Speed, stability & performance for digital retail
New B2B ordering platform & central customer portal at HARTJE
Nearly 10,000 orders within a week and a generable daily revenue in the seven-figure range: HARTJE’s new B2B platform is not only a central digital hub for specialized trade but also a gear for achieving strategic business goals. With a functionally extensive online shop and the revised website, HARTJE strengthens its market position – with measurable performance and efficiency gains in the here and now as well as significant business and growth potentials for the future.
>660,000
products
in the Online Range
>70.000
customers
on one platform
10.000
orders
in one week after go-live
>50
million
Price Ranges
7
digit daily turnover
generatable
7
languages
for pan-European markets
Project keyfacts & highlights
Migration to Shopware 6 to replace the technically outdated existing system
Implementation of a powerful B2B ordering platform with possibilities for B2C extensions
Redesign and digital realignment of the existing website
Consolidation of ordering volume from over 70,000 existing customers
Optimization and automation of internal and external processes
Establishment of a central customer portal and separate CRM integration
Integration of the PIM system and middleware technology
Implementation of specialized search technologies and a B2C catalog
The company HARTJE
In over 125 years, Hermann Hartje KG has developed into a specialized wholesale and expert in the fields of e-bikes, bicycles and bicycle parts, motor scooters and motorcycles, as well as in automotive wholesale and workshop services throughout Europe. The ever-growing range with more than 660,000 products in the online shop includes everything needed for daily, professional, and specialized needs – from complete equipment to accessories, spare parts, and workshop equipment to clothing. With around 1,000 employees at 21 locations, the company from Lower Saxony sets standards for innovative and sustainable mobility solutions.
The challenge
As a long-standing, growth-oriented specialized trade partner, HARTJE faced the strategically relevant step of replacing the proprietary EOSweb system. While the legacy-based platform could cover many processes and functions for day-to-day business, it could no longer keep pace with the increasing demands of modern e-commerce architecture, especially in terms of usability, scalability, and integration capability. As the system serves as a central ordering and working basis for large parts of the organization, platform stability and availability are crucial. Particularly with large data volumes and order volumes, the system increasingly reached performance limits.
The realignment of the existing website (hartje.de) and the introduction of a new specialized trade ordering platform (MeinHARTJE) were therefore part of a comprehensive digitization program and should set crucial steps for the company’s future viability. A flexible, powerful commerce and procurement platform was sought, which serves as the digital backbone for the entire ordering process. This was intended to replicate the proven functionality of the predecessor system while creating space for new features and digital processes.
Strategic goals & specific requirements
With the introduction of a contemporary e-commerce platform, HARTJE pursued several strategic goals that go beyond the mere renewal of the ordering system:
With over 660,000 products, millions of price variants, and high daily order volumes, performance is a critical success factor. A significantly more powerful platform was sought to ensure stability and speed even under high load.
Through the automation of processes and the integration of new roles and workflows for inside and outside sales, internal processes were to be made significantly more efficient. Recurring tasks (e.g., automatic reorders and subscription functions) should also be digitally mapped.
By switching to a modern, lower-maintenance architecture, long-term cost-effectiveness should be improved, and dependency on proprietary legacy systems reduced.
In addition to the existing B2B sales, potentials in the end customer business should also be utilized in the future. Opportunities for B2C expansion were sought – with flexible functions and a scalable structure to tap additional customer segments.
The realignment of the website aimed at building a central customer portal. A consistent brand appearance with clear user guidance and a unified Customer Experience (CX) was to be created.
In addition to the strategic goals, HARTJE formulated two specific requirements for the new shop system at the beginning of the project:
- Fast Page Load Times: Short load times should be ensured both in the frontend and backend – regardless of whether a user works with a simple range or with multiple tenants, branches, and complex price logics. This resulted in concrete requirements for caching strategies, database performance, infrastructure setups, and the optimization of all interfaces.
- Streamlined Processes: Fewer manual efforts, less media disruption, more automation: To streamline processes, existing workflows should not only be transferred 1:1 from the legacy system but intelligently and comprehensively optimized – from ordering to returns management to field service deployment.
These concrete requirements and strategic goals highlighted the need to implement the project not only technologically at a very high level but also methodically focus strongly on efficiency, scalability, and user-friendliness.
The solution
With a shared vision to a state-of-the-art specialized trade platform
After initial consultation, valantic built a future-proof commerce platform based on Shopware 6 that fully meets the company’s strategic and specific requirements. 15 permanent project participants from HARTJE and valantic worked closely together to develop an architecture that consolidates processes, data, and systems and simultaneously opens up for future requirements.
The API-first approach of Shopware 6 not only supports extensions (e.g., in the B2C context) but also simplified the seamless integration of interfaces and surrounding systems (including ERP, PIM, CRM, and ticket systems, middleware, as well as tools like Google Analytics and TagManager). The result is a scalable, high-performance, and intuitively operable B2B ordering platform that optimizes numerous processes for customers as well as inside and outside sales employees.
In parallel, the website was completely reimagined as a central customer portal and opened to end customers – among others, through a comprehensive redesign and the implementation of a B2C product catalog.
Innovative Features for Comprehensive Process Optimization
The multitude of new tools and features clearly shows that the implemented solution does not work in isolation but supports digital transformation at HARTJE comprehensively. The introduction of the B2B platform has positive effects on both the shopping experience and numerous business areas and processes:
-
1
Sales (internal and external)
Through features such as customer impersonation, role-based access and rights management, mobile optimization, and the mapping of complex branch scenarios, the entire sales process was digitized and made significantly more efficient. Field staff can now perform actions on behalf of a customer without access data via their account, e.g., initiate orders, view prices, check availability, or make support inquiries – in real-time and with full transparency.
-
2
Customer service & complaint management
With the integrated ticket system for returns, account, and complaint management, a structured and traceable process was created. Customer concerns can be processed faster, escalations are reduced, and the flow of information is improved.
-
3
Logistics & shipping control
Shipping and tour management were digitally mapped, enabling better planning, control, and tracking. Handling of backlogs and partial deliveries is now system-supported.
-
4
Procurement & order processing
Through features such as shopping cart splitting, successor item logic, automatic orders, and subscription functions, manual steps in processing have been greatly reduced. The platform consolidates the entire B2B order volume and enables more efficient control.
-
5
Controlling & analysis
With the integrated sales analysis tool, controlling has new possibilities for evaluating sales figures, assortments, and customer groups – up to daily updated reports.
-
6
IT & system integration
The platform acts as the technical backbone for various corporate systems. Interfaces, data management, and performance optimization required close collaboration with in-house IT and led to sustainable improvements in the system landscape.
-
7
Customer experience (CX)
Customer-specific prices, best price logic for all company accounts, a clear archive for invoices, delivery notes, and packing lists: With such functions and digital services, the new web store is consistently designed to make the ordering process more comfortable, intuitive, and efficient and improve the entire customer journey – from product search to delivery or return.
Lars Mrowczynski
Teamlead E-Commerce & Project Manager, HARTJE
”Both operationally and strategically, the sustainable added value of our new ordering platform is already clear. It forms a stable foundation for growth and efficiency potentials, for the digital realignment of our sales model, and for future expansion strategies. With trust, openness, and willingness to shape, we have advanced this project with valantic as an experienced partner. It was a joint effort with many challenges – but above all with a clear vision, one-team spirit, and our collective commitment to lead this project to success.“
Benefits & Business Potentials
Scalability & growth
The system landscape is designed for European markets and technologically built to grow flexibly with the business – whether through additional markets, new customer groups, or increasing order volumes.
Measurable performance gain
The platform guarantees stability and performance for over 50 million individual price offers, several thousand orders daily, and a generable daily revenue in the double-digit million range even with many simultaneous accesses.
Lower costs & error sources
Automations, optimized workflows, and centralized control via one platform reduce manual effort and optimize processes – both internally and on the customer side. This lowers costs, avoids errors, and increases productivity.
AI-supported, intuitive shopping experiences
AI in product and language search, personalized services, and individual prices contribute to a holistically convincing customer experience as do short loading times and direct access to invoices, delivery notes, and order histories. This strengthens customer loyalty and promotes reorder rate.
Unified commerce & cross-channel transparency
As the central hub for all customers, the platform brings together B2B sales activities, digital channels, and prospectively also the B2C business, ensuring a transparent, consistent customer journey.
Positioning as an industry innovator
With the go-live of one of the most powerful Shopware solutions in the B2B sector, HARTJE positions itself as a digital pioneer within the industry. This not only strengthens market perception but also employer branding and attractiveness for partners.
Tech ownership & future security
The company has full control over the further development of the platform and can agilely and largely independently implement new requirements, market changes, and innovative features.
Jan Bömer
Business Unit Director HARTJE Digita
”The platform project MeinHartje/hartje.de was an exciting challenge that we successfully mastered together with valantic. Especially the CX team in Germany and Romania made a decisive contribution with expertise, pragmatism, and creative solutions. Thank you for your commitment! Also, a big thank you to all Hartje employees: Your commitment and understanding have paved the way so far. Our collaboration shows how communication at eye level, technological advancement, and change management can be managed together. I look forward to the next steps!“
What’s next?
The next step is to expand the digital product experience by replacing a native app. Planned are specialized wheel, chain set, gear group, and steel flex configurators with which users can individually assemble complex product sets – intuitively and error-free directly in the store. Beyond that, the cooperation with valantic is long-term: Further features, continuous optimizations, and the integration of additional sales channels and data-driven services are already on the agenda.
