How BLACKROLL professionalized its e-business

The diversification of the product range went hand in hand with the diversification of sales channels. The different use cases and functions of the products were to be reflected in the design of the website.

In addition to the product catalog and shop, the website blackroll.com includes an extensive content hub with instructions, exercises, and application tips. The different content areas and channels were to be systemically separated to have the flexibility to merge these streams again easily.

Starting in 2019, BLACKROLL began to build a more professional direct sales approach through all digital channels. This process required a team with the right competencies in various areas. Especially downstream steps such as customer service, after-sales, and fulfillment needed adjustments to operate in an omnichannel context.

To enable future expansion into additional markets and to integrate more platforms for new devices and target audiences, the scalability of the online business was considered early on, even in an international context.

When establishing the B2C shop back in 2015, BLACKROLL chose the Shopify platform because it allowed for quick and low-barrier initial steps and applications. The platform also offered ideal conditions for the goal of expanding the digital channels over the coming years: The wide range of Shopify apps inherently provided a high level of flexibility and openness for extensions. In the Shopify Marketplace, there are corresponding plugins for many cases and requirements, such as integration with marketplaces and checkout processes. Thus, BLACKROLL can also implement marketing campaigns, analyses, and automations through app installations with minimal development effort. To this day, Shopify remains at the heart of the e-commerce landscape, running as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the background.

With respect to the long-term strategic development goals, a headless frontend represented the next logical step. Therefore, in 2021, the headless shop went live. Since then, all product and category pages, as well as the content area, have been separated from the e-commerce processes and are managed through the headless frontend. In the backend, the order and checkout processes continue to run via Shopify.

At BLACKROLL, the storefront operates via separate, outsourced servers and a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Whether 10 or 1,000 users access the website and shop simultaneously, the serverless hosting contributes to low latency and high scalability. Despite the increasing complexity of the content and data models, consistently high performance and minimal limitations in the backend are ensured.

Operationally, BLACKROLL has outsourced the majority of its technical infrastructure. For years, the company has relied on collaborations with IT partners such as valantic, which bring in the necessary skills and experience in specific areas, such as architectural development.

valantic advises and supports BLACKROLL, for example, in the development and performance improvement of existing systems. This includes tasks related to interfaces, authentication, and user data, as well as monitoring and testing, but also planning questions: How are things implemented? How are services integrated anew?

BLACKROLL looks at the development of e-commerce systems and omnichannel strategy as a continuous process. valantic will continue to support the brand strategically and technologically in operational processes and long-term goals. These goals include further strengthening and expanding the D2C business. Another objective is to approach the B2B shop more structurally, which is currently run separate from the headless architecture. Additionally, the brand intends to focus more on international cases and drive shop launches in other markets. An ongoing development theme is also personalization: The diverse product world offers numerous possibilities for personalized customer communication with high-quality content and individual recommendations.