Konica Minolta

Konica Minolta, Inc. is a Japanese multinational technology company headquartered in Tokyo. The company manufactures business and industrial imaging products, including copiers, laser printers, and digital print systems for the production printing market, as well as optical devices and textile printers. Konica has close to two million customers served by sales and service employees across 49 offices and 150 countries worldwide.

Challenges

While Konica Minolta’s European market had an e-shop for the sale of printers, it had multiple shortcomings, particularly when it came to conversions.

• The purchase process was overly complicated, taking the average user up to 30 minutes to make a purchase
• Products lacked information and details of after-sales services were insufficient
• Customers had to register in order to see product prices
• User experience was lacking
• The platform did not support localization (i.e., no region-specific portfolios, prices, or marketing) so rolling out local solutions was all but impossible
• Content on the site was poor and inadequate, and SEO options were limited
• The platform’s analytics tools had been incorrectly implemented

The company sought the help of Kentico Gold Partner, PUXdesign, to provide a B2C customer experience for its small B2B clients.

Solution

Through in-depth interviews and usability testing, PUXdesign was able to identify and eliminate 80% of all business-related errors on the original e-shop.

PUXdesign implemented Kentico as a headless solution and followed a “double diamond” design approach (discover – define – develop – deliver). They expanded the vast range of ready-to-use components with a front-end based on the Jam stack principle using NEXT.js, which ensured a fast and secure website.

They built a robust online store for the sale and rental of Konica’s products, keeping customer experience and the needs of existing customers in focus. They changed the design of the site and ensured adequate content that clearly communicated benefits. They also ensured the expanded portfolio displayed prices transparently and without registration.

The most fundamental challenge for the team was the combination of direct sales and rental of products, and ensuring customers understood their options when selecting.

Another key issue addressed was the lack of localization. Konica had originally viewed the European market as a single unit; however, they came to realize that each state required the ability to edit products, set their own prices, and launch their own campaigns. PUXdesign leveraged Kentico to enable this and then provided internal training for individual Konica companies/countries in how to manage their e-commerce solutions, including how to create powerful content that nurtures and sells and how to understand and evaluate website analytics.

Results

The complete solution was delivered in just seven months and overall running costs of the solution were reduced by 70% thanks to the use of a CDN for the front end.

The Konica e-shop loads in half a second and the customer is greeted by a beautifully designed and built website that actively supports their journey towards rental or purchase.

Konica Minolta now has an e-shop that finally reflects the needs of its customers, presenting clear information, transparent prices, and a simple shopping route. The switch to Kentico has provided greater flexibility and responsiveness to local markets. And the Konica teams across Europe can finally edit content according to their region-specific needs.

Solutions for Belgium and the Netherlands are already live and PUX is preparing further language versions for other countries.