Sponser Sports Food is the market leader in sports nutrition in Switzerland, and through its e-commerce store it sells products in over 30 countries. When they were looking for a new integration partner, project manager Iris Jenni turned to Codeunit with the request for an integration that would not lock in or limit their team. After just a few weeks, Sponser Sport Food’s new integration went live, complete with access to Codeunit’s customer portal. The new setup reduced the number of error messages and increased flexibility, as the entire team at Sponser Sport Food can now manage any errors themselves.
A few years ago, Sponser Sport Food switched to the ERP system Microsoft Business Central, and sometime after that they migrated to the e-commerce platform Shopify. Iris and her colleague Andy, who project-managed the migration, initially considered using Microsoft’s standard integration for connecting Business Central and Shopify. But since there are many factors that are not standard in Sponser Sport Food’s e-commerce, they quickly realized that a standard solution was not possible.
Looking for something other than a standard
“We have some specific exceptions in our e-commerce, such as free quantities and different vouchers. So instead of using the standard connection, we went with another agency for the integration. Unfortunately, we weren’t very satisfied. We became dependent on that agency and always had to contact them whenever there was a problem with an order. It wasn’t satisfying not being able to solve our problems ourselves,” says Iris Jenni, project manager at Sponser Sport Food.
The errors Iris mentions are relatively common in order processing and can be anything from a missing value, an issue with an address, a text that is too long, or a booking problem. For Iris and her colleagues to understand and resolve these issues themselves, a new type of integration was needed, which is why she reached out to Codeunit.
Who is Sponser Sport Food?
Sponser Sport Food was founded in Switzerland in 1988 and is well established in the market today. For over 30 years, they have held the position of market leader in functional food and supplements such as energy gels, protein powders and recovery products. The company has its own research and development department and works closely with athletes and professional sporting events. Sponser Sport Food places great importance on traceability and food safety and has earned the trust of top athletes, for whom the origin of products is crucial.
Sponser Sport Food’s range is offered through resellers, partners and their own e-commerce store, where they have gathered around 120 different products. Their main markets are Switzerland, Germany and Austria, with Switzerland being the largest. In their online shop, customers can order globally, with deliveries shipped from Sponser Sport Food’s company in Germany, serving customers both in and outside Europe.
The experience through a test environment
“I actually think it was through Chat GPT that I first read about Codeunit. I wrote in the chat that I needed help connecting Business Central with Shopify. Starting with Codeunit was really easy. I’m used to meetings, planning, quotes, and often having to pay for a quote before you can even get started. With Codeunit, it was the complete opposite. They created a test environment for us free of charge, so we could try it out and decide if we wanted to work with them or not. They were also able to explain things in a way that made everything feel logical,” says Iris.
Iris explains that she appreciated being able to place a simple test order in the environment to see exactly how orders flowed from Shopify into Business Central, what problems could arise, and how she could manage them. Sponser Sport Food decided to go with Codeunit as their new integration partner, and Codeunit finalized the test environment according to their requirements and needs. In June, they went live with the new integration. First for the Swiss site and later for the German site.
B2B and B2C in the same store
One of Sponser Sport Food’s requirements for the integration was handling VAT, since both B2B and B2C orders are processed in the same store. Currently, Sponser Sport Food only has one Shopify store for both target groups. This means the integration must be able to send B2B orders to Business Central without VAT, which now works seamlessly. Instead of writing a requirements list, Iris has now started a wish list, which includes Shopify’s B2B platform to better separate B2B and B2C orders.
Integration that creates flexibility
“With our new integration, there’s always a reason when something goes wrong. There’s an explanation and we can fix it. Before, we didn’t know why errors occurred, and therefore we couldn’t do anything about them. That’s no longer the case. Plus, we can always message Codeunit and get quick answers if we have questions. That’s incredibly valuable for us. Of course, we can also make optimizations to reduce the number of error messages over time, and that’s something we’ll continue to work on,” says Iris.
Before the new integration went live, only Iris could access and review the error messages. Being dependent on one person is risky, and on top of that, Iris only works two days a week. This often meant she had to troubleshoot from home or customers had to wait. With the new integration, customer service staff can now also handle errors, adjust orders and maintain a higher level of service. This new way of working increases both flexibility and efficiency across the department.
This is what the future looks like
“With Codeunit, we’ve achieved our number one goal - making it easy to understand the connection between BC and Shopify, and being able to manage errors ourselves. For me, it was crucial that I could test and see Codeunit’s delivery in the test environment. That made it easy to say yes and start working with them. For me, this is really what the future looks like. E-commerce is online, so things should move fast , and I want partners who move just as fast. Now we have a strong partner who understands our business and that feels really good. There are many projects we want to implement together with Codeunit in the future,” Iris concludes.
