NEOM Organics Case Study
NEOM Organics is a UK company providing natural home fragrances and skincare products with wellbeing benefits. Founded in 2005, NEOM has experienced great success in this growth sector thanks to its all-natural approach to wellness through a product range that promotes improved energy and reduced stress. Sales channels include a direct to customer platform online, retail outlets – both their own stores and chains such as Selfridges, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer – and, more recently, NEOM has extended its international presence in the US and Asia. Headquartered in Harrogate, the company is fast becoming one of the largest businesses in their sector.
INEOM is growing rapidly, and with plans to open more stores, expand its product range and increase its footprint overseas, it shows no signs of slowing down. A long-time user of the ERP system, Sage X3, the team recognised a need to implement changes elsewhere in their technology stack both to obtain the best from the Sage software and accommodate their growth. Alongside their Sage partner, Datel, and Cindercone – whose Magma solution was already integrating NEOM’s B2C eCommerce site, Magento, and 3PL platform – planning commenced for this significant operational and technical uplift.
NEOM engaged with Statement, a Shopify eCommerce agency, and ILG, a 3PL provider, who, together with Cindercone and Datel, began to map out the technical interfaces and business processes needing automation. After months of planning, in 2019, NEOM transitioned its online sales facility over to Shopify Plus and outsourced all fulfilment and logistics to ILG. Both solutions would help to extend NEOM’s global reach, but both required a major systems migration project, during which time it was vital that NEOM’s systems remained operational.’ Since NEOM were already beneficiaries of Cindercone’s Magma solution, they once again opted for this preferable mechanism to connect both new systems to Sage X3. With Cindercone’s help, the migration of both was achieved seamlessly with no downtime.
Ongoing, Cindercone is assisting NEOM with many of its systems improvements ranging from minor tweaks to complex transitions. One that may be complex to some – but not to Cindercone – is NEOM’s new pre-order system introduced in 2020 to accommodate an influx in customers wanting to purchase as-yet released antibacterial products. By making improvements to the front-end website at the point of sale, customers can now easily make a purchase of an out of stock product, for a delivery at a future date. All thanks to Magma’s ability to flex as required, and the team’s ability to understand the process modifications necessary, Cindercone assisted NEOM to deliver this brand-new functionality.
The Cindercone team are now working closely with NEOM to develop a B2B website to facilitate orders from their substantial and expanding commercial customer base, which will bring much-required efficiency to a process currently managed manually. In addition to the B2B site, M&S and John Lewis are being moved from a legacy standalone EDI system to one that is fully integrated, all running through Magma. Two further international trading partners will also benefit from this new interface, US-based online retail giant, Nordstrom, and Douglas in Germany.
“Martin always goes above and beyond to understand the business context & processes behind what we are trying to achieve, which in turn means that he is able to foresee issues, think through challenges and achieve a better outcome. His detailed knowledge of our set up and systems means that we feel like he is an extension of the team.”