User interview: Nils Fischer, project manager at Vieler GmbH & Co

The Vieler Group is an alliance of now more than 35 companies with more than 12 years of experience in the field of online retail. Within the group, it offers the entire range of services required for the development, implementation and operation of modern e-commerce systems.

The close cooperation between Peruecken24.de GmbH, a company of the Vieler Group, and XPLN offers the wig dealer comprehensive market observation of relevant products and automated dynamic price optimization.

For XPLN, project manager Nils Fischer agreed to talk about the use of our market observation software solution – and answered a few more questions.

XPLN: Would you like to tell our readers about Vieler Group and your role in the company.

Nils Fischer: The Vieler Group is a joint venture of several companies. At Peruecken24, I am responsible for the headquarter in Melle and other retail stores.

In other words, you use channels that are both online and offline to offer products and services to your customers. Where do customers find you, online or offline? Furthermore, how does the Customer Journey work, i.e. how do you combine both worlds?

NF: Absolutely. Customers can order online as well as make purchases in our local stores, where we can offer more personal assistance. Basically, it is quite different how customers become aware of us. Many of our customers are enjoying the service and personal guidance in our studios. Where, on the other hand, other customers like to take advantage of the benefits of online shopping.

How are you managing the pricing? Does a customer pay the same price in retail stores as in the web shop goodhair.de?

NF: The prices in the online shop vary a little bit, compared to the local store. In the store you can get a personal service with possible cutting (editor’s note: the wigs).

Can you tell the readers a little bit more about our joint project. What do you use our market observation solution for? Are there concrete figures or results you can mention?

NF: The reason for the integration was that we wanted to have a better overview of the prices of the various articles on the market. Thanks to XPLN, we can now adopt a more productive pricing strategy. Unfortunately, I cannot give you any figures on this, except that it is successful :-)

I understand you prefer not to publish absolute figures. Can you give us relative? How much time could you save in workflow? Were you able to increase your market share?

NF: We could save about 70% of the time in the workflow. That's wonderful, because we can now use the time that has been freed up elsewhere. We were also able to record brand awareness and a double-digit increase in turnover.

You are a young, dynamic team, but still the question: Did you have to overcome internal challenges regarding automation? Were there critical voices from within the company?

NF: As a young company, we also faced our first internal resistance. Can you trust the system? Human surveillance is much safer. What if there is a technical error? We have been able to disprove all these critical voices up to now by obtaining a safe and functional product.

Since 2018, you have been using XPLN profitably. Why did you choose XPLN as your partner?

NF: After intensive research on the market and several discussions, we chose XPLN because the product, the entire know-how and the initial talks convinced us.

One last question. Which are you: first mover (or early adopter) or rather those who wait and see whether the new technology or functionality proves itself with other users? What is the right strategy for you in e-commerce?

NF: We tend to be more of a first mover and like to take the step towards technological innovation. And we have had very good experience with this so far.

Thank you very much for this insight and the time you took for this interview.

The interview was conducted by Laurenz Kögler, Data Consultant at XPLN.