ZOO.se

Scalable e-commerce for rapid expansion

ZOO.se is a leading retailer for everything related to pets and also operates its own veterinary clinics. Sales are made through their own e-commerce platform and a number of stores throughout Sweden. The company was founded in 1989 with the family-owned store in Bromma and has always had a clear focus on quality, knowledge, and putting the customer at the center. In recent years, ZOO.se, under the leadership of CEO and investor Christer Åberg, has accelerated its growth trajectory through online expansion and strategic acquisitions of stores. The company now operates a thriving e-commerce platform in three countries and 13, soon to be 14, stores in Sweden. ZOO.se has a very fast growth rate with a goal to reach a turnover of over one billion by 2024, and they are well on their way as they already achieved a turnover of half a billion in 2022.

During the winter of 2021/2022, ZOO.se brought in venture capital firm eEquity as a shareholder, who then commissioned design and e-commerce agency Grebban to carry out a technical due diligence, which formed the basis for a new technology strategy. Grebban's proposal was to create a composable tech stack with interconnected SaaS services, integration layers, data warehouses, and collaborations with specialized partners. In early 2022, eEquity, ZOO.se, and Grebban brought in several partners, consultants, and hires to execute the project and enable a completely new technology stack and organizational capability around technology.

The technology stack that was decided upon included Norce as a headless e-commerce platform, Business Central as the business system, GrebCommerce as the frontend accelerator, Voyado as the CRM, and several other third-party services such as Ongoing WMS, Depict for personalization, Yotpo for user-generated content, Cash IT for POS, and Google Big Query as the Data Warehouse engine.

The primary partners were Grebban as the design and e-commerce agency, Partnersense for the backend and integration layer, and several specialized consultants in both PIM and Program Management. All under the guidance of experienced project managers, both internal and external, who held together and coordinated all efforts.

 

"Our new solution gives us greater flexibility and adaptability to meet our customers' needs and desires, and creates a better foundation for inspiration, both in-store and online. We also have other tools to work more data-driven, system-oriented, and a new opportunity to educate and update the entire organization. This is of great value for a growth company, especially as we onboard both new product companies and stores we acquire and build new stores ourselves."

Maria Bodegård, Chief Growth Officer at ZOO.se

"What I think has been exceptional in this process is how the work has functioned between all teams, both specialists, project managers, and consultants, who, based on their expertise, have driven different parts of the project. We have collaborated across boundaries in incredible ways, which has enabled great information exchange and helped us set strategies and make decisions really quickly."

Maria Bodegård, Chief Growth Officer at ZOO.se

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Challenges

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Support for expansion

ZOO.se lacked store, sales, and communication support for the expanding retail chain, which had gone from one to thirteen stores in two years and opened up for e-commerce in two new countries.

Timeline with many decisions

With an extremely tight timeline and a company that continued its expansion in parallel with the project, decisions needed to be made quickly and also be able to be reconsidered quickly.

Solution

Information exchange
Information exchange has been of utmost importance with several different teams in the project and a high pace. This has been possible through agile work, experienced individuals who led the project, and partners who took great responsibility in connecting all the parts.

A common vision
From day one, we have worked to ensure openness in all strategic discussions and to obtain a common vision. Ideas have been quality assured quickly to choose which paths to take.

"There has been an incredible willingness to cooperate among all involved and a very good atmosphere from all sides from start to finish."

Maria Bodegård, Chief Growth Officer at ZOO.se

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Results

  1. A base plate that allows for most things

    At launch, there was a technical "base plate" that ZOO.se can now build on for future needs. The company's expansion is happening in parallel, and the new solution will be able to meet future needs.

  2. Prepared for Omnifocus

    With the current solution, ZOO.se is well prepared to continue developing its close relationship with pet owners with fully omnichannel-adapted processes. ZOO.se focuses on being a friend, expert, and guide for pet owners and values the relationship with both customers and their pets. It was a requirement that the systems, especially online, reflect this and continue to make both the digital experience and visits to the store a positive and inspiring experience.

  3. A solution that benefits the entire business

    The project affects the entire organization, including store employees who work extra. With good information exchange and high engagement, all those affected have learned new systems and processes that have sometimes been far from their usual workday. This makes the new solution truly beneficial to the entire business and all customers, both digitally and physically.

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