Thousands of healthcare products available online One e-commerce platform for the largest healthcare retailer in Flanders

Goed is a large healthcare retailer in the Flemish Region of Belgium (Flanders), which includes 90 pharmacies, 60 hearing aid clinics and 50 home care stores. Goed is part of CM, Belgium’s largest health insurance fund, which has 4.5 million members. The healthcare retailer was formed in 2019 from a merger of fourteen healthcare organizations. The result is an extensive suite of products and services with a wide range of medicines and medical devices. The services that Goed provides are focused on supporting its members and caregivers during recovery and in improving health and quality of life.

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Goed is a large healthcare retailer in Flanders and part of CM,

Belgium’s largest health insurance fund, which has 4.5 million members.

Tools & Technologies

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Technology
BACKEND
GraphQL API, commercetools, Contenful, Azure Functions & Service Bus
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
Javascript, Typescripts, C# 8.0
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Services
CI / CD
Azure DevOps
SERVERS & HOSTING
Azure Cloud
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Tools & Methodology
VERSION CONTROL
GitHub
METHODOLOGY
Scrum 2 week cyclus

The challenge for Goed

Many different websites and an outdated e-commerce platform
Various different organizations were combined under the Goed umbrella. As a result, the healthcare retailer had a sizable portfolio of mostly stand-alone websites. A number of these websites also had their own dedicated e-commerce environment. Also relevant: Goed did not want to continue using the e-commerce platform that already supported its web shops. 

Complex pricing structure involving 120,000 products
In addition, the elaborate pricing structure presented a major challenge for Goed. Relevant factors included the complexity of pricing for members, healthcare providers and payable amounts arranged through health insurers. Goed wanted to provide a secure online retail environment for its 120,000 products, while keeping the website user-friendly and fast.

After market research guided by PwC, Goed opted for rb2 as the implementation and integration partner to build their new e-commerce platform based on commercetools.

The result

Headless e-commerce platform and links to third-party services
Using commercetools, rb2 built the new website as a headless platform and used Contentful to create a headless CMS, both of which are leveraged through a single GraphQL front-end API, with a single-page application as the front end. This API also provides front-end access to third-party services, such as payment services and authentication for insured parties.

The complete range made available online in phases
As a first milestone, one category was chosen from the product range and released online. The next step involved releases across the full scope of the product range, and an omnichannel approach was launched for accessing the services offered by Goed. 

Event-based integration layer ensures effective communication with back-end systems
Behind the commerce platform, rb2 implemented an event-based integration layer to facilitate options for connecting (and disconnecting) the back-end systems previously used by Goed. Via this integration layer, data on customers, products, orders and more is exchanged with back-end systems, achieving maximum reliability. And there are no delays on the customer end, since messaging is handled independently of user interaction in the front end. This integration layer – using the same principles of event-driven architecture – is also used for email communication and logistics.

Do you want to know more about this case?

Obviously we work with a suitable, extensive team on this project, but when you want to know more details, you should definitely contact:

Ties Luijendijk
Business Consultant
+31 (0)299 200800

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