals.

Before we started the redesign, we needed to identify and precisely describe the specific issues. In collaboration with other industry experts, we conducted a comprehensive audit focused on the overall usability of the solution from the perspective of today's e-commerce – particularly in terms of sales and marketing. We found several obstacles.

“We needed help in building the e-commerce experience at Konica Minolta, and the team from PUX was there for us. They helped us understand how to effectively measure and evaluate the results of our e-shop and how to communicate properly with customers. They guided us in creating our own e-commerce teams in individual European countries and managing the e-shop separately in each country. We are very satisfied with the decision to switch to a local solution – it has given us greater flexibility and adaptability to the local market.”

We have documented 235 findings and recommendations across six areas of expertise

80% of errors were caused by:

poor and insufficient content
UX issues
inappropriate purchasing process
limited SEO options
incorrectly set measurements in analytical tools

and the remaining 20% were of a technical nature.

Based on this analysis, the project management proposed to practically completely redesign the e-shop. >And our solution?

Notebook zobrazující webovou stránku Konica Minolta

1. User First – B2C is not B2B

In addition to technical adjustments, it was necessary to address 80% of the business-related errors.

“What might the end customer need on our e-shop?”

In 2021, Konica Minolta commissioned a high-quality and extensive user research study by the experienced agency Fjord from the USA. However, it was unable to leverage the significant potential during implementation and did not apply the agency's recommendations in the structure or content of its original e-commerce solution. The question “What might the end customer need on our e-shop?” was only raised two years later when we took part in its redesign.

We have taken a comprehensive market analysis and the characteristics and behavior of potential customers and improved it accordingly:

non-functional content: non-functional buttons, poor product descriptions
missing information important for customer decision-making during purchase
SEO
the issue of non-transparent pricing
unclear purchasing paths
and we recommended removing the requirement for registration to view prices and the option to purchase

We test, we test

Based on the audit, we developed a new e-shop concept. However, that was not the end. To avoid repeating the same mistakes as the original solution, we subjected our design to detailed examination:

in-depth interviews
usability testing

The most significant challenge we faced with the e-shop was the combination of direct machine sales and printer rentals. Designing the e-shop so that customers understood they could also rent printers for a certain period in addition to purchasing was challenging.

That is why we tested this part after the initial design, made adjustments, tested again, and revised once more. The web designer's main tool was Figma, and we followed the so-called double diamond design process (i.e., the approach: discover – define – develop – deliver).

“At PUXdesign, through in-depth interviews and usability testing, we identified and eliminated 80% of the business-related errors on our original e-shop, which did not meet demand. Thanks to this step, our new e-shop finally reflects customer needs: clear information, transparent pricing, and a simple purchasing path.”

We already know the first results

During testing, we found that the original purchasing process would take the customer a full 30 minutes. In that time, even the most patient person would have long gone to a competitor. Therefore, all tested users had to navigate our newly designed purchasing journey smoothly.

2. Building the e-commerce experience in Konice

Konica Minolta originally viewed the European market as a single entity with headquarters in Germany. However, from experience, we know that each country needs the ability to edit products, set pricing, and configure campaigns independently. Therefore, we proposed a change here: to introduce support for local solutions.

For the future function of the e-shop, the most important part of our work was the internal training of individual companies in Belgium, the Netherlands, followed by France, Germany, and other European countries.

We show how to do e-commerce for European countries.
What and how to measure on the e-shop.
How to evaluate these numbers.
How to work with content on the e-shop.
How to communicate appropriately with customers and build relationships with them.

3. Transition to a New Architecture

From the beginning, we knew that one-fifth of all identified issues would be resolved by transitioning the e-shop to a new platform. For reference: the original solution had significant limitations in effective content editing, making it unnecessarily complicated to create campaign pages.

At PUXdesign, we have been collaborating with Kentico for years, so CMS Kentico 13 was our top choice.

We implemented CMS Kentico as a headless solution for Konica Minolta and utilized a wide range of existing components. However, for the solution to be well-scalable and operated in Europe or globally, we needed to go further. We implemented a frontend based on the Jamstack principle using NEXT.js, which ensured a fast and secure website anywhere in the world. Additionally, we operate the e-shop from the Microsoft Azure cloud.

The result is a solution in which

the Konica Minolta team can finally edit content according to their needs and personalize it in every European country.
the e-shop loads in just half a second, anywhere in the world.
operational costs of the solution have been reduced by 70% thanks to the use of CDN for the frontend.
we delivered a complete solution in just 7 months.

At PUXdesign, we do not work merely at the level of thoughtless "brief–execution." We seek and propose the best path for our clients. For example, in the case of our client Konica Minolta. Do you feel that things are also sluggish on your e-commerce site? Contact us!

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