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

Many different websites and an outdated e-commerce platform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.

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.