Unlock 2025

Join us to explore how AI-driven commerce can elevate your business

Learn More
Akeneo-Logo Akeneo-Logo
Start Free TrialStart Free TrialStart Free Trial Request a DemoRequest a DemoRequest a Demo

Case Study: Legallais

Helping the #1 French Hardware Distributor Go Online with Akeneo PIM

Thanks to Akeneo PIM, our product information is compelling, consistent, and contextualized across all our channels.

Anthony Le Courtes, CIO – Project Manager

Challenges

  • eCommerce development.
  • Product offering visibility.
  • Quality and enrichment of product content.

Benefits

  • Time-to-market accelerated 500%.
  • Search engine performance.
  • Improved quality and relevance of website content.

The Challenge

Legallais was founded in Caen in 1889 as a small building and finishing materials store. In more than a century since its inception, the company has become the #1 French distributor of solutions and products for the construction industry, largely on the back of a successful print catalog.

However, despite this growth, the company was struggling to build an eCommerce offering that matched its status as a giant in the hardware industry. Many of the company’s challenges in moving some of its business online stemmed from a common source — a lack of high-quality product information. Without a single source of truth for product data, the company simply couldn’t provide the compelling customer experiences B2B buyers had increasingly come to expect.

The hardware distributor identified a few main goals for its revamped online offering. Primarily, Legallais looked to bring more customers to its website. To do so, the company knew it needed to rank more highly on search engines, and so looked to improve its search engine optimization (SEO).

Ultimately, Legallais wanted to acquire new customers to fuel its century’s old growth — and to do so, the company knew it needed to improve the quality of its product information.

 

Akeneo PIM is more than a solution — it’s a team that accompanies you throughout the project.

Anthony Le Courtes, CIO – Project Manager

The Solution

After electing to adopt a PIM system, Legallais’ first criteria in reviewing options was an open-source and customizable solution. As a result, Akeneo PIM rose to the top of the pack.

The lone difficulty in the implementation phase of the company’s PIM project was the collection and preparation of data for onboarding in the PIM, which was time-consuming. After this process was completed, however, the project moved very quickly. Legallais was able to build its product catalog at an accelerated rate, then moved on to ensuring adoption among its staff. This process also moved swiftly and required just one day of training to get more than 30 users from three different teams across the company onboard.

«It must be said that thanks to the performance, flexibility, and ease of use of Akeneo PIM, the team immediately bought into the project,» said Anthony Le Courtes. «Not to mention that we benefited from the strong support of the Akeneo teams throughout the project.»

Legallais has taken particular advantage of the import and export feature of Akeneo PIM, Le Courtes added, noting that it has helped the team become more responsive and accelerate its time-to-market.

 

 

 

Akeneo: a flexible, scalable PIM perfectly adapted to meet eCommerce challenges.

Anthony Le Courtes, CIO – Project Manager

The Result

Better customer experiences

By creating a single source of truth for high-quality product information, the company is able to offer a better experience to its customers — even those outside its native land of France. The company plans to expand the use of Akeneo PIM to international development by offering a multilingual website.

 

Faster and more productive

After the addition of Akeneo PIM, the Legallais team is also now able to enrich products five times as quickly and can create new products and bring them online in one day. The team is also far more productive than it was before adopting a PIM.

 

Better search engine

With a single source of high-quality product information, the company was able to improve its customer experience by offering a dedicated search engine on its website to help customers search for products.

 

Qualitative product data, enriched and adapted to all channels

The processes of creation and enrichment via the PIM have allowed Legallais to improve the consistency, accuracy, and quality of information distributed to all sales channels.

 

Projects to come

Legallis plans to continue to expand its offering, including by using Akeneo PIM for international development to build a multilingual eCommerce offering.

 

A special thanks to our partners who supported this project:

Are you ready to take the next step?

Our Akeneo Experts are here to answer all the questions you might have about our products and help you to move forward on your PXM journey.