E-commerce Germany Awards Interviews: foobar Agency

Welcome to our exclusive interview series spotlighting the exceptional winners of the E-commerce Germany Awards 2024. This prestigious event celebrates outstanding excellence, dedication, and significant accomplishments within the e-commerce sector. It serves as a platform to honor the visionaries who are driving the industry forward with their groundbreaking innovations and solutions.

Today we share our conversation with Matthias Dietrich, CEO of foobar Agency. Let’s read about their winning solution – the replatforming of their client porta Möbel and other services that they can offer in order to make businesses thrive.

EGN: Could you describe your company in a few words?

Matthias Dietrich: We are an e-commerce consultancy and agency for upper mid-sized companies (SMEs and above), specialized in composable commerce. 

I started in 2015 when I was still a software engineering freelancer and saw that tech and business are often misaligned on the goals. We are currently around 30 people with offices in Munich and Berlin. At the same time, we belong to a small group of companies and can therefore draw on 250 people from different professions. Our mission is to help our clients to align their technological strategy with their business goals and thus make their e-commerce ambitions successful. We are more than just a technology implementer, we are also a trusted advisor to our clients.

EGN: What was the solution you decided to put in for our competition? 

Matthias Dietrich: The replatforming of our client – porta Möbel. It was one of our most extensive projects which we are proud to have helped implement. 

We started by understanding the business goals and translating them to the technological strategy. Then we began to rebuild the existing systems or set up new ones. Over time, we also built up an internal team at the client and thus enabled porta Möbel to act independently. Projects such as dynamic pricing and support in the e-commerce marketing strategy were also included. 

We continue to support porta Möbel in the implementation of its other brands on the technological foundation that we built with porta Möbel. Because all of this was set up as a multi-brand e-commerce store from the very beginning.

EGN: What makes it unique?

Matthias Dietrich: Implementing a technological project and building a team at the same time is something we often face but it is not an everyday occurrence. At the same time, these challenges were paired with those related to the fact that our client was a multi-brand e-commerce store. Because of that we had to build every software solution and every microservice in such a way that it works for several brands.

With porta Möbel’s multi-brand e-commerce store, we have once again proved that we can realize technologically sophisticated implementations for larger companies with several brands that want to use synergies and efficiencies with one technological platform.

EGN: How can your solutions help e-commerce business owners? Are they for everyone or do you aim for specific industries?

Matthias Dietrich: Our solutions are aimed at upper mid-sized companies and enterprises that are approaching or already leveraging the topic of composable commerce. It does not matter whether the companies already have a technology-oriented e-commerce department, want to set one up or explicitly want to work without such a department. We can support them with our services. We are fundamentally industry-agnostic but have the most experience in Home & Living, Fashion, Mobility and Tourism.

EGN: If you were asked to name three key advantages of your solutions in comparison with your brand’s competitors, what would they be?

Matthias Dietrich: Firstly, a unique connection between business and technology. Secondly, the experience we have in such complex projects. Last but not least, the boutique approach, so that we can individually address the respective needs and situation of our clients.

EGN: What do you intend to do regarding your current solutions? Do you have plans for other products or services?

Matthias Dietrich: We continue to support porta Möbel in the implementation of the other brands and will also continue to implement these services with other clients.

It is worth noting that in addition to our e-commerce expertise, we also have exciting AI expertise. We use this successfully in pricing projects for our clients, whether on-site in the shops or separately to identify the right prices and pricing strategies.

EGN: What is your current goal?

Matthias Dietrich: We want to continue to grow with our clients and scale our services.

EGN: What are your predictions for the future concerning your area of expertise?

Matthias Dietrich: I believe that such solutions will become far more important in the future in order to work more efficiently and thus become more resilient. AI will also change the way we work and support the implementation of such projects. I am very excited about this future.

EGN: Why did you decide to take part in the E-commerce Germany Awards 2024?

Matthias Dietrich: We wanted to show people who don’t know us that the combination of business and technology can work to achieve big goals and be successful. 

EGN: And we’re sure that anyone who doesn’t know you yet, will definitely want to check your company out knowing what you can do to help them achieve these big goals. Thank you for this talk.

In the interview with Matthias Dietrich, CEO of foobar Agency, our guest shared insights on their award-winning replatforming project for porta Möbel, highlighting their expertise in aligning technology with business goals. He emphasized their unique approach to composable commerce and the multi-brand e-commerce solutions they offer, showcasing their ability to implement sophisticated technological projects. They’re definitely the place to go, if you have big plans and feel that you need technological support!

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