Swardman: e-shop with a product configurator that will increase sales

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Although it has a somewhat foreign name, the brand of reel mowers Swardman is purely Czech. Based in Šardice, it has managed to attract customers abroad as well. Clients send their mower orders from Germany, Australia, the USA, and France. And you will surely agree that in such a case, the brand needs a functional and modern e-shop desperately.

We effortlessly caught up with the shortcomings of the original e-shop

We had been somewhat getting to know the client Swardman since 2017. However, the right time to establish cooperation came only with the onset of the 2020s. He approached us to create a sophisticated e-shop and a pleasant shopping experience for end customers. That was exactly what he was missing. The then-current e-shop no longer met the client's expectations and was also quite costly. The most crucial aspect he needed to change urgently was, for example, that:

The e-shop completely lacked inventory management functionality.
The client had to manually enter all prices, inventory levels, and other information into the e-shop because he lacked integration with ERP.
SEO optimization could not be processed on the original CMS.
The client could not make graphic adjustments himself, and editing texts in the CMS was complicated. Therefore, the client turned to the supplier for every little detail. This, of course, took up his time and finances.
A significant problem was also language versions, which had to be edited for each product and for each language separately. This also required a lot of the client's time.
A detailed technical analysis we conducted with the client during the initial meeting clearly showed us that the e-shop had a diverse array of shortcomings, and we set out to get everything in order.

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Initial State

The original solution was unfeasible for the client for many reasons, so they decided to collaborate with PUXdesign.

The original supplier was unable to develop the e-shop.
Editing content was very complicated, especially in managing products in language variants and currencies.
The e-shop was not integrated with ERP, so the client had to enter everything manually – prices, products, availability, etc.
SEO optimization was very difficult to implement here.

Our Solution

We saved Swardman many hours of work and finances through process automation on their e-shop, which they previously had to invest in this work.

We connected the CRM to the ERP Helios Orange, saving the client up to 80% of the time of two employees – resulting in an annual savings of approximately 1.5 million crowns.
Customers can assemble their own spindle mower in a guided configurator and then place an order for the designed piece. Through the configurator, the client receives 8 out of 10 mower orders.
We provided sales representatives with an order module for an easy overview of ordered mowers across all markets.
We built the e-shop on the CMS Kentico Xperience, allowing the client to finally edit content entirely according to their needs.
In addition to content editing, we enabled the client to work with SEO and thus increase their visibility in search engines.

Integration with ERP saves the client 1.5 million crowns annually

Just in time for the new season, we connected the client's e-shop to the ERP Helios Orange. Swardman had not previously worked with any ERP, which meant, for example, that employees had to process all orders manually. The ERP integration brought welcome automation – the client gained:

an overview of accounting, financial planning, inventory and supply management, order processing, production, and human resources management all in one place
simplification and automation of complex business processes – tasks that would take many hours manually can now be handled automatically by the ERP
effective sales management – it processes orders and creates organizations. The ERP currently processes orders and creates organizations (customer accounts). The client now manually replenishes stock in Kentico when a product is out of stock – this is still a significant step forward for him, as it was not possible to do even this on the old e-shop. They had to completely disable the product.

By eliminating the need for the client to fill everything out manually, we reduced the number of errors that occurred during this work. At the same time, connecting the ERP saves up to 80% of the total time of two employees, who can now focus on customers. Further integration is planned – the most important thing for us was to start with what brings the most benefit to people with Swardman.

“For small businesses with standardized products, templates are probably the ideal solution. However, for more complex needs and specific requirements, standardized templates become insufficient, and it is necessary to create a custom website... And that is exactly why I can only recommend PUXdesign.”

Editing Options and Finally SEO Optimization

A major issue with the original e-shop, which led the client to decide on a complete overhaul, was the very complicated editing of text and images and content optimization for search engines. Anything the client needed to modify, remove, or add in the content was assigned as a task to their web supplier. This, of course, meant not only additional expenses but also significant delays before changes were reflected on the e-shop. SEO optimization also required larger changes to the e-shop. These obstacles were the impetus for change.

By transitioning to CMS Kentico Xperience, which we recommended at PUXdesign, the client discovered new possibilities. They can finally flexibly edit all texts, descriptions, images, and videos on the e-shop as needed anytime and anywhere without having to wait for anything. At the same time, they can maximize search engine optimization and continuously improve their strategy.

The content changes that the client makes on their pages are directly reflected in other language versions as well. Editing content in individual versions is now handled better, and the adjustments do not take up as much of the client's time. For reference: changes to products can be edited on one page for all language versions, which was not possible before.

A Configurator That Finally Saves Time

The configurator on the Swardman e-shop is not a new feature. Swardman had already used this functionality in their previous solution – it should be noted, however, that they were not satisfied with it, as it was a much more complicated implementation. In the client's words: the configurator practically behaved like a small complex e-shop within the e-shop. In short, everything was extremely complicated.

At PUX, we started from the ground up

The configurator from our developers now powers 8 out of 10 orders for lawn mowers on the Swardman e-shop, and its management is significantly simpler. The products in the configurator are the same as those on the e-shop, so there is no need to duplicate them unnecessarily – at the same time, we allow setting a separate price for the configurator and the e-shop. The configurator has several steps: some are mandatory, others are not, and in some steps, you can intentionally select only 1 item, while in others, you can choose multiple.

In summary – we saved the client three-quarters of the time they would otherwise spend making adjustments on the e-shop and configurator. Now they can finally move on to something more important.

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