Gustav Ehlert sets new standards: Composable Commerce for the digital future
synaigy modernizes B2B webshop and corporate website – customized headless solution for optimal customer experience and data-driven commerce strategies.
Project Brief
- GoalHeadless Commerce – Development of a wholesale platform
- Durationongoing
- SystemIntershop, Storyblok
- IndustryFood industry and gastronomy supplies
- TypeB2B
- OnboardingSupport and optimization since 2016
Gustav Ehlert GmbH sets standards for food production
synaigy relaunched the B2B webshop and corporate website for the long-term existing customer. The aim of the project was to modernize the company's digital presence before the 100th-anniversary celebration in 2024 – and to set the course for data-driven commerce optimization.
Our Services
About Gustav Ehlert GmbH & Co. KG
Gustav Ehlert GmbH & Co. KG is a family-owned company from Verl with over 100 years of experience as a B2B wholesaler and supply chain specialist for food production.
Starting Situation and Goals
synaigy has been operating the Ehlert B2B webshop on an Intershop basis since 2016. In addition to the technical and functional development, synaigy also takes over the operation and managed services of the platform.
The steadily increasing demands of Ehlert's customers combined with the focus on data-driven commerce optimizations and an upcoming Intershop update presented challenges to the existing infrastructure setup of the Ehlert project. In particular, the inflexible Intershop frontend templates set tight boundaries.
Therefore, Ehlert and synaigy jointly decided on a replatforming of the B2B shop (Intershop) and the corporate website (WordPress). The aim was to create a seamless, scalable, and user-friendly solution that allows Ehlert to meet the growing demands of B2B customers.
The goal: a modern composable commerce setup with a headless storefront at the center. Storyblok was to serve as a headless CMS in the background, enabling flexible content commerce capabilities and managing the content of the corporate website. In contrast, the Intershop commerce module was to be retained and converted to headless operation.
The Solution: Composable Commerce – flexible and scalable
To achieve the goal, the customer experience had to be reimagined, backend processes optimized, and systems reconnected.
synaigy developed a digital design system for Ehlert in the first step, which forms the basis for all digital Ehlert platforms. A collaborative UX/UI sprint model with weekly reviews ensured that the developed concepts and UX/UI designs were both technically validated and coordinated with Ehlert stakeholders.
Close collaboration between design and development teams ensured that about 80% of the concepts were technically validated before the start of the development phase, avoiding unnecessary iterations and thus reducing costs.
The newly created headless storefront (React/Next.js) will serve both the commerce platform and the corporate website in the future.
Technical Implementation
The core of the new technical solution for Ehlert is the decoupling of the frontend and backend layers (= headless approach). This setup ensures flexible and future-proof development, as both layers can be operated and developed independently.
To this end, synaigy converted the existing Intershop commerce solution and other subsystems to interface operation. Although Intershop is essentially headless-capable, numerous interfaces had to be newly built, expanded, or adapted for the specific Ehlert processes.
Special attention was paid to performance and accessibility in the frontend (e.g., using the latest possibilities of server components).
Corporate Website: Migration from WordPress to Storyblok
synaigy replaced the existing corporate website (WordPress) with the modern headless CMS Storyblok. For this, additional content models and frontend components were created, also based on the new Ehlert design system.
The content was migrated automatically. The new platform was to be available in both German and English. Content available in only one language was automatically translated using the DeepL API. The corporate website content is now seamlessly integrated into the webshop. This also resolved previous SEO disadvantages due to duplicate or very similar content between the corporate website and B2B shop.
The transition to Storyblok enables Ehlert to consolidate content management and optimize processes. Job postings, blog articles, news, and marketing content can be centrally managed and distributed.
A special highlight was the realization of an interactive web special that presents the 100-year history of the company on the new platform on the occasion of the anniversary.
The Composable Commerce platform developed by synaigy opens up completely new possibilities for us—from personalized customer offers to seamless integration of additional services. The project is not only a milestone for us, but the next step on the way to a data-driven, digital future!
Results
The relaunch led to a more robust, scalable platform with improved user features and optimized backend processes. Key innovations include:
Digital B2B Customer Account
A dashboard for order management, role-specific access rights, a fully digital complaint process, and budget controls.
AI-supported Consumption Forecasts
By analyzing order behavior over time, AI-supported recommendations for replenishment are determined.
Digital Accessibility
All developed frontend components are largely barrier-free and compliant with the Accessibility Enhancement Act (BFSG)—even though the B2B shop is not directly affected by the law.
Mobile Usability
Even complex customer processes are designed mobile-first, such as configuring an OCI punchout.
Equipment Check
In addition to the shop, synaigy also realized a Progressive Web App (PWA) that digitalizes the tool rental process for Ehlert customers. Data matrix codes on the tools can be scanned with the smartphone camera to digitally manage the inventory.
Content Commerce
Thanks to Storyblok CMS, editorial content can be seamlessly linked with commerce functions, and content processes can be efficiently organized.
Our Conclusion of the Project
Today, Ehlert offers its B2B customers an optimized digital experience that is unmatched in the industry. The Composable Commerce relaunch with a headless storefront enables Ehlert to flexibly respond to dynamic market changes.
The relaunch positions Ehlert as a digital and innovative leader in the industry. synaigy's full-service approach has delivered a comprehensive solution that not only meets current business demands but also keeps Ehlert ready for future expansions.
We thank our client Gustav Ehlert GmbH & Co. KG for the trustworthy, appreciative, and successful cooperation!
For 96 years, we have been the first point of contact and supplier for the needs in food production. We could only build such long-term trust with customer-oriented service and very good work. We now had to achieve this trust and perfect customer focus digitally, and synaigy helped us with that. With their holistic approach from consulting to technical implementation, they broke down a huge project into understandable steps and implemented it together with us step by step in an understandable way.
Successful digital transformation at Gustav Ehlert GmbH & Co. KG :)
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