Marine retailer Defender found that it was seeing great in-store success, but now needed to find a way to expand that success online. To achieve this, Defender knew it needed to address several key obstacles with its online experience: 

• It needed to be conversational. Defender’s success in person came from having conversations with customers. The brand needed to replicate this online in a way that captured the brand’s tone and voice. 
• It needed to be easy to use. Defender couldn’t dedicate the resources to manually babysit a tool — the solution the brand implemented had to be easy to implement and low maintenance. 
• It needed to be an expert. Powersports, and especially in the marine industry, is highly reliant on expertise. The solution would have to be able to navigate product complexity without overwhelming the customer. 
• It needed to be dynamic. The online experience on Defender’s site would fall apart if customers were just getting static recommendations. Defender wanted to be able to adapt to customer needs and preferences in real time. 

With a wide range of products and a customer base that spans different age groups, languages, and shopping preferences, Patrick Morin recognized that its on-site experience needed to be both accurate and intuitive to keep pace with the expectations of shoppers. The brand also had to balance operational efficiency with the ability to deliver personalized experiences at scale and better accommodate customers in the fluid home renovation market. 

However, Patrick Morin’s tech setup created several roadblocks:

• Unreliable search. Customers frequently struggled to find products, especially when searching in Québec French — mixing English and French — or using slang terms. These frustrations often led to abandoned shopping journeys and lost revenue opportunities for Patrick Morin. 
• Labor-intensive merchandising. A small ecommerce team had to manually update weekly flyers, seasonal promotions, and product rankings, leaving little capacity for more strategic merchandising initiatives.
• Inconsistent product data. Gaps in the PIM system limited the ability to deliver precise results, enable faceted navigation, or lay the groundwork for advanced personalization.
• Preparing for future growth. With B2B capabilities and advanced personalization on the roadmap, Patrick Morin knew its existing setup wouldn’t be able to support future needs for its continually expanding business. 

In a world that’s rapidly shifting toward digitalization, Jumbo stands out as a brand that has seamlessly adapted to market changes time and time again. The company takes pride in its ability to be responsive and dynamic, catering to the diverse and ever-changing needs of its customers.

But this results in a unique set of challenges for the grocer. For instance, the grocery industry serves a multitude of customers each day, making its audience essentially “everyone.” Not to mention, this sector also caters to immediate needs, unlike many industries where purchases are driven by desire or want. The pandemic only increased the urgency of these needs, making it difficult for Jumbo’s ecommerce practitioners to keep up with demand. Like a double-edged sword, Jumbo’s growth (i.e., increase in private-label SKUs, expansion of its store portfolio, and shifting focus areas) was beginning to compromise its online experience since its legacy infrastructure could no longer support the company’s expanding use cases, particularly when it came to product discovery.

Jumbo knew that it had to adapt quickly and invest in search and merchandising technology that would support its growth and expanding endeavors. In particular, its next search tool needed to handle a diverse number of customer and market types without being too complex, manual, or reliant on IT. The solution also had to be easy to scale, as change is always a constant for the Dutch grocery retailer. Lastly, Jumbo needed a flexible, user-friendly tool with both AI automation and manual capabilities that could deliver fast, accurate, and personalized results in line with its customers’ growing expectations.