Business Summary
Ernsting's family has been a leading omnichannel provider in the Western European textile retail industry for more than 50 years, running 1,925 stores in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.
The monolithic online shop was increasingly reaching its performance and scalability limits as usage grew.
Together with dotSource, a modern MACH-based e-commerce architecture powered by commercetools was implemented.
The goal was to create a scalable platform that integrates key e-commerce processes, improves performance and enables further international expansion.
Client | Ernsting's family GmbH & Co. KG |
Industry | |
Technology | |
Focus | E-Commerce |
How Ernsting's family Benefits from Its New E-Commerce Platform
with a modern MACH architecture based on commercetools
of back end, CMS, PIM solution, ERP software, B2C app, customer service tools and the ERA store app
with a scope that includes catalogue data, customer data, pricing logic, checkout, orders, inventory and availability
with more than 70 orchestrated microservices and flexible scaling of individual components
Project Overview
About Ernsting's family
Ernsting's family is a long-established retailer and omnichannel provider with a complex system and process landscape that has evolved over many years.
The company combines brick-and-mortar retail, apps, service systems and e-commerce to form an integrated commerce set-up.
Initial Situation
The existing shop solution was built as a monolith, making it increasingly cumbersome to enhance and operate. With rising user numbers, growing system complexity and increasing demands on performance and availability, it became clear that the existing architecture could only meet future requirements to a limited extent.
Challenges
The project team needed to integrate the new platform into the existing IT landscape while taking numerous systems and processes into account. The transition had to be carried out gradually so that ongoing operations remained stable and no unnecessary risks arose. In addition, the project required an architecture that could evolve flexibly and accommodate future requirements.
From Outdated Structure to Scalable E-Commerce Solution
Strategic Consulting and Workshop Phase
At the start of the project, dotSource and Ernsting's family analysed the requirements and defined the technological framework together. In doing so, they clarified the target architecture, integration approaches and next steps in workshops and deep dive sessions.
Holistic Transformation of the System Landscape
The transformation affected numerous components at the same time, including back end, front end, CMS, B2C app, PIM system, customer service tools, SAP ERP integration and the ERA store app. Moreover, the team migrated products, prices, customer data, content and tracking to the new architecture.
Agile Collaboration in a Multi-Stream Set-up
For over two years, more than seven departments worked on the implementation in parallel. dotSource managed the project using a multi-stream approach, combining Scrum, Nexus, Scrum of Scrums and Dual Track Agile.
MACH Architecture Based on commercetools
It was decided to use commercetools because the MACH architecture – with Microservices, an API-first approach, Cloud-native infrastructure and Headless technology – enables flexible enhancement. Today, the back end is powered by more than 70 microservices, which can be scaled and expanded independently.
Back Ends for Front Ends as Integration Principle
Back ends for front ends integrated the central back-end systems with the online shop, apps and customer service tools, providing each application with exactly the data it needed. The migration was carried out gradually across several launches to reduce risks and transition key e-commerce processes in a controlled way.
Quality Assurance and On-Time Launch
The project team set clear priorities and initially focused on the most important features. A carefully planned QA phase and Ernsting's family's testing ensured that the system went live on time and in a stable state.
Scalable Platform as a Basis for Further Development
With the successful implementation of commercetools, Ernsting's family now has a powerful, scalable and future-proof e-commerce platform. The new architecture integrates seamlessly into the existing IT landscape, improves performance and load times and lays the foundation for further growth as well as rapid innovation cycles. The modular architecture also makes it possible to quickly incorporate new features and continuously optimise existing processes.
Take the Next Step and Benefit from a Future-Ready Commerce Set-up
- MACH-compliant commerce architecture that replaces monolithic legacy systems and scales securely
- Gradual migration that reduces risks and safeguards ongoing business processes
- Flexible integration of online shop, app, CMS, PIM solution, ERP software and service systems into a modern platform landscape
- Agile project management using a multi-stream approach for complex transformation projects involving several teams
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