Business Summary
Nomos is one of the leading academic publishers in the German-speaking world. Based in Baden-Baden and with more than 1,200 publications per year, the publishing house has been shaping specialist literature in the fields of law, social sciences and humanities for more than 60 years. Strategic acquisitions have enabled the portfolio to expand continuously, which has also increased the demands placed on the digital brand presence.
Working in close collaboration with dotSource, Nomos launched a new, future-proof online shop based on Adobe Commerce.
Client | Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG |
Industry | Media, Publishing & Printing |
Technology | Adobe Commerce Cloud |
Focus | E-Commerce |
How Nomos Benefits from a New Adobe Setup
of related products for an optimised user experience
across all imprints and publishers
and improved author experience with the Adobe Page Builder
for international shippings of books and other printed products
and configuration options such as discount models for specific customer groups
Project Overview
About Nomos
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, based in Baden-Baden, has been one of the leading academic publishers in the German-speaking world for over 60 years. Each year, more than 1,200 books and over 80 specialist journals are published in the fields of law, social sciences and humanities.
In addition to its print programme, Nomos offers digital access to a comprehensive publishing portfolio via the Nomos eLibrary and the legal database beck-online.de.
Initial Situation
Since acquiring several publishing houses in 2009, Nomos’s portfolio has grown significantly, bringing with it new requirements for brand management and its system landscape. The existing shop setup based on TYPO3 and numerous in-house developments was difficult to maintain and scarcely capable of being updated and was not optimised for mobile use.
At the same time, Nomos wanted to strengthen its role as the overarching brand and offer its authors a modern, more attractive environment.
Challenges
Nomos was faced with the task of bringing together an established publishing portfolio with different imprints under one strong digital presence. At the same time, the old shop system was to be gradually replaced without jeopardising ongoing operations.
Defining a clearly scoped shop MVP, prioritising functions and the bringing together of previously separate publishing divisions on a shared platform required a structured approach with close coordination between all stakeholders.
New Publishing Webshop with Adobe Commerce Entry Solution
Analysing Requirements
In an early consulting phase, dotSource worked together with Nomos to define the objectives and requirements for the new online shop. Competitive benchmarks helped to set priorities for usability, structure, as well as mobile and SEO orientation.
Selecting the Technological Foundation
Based on a solution concept with system comparison, dotSource recommended Adobe Commerce as the technology, more specifically the Adobe Commerce Entry Solution. This gave Nomos a platform that is close to the standard while also being designed for continuous development.
Defining the MVP Scope
In a series of workshops with various Nomos stakeholders, the functional scope of the first shop MVP was defined. The clear goal: to cover essential requirements while simultaneously creating a framework for later expansion stages.
Specifying Processes and Structures
The project team developed detailed specifications for processes, data structures as well as shop content and features. Tracking and SEO requirements were taken into account at an early stage in order to create a robust basis for operations.
Early Use and Feedback
Thanks to the swift project launch, Nomos had a usable shop available at an early stage. This benefited both internal reviews and training for the Nomos team, providing practical feedback for further optimisation.
Integrating the System Landscape
The new Adobe solution was implemented in such a way that key functions of the previous platform were retained. At the same time, the shop integrates seamlessly into the existing system landscape and strengthens Nomos’ digital presence as a publishing group in the long term.
Deep Dives
Unified Search and Flexible Product Display
With the new shop, Nomos has ended the previous separation of between imprints and brought the entire publishing portfolio together on a shared platform. A cross-publisher search based on a consolidated data structure makes the entire portfolio consistently discoverable and strengthens the perception of Nomos as an overarching brand.
At the same time, the presentation of the products was made significantly more flexible: Related titles such as the e-book and print edition can be individually configured and managed on a single product page. This enables users to find suitable formats more quickly, while reducing internal effort for the maintenance and administration of publications.
Efficiently Model Complex Tax Calculations and Discounts
An important new shop feature enables country-specific tax calculation for international orders. Due to Nomos’s global shipping portfolio, many complex rules are involved, depending on the destination country. In the new system, these rules have been implemented in such a way that customers’ delivery and billing countries are now taken into account precisely.
Discount models in the shop, which are required, for example, for customer groups such as authors, are also now mapped efficiently.
Adobe Commerce as the Foundation of a Strong Publisher's Online Shop
With the new shop based on Adobe Commerce, Nomos has laid the foundation for bringing together its growing publishing portfolio in a modern, central online presence.
The MVP-oriented approach made it possible to expand the shop step by step and implement further requirements on the basis of practical feedback. This enables the publishing house to continuously strengthen its digital presence while also responding flexibly to future developments in the academic publishing market.
Benefit from E-Commerce with Adobe
- Future-proof e-commerce with scalable shop architecture
- Flexible hosting on premises or in the cloud (SaaS/PaaS)
- Tailor-made features for both B2C and B2B sales
- Adobe Experience Cloud enables seamless integration for marketing automation, analytics tools and CMS
Free Adobe Commerce Consulting Session
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