Collective e-commerce platform for Retail Service Organization EK Fashion

About EK Fashion
EK Netherlands is the largest retail service organization in the Netherlands. They collaborate with around 1,500 independent entrepreneurs in fashion, home, sports, books, and DIY. EK is a purchasing organization, marketing organization, and competency network all in one. Independent entrepreneurs at EK can choose from various retail collaboration models, benefiting from purchasing advantages, regular knowledge exchange, sales collaboration, and support in omnichannel retail. EK Fashion includes around 400 independent fashion stores. They also own several international brands, including Babyface, Born with Appetite, Marco Manzini, and Stains & Stories.

Ambitions and challenges
To keep up with the inevitable shift towards omnichannel retail, EK Fashion was looking for a simple and affordable solution for independent entrepreneurs to start selling online. They had a clear vision: an excellent collective e-commerce platform that allows local retailers to maintain their relevant position in serving the new online consumer. Additionally, EK Fashion sought a strategic partnership based on sharing knowledge of complex omnichannel processes and a close collaboration partner that can quickly adapt to market developments.

What EK Fashion needed
For both small independent entrepreneurs and large fashion companies, an accessible and standardized solution was required, with a focus on high quality and delivering an excellent customer experience. EK sought a way to fully leverage their scale advantages and centralized expertise. The challenges lay in the varying assortment per retailer, the different POS systems, and the diverse needs and budgets. Despite the standardization, all retailers needed to express their own identity and make their own choices in using marketplaces and features. Flexibility was key: a collective platform that could scale up or down as needed, allowing elements to be deployed at will.

What we achieved for EK Fashion
NextChapter's multiˣ suite provided the perfect solution for EK's flexibility needs. They required a centralized PIM, versatile deployment of the multiˣ connector, and individual OMS and CMS for each entrepreneur. This resulted in the following elements:

Central PIM: The PIM contains 800,000 products and serves as the source for all webshops affiliated with EK Fashion. Entrepreneurs can choose to use the standard product content managed by EK or enrich the content themselves.

Own OMS and CMS environment: Each entrepreneur has their own environment where they can manage their webshop's orders and content.

POS integrations: Connections with various POS systems via the multiˣ connector, synchronizing products, prices, and inventory between the physical store and the webshop.

Fashioncloud and Stockbase integration: To synchronize product data and inventory from various sources.

Standardized webshop models: Entrepreneurs can choose from several standard webshop models, ranging from displaying the assortment (catalog) to a full-fledged shop with marketplace integration. This standardization makes it possible to launch a webshop much faster and at a fraction of the normal costs.

Marketplace and Google Shopping integrations: For the fashion sector, selling through marketplaces, social media, and Google Shopping is essential. This enables retailers to easily expand their customer base and adopt various sales strategies.

Choice of functionalities: In addition to the standard webshop models, each retailer can choose from a wide range of functionalities available in NextChapter, including reviews, marketing, loyalty, content/design, payment providers, and logistics.

The end result
The model developed by EK and NextChapter makes optimal use of the flexibility of the multiˣ suite and offers the retailers within the collective a fast and high-quality e-commerce solution focused on fashion, allowing them to fully concentrate on their core activities. This model enables retailers to professionally and consistently convey the message of their physical store online. In this way, EK supports the affiliated entrepreneurs in effectively reaching their customers and maximizing their market potential, without worrying about technical issues and high costs. This makes starting an online shop extremely accessible, with no limitations on growth opportunities. Moreover, they can easily add webshops for their own brands using the existing infrastructure, enhancing brand recognition and experience.

What the Future Holds
With the NextChapter multiˣ suite, EK Fashion has significantly strengthened the competitive position of its affiliated retailers, resulting in continued revenue growth for their customers. Additionally, EK maximizes its central role within the collective by creating scale advantages and generating new sales opportunities for the retailers. Entrepreneurs can start without risks and scale up their online activities at their own pace. Through this partnership, EK ensures that the future prospects of their customers are secure.