STAUFF Leverages a Partnership’s Composable Platform to Digitally Transform Its Business and Successfully Drive Global KPIs

Story Behind the Brand

STAUFF, a leading developer, manufacturer, and supplier of pipeline components and hydraulic accessories, has been no stranger to success over the past 50 years. Because of its accomplishments in the B2B space, the company is now present in the US market and 18 additional countries across the globe, including Australia, Canada, China, India, and the United Kingdom. The B2B titan, headquartered in Werdohl, Germany, offers a range of 50,000 standard components across ten separate product groups and a large number of special system solutions.

Like many cutting-edge B2B manufacturers, however, STAUFF began to seriously reconsider its digital experience, aiming to create an optimal buying journey that connected its stellar offline experience to a revamped online one. To them, it was one of those inevitable “innovate or die” moments, where it was necessary to take a giant leap of faith for the company’s desired results.

120

increase in website users, with 50% more registering year-over-year (YoY)

boost in orders YoY, as well as a 35% lift in order income

growth in organic search; plus, a 100% rise in page views YoY

Challenge

STAUFF openly admitted that it had quite a few business challenges to overcome while attempting to rev up its digital transformation initiative. The company was aware that new technology was needed, but they didn’t have an in-house development team, and in turn, had no idea where to begin the nuanced and complex transformation process. As its customers continued to expect manufacturing partners — like STAUFF — to be easy to do business with and personalize buying experiences, the B2B brand could no longer put their expectations on hold.

These customer expectations were as vast as they were varied. For instance, its maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) customers wanted real-time order status information (e.g., tracking) and instant checkout without any barriers, while the distributors STAUFF worked closely with were seeking quick-order functionality for large quantity orders and seamless access to partner assets.

Finally, its original equipment manufacturers (OEM) customers now preferred cohesive technical consulting interfaces with rapid prototyping services. The various customer necessities combined with the company’s pain points quickly accelerated STAUFF’s need to digitally innovate efficiently and effectively.

Solution

While many would have guessed that STAUFF went with an all-encompassing monolith solution to solve all of its issues in one fell swoop, the savvy B2B manufacturer took a headless approach to its commerce strategy and leveraged the successful partnership between Bloomreach (headless content management system, or CMS), Spryker (platform for sophisticated transactions), and diva-e (website concept and implementation) to successfully replatform and roll out an all-new ecommerce website that could serve as a one-stop-shopping experience for all of its customers.

Following the proper digital methodology, STAUFF sought to build experiences, measure outcomes, and use learnings to refine its online strategy moving forward. They acknowledged this would be a never-ending process, where the manufacturer would have to continually optimize its site to meet changing buyer preferences. That’s where Bloomreach Content stepped in with its game-changing capabilities and endless potential.

Bloomreach Content harmonizes perfectly with the composable architecture of Spryker’s Cloud Commerce OS. Meanwhile, diva-e took advantage of the two providers’ technological unanimity — utilizing the “Bloomreach-Spryker Connector.” Now, content creators and marketing professionals at STAUFF can easily build web page content with Bloomreach Content before using an API to store all information on Spryker’s back end and display it on its front end — constructing a unique, yet conscious global B2B platform that’s functional across multiple geographies and brings STAUFF’s ecommerce store into a more competitive playing field.

Together with diva-e, Spryker, and Bloomreach, we analyzed precisely which business models are successful in our analog sales process and further developed them into suitable digital solutions for a modern, holistic customer experience.

Mark Wever

Global Chief Digital Officer at STAUFF

Results

In using Bloomreach’s agile and flexible Headless Experience Manager, STAUFF could easily control how its content is presented, with page management capabilities that gave its team the autonomy to create an end-to-end digital experience in a drag-and-drop, codeless environment. Connecting to Spryker’s transactional platform, the two technology partners could oversee, optimize, and personalize STAUFF’s buyer experience, which was smoothly executed by diva-e.

As a Transactional Experience Partner, we make sure that the digital interface between customer and company is implemented as thoroughly and emotionally as possible, in order to create more successful business experiences. Our goal is to transform customers into fans, which will ultimately lead to more revenue. STAUFF has valued this approach, and we — all together as a team with our partners — are constantly improving the platform to deliver the best possible customer experiences. — Sirko Schneppe, Chief Commercial Officer at diva-e

The results that STAUFF experienced from this thoughtful partnership were nothing short of incredible. Its ecommerce website is live in nine countries, including Australia, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States and can better accommodate the company’s expansion. And with a new digital platform powering its revised ecommerce website, the company could display full transparency about material flow (e.g., delivery details and kanban monitor), provide a virtual 360-degree company tour, promote live streams and other valuable e-learning content, and even establish new digital business models, including its pay-per-use/subscription program and instant quoting for 3D printing.

With its attractive online presence and easily navigable user interface (UX), STAUFF saw a 40% increase in orders YoY, as well as a 30% lift in order income over the same period. In addition to its ecommerce site becoming more transactionally friendly, the company was also driving significantly more traffic, with a 150% rise in website sessions, a 120% boost in website users, and a 50% increase in registered users YoY. STAUFF realizes that its work will never be done when it comes to its digital presence, but with such a practical partnership between Bloomreach, Spryker, and diva-e leading the way, the B2B manufacturer is excited about the future possibilities for continued growth.