#037 : Insight __ how Kitchen Things executed B2C & B2B on a single stack with Adobe Commerce, Akeneo & Algolia.

https://www.kitchenthings.co.nz/

Kitchen Things New Zealand is a culmination of industry-pioneering milestones and an intergenerational passion for premium, innovative kitchen experiences. Kitchen Things was created as the specialist in premium European cooking appliances. Driven by their family values, they are passionate about empowering you in the kitchen; their complimentary cooking technology demonstrations, expert advice and a broad range of quality products ensure your appliance selection perfectly fits your needs.

As a nationally recognised kitchen specialist, Kitchen Things offer a complete range of premium kitchen appliance brands including Miele, Smeg, ASKO, Gaggenau, Neff, and Bosch, plus many more through their family-owned-and-operated network of nationwide retail appliance stores.

Overdose. had the opportunity to collaborate with Kitchen Things to create a fully-functional e-commerce website that supports their customers' multi-touchpoint buying journey while assisting in-store sales staff through a comprehensive marketing and tech strategy. Our team was also entrusted with migrating Kitchen Things to Adobe Commerce Cloud to enhance their online experience.

Integrations

In collaboration with Kitchen Things, Overdose. successfully integrated the Adobe Commerce platform with Akeneo, their Product Information Management (PIM) tool, utilizing the Akeneo connector Magento module to synchronize product data and categories. To cater to specific requirements, customizations were made to the connector's default logic to ensure the backorder functionality is enabled or disabled based on the custom product availability status logic and that the branch-specific stock data is synced to MSI sources.

In addition, to streamline the fulfilment process for Miele purchases, a direct order integration was implemented via the Miele API. Overdose. ensured price consistency for Miele products by validating the price via the Miele API and updating it if not aligned.

Moreover, the website features a bespoke Algolia implementation with custom indexes, allowing all site content from products, categories, CMS pages, and blog posts to be searchable. To further enhance the user experience, Nosto's personalization tool is utilized to provide targeted product recommendations to users based on their behaviour or purchasing history. Through this project, we were able to deliver an efficient, personalized, and seamless shopping experience for their customers.

CHALLENGE #001 : General platform limitations

Kitchen Things wanted to develop complex features for their site so needed a flexible platform to enable them to do so.

SOLUTION : The existing Kitchen Things B2C website was migrated from BigCommerce to Adobe Commerce Cloud.

CHALLENGE #002 : An increased need to support B2B customers

B2B customers required more support and ability to manage their purchases for projects.

SOLUTION : The Adobe Commerce B2B module was installed to utilise the Requisition List module. Requisition lists, in comparison to a wishlist, provide a better solution for customers who are shopping based on lists of products for projects. Every logged-in user can set up requisition lists for projects and add this list of products to the cart directly from the list. Customers can maintain multiple lists.

CHALLENGE #003 : Migration of blog posts into Adobe Commerce

Blog posts/recipes were housed in a separate WordPress site so The Jones Family Business has to manage 2 separate platforms.

SOLUTION : Existing blog posts/recipes were migrated from WordPress to Magento to allow The Jones Family Business to manage all content through a single platform.

CHALLENGE #004 : Custom Checkout Functionality

Due to a supplier arrangement, the Kitchen Things site required two unique payment portals depending on which suppliers' products are in the cart. This required custom attributes to be defined in Akeneo for custom cart logic to define the checkout flow the user is guided down.

SOLUTION : Custom logic is used to determine the payment gateway required based on the products in the cart. This then sends customers to one of two integrated payment gateways.

CHALLENGE #005 : Retailing High-Value Appliances Online

The appliance industry is traditionally heavily geared towards bricks-and-mortar, therefore the old Kitchen Things site was primarily to support in-store activity, rather than as a revenue-generating channel itself due to the high value nature of the products sold.

SOLUTION : Overdose. was tasked to define an intuitive online User Experience that complements the omnichannel shopping and browsing behaviours of customers, allowing for deeper customer engagement, data capture and targeting capability. Through deep ERP and PIM integration, the site serves up store-level inventory, AI-driven product & content search, and integrated customer service and chat tools.

"Overdose. undertook the task of migrating our site to Magento 2/Adobe Commerce, this was a well-documented and carefully planned process.

Overdose.'s team from the designers, project managers and developers all worked together to help us create a unified vision of our new website as well as the future state versions. The teams were agile and able to adapt to any minor adjustments, issues and requirements we had while keeping development running smoothly.

Everyone here at Kitchen Things / Jones Family Business has been astonished by the final result, and even more excited by the future possibilities that are available with this new platform."

Josef Arnet, Ecommerce Manager

- Jones Family Business

UX/UI

In collaboration with Kitchen Things, we conducted UX/UI ideation and identified the need for a structured Mega Menu that could support dynamically-pulled content, including products, categories, and promotions from Akeneo. To create a seamless user experience, we implemented a multi-tiered Mega Menu, allowing customers to navigate different product types from anywhere on the website without the need for extensive filtering or category pages. We also designed touchpoints, such as surfacing inventory availability in hover states, to support the customer buying journey.

Considering the B2B aspect of the business, we identified the need for requisition lists and re-order functionality to create a smooth re-purchasing experience for trade customers. By giving users the ability to create or add products to their existing requisition lists from the category page, we reduced the number of clicks required to purchase, providing a quick and efficient service for those who know what they want.

As help and support are crucial when buying big-ticket items, Kitchen Things wanted to cater to all audiences, including those who cannot visit the store. We designed a feature that allowed online customers to talk to one of their appliance experts virtually, calling it out at every touchpoint throughout the user journey within content blocks, the home page, category page, product pages, and providing easily accessible dedicated support pages.

To elevate their help and support services further, we implemented the ability for customers to send their wish list to their nearest/chosen Kitchen Things store. A sales assistant would then call them back to discuss all options available, creating a direct connection between the customer and the sales assistant, amplifying their customer support to the next level.

Read the original article here : Kitchen Things Case Study