Electrolux: Getting catalogue creation up to speed

About the project

Electrolux is a global giant within home appliances. Since the company was founded in Sweden in 1919, it has grown into one of the top-selling manufacturers in the world.

Electrolux regularly produces product catalogues, customised across markets in different languages. In 2013, Electrolux asked NoA Ignite to make the process easier and more efficient. Back then, the printed catalogues were Electrolux’s main tool for handling and referring products to customers, resellers and partners. It was an expensive and somewhat outdated way of managing product information. The catalogues often contained more information than needed for a particular the market, reseller or partner.

There was a need for a more dynamic solution that would be more relevant to merchants and sales teams. At the same time, the review of the catalogue creation process was a part of Electrolux's commitment to shape living for the better. Could the process be simplified for the good of both the planet and the end users?

The proposed solution was to develop a web-based online tool that would be accessible for all parties in a selling role. The website would enable the users to easily build their own product catalogues, based on a specific selection of products for each market and audience. To ensure brand and design consistency in all catalogues, the custom catalogue tool uses predefined templates.

The collaboration

NoA Ignite’ collaboration with Electrolux goes back to 2013, when the development initially took place at our Stockholm office. In early 2018, the web development was taken over by our Krakow office. The project is still ongoing.

The challenge

Creating the product catalogues was both time-consuming and resource heavy. Electrolux staff who were involved in the creation of catalogues spent a lot of time gathering and organising the information needed before sending it to an external agency.

To meet local market needs, they also had to put a lot of effort into localising the catalogues for each country.

Our approach

NoA Ignite created the Product Catalogue Tool (PCT), a tailor-made application that automates the creation process.

The PCT is integrated with Electrolux’s PIM system, which downloads data every night. This means that everyone who uses the PCT always has access to the most recent marketing information.

By changing the architecture and moving the product data to an external Azure database, we managed to speed up the process and smooth out performance issues.

Result: An automated solution

The key benefit of the solution is automation. PCT offers 16 pre-defined layouts that are easy to populate with product information obtained from the PIM system.

Users can also customise the catalogues by choosing covers, branded page templates for different brands (if created and uploaded in Optimizely previously) and categories with different attachments.

The catalogues can be printed or published digitally as a pdf document. To improve the application, we monitor how people use the tool and adapt it accordingly to make it even more intuitive to use.

Easier and quicker

Thanks to the application integration, the Electrolux team now have the option to make catalogues themselves. The process is significantly easier and quicker for everyone who uses PCT.