HORNBACH Baumarkt selects Blue Yonder to accelerate its omni-channel, customer-centric strategy

Today, retail offers a wide range of opportunities. Retailers must consistently focus on the needs of their customers if they want to be successful – even in the future. Tech innovation is accelerating. Consumers want to be free to decide whether they want to shop in the store or via smartphone or computer. Optimally, it should all be connected. Retailers are looking to innovate, add new services, and deliver experiences that consumers love, but they often face a costly and expensive fix because their tech stack was not built for modern experiences with efficiency in mind.

That’s why, as a pioneer in innovation and one of the leading DIY retailers in Europe, HORNBACH Baumarkt has selected Blue YonderInventory and Commits Services, part of Blue Yonder Order Management solutions.

HORNBACH Baumarkt is the largest and most important subsidiary of HORNBACH Holding. HORNBACH Baumarkt operates DIY megastores with garden centres and online stores in nine European countries. The DIY retail segment accounts for around 94% of consolidated sales for the company, with nearly half of these sales generated in Germany. Measured in terms of productivity, HORNBACH Baumarkt is the No. 1 DIY retailer in Germany by sales per square meter of sales area, based on the calculation principles of the BHB branch organisation. In addition to its in-store business, the retailer has an online business, including click & collect, which account for around 13% of total sales. The DIY retailer offers an average of 50,000 items at its stationary stores and up to 290,000 items online.

Given the strong customer-first culture of the company and the strategic relevance of its online sales, HORNBACH Baumarkt decided to optimise the omni-channel order experience from search through purchase and delivery. By engaging customers with reliable information at the beginning of the shopping journey, HORNBACH Baumarkt will increase conversion and deliver more satisfying shopping experiences.

HORNBACH Baumarkt chose Blue Yonder because of its differentiated approach to optimising omni-channel operations, the deep understanding of the order process, and the unique vision and strategy for the future of the supply chain.

Blue Yonder Inventory and Commits Services will allow HORNBACH Baumarkt to:

• Empower customers with options, knowledge and choice, delivering a consistent and frictionless experience, thereby improving customer satisfaction.
• Provide accurate, real-time, network-wide inventory visibility and availability across all channels.
• Optimise order fulfillment, taking into accounts costs, capacity, time, and other business parameters.
• Drive rapid innovation for customer-facing services, while modernising the tech stack.

“As part of our Interconnected Retail strategy, we prioritise customer satisfaction and continuously evaluate our processes to enhance the customer experience,” said Nils Hornbach, member, Management Board, HORNBACH Baumarkt AG. “Our internal assessment revealed the need for a further development to improve order management across channels and provide a seamless omni-channel purchasing journey. After a thorough vendor evaluation, we selected Blue Yonder for their specialised expertise and market-leading order decisioning capabilities. Their architecture and technology ensure rapid time-to-value, scalability and performance, making Blue Yonder our preferred choice to support our digital transformation journey. This will give us an advantage in inventory availability and fulfillment, that will create high value for our customers. We look forward to collaborating with the Blue Yonder team.”

Blue Yonder’s flexible microservices-based solutions approach, embedded with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), will help HORNBACH Baumarkt to optimise the entire omni-channel customer journey, starting with an engaging customer experience through efficient order fulfillment. The retailer will also be able to accelerate its in-store and digital business to gain an advantage through a model that supports rapid implementation.

“HORNBACH Baumarkt is leading a game-changing transformation, focused on customer centricity and we are proud to welcome them among our customers,” said Gael Ramaen, vice president, EMEA Retail, Blue Yonder. “Blue Yonder Order Management solutions are engineered to scale, perform and operate under the highest volumes seen on the market. It can transform order management with an augmentative, composable approach, which delivers rapid time-to-market. We cannot wait to support HORNBACH Baumarkt in speeding their ongoing digital transformation.”