Cadena 88: a single online shop so more than 1,600 neighbourhood hardware stores can sell more

Cadena 88 was founded in 1988 as a purchasing and services group for independent hardware stores, and today it's the largest network in the sector in Spain: more than 1,600 outlets under a single brand, backed by Ehlis, the hardware distributor that runs it from its logistics centres. Its strength is that of the neighbourhood hardware store: a professional nearby who knows the product and gives advice. In 2016 the group decided to bring that network online and asked us to design, together with them, how to do it.

A conventional online shop would have competed with the network's own hardware stores. The challenge was the opposite: for the digital channel to add to the members rather than take away from them. It had to give them a higher-value service, let them sell online without each one setting up their own shop, and protect the brand from the online initiatives some hardware stores were starting to launch on their own.

That called for an unusual model: a single shop for the whole network in which the head office doesn't sell, the hardware stores do. Every purchase had to end up with a specific store, with its own prices and its own way of charging, and the full catalogue also had to reach the physical stores, which can't stock everything the group distributes on their shelves.

And it had to work reliably, always. Behind it are more than 25,000 products managed in SAP and hundreds of businesses that depend on every order coming in, being charged and being fulfilled properly. A shop like this can't afford downtime or outdated data.

We started by defining the model. On cadena88.com, the buyer chooses a hardware store near their home and the sale is credited to that store, which is also the one that serves the customer: they can collect the order free at the shop or have it delivered home, and any query or return goes through their usual hardware store. That way the online shop brings sales to the members and, on top of that, people into their shops.

The second piece is the kiosk: a screen in the hardware stores with the online shop on it, putting the whole catalogue within reach of the shopkeeper and their customers. Whatever isn't on the shelf is ordered right there and reaches the shop shortly after, thanks to the group's logistics. Every hardware store sells far more than it could ever hold in stock.

On top of that model we worked on the architecture of a catalogue of thousands of products organised across up to four levels, the prototypes and the design, and we built the shop on Drupal. We paid special attention to three things: the integration with SAP, which supplies the products, each store's prices, stock and orders; the integration of the stores' POS terminals, so every sale is charged where it belongs; and search, built on Solr, so that a site with more than 25,000 products is fast, easy to use and, above all, reliable.