DF Automotive
Industry: Automotive industry
The story behind DF Automotive
It all started in 2006 in a shared room in Flensburg:
The two students Daniel Jonas and Felix Lemke spent two years manually developing a database in which they assigned tuning articles to the corresponding vehicles in order to simplify the time-consuming search for suitable accessories.
Within nine years, DF Automotive has left its student roots behind and, thanks to this vision, has grown into an established company with three online stores. Today, the company is one of the top online retailers for car tuning articles.
In addition to Daniel Jonas and Felix Lemke, around 100 employees are now part of the young and dynamic team at DF Automotive, which specializes in making it easier to buy tuning accessories.
The online store enables precise vehicle selection and presents a realistic 3D view of the aftermarket.
DF also offers online advice through its interactive wheel advisor.
Sand in the gears of payment methods
The great success of their online store also brought its own challenges. In view of the rapid growth, DF Automotive attached great importance to ensuring that its business processes kept pace. This includes, in particular, the essential payment processing of an online retailer.
Unfortunately, previous implementations of payment processes have not been able to keep pace with growth, and additions of new payment methods have become increasingly complex. However, well-functioning payment processing is essential for efficient online retail in order to ensure customer satisfaction and increase sales.
"With each new payment method, it became more difficult to map the processes and interfaces uniformly in the wheel store. Our developers had to deal with various more or less well-documented external interfaces in order to find an optimal integration for Felgenshop. We had been aiming for a major overhaul of the payment architecture for some time, but the last piece of the puzzle was still missing."
It became imperative for DF Automotive to find a solution that could resolve the difficulties in introducing payment options.
"Given our rapid growth, it was crucial to adapt our processes in an agile way. By integrating innovative software such as collana pay and strategic partnerships with the industry leader, we were able to successfully optimize our 'time to market' for new payment methods."
No more detours necessary: in pole position with collana pay
Before DF Automotive finally came across collana pay’s payment solution, the company had considered and tested several other payment software solutions. However, these were unable to meet the specific requirements and expectations. Another plus point for collana pay: With the fully comprehensive test environment, it was possible to test successfully in advance without any worries.
"[...] the go-live was absolutely problem-free. All departments quickly got used to our optimized processes. At first glance, nothing has changed for the customer, except that we can offer a larger selection of payment methods."
Top performance in the peak season
The installation of collana pay took place in the middle of the peak season, which was a bold move. There was a risk that the solution might not work as expected, which would have had a significant impact during this busy period.
"[...] normally we don't take such a high risk of a big go-live during the season. However, the advantages of collana pay together with the good testability in advance outweighed the risk and we went online smoothly in the middle of the season."
Thanks to the deep trust that DF Automotive placed in collana pay and the many years of successful cooperation with MAC IT-Solutions, the project was implemented immediately. The opportunity to use a test environment in advance provided additional security.
collana pay is now an integral part of DF Automotive’s payment world. We are certain that the success story that once started in a shared room in Flensburg will continue in the fast lane!
Sounds interesting?
Wir zeigen Ihnen, wie Sie mit Hilfe von collana pay PSPs und Zahlarten schnell und einfach umsetzen können und Ihr E‑Commerce‑Business auf das nächste Level bringen.
