Minimani

Pinja is a strategic partner for Minimani’s digital business

The family-owned Minimani is a modern hypermarket chain that invests in digital commerce and automation. For Minimani, localism and sustainability are important: the company’s product range and sourcing channels are sustainable, and it operates locally to strengthen and enrich local communities.  

In 2021, Minimani decided to put eCommerce at the strategic core of its business. The role of eCommerce in consumer sales is growing strongly, and the eCommerce is making Minimani known in places where it does not yet have a store. “With this decision, we started to work more professionally on the eCommerce, and invested time and resources in it. At the same time, it was natural to compete with other companies and find a partner we can rely on for growth” says Tuomo Simojoki, Digital Commerce Director at Minimani. 

It was important for Minimani to find a partner who sees it as a business of the right size and finds it interesting. In addition to the technological skills, Minimani’s requirement was that the partner had deep experience and understanding of the retail sector and a people-oriented approach to working with a family business. “When looking for a critical strategic partner, it’s important to have meetings face-to-face; it’s not spreadsheets that attend meetings, it’s people. The chemistry has to be there” Simojoki continues.

Pinja was familiar to Minimani from their previous collaboration in an integration platform solution. Later this solution has been extended with the IPa by Pinja integration service. “We had already worked with Pinja on a small scale project, which left a positive impression. Pinja’s competitive offer and way of going through things with us was pleasant. I got the feeling that they really understand what we are ordering.” 

Tero Kangas, Pinja’s Business Director, is pleased with the cooperation: “Pinja is the new home for Minimani’s eCommerce. We are spiritually very similar: we work together in an open, honest and fair way. We both want to commit to a long-term partnership, and we are not looking for quick profits. Minimani is at a stage in their growth path where we understand their situation, and can help them build growth. Minimani’s investments in staff and in growing the eCommerce will play a significant role.”

The new eCommerce solution provides tools to boosting sales

Minimani’s e-commerce project began with an audit of the existing system to assess what was working, what wasn’t, and which elements should be carried over to the new platform. Based on the audit, a roadmap was created to outline functionality development and prioritize key areas. The goal was to improve usability through modern user interface and architectural solutions. Business objectives, such as increasing conversion rates and average order values, guided the process. The new e-commerce platform was integrated seamlessly with all of Minimani’s backend systems.

For Minimani, the platform migration was a significant undertaking, further complicated by the fact that the old solution had not evolved sufficiently over the years. “Typically, e-commerce development progresses step by step, but since we had missed a few steps along the way, we had to take a bigger leap,” explains Tuomo Simojoki. While the transition to the new system wasn’t without challenges, Pinja’s experience and expertise helped navigate the tough phases. “With Pinja’s guidance, we always had a clear picture of the situation. We had to make difficult decisions, but Pinja provided us with a clear understanding of the risks, consequences, and required actions for each option,” Simojoki continues.

Minimani’s thoroughly revamped e-commerce solution launched for customers in September 2022, with ongoing development continuing thereafter. “We can already see that the site performs faster and is easier to manage. Next, we’ll focus on internal operations; now we have the opportunity to implement all the e-commerce initiatives we’ve planned, such as improving conversion rates, increasing sales, and raising average order values,” Simojoki notes.

In 2023, Minimani’s online store adopted tools from Pinja’s partner, Klevu, to reduce manual work, increase automation, and enable flexible promotion of seasonal products. This collaboration has led to impressive results, including a 37% increase in conversion rates. Read the full case study here.

More customer-oriented service through collaboration between product information management and eCommerce

The cooperation between Minimani and Pinja will not only continue on the development of the eCommerce, but also on the product information management (PIM) solution. The product information management solution serves both Minimani’s eCommerce and the network of stores. The PIM manages product-related data such as marketing texts, images and nutritional content and the use of these data in marketing materials, manuals and campaigns, for example, by delivering enriched data through integration with different systems. Product information management also works with external product information services, such as GS1’s Synkka product information service.

Once the product information management project is completed, managing and packaging the product range becomes much easier. Minimani has a range of tens of thousands of products. By automating the work involved in managing product information, the amount of manual work is reduced, and products can be sold faster. In addition, the product information visible to the customer is of higher quality, more varied, and easier to find. This also makes the customer’s path faster and easier, and improves the customer experience. The implementation allows Minimani to build its product range in a more customer-oriented way.

Pinja’s strengths as a eCommerce solution provider include solid technology expertise, long experience with Magento and Adobe Commerce platforms, and versatile knowledge of the retail industry. Pinja focuses on long-term client relationships, and wants to grow together with its clients. Tero Kangas describes Pinja’s way of working in the following way: “We speak the same language as the client, and understand the challenges, values and ideology of the retail sector. We can proactively guide our clients, and help them identify challenges, because we have learned them the hard way.”

Both parties feel that open and honest cooperation leads to good results. Tuomo Simojoki sums up, “We appreciate that Pinja shares the problems and challenges with us as they are, and dares to challenge us.” Kangas adds, “When cooperation works, we know we are on to something important. Minimani has a desire to develop and work together. It makes work easy, even when things are not.”

Images: Minimani