Assa Abloy: rebuilding manufacturing and industrial around catalogue depth.

Assa Abloy needed cleaner product data and a more maintainable catalogue so the Builders & trade business could trade with confidence.

This was not a brochure storefront. Buyers arriving for a specific item needed enough product information and context to identify it with confidence, while stock, account pricing and purchase history had to support the same buying decision.

Product information, catalogue structure and supplier feeds were likely sources of operational friction, with editorial and trading teams working around fragmented data.

The commerce layer had to sit cleanly alongside ERP, without turning every operational dependency into a launch risk.

Account-led ordering and self-serve buying had to live on the same stack without one audience compromising the other.

The work had to stabilise a live commerce surface without resetting what already worked for the business.

The platform change also depended on product information being structured, enriched and governed well enough to support the catalogue. Product data was a major workstream within the wider commerce delivery, not a separate outcome claim.

Unclear product, pricing or fulfilment information can create friction before an order is placed.

Most relevant to Builders & trade teams weighing similar platform decisions.

If catalogue and operational data drift, buyers can lose confidence in product information, pricing, stock and purchase history. That can delay or abandon an order, while internal teams absorb the uncertainty through manual checking and customer service.

For repeat buyers and trade accounts, uncertainty creates friction every time an order is placed again. Wrong-part risk, unclear account terms and a harder repeat-order path can frustrate buyers and move the burden back to account teams and support.

The cost of leaving this in place is rarely visible in a single quarter. It compounds across accounts, channels and renewal cycles.

The project did not end when the platform went live.

Support mattered because the manufacturing and industrial still depended on parts data, pricing imports, account behaviour, inventory feeds, integrations and customer-facing information after launch.

Keeping the build decisions and system ownership visible gave the support team a clearer basis for tracing issues and maintaining the connected trading system after launch.