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Argus: B2C and B2B e-shop and iObchodník on SAP Business One

The LUX paper gift bags category in the Argus e-shop on desktop and mobile

SmartBase built Argus, a Slovak manufacturer of postcards and greeting cards, one e-shop connected to SAP Business One, where both end customers and business partners shop. Each group buys there on its own terms, and partners can pull Argus products into their own e-shops, complete with prices and stock levels. Argus sales representatives sell in the SmartBase iObchodník web app with the same products and prices as the e-shop, and their orders are created directly in SAP Business One.

End customers and partners were to shop in one e-shop, each on their own terms

Argus keeps its products, prices, stock, customers, orders and invoices in SAP Business One. It wanted end customers and partners to shop in one e-shop, and no price, invoice or order status to originate anywhere but in SAP.

The two groups buy differently, though. An end customer pays retail prices, while a partner buys at the prices in its own price list and is subject to different shipping and payment rules in the B2B zone.

Partners also sell Argus goods in their own e-shops. On top of that, Argus sells through sales representatives who look after partners by district and, when visiting them, need to see the same information the e-shop shows.

The main requirement was that the e-shop for both customer groups and the sales reps' app work with the same data from SAP, so that Argus would not maintain prices and stock in two places. The collaboration with SmartBase began with a pre-project analysis in 2020 and 2021 and has continued with the development of the e-shop since 2022.

Project in numbers

Orders that reach SAP on their own
82%
From the e-shop and iObchodník, out of all orders over a year
Of which from iObchodník
65%
More than 1,400 orders every month
Sales representatives
16
Selling in iObchodník in Slovakia and the Czech Republic
Products listed in the e-shop
6,500+
From postcards and greeting cards to seasonal goods

Systems the e-shop works with

SAP Business One

Argus's ERP on SAP HANA

→ Argus e-shop

  • Products
  • Prices and partner price lists
  • Stock
  • Customers and their type
  • Invoices and order statuses

← SAP Business One

  • Orders
  • Payments
  • New customers

iObchodník

Sales rep web app, orders straight into SAP

Argus e-shop

B2C and B2B

Heureka, Zboží, Alza, Sklik, Google

Price comparison sites, marketplaces and advertising

→ Heureka, Zboží, Alza, Sklik, Google

  • Product listings

DPD, PPL, Packeta, Balíkovo

Carriers

← Argus e-shop

  • Pickup points
The Argus e-shop takes products, prices and partner price lists, stock, customers with their type, invoices and order statuses from SAP Business One and sends orders, payments and new customers back to it. The iObchodník web app sends orders and returns directly to SAP Business One.

What challenges Argus overcame with the e-shop and iObchodník by SmartBase

Registration in the Argus e-shop with the option to register as a company turned on, billing details fields and the business partner option
Registration in the Argus e-shop by SmartBase: a company can turn on the option “Chcem sa stať obchodným partnerom / som obchodný partner” (I want to become a business partner / I am a business partner), and once Argus turns on the B2B zone for it, it sees the partner offer in the same e-shop as end customers.

End customers and partners each see their own offer in one e-shop

Challenge

One e-shop serves two groups that buy on different terms, from the product range to payment. On its website, for example, Argus lists DPD as the only carrier for partners, while an end customer can also choose from other carriers or pick the order up in person.

Solution

  • SAP Business One determines whether the buyer is an end customer or a partner, and the e-shop shows them their catalogue, prices, shipping and payment options accordingly.
  • When a company registers in the e-shop as a business partner, Argus turns on the B2B zone for it in SAP Business One, assigns it a price list and decides whether it may buy or only browse the offer.
The LUX 0789-9801 gift bag in the Argus e-shop by SmartBase on mobile: after the size is switched from T8L to T5L, the price changes from €4.25 to €3.19 and the item number from 0789-9801-T to 0759-9801-T.

Each gift bag size in the e-shop has its price from SAP

Challenge

Argus sells thousands of products in various sizes and variants and keeps their prices, as well as invoices and order statuses, only in SAP Business One. The LUX gift bag with design 9801, for example, comes in three sizes in the e-shop, and both the item number and the price change with the size.

Solution

  • For the LUX gift bag with design 9801, the customer picks a size and the e-shop shows the price and item number of the chosen size.
  • Argus changes a price in SAP and the e-shop picks up the change by itself.
  • In their account, customers see the status of the orders they placed in the e-shop and download the invoices for them from SAP.

  1. SAP Business One

    Partner price list

  2. Argus e-shop

    A product without a partner price cannot be bought

  3. Partner

    Orders only at the prices in its Argus price list

In the e-shop, a partner orders only at prices agreed with Argus

Challenge

Partners buy according to price lists in SAP Business One, but not every product necessarily has a price in a partner's price list. If the e-shop showed the retail price whenever the partner price was missing, the partner would order at a price it had not agreed with Argus.

Solution

  • If the partner's price list has no price for a product, the partner cannot buy it in the e-shop.
  • Once Argus adds the price to the partner's price list in SAP, the partner can buy the product at that price, with no need to activate it separately.

  1. SAP Business One

    Products, prices and stock

  2. Argus e-shop

    Offer for partners

  3. Partner's e-shop

    Argus products with descriptions, prices and stock levels

Partners can pull Argus products, prices and stock into their own e-shops

Challenge

Partners resell Argus goods in their own e-shops and need its products there, along with prices and information on whether they are in stock. Without a shared source, a partner would have to maintain Argus products itself and could offer its customers goods that Argus is currently out of.

Solution

  • A partner pulls in the data from its profile after logging in to the B2B zone.
  • A partner that pulls in the data has, against each Argus product in its own e-shop, the description and technical parameters as Argus gives them, the price it pays Argus, its discount, the recommended retail price and the stock level, all from SAP Business One, just as in the Argus e-shop.
The LUX gift bag 0789-9801 in iObchodník by SmartBase for Argus: the sales rep finds it and sees the item number 0789-9801-T, the stock in packs and the recommended price of €4.25 including VAT. (The video shows sample data.)

A sales rep visiting a partner sees the same prices and stock as the e-shop

Challenge

Argus sales reps visit partners in the field and cannot show them anything that differs from the e-shop. When a rep looks up the LUX 0789-9801 gift bag at a partner's premises, its detail should show the same item number and recommended retail price that an end customer sees in the e-shop.

Solution

  • A rep looks up a product in iObchodník and sees its item number, stock and recommended retail price from SAP Business One, the same source the e-shop uses. After looking up a customer, the rep sees the same prices as that customer in the B2B zone of the e-shop.
  • Orders and returns that a rep enters in iObchodník go straight into SAP.
  • If a partner has overdue invoices, the rep sees a warning in the basket before sending the order.
  • Reps work in iObchodník mainly on tablets, and they can add it to the home screen of a tablet or a phone as a link to the web app.

Customers and sales reps order straight into SAP Business One

Both customer groups now shop in one e-shop on the SmartBase E-commerce platform, which has Slovak and English versions and a Czech one on argus.cz in Czech koruna. The e-shop sends product listings to the price comparison sites and marketplaces Heureka, Zboží and Alza, to Google Merchant Center and to the Sklik and Google Ads advertising systems. For delivery, it offers a choice of DPD, PPL, Packeta and Balíkovo pickup points, and it is connected to Ecomail for email marketing. Sales reps sell in iObchodník, a web app and SmartBase's own product, and according to SAP Business One data, 65% of all orders over a year come from this app. Together with the e-shop, that makes 82% of orders that nobody retypes by hand.

Sales
End customers (B2C)Partners (B2B)Sales representatives
Systems
SAP Business OneiObchodník
Very good work of the project manager and his IT programmers. SmartBase offered a timely response to problems, excellent IT support, and service. Excellent guidance when we had a problem, with instructions for solving it or ideas on how to solve it. The result is an increase in e-shop orders and easier work for our sales representatives.
Alena Lenická
E-commerce Manager, Argus
Translated quote
Frequently asked questions

Questions about the e-shop and the sales rep app on SAP

Yes, that is how Argus sells in its e-shop by SmartBase, which uses SAP Business One to tell end customers from partners and shows each of them their own offer and terms. The company thus decides who is a partner in the ERP, alongside the rest of the customer's data.

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