Senab - space for big ideas

As one of the Nordic’s leading manufacturers of furnishings for public spaces like offices, hotels, restaurants and shops, Senabs goal has from the start been to strengthen their customer’s brands through interior design. Senab currently operates in Sweden, Norway and China.

Since the start in 1975, Senab has been an important player in driving the development of the Nordic interior design market, and in September 2020 they took the next step. They launched their new e-commerce solution, and established a new channel to meet their customers, and help companies, organizations and individuals to create space for big ideas.

Thorough process

Senab did a thorough job when the decision to establish an online store was made. They were looking for a recognized CMS platform that worked well on a global level, and a partner with both long experience and a good reputation.

They carefully considered both different platforms and partners, and ended up choosing Optimizely (formerly Episerver) as a platform, and Geta as the partner to get the work done.

“Concept and design usually takes a long time. The reason we chose Geta as our partner, was because they offer Geta Commerce Starter Kit, which is an already built starting point for an online store. You don’t have to start from scratch, standard functionality that you expect to find in an online store is already available, ready to be adapted to your own style guides. Because of this, you save both time and money when launching your online store”, says Päivi Wahlqvist, Ecommerce and Marketing Manager i Senab.

To Senab, the decision to start with e-commerce has been a part of a larger strategic change for the entire company. They wanted to make their products available to the market to a greater extent by investing in a multi-channel strategy.

An agile process

Senab has chosen a step-by-step approach to their digital investment. Geta helped them build the solution, and make priorities throughout the process.

Päivi tells us: “We dared to start with a semi-manual solution, that we can keep building on as our product range expands and our processes evolve. Product data is handled and enriched in Optimizely, and we can easily connect to a PIM-system (product information management), when we need it. We have chosen to work agile, and adapt to the journey. There are many decisions that need to be made, and you have to spend some time deciding what is “nice to have”, and what is “need to have”. By having a close dialogue with Geta, it was possible for us to re-evaluate and make decisions along the way”.

A digital journey

“This was completely new to Senab. The company really believed in digital commerce, but wanted to see results before we went all in. We have learned that you can get far by working creatively with the solutions that Geta can offer out-of-the-box, you don’t have to build everything from scratch. We have also experienced that it is important to set aside enough internal resources, and to include all employees in the process. We have really grown as a company”, Päivi says.