B2B e-commerce platform benefits from Magento Open Source and Hyvä front-end

In addition to Mapeco 's five physical stores, the e-commerce platform remains a strategic factor toward the B2B target market. Both in terms of current technical setup and commercial perspective, the platform was no longer working in Mapeco's favor. The move to a new and stable e-commerce system became necessary to best serve business customers.

Magento Open Source with Hyvä frontend

Mapeco's new e-commerce platform combines Magento 2 Open Source with the Hyvä theme, an open source frontend technique based on Magento standards. This optimized, community-supported frontend is fast, lightweight and involves a relatively low initial investment. In addition, Mapeco was assured a quick installation.

The Hyvä theme provides a comprehensive template that incorporates all basic e-commerce best practices. This eliminated the need for Mapeco to go through a full design process.

Customization: expansion of B2B functionalities

XSARUS added several custom B2B functionalities to achieve the desired capabilities for Mapeco.

Account Structures

The functionalities surrounding account structures were largely solved for Mapeco through an XSARUS module for Magento Open Source. Thanks to this module, Mapeco can easily create company accounts, set up account structures and manage employees. The wholesaler works a lot with freelancers who work for multiple construction companies. One advantage is that you can link different organizations to a user (for example, the self-employed) and they then easily switch between company accounts.

Order lists

It is possible per account to add multiple order lists and easily place repeat orders. At Mapeco, this often involves large orders and dozens of order lines. Customers import order lists using a CSV file and copy them to another company, so the same orders can easily be placed for multiple construction sites. It happens that for ten sites, ten times the exact same order needs to be delivered, so these functionalities increase efficiency.

It is also possible to prepare standard order lists for types of customers such as "woodworker," "ironworker" and more. On the product detail page, customers have the option to add a product directly to the order list.

Customer-specific prices

Once a customer logs in, real-time customer-specific prices (excluding VAT) appear across the entire product range, linked to the ERP system. This enables Mapeco to provide customized offers tailored to the unique needs of a customer or customer segment. Upon approval, customers can also order on account.

VAT verification for new customers

Thanks to the standard Magento connection with the European Commission's VIES database, the system automatically validates whether a new customer's VAT number belongs to an existing organization. This allows Mapeco to assign customers to the correct business target group, which helps with the correct application of tax rules. A strong improvement in platform operational efficiency and compliance.

Validation of new users

As soon as a new user signs up, an automated validation starts. Suppose a user signs up using an e-mail address of an existing Mapeco customer with customer-specific prices. Then a validation process is initiated towards Mapeco in which this new user is validated to prevent fraud.

Allocate stock and sales to correct location

Mapeco's five physical stores each serve a specific service area, segmented by zip code. Using the zip code, the system determines which store is responsible for the order. As a result, the order is delivered from the correct store and sales are assigned to the appropriate location.

Even more functionality

In addition to the above B2B functionalities, Mapeco's customers also benefit from:

• Insight into a product's stock status by location on the product detail page.
• Access to comprehensive account information: in addition to basic account data such as name and address, delivery addresses and web orders, information about the linked field salesperson, offline orders, invoices and shipments is also displayed.

Successes achieved and future steps

Thanks to the new e-commerce platform, Mapeco and its customers can now count on accurate stock data and correct customer-specific prices. User-friendliness has increased significantly: customers navigate effortlessly through the B2B platform. The combination of Magento Open Source with the Hyvä frontend provides the desired speed, stability and flexibility. Many of the B2B customization solutions have already resulted in noticeable efficiency improvements.

Mapeco and XSARUS successfully completed this project within just three months. The collaboration continues with new optimizations on the horizon to further improve both business processes and customer experience.