Pilot: a cutting-edge B2B e-commerce site with Adobe Commerce

Based in Haute-Savoie near Annecy, Pilot Corporation of Europe brings together a pen manufacturing site, packaging operations, a distribution center and all support services for the whole of Europe. With nearly 40 million units manufactured per year, the company supplies seven subsidiaries and twenty-five distributors, covering more than forty European countries. Since 2021, to stay ahead of the market and gain better control over its B2B digital processes, Pilot Corporation of Europe has been developing a B2B e-commerce site model that can be rolled out to all of its subsidiaries. A large-scale redesign project delivered by Synolia and Adobe Commerce!

The challenge

Standardize the B2B e-commerce processes of all Pilot subsidiaries, while accounting for each country’s specific needs (especially in price management).

Our answer?

An Adobe Commerce Cloud platform. In terms of functionality and third-party services, the solution precisely addresses Pilot’s requirements (with a standard foundation and the option of custom development). It also lets the brand look further ahead, with the possibility of deploying a B2C e-commerce site on the same platform.

Project delivery steps:

Requirements specification workshops (back/front office, data flows, etc.) • Consulting and support in choosing the solution • Coordination with our partner in charge of the graphic mockups • Development and integration of the Adobe Commerce platform for France and Benelux (then the UK) • Key user training

Why Adobe Commerce?

Redesigning the B2B e-commerce site with Adobe Commerce allows Pilot to roll out a single platform to all of its subsidiaries, while still allowing custom development for the countries that need it.
It also gives customers a more modern login and ordering interface than the previous site.

Key project features:

• A single platform that accounts for each country’s specific needs.
• Custom development for price management, notably on the UK platform: a product’s base price is personalized for each customer (vs. a personalized discount applied for customers of the FR and Benelux platform).
• A login-only site with a more modern, intuitive design, optimized for mobile access.

Our Digital eXperience Platform approach for Pilot

Pilot’s B2B e-commerce platform is now connected to the company’s PIM (Akeneo) solution, to AWS for media management, and to Blueway, which aggregates all product data from the PIM and orchestrates the integration of orders and their statuses with the ERP (Microsoft Dynamics AX). With these developments, we delivered a complete B2B e-commerce platform. In short, a package ready to roll out to all European subsidiaries.

The result

The France and Benelux platforms went live in July 2022 and, with the Pilot teams renewing their trust in Synolia, we moved very quickly on to rolling out the UK platform. Today, the first Pilot Corporation of Europe subsidiaries and their end customers enjoy a more modern, more convenient and responsive B2B platform.