"The new PIM makes suppliers more responsible for their products in our web shop. They have the technical know-how and correct information, which is why we need this new system."
Martin Thor
Team Leader, Category Manager at Copiax
Copiax, a leading distributor in the Nordic security sector, needed a way to efficiently manage and deliver complex product information to their vast network of partners. With Contentserv, Copiax now ensures accurate, up-to-date data across all channels, empowering their partners with the insights and access they need to support security solutions confidently and effectively.
"The new PIM makes suppliers more responsible for their products in our web shop. They have the technical know-how and correct information, which is why we need this new system."
Martin Thor
Team Leader, Category Manager at Copiax
Originally founded in 1952, Copiax is the largest wholesaler in Sweden for security products, offering an extensive assortment in mechanics, electromechanics, and electronics — including lock alarm systems, CCTV systems, access control, etc. Headquartered in Kungens Kurva, Sweden, Copiax works with both mechanical and electronic security solutions. In 2008, the company was acquired by the Assa Abloy group, a global leader in access solutions.
With its wide range of profit enhancing services and logistics solutions, Copiax is a complete security partner. As the leading company in security in the country, Copiax offers an extensive brand portfolio with around 120 suppliers and 43,000 products to installers and maintainers of security products. The company is customer- focused, providing access to its ecommerce 24/7 via computer, EDI solution or app. With knowledgeable support and fast deliveries, Copiax simplifies the work of professional security installers and contributes to a safer society.
Copiax faced significant hurdles in managing over 43,000 product entries across various platforms, relying heavily on an outdated PIM system, ERP data, and Excel sheets. The absence of a centralized, marketing-optimized solution led to inefficient processes, impacting quality checks, digital asset management, and the ability to support advanced marketing efforts. With rising demand for same-day delivery, Copiax needed to streamline logistics, boost collaboration, and eliminate silos to keep data accurate and current.
Meeting these goals meant implementing a centralized, media-neutral system to automate data onboarding, manage security bundles, and enhance cross-selling opportunities. Managing an extensive ecommerce presence across multiple suppliers was challenging without a unified PIM solution, which could significantly improve data quality, speed to market, and logistical efficiency. After an extensive search, Copiax selected Contentserv and integration partner Fiwe to address these needs and create a future-ready data ecosystem.
However, with a fast-moving ready-to-wear market, the colossal manual entry of different product data (6,000 color references per season, assortment tracking, product feature updates in different languages, etc.) became extremely challenging. Furthermore, primarily using spreadsheets for this purpose was very time-consuming and error-prone. These files quickly became archaic in the context of Lacoste’s digital transformation and they would often contain numerous data entry errors, which resulted in a slow time-to-market that was harmful to sales. Another major challenge involved variable data such as collections, which must be renewed every six months and had to take into account the difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Therefore Lacoste needed to adopt a tool that would streamline the creation and distribution of its product catalogs on both its merchant and marketplace sites. This made it clear that Product Information Management (PIM) was the right solution to quickly enrich databases, accurately aggregate content, and shorten time-to-market, all while increasing agility and flexibility.
Copiax set out to revolutionize its data management approach by creating a centralized system that would serve as a single, reliable source for all product and supplier data. This vision included providing a comprehensive, 360° view of each product, accessible at any time and supported by automated data formatting to fit various output channels. To streamline supplier onboarding and speed up time-to-market, Copiax aimed to automate the data integration process, ensuring seamless uploads from supplier ERPs and Excel files directly into the new PIM system.
Beyond data integration, the objective was to enable automatic distribution of product information to the online store and other sales channels, reducing manual workloads and improving data accuracy. Copiax also prioritized creating predictive kits and product bundles while providing tailored product recommendations aligned with common purchase patterns to increase customer engagement. A secure, centralized interface was essential to facilitate document sharing, simplify file management, and enable real-time product updates, fostering an efficient and cohesive experience for teams and partners alike.
In addition to these initial objectives, there were two other quantified objectives: the implementation of the PIM solution should make it possible to increase the average value of orders and reduce product returns.
Lacoste evaluated five PIM solutions, and at the end of 2016, they selected Contentserv. Contentserv allows data to be quickly onboarded and adjusted via user-friendly, intuitive interfaces, and for information to be distributed across all sales media. A pioneer in the PIM industry and a leader for 20 years with an international customer portfolio, Contentserv has extensive experience in product information management.
Contentserv’s cloud-based PIM solution offered Copiax a centralized platform that fosters seamless collaboration across teams and partners, with the flexibility to scale alongside business growth without straining IT resources. Designed with intuitive and user-friendly features, Contentserv enabled quick adoption, allowing users to engage confidently with the system. With future expansions in mind, Contentserv’s adaptable structure and robust integration capabilities aligned perfectly with Copiax’s evolving vision. The comprehensive feature set, coupled with expert support from implementation partner Fiwe, made Contentserv the clear, long-term choice to support Copiax’s present and future needs.
The Contentserv PIM solution provides great flexibility in data generation, with users managing an impressive amount of data (2,400,000 attributes, 24,000 references, and 172,000 ean/UPC barcodes). Export procedures integrated into the solution speed up the automatic creation and editing of catalogs and web pages, allowing Lacoste to export up to 40,000 items daily. Users can then assemble images, technical attributes, and prices by simply dragging and dropping them onto dynamic models subject to pre-established rules.
Other significant advances include the ease of creating new attributes such as information that allows consumers to refine their choices and maximize their shopping experience. This process used to take several months and now takes only 2 or 3 weeks. Furthermore, as fashion is governed by seasons, it is necessary to reconfigure entire offerings every six months. The Contentserv PIM solution allows Lacoste to maintain the attributes (about 300 per product) of the models that remain on sale, and thus, avoids rebuilding the catalog from scratch.
Industry: Security
Annual sales: $154.0M
Target market: Sweden
Target customers: B2B
Type of products: Security products
Number of products: 43,000
Sales and marketing channels: web shop, app, EDI and SaaS (sw Assistenten Pro)
Contentserv solution used: PIM, DAM
Usage model: SaaS
Implementation partner: Fiwe
However, with a fast-moving ready-to-wear market, the colossal manual entry of different product data (6,000 color references per season, assortment tracking, product feature updates in different languages, etc.) became extremely challenging. Furthermore, primarily using spreadsheets for this purpose was very time-consuming and error-prone. These files quickly became archaic in the context of Lacoste’s digital transformation and they would often contain numerous data entry errors, which resulted in a slow time-to-market that was harmful to sales. Another major challenge involved variable data such as collections, which must be renewed every six months and had to take into account the difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Therefore Lacoste needed to adopt a tool that would streamline the creation and distribution of its product catalogs on both its merchant and marketplace sites. This made it clear that Product Information Management (PIM) was the right solution to quickly enrich databases, accurately aggregate content, and shorten time-to-market, all while increasing agility and flexibility.
Get in touch with one of our Contentserv experts to discover the Product Experience Cloud.