A bouquet of innovation, online customization and service

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Even large, leading companies feel the urge to constantly evolve and innovate. To be able to offer their customers and consumers an excellent experience, they must modernize their business and operations. The question is how? Accenture helps companies to find innovative solutions to drive change. Find out more on how Accenture Interactive supported Dutch Flower Group (DFG) in their online innovation.

The challenge of creating a reliable e-commerce platform

For web-shops, especially those of flower arrangements, the business can be very fragile. It takes one misplaced or faulty order, and the customer will not return. This is why the Dutch Flower Group (DFG) immediately grasped the opportunity of fortifying their online channel's technical abilities.

As a leader in its industry, DFG must always act fast to keep its position. The company recognized the main challenge was to create a stable e-commerce platform. The platform should be capable of handling an enormous volume of products and prices each day while providing an excellent customer experience. The goal was for floral wholesale companies to control, customize, and maintain their brand identity in the websites.

Understanding the ideal customer journey

Together, Accenture and DFG leveraged design thinking and agile delivery methods like user research and story mapping to set up the ideal customer journey.

Aware of what functions are most valued by customers, DFG and Accenture created a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) based on the latest SAP Commerce Cloud Version 2 - enabling early customers with a version of the product good-enough to get customer feedback for future development. Plus, using the latest SAP Commerce Cloud Version 2, which offers a holistic view of capabilities, enables brand-new features like customizable data insights and multichannel capabilities and the flexibility needed to scale and grow the organization consistently.

When completed, the MVP was revealed to a selected group of customers, for two DFG’s floral wholesalers. Gathering feedback helped the team rapidly optimize the data loads that are needed during peak business hours. Hence, they could rapidly generate revenue. Thanks to these insights, Accenture and DFG designed and launched a flexible product model that automates the process of products' creation and allocation. Allowing DFG in return to manage personalized assortments and provide relevant and consistent product recommendations for all their customers on a vast scale. Also, by integrating with their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, growers could sell flowers and plants to customers worldwide within a few minutes. Accenture also orchestrated the supply chain within DFG’s trading platform to optimize the customer’s browsing experience.

Impact of the project

DFG provides more relevant product recommendations for its importing wholesale customers by simplifying the search and order process — setting a new benchmark in the floriculture industry. Customers can now browse through the categorized assortments and switch between the available products on their desired delivery dates thanks to the optimized catalog and category management. DFG's direct customers can also open a branded white label web-shop for their customers, manage the available assortment, and set the correct price margins. On top of amended customer functionalities, the six floral wholesalers can easily manage their 19 web-shops using one platform.

The brand-new solution frees up time for employees to build lasting relationships with their customers, while the digital team continues to bolster their online presence. It’s a significant first step in the digital journey for DFG floral wholesale companies!