1. Case Study
BUSINESS
The Medipolis Group operates three physical pharmacies in Germany and a growing
online store, which accounts for 20 percent of its turnover. The company provides
products and services to both consumers and healthcare organisations.
CHALLENGE
To diversify and grow its customer base, Medipolis needed a flexible and
integrated ecommerce platform to support the launch of new offerings and a
multichannel strategy.
SOLUTION
Medipolis has transformed its online shopping services by deploying a cloud-based
ecommerce platform from Demandware. Integrated with its ERP system, the platform
enables dynamic pricing, product, and inventory updates to the online product
catalogue and supports mobile shopping and innovative features.
RESULTS
Online sales have increased five percent month on month since the new
Demandware-enabled pharmacy went live in May 2012. Customer satisfaction
is also on the rise as orders can be placed and fulfilled faster.
Industry segment
Pharmacy
URL
www.medipolis.de
Scale
160 employees
400,000 customer orders
Medipolis boosts
online sales and
improves customer
experience
In partnership with:

2. 2
BUSINESS
A SEAMLESS PHARMACY EXPERIENCE
From hospitals and nursing homes to patients and pharmacies, the Medipolis Group
plays a key role in the medical supply chain across Germany.
The group is committed to delivering a seamless pharmacy service, which
encompasses physical and online stores, home care and the production of sterile
solutions.
Medipolis operates three pharmacies in the region and has a growing online business,
which accounts for around 20 percent of its overall turnover. Due to EU regulations,
online pharmaceutical sales are currently focused on Germany, but the company is
hoping to expand its ecommerce operations to other countries in the future.
Both patients and healthcare providers can purchase a broad range of products from
the Medipolis online pharmacy – from common medicines and mother and baby
products to homecare and beauty items.
CHALLENGE
CONTINUING TO EXPAND AND GROW THE CUSTOMER BASE
The company’s online channel is fundamental to diversifying and growing its customer
base. To achieve its expansion goals, the online experience must remain compelling.
As Ecommerce Manager Ingmar Wegner, responsible for ecommerce explains:
“Customers buying from an online pharmacy are looking for special offers and will
often compare prices across sites. To attract and retain customers we need to offer
both competitive prices and an efficient online experience.”
Medipolis originally launched its online pharmacy in 2007 with the help of a local
system integrator. While the ecommerce platform was based on a merchandise
management system specific to the pharmacy sector, the technology soon
became out of date.
“Making upgrades to the ecommerce platform was
expensive and complicated, which made it difficult to
introduce new online offerings for customers,” comments
Wegner. “The team needed up to three weeks to make
changes to a promotion or set up a new one.”
Medipolis wanted to do more than just sell products to
its customers via the web; it was looking to recreate the
same personalised experience and service that exists in its
physical stores.
“In a store, the pharmacist can help a customer
face-to-face and provide advice and information about
different medicines and products,” comments Wegner.
“We wanted to be able to offer on-demand video content
“We now have
the ecommerce
foundation we
need to provide
customers with
competitive prices
and exceptional
service.”
–Ingmar Wegner
Ecommerce Manager
Medipolis
Case Study: Medipolis

3. 3
and live chat facilities to our customers, but this was not possible with the legacy
ecommerce platform.”
Medipolis also wanted to enrich the online pharmacy experience by fulfilling orders
faster both regionally and nationally. “Customers often need quick access to the
products they buy online, so we wanted to be able to offer same and next day
deliveries, but integration between our ecommerce platform and other enterprise
systems was too costly and complex,” explains Wegner.
Integration is fundamental to the Medipolis business model – and the company’s
future success. To continue to increase online sales and revenue, it needed to
establish a multi-channel strategy underpinned by a flexible, open and cost-effective
ecommerce platform that could scale to support future growth.
SOLUTION
A SCALABLE AND INTEGRATED ECOMMERCE PLATFORM
In January 2012, Medipolis laid the technology foundations needed to help achieve its
multichannel ambitions. Like many companies that need to scale to support growth,
Medipolis opted for an on-demand solution.
Medipolis decided to implement Demandware’s ecommerce platform as it meets all
the current needs of its online pharmacy and provides a digital backbone for future
multi-channel growth objectives.
“By using a cloud-based ecommerce platform, we can eliminate the expensive and
time-consuming technology upgrade cycle and minimise capital investments in
new hardware. This ensures we always have the latest technology available to us,
and allows us to focus our resources on better serving our customers,” comments
Wegner.
As well as being more cost-effective, a cloud-based approach enables Medipolis to:
• Free up IT staff
• Accelerate time-to-market for new offerings
• Scale to meet growth on demand.
The implementation of the Demandware’s ecommerce platform took place during
the first three months of 2012 with assistance from Demandware solution partner,
BE EXCELLENT.
In addition to scoping the design requirements of the new online pharmacy,
BE EXCELLENT assisted with the technical process planning, system integration and
implementation as well as the front-end development, which are all fundamental to
enabling Medipolis’ multichannel strategy.
Melani Okon, Marketing Manager at Medipolis, comments: “The support from both
BE EXCELLENT and Demandware helped to accelerate the launch of our new online
pharmacy. BE EXCELLENT is a competent an reliable partner who played a key role
“The new platform
comes with
advanced data
analysis tools that
enable us to track
customer buying
trends.”
–Melani Okon
Marketing Manager
Medipolis
Case Study: Medipolis

4. in integrating the ecommerce solution with our payment system and establishing new
interfaces with our ERP platform.”
The content management capabilities of Demandware must be robust, as product
information – including publicity photos, descriptions, attributes and prices – are fed
automatically from the ERP system into the online store. With more than 125,000
products in its portfolio and new items being added on a regular basis, any weak link
in the ERP/ecommerce chain could have significant consequences for online sales.
The Medipolis website provides customers with step-by-step guidance throughout the
shopping process and features an interactive environment with 10 main categories,
which are easy to navigate and provide an intuitive and fully-featured shopping
experience for customers. The site also supports the complex processes involved in
selling medication with or without prescription, including legal requirements.
MAKING SHOPPING EASIER AND MORE CONVENIENT
With its new and improved online pharmacy live since May 2012, Medipolis is now
looking at other ways in which it can improve the customer experience leveraging
Demandware’s open and extensible platform.
Enabling users to purchase products via their mobile phones is a key next step in
the company’s multichannel strategy. “To maximise sales, we need to ensure our
customers can shop at any time and from any device at our online pharmacy,”
comments Wegner.
To expand the diversity of products on sale via the store, Medipolis hopes to develop
an integrated offering with its partners. As Okon explains: “There is a huge market for
care products for animals. With a link to partner sites, we could offer our customers a
one-stop-shopping experience.”
RESULTS
GREATER ONLINE SALES AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
The website relaunch has been a great success for Medipolis. Online sales
have increased five percent month on month since May 2012. “We
are now able to offer our customers a broader range of online
products and services,” confirms Wegner.
Medipolis has also improved the customer experience by
maximising the performance and availability of the site. As
Wegner explains: “Due to the stability and scalability of the new
platform, our online pharmacy is always available and ensures
that customers can order products at any time of the day.”
The company can also make more informed decisions about
what products to include in its online catalogue. “The new
platform comes with advanced data analysis tools that enable us
to track customer buying trends,” comments Okon. “This will help us
Case Study: Medipolis 4
125,000
products in the Medipolis
online portfolio
THE BOTTOM LINE
> Broader customer base
> Lower IT costs
> Higher online sales
> Better online experience
for customers
> Faster product deliveries

5. © 2013 Demandware, Inc.
This document contains archival information
which should not be considered current and
may no longer be accurate.
Demandware, Inc.
5 Wall Street
Burlington, MA 01803
demandware.com
ensure we have the right volumes of products available to match customer demand
at certain times of the year.”
In addition to its early success, Medipolis’ investment in a digital commerce backbone
will provide an open and scalable foundation to achieve its aggressive multichannel
growth objectives.
Today, every order that comes in before midday is delivered to the customer the
same day. This includes wholesales products. “This is only possible due to the deep
integration of the ecommerce platform with the ERP-system,” adds Wegner.
The video features of the Demandware solution will be ready to into production during
the first quarter of 2013. In 2014 this will be followed by the integration of the chat
option, which will make online shopping with Medipolis even more convenient for
customers.
“We now have the ecommerce foundation we need to provide customers with
competitive prices and exceptional service,” comments Wegner. “This has already
had a positive impact on customer satisfaction and will help us continue to grow our
online business.”
ABOUT DEMANDWARE
Demandware, a leader in digital commerce, enables the world’s premier retailers to
move faster and grow faster in the changing face of retail. Demandware’s enterprise
cloud platform minimizes the costs and complexities of running global, omni-channel
commerce operations, and empowers retailers to respond with speed and agility to
new market opportunities and continually evolving consumer expectations.
For more information, visit demandware.com, call +1-888-553-9216 or
email info@demandware.com.
ABOUT BE EXCELLENT
BE EXCELLENT is a specialised consulting and services company that designs,
develops and operates ecommerce frameworks and customer experience
management platforms. BE EXCELLENT specifically supports growth-oriented
companies and brands in business-to-consumer segments, such as services,
fashion, luxury and retail, providing them with internationally scalable ecommerce
platforms. www.bee.io