Customer Experience by Design

Digital direct sales in the premium automotive segment

eggs unimedia supports Genesis Motor Europe in enabling the digital direct-to-consumer sales process with a high-performance and stable DX platform.

Genesis Motor Europe is the premium brand of South Korean automotive group Hyundai and celebrated the sale of its one millionth vehicle in September 2023 – less than eight years after its launch in November 2015. And it did so with a truly “different” concept.

Genesis has set itself the goal of setting a new standard in customer friendliness, both during the purchasing process and throughout the entire service life of a vehicle. Genesis focuses on the Korean idea that a vehicle owner is always more than just a customer—they are a Son-Nim, loosely translated as “a valued guest.” This is the appreciative claim that needs to be implemented, especially at digital touchpoints.

History

In winter 21/22, Genesis Motor Europe put out a tender for a new lead agency. The scope included developing the strategy, a new user experience, and the interface design, as well as the complete development and operation of the new platform. The pitch was multi-stage, and eggs unimedia teamed up with the Argonauten from the Scholz & Friends family to present a visionary and precise concept that was well thought out from start to finish.

The approach was convincing, and Genesis decided to move forward with the Argonauten and eggs unimedia, partly due to the breadth and depth of the offering. The Argonauten scored points with their distinctive expertise in the areas of design, strategy, conception, and campaigns. eggs unimedia impressed with its technology as a highly decorated Adobe partner. The stakeholders at Genesis felt comfortable from the start.

They liked the idea of being an important project for a medium-sized provider, as well as the shared vision of wanting to achieve something great together.

There were many reasons for switching to Adobe technology

In Europe, Genesis relies on the direct-to-consumer model, i.e., direct sales to end customers. This involves combining its own brand experience spaces, the Genesis Studios, with a network of agency partners to ensure rapid expansion and healthy growth in European markets. The solution architecture had to be designed accordingly so that the digital experience of this sales concept would be optimally, efficiently, and seamlessly supported from the first contact to the final click.

The team

Genesis is supported by eggs unimedia with a complete agile team consisting of a project manager, business analysts, tech lead, AEM developer, and tester. Together with the Argonauten and Genesis' four-person marketing team, this is a powerful team of experts covering all the disciplines required for the project.

Project scope and approach

Developed in collaboration with Argonauten, eggs has since been operating and managing two-thirds of Genesis Motor Europe's most important IT system landscapes – the website and the car configurator. Alongside the eShop, these two applications are among Genesis Motor Europe's business-critical sales systems. Therefore, a multi-pronged approach was taken from the outset:

a. Takeover and maintenance of the existing web platform (website)

b. Takeover and continued operation of the Car Configurator

c. Development of a completely new DX platform based on the Adobe Tech Stack

As a first step, eggs unimedia took over responsibility for the brand website from another agency. As the project progressed, the car configurator was taken over from a Korean integration partner. Within a very short time, eggs was able to ensure the operation of the existing platform, guarantee stability, and improve maintainability. As part of the maintenance project, the entire runtime infrastructure was replaced. In the meantime, a new UX/UI was created for the relaunch. This was implemented in the follow-up project within Adobe Experience Manager. The entire technical basis was modernized, the component catalog was completely replaced, and approximately 90% of the components were converted to AEM Core Components. The introduction of content fragments enabled central content maintenance and use for different applications.

The result

is impressive: the current website has been implemented in line with the latest Adobe best practices, is scalable and high-performance, and uses Dynamic Media for video playback. At the start of the project, the platform was designed for three markets (CH, DE, UK), but today the multi-client capable system already supports six languages and many more markets. The path taken with the new system and solution architecture is a clear commitment to Adobe technology. Decision-makers appreciate the reliability, extensive portfolio, and future roadmap of the American software manufacturer.