E‑commerce. Inno­va­tively manu­fac­tu­red shin guards for foot­ball play­ers as an online product.

The first 3D- prin­ted shin guard of the world ori­gi­na­ted from an idea on the foot­ball field. The spe­cial nature of the Duel shin guard, a pro­duct of Bern­stein inno­va­tion : It was inven­ted, crea­ted and pro­du­ced in Aus­tria and regar­ding size and hard­ness degree of the inlay is available in three ver­si­ons. Addi­tio­nally, the inner side can be prin­ted with a num­ber and name. It took about two years until mass production.
Behind this is a young team, which ope­ra­tes in the forest dis­trict of one of the most advan­ced 3D prin­ting cen­tres in Europe and which works for various com­pa­nies. Since May 2016, the Duel shin guards are available on the mar­ket, for the sale, an online shop has been set up accor­ding to the young tar­get audi­ence and using Wire­card CEE.

User-fri­endly
For the start and launch of the web­shop, it was neces­sary to inte­grate a package which covers all neces­sary func­tions and which can be expan­ded con­ti­nuously and easily during growth. “It was par­ti­cu­larly important to make the online shop as user-fri­endly as pos­si­ble. Nobody likes loo­king for but­tons, ans­wer hundreds of ques­ti­ons and finally pay in a com­pli­ca­ted man­ner. We have found a part­ner, where not only indi­vi­dual solu­ti­ons but also per­so­nal advice is para­mount”, says Jakob Schmied, CEO of Bern­stein Inno­va­tion GmbH.
Great poten­tial is seen espe­ci­ally in the gro­wing use of smart­phones and tablets for online pay­ments. The­r­e­fore it was very important to also opti­mise the pay­ment methods for these end devices to faci­li­tate sales tran­sac­tions not only via the desk­top. Because the pro­duct attracts atten­tion on the foot­ball field, the purchase should also work locally — so to speak, on the foot­ball field -.

Modern chan­nels
Bern­stein uses this phi­lo­so­phy also for the dis­tri­bu­tion via social media to the pro­mote online shop. In addi­tion to Face­book, Insta­gram and Twit­ter accounts are also ope­ra­ted and addi­tio­nally, there will be a Snap­chat account. Cus­to­mers can make cont­act easily in this man­ner and all requests will be pro­ces­sed quickly, inclu­ding feedback.
The expec­ta­tion is great : Through the online store, the group of poten­tial buy­ers is grea­ter than in the sta­tio­nary trade. One also opens inter­na­tio­nally and the­r­e­fore must con­sider a lot, which was not as clear initi­ally — from the available lan­guages, to tax issues to logi­sti­cal pro­ces­ses in the background.
“We ther­eby sup­port young, inno­va­tive com­pa­nies to rea­lise their ideas. Our offer ther­eby goes bey­ond the clas­sic pay­ment ser­vice. Our years of expe­ri­ence in e‑commerce and our wide net­work of com­pe­tent part­ners brings start-ups a decisive com­pe­ti­tive advan­tage, “explains Roland Toch, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Wire­card CEE.