In 2020, the Japanese electronics group Panasonic decided to merge their existing platforms for the sale of B2C and B2B products in the European market in order to run all their businesses on one platform. Who did they choose to run their commerce platform? That’s right: commercetools – the only commerce platform that could offer the flexibility and support for expansion that is essential for Panasonic.
Challenge now, vastly simplify later
Integrating and unifying different systems with disparate business requirements might be a challenge at first, but in the end, it pays off – because it will lead to an enormous simplification of everything in the future. Jochen Dybus, General Manager Web & Digital Solutions at Panasonic, explains: “Our primary goal is to support our various business units quickly and efficiently. That is why creating and using a uniform eCommerce platform that can map different business requirements is so important to us.”
A decisive factor in choosing commercetools as a company-wide solution was, among other things, that behind the commercetools platform there is a sufficiently large network of development partners who can support further expansion. With commercetools, Panasonic is ideally prepared for different scenarios that can happen in the always-changing markets in Europe.
At Panasonic, we focus on partnerships with selected providers. commercetools not only supports us with the core platform itself, but also has an experienced partner network. Together with our implementation partner and commercetools, we are creating an API– and microservice-based platform that offers us a flexible basis on which we can implement our eCommerce strategy.
Expert CMS & Web Application Architecture, Web & Digital Solutions, Panasonic
How commercetools meets Panasonic’s needs
The main criteria for Panasonic when choosing their new commerce system was: the flexibility and scalability of the platform; the ability to map several shops from different business units with different business models on the platform; and the ability to support both B2B and B2C business on the platform. commercetools met these requirements perfectly.
Due to the disparate requirements of the individual business areas in the Panasonic Group, two features were very important for them when selecting their commerce platform: to be able to map B2C and B2B eCommerce on the same platform, and to have the necessary flexibility to map different integrations. From their point of view, a crucial aspect is the API and headless approach of commercetools.
Thanks to our extensive catalog of APIs, we’ve developed a platform of modular commerce functions that mobility service providers can assemble, enhance, augment, scale and expand as Panasonic sees fit with unprecedented ease. And with headless commerce, in which the customer-facing frontend is decoupled from the backend layer, Panasonic can increase their agility and scale more efficiently.
In terms of the timing of this project, on April 1, 2021, Panasonic started their first MVP in the after-sales and service business in one European country. At the moment, they are working on the functional expansion of the platform, further integration in third-party systems (SAP, CRM, PIM) and on the rollout in other European countries.
If you’re interested in experiencing for yourself what led Panasonic to choose commercetools, try our free 60-day trial – you’re sure to be convinced too!