Roularta Media Group is an international multimedia group and a market leader in magazines in Belgium, both in Dutch and French languages. Besides the physical copies of their magazines, most magazines and services also have a separate webshop offering several products that might interest their readers. To be able to grow their e-commerce, Roularta needed a partner to help them structure and organize their platforms in a more efficient way.
In Belgium, you will probably know Roularta Media Group through their weekly magazines such as Knack, Trends, Libelle, Flair, Feeling, Plus Magazine, etc. They also own several medical and professional magazines. Additionally, Roularta also publishes newspapers such as De Zondag and owns the national TV channel Kanaal Z. Lastly, Trends Business Information, a well-known data company, is also part of the group.
In the Netherlands, Roularta is is the second-largest publisher of magazines. Issues include EW, Beleggersbelangen, Landleven, Seasons, Delicious, Roots, Zin, Knipmode, Kijk, Fiets, Formule 1, etc.
One platform to manage all e-shops
When Roularta came to us, most of their magazines and services had a separate webshop attached to them, including separate platforms (among which Magento 1, Woocommerce, Shopify). This worked for a while, but to increase efficiency within the company and stimulate e-commerce growth, they decided it was time to migrate all shops to one platform. This will also result in a decrease of costs (no more need for several different licenses and hosting), and an improved customer experience because of single sign on for all web shops.
Roularta had chosen for Shopify Plus: it allows for easily managing several e-commerce shops, yet provides flexibility in lay-out and user roles for each separate e-shop. For this they needed a specialized partner: competence center Meteor.
The project was more complex than just creating different web shops. All existing and underlying legacy systems such as ERP and their accounting software needed to be connected to the new platform. Additionally, Roularta works with several fulfilment centers which also needed to be taken into account (division of orders, track and trace codes, etc…).
So far, the first two webshops (Knack and Libelle) have been migrated to Shopify Plus. By the end of 2023 another 15 e-shops should be rolled out.
Xploration
Roularta wanted a simpler and more unified e-commerce environment to manage all different brands.
Our solution
Competence Center Meteor implemented Shopify Plus. The first webshops have been migrated and throughout the year others will follow.
Integration
- Shopify Plus
- Several API’s
- SSO
Result
A streamlined environment for all existing and future e-shops belonging to Roularta Media Group.