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Monwell
How Feedonomics helped Monwell save time and sell more books.
Preparing data from suppliers with an outdated and inflexible Product Information Management (PIM) system.
Receiving poor customer support with limited time resources and a small team.
Lacking confidence in the accuracy of data reaching multiple stores.
Provide a stable and trustworthy platform to manage and process complex datasets.
Support Monwell’s ecommerce needs with a dedicated feed manager and responsive support.
Filter and optimise data for multiple brands with a streamlined integration to BigCommerce.
Find out why the world’s most prolific brands and online retailers choose Feedonomics.
Enhanced efficiency and time savings so Monwell could focus on books and not data.
Increased sales by improving data quality, so customers could find the right products.
Unlocked future opportunities for growth, including plans for a new shop.
Monwell is a UK-based ecommerce company that specialises in online bookshops for leading media brands such as The Guardian, The Times, Daily Mail, and Daily Express.
Luke Rhodes, Head of Ecommerce Operations at Monwell, is in charge of making sure the company’s tech stack is streamlined and functional, so each brand’s online shop displays and sells products correctly.
One of the biggest challenges Monwell faces is collecting and formatting product data from different suppliers, so the listings appear uniform and remain accurate on an ongoing basis.
Before partnering with Feedonomics, Monwell relied on a legacy product information management (PIM) system that struggled to handle its growing needs. This outdated system made it difficult to integrate supplier data, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies across its storefronts. With a small team equivalent of five full-time employees, Monwell couldn’t afford to spend excessive time manually processing data.
“That's our approach to the technology we use—it has to do what it's supposed to, consistently. It has to do it well, to free up time,” Rhodes said. “You know, we're not technology experts on this side. We're book selling experts. So we want to be spending our time selling books rather than doing the fiddly stuff with technology.”
That's our approach to the technology we use—it has to do what it's supposed to, consistently. It has to do it well, to free up time. You know, we're not technology experts on this side. We're book selling experts. So we want to be spending our time selling books rather than doing the fiddly stuff with technology.
Monwell began looking at Feedonomics in mid-2023, after its development agency partner—5874 Commerce—suggested that Feedonomics could simultaneously replace the functions of the current PIM and open up new opportunities for the company.
“We represent some of the UK’s biggest media brands,” Rhodes said, “so we have to match the ambitions of these big companies. And so our offering has to be best in class. Therefore, all the technology we use as part of our technology stack has to be best in class as well.”
We represent some of the UK’s biggest media brands, so we have to match the ambitions of these big companies. And so our offering has to be best in class. Therefore, all the technology we use as part of our technology stack has to be best in class as well.
With an inflexible legacy PIM system, Monwell struggled to manage and integrate diverse supplier data. Monwell’s four storefronts often share similar data for books, but there are occasional and important differences to account for.
For example, a book review by The Guardian should only appear under the book listing on The Guardian’s site, and not The Times’ bookshop. The brands also sell gift merchandise that’s unique to each shop, so filtering product data to the right storefronts is imperative.
At a given time, Monwell manages two to three million products, and it sources catalogue and hourly inventory data from a distributor, book descriptions and supplementary data from a publishing standard company, and images from multiple suppliers, all arriving in different formats.
After implementing Feedonomics, Monwell experienced a positive shift in its data management capabilities. Part of that came from the synergy between Feedonomics and the BigCommerce platform that was enabling multi-storefront management.
BigCommerce's multi-storefront feature lets businesses manage multiple unique storefronts—each with its own design, domain, and customer experience—from a single backend, which streamlines operations and enables tailored shopping experiences.
With a reliable tech stack for moving and improving product data at scale, the team experienced greater peace of mind.
“It's that confidence that the data is moving through as it's supposed to, because we just didn't have that before,” Rhodes said. “You know, we're having millions and millions of lines of data being sent to us. But we just had no confidence that it was actually hitting the stores, and that customers were able to find the products they were looking for. We now have that reassurance, and it means we can have confidence in the growth of the business as well.”
You know, we're having millions and millions of lines of data being sent to us. But we just had no confidence that it was actually hitting the stores, and that customers were able to find the products they were looking for. We now have that reassurance, and it means we can have confidence in the growth of the business as well.
Rhodes said the move away from Monwell’s legacy PIM system was the result of a growing number of data issues and increasingly poor support to address them.
“The support from that previous company wasn't up to scratch at all, if it was even there sometimes,” Rhodes said. “You know, we were having support tickets taking weeks, sometimes months, to resolve. And for a long time—because of the complex nature of data related to books—we were told that there wasn't really anyone else that could do what we needed a PIM to do with the sheer amount of data.”
According to Rhodes, the difference in the support received from Feedonomics was “night and day,” with a full support network that responds “extremely quickly.”
In addition to a support team that handles integration setup in the platform, import and export scheduling, and data optimisation, Feedonomics offers a dedicated feed manager who operates as an extension of Monwell’s team to anticipate and overcome data obstacles with sustainable solutions.
Rhodes especially appreciated the help from Monwell’s dedicated feed manager, who was managing the project of gathering and preparing supplier data for the various BigCommerce storefronts.
“He’s been working with us from the beginning,” Rhodes said. “I think he understands the complex needs of the book trade—and of Monwell—more than I do a lot of the time, as well. So we wouldn't have been able to do what we've done without his tenacity in seeing this project through.”
By turning over its data management challenges to Feedonomics, Monwell experienced positive results in the short term while being positioned for more success in the long term.
“We've definitely had a growth in sales,” Rhodes said. “It's not been huge by any means, but there's certainly been growth since we implemented Feedonomics. And I do think that's because the products that customers are wanting to see, they're already there without us having to get involved and make sure that they're listed.”
Apart from increased sales, Rhodes cites the time savings as the most impactful benefit of working with Feedonomics. With more time on its hands, Monwell’s team can focus on exciting projects down the road, including the creation and management of its own bookshop, selling on marketplaces, and advertising books on other channels.
Rhodes expects that the new store will be easy to get off the ground with a reliable tech stack, and he looks forward to the newfound freedom of defining Monwell’s ecommerce strategy. Based on his experience, he also trusts that the support from Feedonomics will help the team overcome any future obstacles.
“At no point did I ever think, ‘This is too big. This is an insurmountable challenge,’” Rhodes said. “And yeah, knowing that you guys are experts at what you do really helped that. So I think that would probably be how I would sum it up.”
At no point did I ever think, ‘This is too big. This is an insurmountable challenge.’ And yeah, knowing that you guys are experts at what you do really helped that. So I think that would probably be how I would sum it up.
