10%
Of sales outside Germany now driven via Mirakl Connect
~3,000
Marketplace listings from a catalog of ~700 products
7
Marketplaces connected through Mirakl Connect
~ 14 days
Time savings for a French marketplace launch, before vs. after using Catalog Transformer
The German garden and outdoor equipment brand has generated millions in international sales with Mirakl Connect. Now it's using Catalog Transformer to manage the complex product data behind its growing marketplace business.
How an online-only German garden brand grew across Europe
When Mathias Khaldi joined Fuxtec (opens in a new tab) as its first country manager, the garden and outdoor equipment brand only sold in Germany. Today, it sells across most of Europe, including France, Spain and Poland, and Mathias has watched that growth happen one country at a time.
Since 2008, Fuxtec has sold exclusively online. As it expanded internationally, it started with the largest marketplaces, then added others where customers already shopped for similar products, such as the home-and-garden marketplaces Leroy Merlin and Castorama in France.
Marketplaces gave Fuxtec a way to reach customers across Europe without opening physical stores. But selling the same products in multiple countries also meant adapting product information to different languages, categories and marketplace requirements.
For a business selling technically detailed garden and outdoor equipment, that work quickly became complicated.
Why listing a lawnmower gets complicated across marketplaces
Selling a lawnmower on one marketplace is straightforward enough. Selling that same lawnmower across several European countries is another matter.
Shoppers need the motor specifications, cutting width, weight and collection capacity. They also want to know whether the mower suits their garden, how to maintain it and where to find spare parts. Every listing also needs product images, instructions and identifiers.
For Fuxtec, all of that work starts in German and then has to be localized for each country. Every marketplace also wants that information organized its own way, and even product weight can get complicated.
"The product weight is 15 kilograms. Sometimes it's 15.00 kg, sometimes it's just 15. This is one value, but you can put it in so many different formats that you need something to help you match these attributes automatically." — Mathias Khaldi, Team Lead International, Fuxtec
For Fuxtec's country managers, getting products listed meant checking and adapting individual fields by hand to meet each marketplace's requirements. The workload varied by country, too. In Poland, Allegro dominates the market. In France, there are at least 10 marketplaces to consider.
How Fuxtec found the right marketplaces with Mirakl Connect
In 2022, Fuxtec started using Mirakl Connect (opens in a new tab) to find and connect with more retailers that were a good fit for its products.
Mathias remembers joking with the Mirakl team that the platform was like "Tinder for marketplaces." Instead of approaching marketplaces one by one, Fuxtec could connect with ones that already saw it as a good fit. It was often already on a marketplace's shortlist when it reached out.
The approach paid off. Mirakl Connect has helped Fuxtec generate millions in additional sales, and about 10% of its sales outside Germany now come through the platform. It’s also helped Fuxtec publish about 3,000 listings across seven European marketplaces, all from a catalog of about 700 products.
"Mirakl Connect was one of the most efficient drivers of our sales outside Germany, not only in France but also in Spain, Poland and other countries." — Mathias Khaldi
As the number of listings grew, so did the work of keeping Fuxtec's product data in line with each marketplace's requirements.
How Catalog Transformer changed the way Fuxtec manages its listings
Fuxtec started using Mirakl Connect's Catalog Transformer in December 2025. As product feeds grew more complex, Mathias saw an opportunity to reduce manual work and gain a competitive advantage through higher-quality listings.
Catalog Transformer uses AI to match product information to each marketplace's categories, attributes and formats. And with it, Mathias says his team saved about 14 days of work when launching on one French marketplace.
"Before, our country managers were spending time checking every field and adapting the data to what each marketplace expected. Now we use automation to handle much of that work, with our team checking the results and making corrections as needed. We've moved from creating listings to maintaining and improving them." — Mathias Khaldi
Mathias says the results have improved, although they aren't perfect, and Fuxtec has had to improve its own product information along the way.
Where Fuxtec's team is focusing now
With less time spent preparing listings for each marketplace and formatting data, the team can focus more on keeping its product information accurate and improving how its products appear to customers.
Mathias has seen how much that matters. Correcting a single attribute to match what a marketplace expects has moved products up dramatically in search results within hours or days.
He also knows some brands worry that handing product content to software means losing control. He sees it differently.
"For me, control means understanding what goes online and being able to correct it. We still decide what the product promises and which information is included in the content. I don't expect a tool to know our products better than we do." — Mathias Khaldi
What's next for Fuxtec and Fuxlife
Fuxtec is continuing to expand across Europe with two brands. Alongside its garden equipment, it recently introduced Fuxlife (opens in a new tab) for outdoor products like folding carts, bike trailers and paddleboards. Separating the two categories helps customers find what they need more easily.
Fuxtec is also developing more battery-powered and manually operated garden equipment as demand shifts away from gas-powered products.
Mathias says the company plans to add marketplaces where it sees strong demand and step back from those that aren't performing.
"We want to expand, definitely. We want to expand in an intelligent way. We want to be visible, but in a good and efficient way, not at any price." — Mathias Khaldi
