LE MARQUIER: Quable PIM spearheads its digital transformation

LE MARQUIER is an SME based in Saint-Martin-de-Seignanx, near Bayonne. Founded in 1971, the company specializes in decorative ironwork. In the 1980s, it invented the plancha and extended its ironworking know-how to barbecues and fireplace accessories. It manufactures and sells its high-quality products at scale, but its product information system was not up to the task. So in late 2022, it turned to Synolia and Quable to structure its product information management (PIM). Here is how the project unfolded.

Toward a premium product experience

Founded in 1971 in the Basque Country, LE MARQUIER is an artisanal ironwork company. A few years after its creation, it invented a product deeply rooted in the local way of life: the plancha. It then kept diversifying into barbecues and fireplace accessories (fire screens, bellows, pokers, etc.).

LE MARQUIER stands behind its French manufacturing and controls every step of its production process. In fact, 90% of its products are certified “Origine France Garantie”, with raw materials sourced in France. The company now has sixty-five employees, many of whom work in skilled trades (painters, welders, etc.) at the factory. This preserved craftsmanship is the brand’s pride and the foundation of its premium positioning.

LE MARQUIER products are sold through the brand’s e-commerce site, reseller partners (DIY superstores and pure players) and various marketplaces. But until the company began its digital transformation in 2022, all product information was managed in Excel files shared in Dropbox folders. No product information management process had been defined. As a result, departments suffered heavy loss of product information and a glaring lack of consistency across sales channels. For example: wrong product dimensions, gas planchas listed under electric planchas… Inevitably, this hurt the customer experience.

Bastien Monet, newly appointed Digital and E-commerce Manager at LE MARQUIER, quickly raised the need to integrate a PIM into the company’s information system.

The LE MARQUIER brief

A PIM solution to support the company’s digital transformation and optimize product information management.

As part of the company’s digital transformation, Bastien Monet looked for a PIM solution to optimize product information management. The goals:

• Centralize text and media data for LE MARQUIER’s 450 product SKUs
• Improve processes and communication between internal departments (save time, reduce the risk of errors, etc.)
• Distribute reliable, complete product information to all retail partners and channels.
• Reduce the share of inaccurate information that damages the brand image and the customer experience.

Synolia x Quable

After benchmarking the PIM solutions on the market, Bastien Monet chose the Synolia x Quable duo to address the company’s challenges.

Quable stood out for its DAM (Digital Asset Management) tool. Complementary to the PIM, it makes it easy to manage media content (photos, videos, etc.) and therefore to produce deliverables such as catalogs. The Quable brand portal was also a key factor: it makes all product information available to the brand’s reseller partners through a LE MARQUIER-branded interface. Finally, Quable won points for its user-friendly interface, short learning curve, and customization and integration options.

Specification workshops and project rollout on a tight schedule

From the project kickoff in January 2023, Bastien Monet made it clear that he wanted to move efficiently and have the tool ready in time to prepare the next catalog (released in September 2023). To make that happen, both our teams were deeply involved and active in the specification workshops (data model definition, product and attribute classification, media classification, etc.). They also followed the tool’s deployment with great diligence. As a result, the project was delivered faster than planned, in just four months, and under the customer’s initial budget.

Integrating the tool into the IT system

The Quable instance is integrated with the company’s ERP. The teams wanted automated flows from the ERP to the PIM to standardize source data. Quable is also connected to the company’s feed management tool and its various sales channels to standardize the data they publish.

Down the road, Bastien Monet would also like to connect Quable to their custom e-commerce back office, again with the aim of standardizing data across every distribution channel.

How the tool is used and the benefits it delivers

Today, five people contribute to LE MARQUIER’s product information database in Quable: Bastien Monet himself, the Director of Operations (technical lead), the Communications and Marketing Manager, the head of the central team (who works with all reseller partners), and a member of the design office. They all feed the product information import file to build the most complete database possible. This work is still in progress.

Contributors had been waiting for a PIM tool for a long time, especially the Marketing and Communications Manager, who always needs up-to-date product data to produce print and digital materials. In addition, Quable will simplify the marketing and communications team’s day-to-day work by connecting directly to the Adobe suite, automating the integration of text and media content.

The central team will also gain significant productivity by exporting all the data reseller partners need much faster and more easily. Until now, this task was very time-consuming and added no value for the team, which can now focus on other, more profitable work.

To conclude, the LE MARQUIER team is very satisfied with the support Synolia and Quable provided on this PIM project. They appreciated how relevant and adaptable the teams were to their organization and challenges. Bastien Monet also knows that we remain attentive to their needs for future enhancements to the tool. We will be sure to check back with him next year to take stock and look back on the benefits the project has delivered.