In a remarkable digital journey spanning just 12 months, MKM, the UK's largest and fastest growing independent builders merchant, orchestrated a transformative shift from a traditional, monolithic business model to a MACH-inspired composable commerce platform.

The Challenge:

The realization that nearly half of its current customer base would retire within the next 5-7 years prompted MKM to acknowledge the evolving business landscape. With a younger, tech-savvy demographic gaining influence in purchasing decisions, MKM recognized the imperative to modernize its digital commerce approach.

It was also dealing with a complex and unique business model, operating in a decentralized franchise model with individual branches acting as independent entities, each setting their own pricing and product offerings to suit the local market.

Adding to the challenge was the underwhelming performance of MKM’s existing website, contributing only a small percentage to overall revenue. Branch employees were not supportive of the website that they discouraged customers from using it, but there were also concerns about user experience potentially deterring customers from visiting physical branches. In addition, the lack of cohesive reporting or personalization features added to the urgency for change. The team hadn’t worked with composable commerce before but saw it as a chance to make a difference. In the words of Craig McLaren, Head of Digital at MKM, they were embarking on a greenfield project in a brownfield company. Facing an impending end-of-life for their existing platform, MKM swiftly built a team, collaborated with System Integrators (SIs) and platform partners, and adopted a best-of-breed “LEGO brick” approach to create a modern, customer-centric digital platform.

MACH Approach:

MKM embarked on a comprehensive MACH implementation journey, aligning with the Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless principles. The project involved re-platforming the existing website to a new MACH-certified commerce platform for ordering and checkout.

Vendor selection involved a lot of product demos to the IT, procurement and commercial teams within MKM. Everyone had to understand the approach and the benefits of each solution and a highly composed set up. Culture fit with the vendors was an important factor, too. The chosen vendors provided visibility into their product roadmaps, and were able to provide a vision for the future around hyper-personalized customer experiences, which was important to MKM as they continue to grow exponentially. Reference calls with companies that had achieved success with the MACH approach were also a vital element in the decision making process.

MKM engaged the services of a specialist systems integrator (SI) to integrate the overall solution. The MKM team took on multifaceted responsibilities, including product ownership, business analysis, test coordination, project management/scrum master roles, program management, and UX/UI design.

“The failure rate on the old site, particularly when it came to orders, was scarily high for an ecommerce platform. That disappeared overnight.” - Ben Child, Digital Product Manager, MKM

While the team was confident in the approach and anticipated the technical transformation would yield impressive results, other challenges were addressed by investing in a custom middleware backend and a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) hosted environment. A comprehensive analysis phase preceded the sprint approach, allowing MKM through their SI and partners to develop a proof of concept during the discovery phase, ensuring a robust and scalable solution. The decision to work with an SI flexible enough to assist in team growth enabled MKM to build its own development team, contributing to the success of the project and setting it up for continued success.

Leveraging MACH Technologies:

The MACH philosophy served as the guiding principle for the technological aspects of MKM's digital transformation. A combination of MACH-certified ISVs including a commerce platform, frontend-as-a-service, and content management and personalization solutions formed a headless MACH architecture. Each of these partners was a certified member of the MACH Alliance, adhering to rigorous MACH standards, and had worked side by side on other customer projects. This composable architecture proved instrumental in achieving a rapid time to go live and a low total cost of ownership for the digital team. The customized middleware backend could handle pricing complexity and facilitate communication between microservices. The integration between these components allowed MKM to move its operations to cloud services without compromising its unique business identity or limiting its commercial offer and user experience.

“Our roadmap was at a very high level. The technology dictated what we had to do and what order we had to do it in. We had to get the foundations in place. Then we focused on the backend, then the frontend… It was an MVP approach with a fixed deadline.” - Craig McLaren, Head of Digital, MKM.

Impact:

The impact of the MACH implementation was swift and substantial. Within the first four weeks of the new site going live, MKM observed a 16% increase in site traffic year-over-year. Page load speed improved by a remarkable 75%, contributing to a 77% boost in average time spent on pages. Total web orders saw a 4% rise, indicative of the improved digital experience. As Q1 2023 unfolded, the positive trends continued. Orders increased by 71%, revenue experienced a substantial 78% boost, and site traffic surged by over 50%. The migration to the new architecture allowed MKM to double the number of available products online, and order volume increased by over 40%. Notably, trade customer engagement not directly tied to product purchases, such as paying invoices, rose by over 400%. New customer acquisition grew from 700 per month to approximately 1,500 per month, with these customers displaying increased spending. The average order value exceeded the set goals. Customer appreciation for the improved functionality was evident in a 23% increase in the Net Promoter Score.

“The MACH architecture has made our future roadmap more simple. Post-live, we are in a position to be more flexible with the integration of new systems into our roadmap. We’re at a point where we can launch and add new releases multiple times per week.” - Craig McLaren, Head of Digital, MKM.

Conclusion:

MKM's MACH implementation stands as a testament to the transformative power of modern technology architectures. By embracing MACH principles, MKM successfully revitalized its digital landscape, creating a customer-centric, composable commerce platform that not only met the needs of its evolving customer base but also drove significant business growth. The collaboration between MKM and its solution partners exemplifies the potential of a MACH-inspired approach in delivering exceptional digital experiences and sustainable business results. This case study reinforces the notion that MACH architecture is not just a technological framework but a catalyst for innovation, growth, and success in the future.

The team’s biggest piece of advice? Don’t be scared of going with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for launch. It keeps you focused. But build in some flexibility. Go live with something more basic and learn.

“There’s always a lot of wiring and plumbing to do, but MACH makes it easy to understand the steps required. Anything can be swapped in and out.” - Craig McLaren, Head of Digital, MKM.

Case study summary

In a remarkable digital journey spanning just 12 months, MKM, the UK's largest independent builders merchant, orchestrated a transformative shift from a traditional, monolithic business model to a MACH-inspired composable commerce platform. Facing challenges such as an aging workforce, an outdated website, and a franchise model with decentralized governance, MKM recognized the urgency to modernize its digital approach. The comprehensive overhaul, re-platforming the existing website to a new headless commerce platform and adopting a MACH architecture, resulted in profound impacts. Within the first four weeks, site traffic increased by 16%, page load speed improved by 75%, and total web orders rose by 4%. The subsequent quarter saw a remarkable 71% increase in orders, a 78% boost in revenue, and a surge in site traffic by over 50%.