Panini America B2C Magento e–Commerce Store

Shortly after A51 successfully delivered the NBA, NFL and NHL Adrenalyn XL sports card trading games and websites, Panini, being thrilled with the presentation and structure of all three, contracted A51 to design and develop Panini’s Business–to–Consumer (B2C) e–Commerce site using the Magento Professional platform.

The Challenge

Panini previously had individual e–Commerce capability on each of the NHL, NBA and NFL Adrenalyn XL sites as well as an online store catering to licensed entertainment, but wanted to create a single point of purchase for Panini products and Panini’s other licensed products, including Disney, Pixar, Justin Bieber, Michael Jackson, and numerous other sports and entertainment trading cards and collectable stickers. The existing B2C purchase process was cumbersome, making it difficult to purchase various types of product from Panini America.

Within the niche market of sports collectibles, hobbyists are predominantly male, ranging from children to adults, whereas Panini’s licensed entertainment products appeal more to younger females and males. Designing an e–Commerce site that would not only fit Panini's brand image, but would also appeal to the various target demographics for each of the product lines, would be the key to our success.

The Solution

The user-friendly B2C online store, built on the Magento Professional platform, was designed with a strong focus on e–Commerce best practices. Along with the standard built–in functionality of Magento’s platform, A51 developed a customized module, employing a Microsoft .NET Windows Communication Foundation site (the latest web services technology from Microsoft) to extract and deliver data to Panini’s accounting systems. What that means is each transaction is captured and stored on a remote system for inclusion in their accounting software. This automated functionality facilitates live inventory changes to be pushed to the Magento application keeping inventory levels synchronized.

A51 specifically chose a neutral theme and design, consistent with the Panini America brand at large, as opposed to focusing specifically on any of its individual product lines. The functionality and navigation of the site provides appealing product display and efficient and user–friendly transactions ensuring visitors experience a convenient and painless online shopping experience.

The Results

Once the new Panini e–Commerce site was released to the public, sales increased on average, threefold, with tens of thousands of dollars in daily sales. Considering Panini’s collectibles are low–ticket price items, this amounts to significantly large increase is daily sales quantities. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vastly improved and Panini continues to track and make modifications to the site copy, to better represent the search engine keywords being entered.

After exceeding Panini’s design expectations for the e–Commerce B2C site, Panini has requested a similar, B2B (Business–to–Business) portal be developed, to simplify the purchase process and allow automated data exchange for transactions with retail partners. The success of the creative delivered for B2C is now being leveraged for other Panini America online properties.