Challenge:
Trotec, a German manufacturer of professional climate control, air purification and measurement products, faced significant operational challenges due to their manual management of multiple marketplaces across Europe. With 15-20 marketplaces in their portfolio, Trotec struggled with inefficiencies in updating prices, managing stock levels, and ensuring accurate data synchronization in time. This manual approach not only drained resources but also led to errors and inconsistencies, such as overselling, inaccurate pricing and misaligned data. The situation was exacerbated when an unexpected change in Amazon’s API caused a disruption in order processing, highlighting the critical need for a reliable, automated solution.
Addressing the Challenge:
As part of the discovery process, Rithum worked with Trotec to understand their business priorities and challenges, and through this consultative approach recommended the Rithum for Brands solution to simplify and more effectively manage their marketplace strategy including their Amazon business. To demonstrate the benefits of the platform the Rithum team delivered a proof of concept, so Trotec could see the platform in action.
When Trotec ran into issues with the Amazon API, this approach enabled the team to move quickly to migrate their Amazon business to Rithum in a week, instead of several, enabling minimal disruption to their Amazon business, and saving Trotec weeks of lost sales. Tim Bremkes, Head of Platform explained,
“It was an urgent situation, and we were able to get the team from Rithum to quickly jump in, supporting us in our transition.”
In addition to getting their Amazon business back up quickly, the company has also been able to streamline operations and optimize efficiency. One dedicated product owner now oversees all marketplaces from the Rithum dashboard, ensuring consistent pricing and inventory across all platforms. Order-handling is completely automated enabling the team to focus on finding new areas to grow sales. Bremkes says Rithum’s extensive network of brands, retailers and suppliers helps provide crucial insights and best practices when questions arise. Trotec is now able to create a differentiation of ranges on dedicated channels and expand into more channels and geos ahead of plan.
Results:
The results of Trotec’s collaboration with Rithum were transformative. By automating pricing and stock updates, Trotec reduced manual errors like pricing inconsistencies, product categorization errors and out of stocks. This freed up resources previously tied to repetitive tasks. Improvements in operational efficiency not only positively impacted internal workflows but also enhanced customer experience by ensuring accurate product information and timely order fulfillment. With better visibility into sales data and marketplace performance, Trotec saw substantial improvements in sales metrics across channels, particularly on marketplaces in Germany where GMV has increased by an average of 20% and on Amazon, where they were quickly able to align outdated pricing on 30% of their products. on this key marketplace. Moreover, the integration enabled Trotec to implement bundled pricing strategies and enhance product visibility, further boosting sales and market competitiveness.
By overcoming their initial challenges through automation and strategic partnership with Rithum, Trotec has positioned itself for continued growth and efficiency in managing their expansive marketplace operations. The success they’ve seen so far has prompted an initiative to expand to additional channels with Rithum’s assistance, helping them grow even faster.
