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V and B, the French Liquor Retailer, Offers Leading User Experiences in the Competitive Industry

V and B was established in 2001 by Jean Pierre Derouet and Emmanuel Bouvet. The liquor retailer offers a try-before-you-buy experience so customers can try its full range of wines, beers, and spirits. They have over 270 locations in France and presence in the United Kingdom.
Live Website
BD-V-AND-B-19
240

Employees

270

Stores

3000+

Products

BD-V-AND-B-67

The Challenge

Since its launch, V and B’s bold new take on the liquor store experience has shaken up the industry. The retailer’s innovative, hybrid approach to liquor sampling and purchasing “spilled over” into its digital strategy, too.

The company knew that to lead in the customer experience across hundreds of locations, they needed to maintain close relationships with their franchises. The existing product information (PIM) system and selling platform wasn’t up to speed, so to meet user needs and be at the forefront of the competitive retail environment, they had to make some changes. V and B needed to:

  • Overhaul ordering by eliminating expensive email and paper-based processes.
  • Introduce promotional features and bulk purchasing for events and holidays like St. Patrick’s day.
  • Unify disconnected systems to reduce inefficiencies and errors, and offer a single branded experience.
  • Position themselves to grow sales and expand revenue opportunities.

After the pandemic, V and B learned that external factors could easily disrupt customer relationships. The company started searching for technology that would future-proof their business, yet have the flexibility to meet changing customer needs. The goal was to implement new technologies, including a central PIM system and both B2B and B2C digital commerce platforms.

"Oro covers a lot of our B2B and B2C needs out of the box. The features and capabilities are also very specific to B2B. So we could focus our efforts on the customizations to fit our own ways to do business.”
VandB-Gregory-Tocut-1

Grégory Tocut

CIO at V and B

The solution

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V and B selected OroCommerce for its B2B and B2C capabilities out of the same platform. Oro’s built-in capabilities for both selling models meant that V and B could operate both experiences from one back-end for a unified shopping experience. Oro’s open-source architecture allowed V and B to connect various business systems, such as PIM by Akeneo, CRM, ERP and other systems. The integration helped V and B to preserve multiple unique shopping experiences and data flows through a single source of truth.

To realize the experience and ensure a smooth implementation, V and B partnered with an experienced Oro solution provider Emakina. A few months after implementing OroCommerce, V and B saw numerous improvements in their business:

  • Countless manual, time-consuming tasks were eliminated thanks to digital automation.
  • In connecting applications and tearing data silos, efficiency improved company-wide.
  • A richer product experience thanks to targeted catalogs and personalized suggestions.
  • Increased sales thanks to improved multi-channel customer experience and better customer marketing targeting.

 

At the end of the day, V and B took all the right steps to set them up for success. They reimagined the back-end and customer experience to build resilience and lead the competitive retail market.With the power of OroCommerce behind them, V and B expects to solidify their foothold in the home market and conquer new ones.

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