De Bruijn in Wijnen customer case

ERP system: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 14
E-commerce platform: Shopware

To make the sale of gastronomic wines more customer-friendly for a demanding audience, De Bruijn in Wijnen embarked on a digital transformation journey. They chose Shopware as their webshop platform. Jesaja Alberto, Business Development Manager at De Bruijn in Wijnen, shares the reasons behind selecting Shopware and describes their path, including collaborations and integration with their Business Central environment. He also shares his experience with the Tinx Shopware Connector. “The webshop is truly an extension of our service. This can only happen if the data from Business Central is transferred correctly to the Shopware webshop and vice versa. This was our core need.”

“We faced various challenges. The CMS system we were using was integrated with our Navision ERP environment and custom-built for us. At the time, it was state of the art, but we didn’t have the know-how and expertise to further develop the systems ourselves. Over time, the market evolved from offline to much more online. We were more or less tied to systems that weren’t easily scalable. The CMS was outdated, lacked many features, self-sufficiency was reduced, and the look and feel lagged behind compared to new webshops and CMS systems.”

“People decide within a millisecond whether they trust a webshop. If the look and feel lag behind, it’s challenging to attract people to your webshop and get them to place orders. Our loyal customers always found us easily and knew exactly how to place orders, but we were missing out on new customers.”

“To be able to scale more in today’s market, do more with marketing, and not fall behind the competition, significant changes were needed in terms of software systems. Migrating B2B customers to online ordering was also a major challenge. To achieve our goals, migration to Business Central and Shopware had become an absolute necessity.”

“Our core business involves the import and sale of gourmet wines. This means that our wines are more artisanal and of higher quality than the wines you might find in a supermarket, for example. We supply quality restaurants, larger hotels, gourmet businesses, wine bars, and high-quality wine shops, essentially anyone in the Netherlands looking for quality wines. We have a loyal customer base in the major cities. Currently, we do this through our own online platform and an inside sales team that accepts orders via phone, email, app, and in writing, serving both our B2B and B2C customers.”

We asked Jesaja about the key objectives for De Bruijn in Wijnen. Jesaja responds: “We are currently undergoing a significant digital transformation because we want at least 90 percent of all our restaurant and retail customers who currently place orders via apps, phone calls, emails, and essentially every conceivable method to start ordering through the B2B portal on our Shopware webshop. We aim to migrate these customers from offline to online ordering.”

“This will take a lot of pressure off the organization, and errors will be reduced. Plus, what’s very important, it will provide a customer experience that is much more in line with the times. We truly see this as an extension of our service. Soon, customers will be able to view their own invoices with their prices and conditions.”

“Additionally, we aim to achieve 20 to 25 percent growth in B2C compared to current online sales. We have entered into a partnership with Marveltest. Marveltest specializes in data analysis and customer profiles. These customer profiles will be used to set up online marketing in the right way. Through the Shopware webshop, we sell to both B2C and B2B customers.”

“For several reasons, we have chosen Shopware. During the technical discovery phase, we realized that our requirements didn’t quite fit into a tightly controlled SaaS platform like Shopify. Critical questions arose about how we envisioned certain data flows with Shopify. In particular, the B2B aspect, including customer-specific discounts and exports, proved difficult to achieve. We could have continued with Shopify, but it would have been a makeshift solution and certainly not scalable. Ultimately, there were so many reasons why Shopify wasn’t the right solution for the set of requirements we had on the table.”

“At that time, our e-commerce partner only provided Magento. That could have worked fine, especially from your end. But I had more of a Shopware feeling myself, and after research, Shopware seemed to fit slightly better. Shopware is newer, follows the API-first principle, and is more scalable if you later want to go headless. Shopware also offers a faster time-to-market and slightly lower investment compared to Magento. Self-sufficiency is also a bit easier within Shopware, and ultimately, that was also an important factor.”

“Strix, our current e-commerce partner, presented a completely different approach for the implementation than two other parties. It was so different that I suggested to Strix to consider involving Tinx alongside Alumio. That’s when everything came together, and the collaboration between De Bruijn, Strix, and Tinx began, with Shopware as the webshop platform.”

Belangrijkste reden om de Tinx oplossing te kiezen!

“Vanaf seconde één was Bob van der Lelie in het traject betrokken. Hij had veel kundig advies gegeven op het gebied van de integratie. De integratie leek goed te passen tussen Business Central en Shopware, en Strix was gecharmeerd van hoe jullie het proces aanvlogen. Stel, we zeggen dat wij willen migreren naar de BC19, dan is dat ook veel makkelijker door te voeren. Financieel werd het hierdoor ook een stuk aantrekkelijker. Als je op dit complexe vlak de kennis en kunde niet hebt is het heel belangrijk om daar zekerheid in te krijgen. Voor ons was dat Tinx in combinatie met Strix.”

“When I compare it to our previous webshop: back then, we had a lot of issues like duplicated customer cards and such, which took a lot of time every month. So far, everything we adjust in the Tinx Shopware Connector seems to work permanently right away. From my perspective as someone who isn’t a super knowledgeable ERP/integration specialist, I’d like to highlight one of the advantages: the Tinx Connector ensures that the standard functionalities within BC can be optimally used. And the synchronization is done in the right way. This allows us to import orders and update products and inventory very smoothly. So, at the moment, I can’t be anything but positive, really.”

What do you find most impressive about our product?

“What’s really great is that a modification that’s made works immediately and is also sustainable. The consistency in that is truly valuable and very reassuring for us as users. I’m still learning and using more of the functionalities. The journey has just started!”

What would you tell someone in another company about Tinx?

“In the sales process, I’ve seen that Bob van der Lelie does sales, of course, but also really thinks along with me as a customer. With every partner, you always need to find a good way to work together, but I notice, for example, in my contact with consultant Kasper Dissel, a drive and motivation that you rarely see in people. So much commitment to the project. I can’t remember a moment when that man wasn’t working. At any time.”

“Moreover, I think the most important thing is that the things that have been delivered and fine-tuned together, not only work but also continue to work. And ultimately, that’s what really matters. Whether you can work well together or not, whether you deliver within the timelines or not. The primary goal is that a delivered functionality works well. That it really stands. I think that at Tinx, they have this really well organized!”

Solution Provided