We centralized product content and information, structured our retail data governance, and cut our time-to-market by 50%, all while gaining autonomy and improving quality.Valérie Rietsch
Retail IT Project Manager at Schmidt Groupe
Schmidt Groupe: French excellence in custom home solutions
Schmidt Groupe, the leader in bespoke home living solutions, manufactures, designs and distributes inspiring and sustainable living and working spaces under the Schmidt, Cuisinella, ID Pro, and Spoon & Room brands. The company draws on a network of exclusive distributors comprising more than 920 showrooms in 22 countries, employing over 8,000 people and generating distribution revenue of €1.7 billion.
To gain control over product content and information, Schmidt Groupe launched a large-scale digital transformation project in 2023. This was driven by strong international growth and channel diversification across brand websites, e-commerce, and B2B platforms.
Challenges
Previously, Schmidt Groupe primarily relied on Excel spreadsheets to collect and manage product information. This approach led to errors, redundancies, and inefficiencies. Further complicating matters, eight separate repositories were managed by five different teams, operating without unified governance or a common interface.
The existing DAM and PIM systems were outdated and lacked crucial connections to sales channels and creative tools. This disconnect, combined with the inability to efficiently manage translation and localization efforts across 22 countries, resulted in excessive time-to-market for product campaigns, ultimately reducing responsiveness across all digital channels.
Solution
The adoption of Akeneo (PIM) and Bynder (DAM) was a cross-functional success, extending beyond marketing to become core tools used company-wide. Bynder serves as the system of record for all digital assets and integrates directly with Akeneo PIM, ensuring that product imagery is always up-to-date with product information.
Bynder DAM as the system of record
In just a few months, over 150,000 assets were centralized in Bynder, covering a wide range of formats, such as images, videos, documents, and even 3D models.
Initially rolled out for marketing teams, the platform is now used company-wide, across the communication, sales, procurement, store layout, operations, HR, and customer service departments. This cross-department adoption highlights the added value of DAM across the entire organization.
With just three administrators, governance remains lean and efficient, thanks to finely tuned permissions and key users in each department taking responsibility.
Akeneo PIM for simplified product information management
50 active users collaborate on the Akeneo platform, with roles tailored to their responsibilities: data administrators, enrichment contributors, and quality validators. Approximately 28,000 products are now cataloged, structured, and enriched in Akeneo, distributed across three main channels:
- E-commerce sites (e.g. Shop Schmidt, Ma Boutique Cuisinella, Spoon & Room)
- Product showcase websites
- B2B wholesale portals for distributors
Multilingual management is handled with nine local languages activated, ensuring a consistent and localized product experience worldwide.
Results
In short, Akeneo and Bynder enabled Schmidt Groupe to implement robust yet agile data governance that fostered quick, lasting adoption, ensuring accurate and up-to-date product listings across all digital channels.
Bynder and Akeneo are the two pillars of our retail information system. This duo is at the heart of our omnichannel distribution strategy.Valérie Rietsch
Retail IT Project Manager at Schmidt Groupe
The implementation of a system of record for all product content and information has ensured data reliability, consistency, and accessibility. This has led to a 50% reduction in time-to-market for new product launches, cutting the previous six-month timeline down to just three months.
The intuitive interfaces and ease of use of Akeneo and Bynder have driven strong adoption across teams. This has significantly improved cross-functional collaboration between business, IT, and marketing teams through integrated and automated workflows. The integration of AI-powered translation management with human approval workflows has accelerated the localization of key product information. Additionally, teams now have full autonomy in launching new brands, such as Spoon & Room, without needing external support.
Read the full Schmidt Groupe case study here
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