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New B2B shop drives additional revenue for Birner
Challenge
Birner’s workshop customers ordered through a digital platform called the cockpit: a portal bundling multiple tools and applications in one place. At its center sat an industry-standard catalog provided by a third party and used by nearly every parts distributor across Europe. For vehicle-specific parts like brakes or filters, it does the job well. But for general products like oil, tools, or workshop equipment, the catalog’s rigid search logic made them almost impossible to find. Much of Birner’s stock was effectively invisible to customers.
The company had little control over product presentation, no way to run targeted promotions, and almost no insight into customer behavior.
Solution
Cloudflight delivered a complete rebuild of Birner’s B2B ordering platform.
“The new cockpit puts general products at the center of the experience, presented the way a modern online shop would: intuitive search, product recommendations, and curated promotional content.”
The central design decision grew out of a two- to three-month discovery phase. The existing third-party catalog could not be replaced. Mechanics across Europe are trained on it, and for vehicle-specific searches, nothing custom-built would match its depth.
But the catalog was also why general products stayed invisible. Rather than competing with it, the platform was designed to complement it. Customers searching for general products find them natively. Those looking for vehicle-specific parts are redirected to the catalog with a single click.
Built on Medusa.js, an open-source commerce framework, the platform reduces dependency on external providers and minimizes licensing costs. A headless CMS gives the marketing team direct control over banners, promotions, and news without coding effort. Existing portlets and purchase histories were integrated, so the transition felt familiar rather than disruptive.
Benefits
In the first month after launch, Birner recorded 307 new orders, a number that has continued to grow steadily ever since.
- Customers gained an additional, optimized way to buy what they need. Products buried behind complex filter logic are now front and center, opening up revenue from categories that had not lived up to their potential.
- The checkout process was deliberately optimized to reduce drop-off rates and increase conversion. Birner’s marketing team can now publish promotions, manage content, and highlight products independently and in real time. What was once a static portal has become a dynamic sales channel shaped by business priorities, not technical constraints.
- Open-source architecture and headless CMS cut operational effort and licensing costs. The flexible architecture also serves as a strategic foundation: Birner now has the technical basis to expand its product range and react to market shifts on its own terms.
Our partner
Birner is Austria’s market leader in car spare parts and accessories. Founded in Vienna in 1931, the family-owned company operates 26 branches across all federal states and stocks more than 600,000 items. With around 560 employees, Birner supplies workshops with spare parts, accessories, and equipment in certified OEM quality. Beyond parts distribution, the company offers workshop equipment, commercial and technical support, marketing concepts, and training courses.
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