The creation of the classic blue NIVEA tin over 100 years ago marked the beginning of a unique success story and the birth of the world’s largest skincare brand. Since then, NIVEA has diversified into an extensive range of around 500 products, supplying around 50 countries.
Business case
With many years of expertise and specialist knowledge about skincare, NIVEA prides itself on hiring the most qualified staff to serve customers in their stores. The company also invests in technologies to develop innovative products that meet consumers’ specific needs, and to further expand its leading expertise in the digital market.
When Covid-19 hit, NIVEA recognized early on that they needed to evolve their traditional flagship stores, known as NIVEA Haus. The company started working on improving their omni-channel strategy through all touchpoints and offering personalized brand experiences along the entire consumer journey.
The solution
Before moving to LS Central, NIVEA had been using an older version of LS Retail software in two of their NIVEA flagship stores. The company was happy with the solution, so to unlock even more functionality, they decided to upgrade to the latest version.
LS Central, LS Retail’s unified commerce platform, ticked all the boxes in terms of capabilities and support for growth. LS Central's flexibility also meant that it could be implemented in other subsidiaries when and as needed, and easily adapted to new requirements for the specific demands of the cosmetics sector.
The software extends Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, giving NIVEA confidence that they would work with a robust and sustainable solution.
The implementation
LS Retail local partner TSO-Data brought the competency and experience needed for a smooth implementation. The company is running the solution in a private cloud, taking advantage of everywhere availability of data. For example, offers and prices for special promotions are immediately available everywhere at the same time.
The company has therefore set a clear path to a solution running entirely in the cloud in the future. This model will then require significantly less investment in the company's own infrastructure and always ensure they’re on the latest release.
“Together with the ERP experts from TSO-Data, we have created the perfect basis for a sustainable software solution and can face the challenges of the future," says Marcel Görner, IT Manager at Beiersdorf Hautpflege GmbH.
Benefits
With LS Central, NIVEA can manage their entire retail business operations, while driving profitable and sustained growth of their omni-channel sales. NIVEA now can:
- Ensure optimal product availability. The system provides real-time visibility into inventory and automatically reorders items that fall below a specific threshold. The EDI connection simplifies sending documents to suppliers, by processing delivery notes and posting the corresponding invoices.
- Increase their productivity. NIVEA can monitor performance in real time for their various branch locations. Productivity has improved: for example, the company can now receive goods three times faster thanks to online MDE devices. In the case of under deliveries from suppliers, the system raises a discrepancy report and sends it automatically to the supplier comparing it with the invoice.
- Spend more time on customer service. The company has eliminated time-consuming manual tasks, leaving the staff free to focus on assisting customers.
- Manage offers and promotions effectively. The company uses assembly items on the POS to run special sales campaigns like pre-bundled combos and seasonal based selections. The company can also offer omni-channel promotions, as vouchers sold on the online store can be redeemed in store at the POS.
- Increase employee satisfaction. Recruiting knowledgeable staff and retaining them long-term is essential to a company’s positive performance. The new system enables NIVEA to manage and reward their staff through a dedicated member club.
Marcel Görner, IT Manager at Beiersdorf Hautpflege GmbH, is very satisfied with the implementation: “The increased productivity of our branch processes and the direct access to a common database since implementing LS Central significantly optimize our processes.”
In the future, the company will be looking into further EDI integration for suppliers and vendors. NIVEA will continue to work closely with TSO-Data to make continuous improvements and take advantage of LS Retail technology to respond to their customers’ wishes.
