With StepAlong, Monster Group streamlined instruction management, cut costs and expanded their markets, while ensuring clear, up-to-date customer guidance.
About Monster Group
Monster Group (UK) is a leading European direct-to-consumer brand, established in the UK over 15 years ago. As an online-only retailer, Monster Group places a strong emphasis on delivering high-quality product instructions that enhance the customer experience.
There portfolio of brands includes Monster Racking storage products, MaxBlast cleaning equipment, T-Mech mechanical equipment, Jardi Signature outdoor furniture and Kukoo culinary tools and equipment.
The Monster Group Product Buying team goes beyond standard manufacturer instructions, ensuring that every setup and usage guide is clear, practical, and aligned with their brand promise.
The Challenges of Instruction Creation
As Monster Group’s business grew, expanding to serve multiple markets with a product catalog of over 1900 products, the complexity of creating and managing instructions increased significantly.
With multiple new products launching each week, the Buying team faced mounting challenges:
- Fragmented Processes: The team relied on multiple tools and involved various team members throughout the instruction creation process. Ensuring that the final instructions were printed and inserted into product boxes before shipping from the Monster warehouse required significant coordination.
- Tight Deadlines & Costly Errors: The limited lead time left little room for producing instructions in up to 12 languages. Unexpected last-minute specification changes posed a challenge, requiring logistical adjustments and costly reprints to ensure customers received the most accurate information.
- Regulatory Compliance: As a UK-based company exporting into Europe, Monster Group needed to comply with new EU regulations, particularly the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR). This required them to:
- Provide instructions in the languages of all EU markets they serve.
- Ensure instructions were available to consumers before purchase.
- Offer both printed and online versions of instructions.
- Maintaining Customer Experience: Despite these challenges, Monster Group needed a solution that would allow them to continue delivering the high-quality instruction experience their customers had come to expect.
How StepAlong Helped
Implementing the StepAlong platform transformed Monster Groups’s instruction creation process, centralising all aspects of content creation, updates, translations, and QR code generation into a single, efficient system.
1. Optimized Production Workflow
Previously, the Buying team had to finalise all instructions before shipping product boxes to the warehouse. With StepAlong, they now generate QR codes first, allowing them to print and insert QR codes into packaging while continuing to refine the instructions. This approach:
- Reduces stress on the Buying team by decoupling instruction finalisation from packaging deadlines.
- Allows for real-time updates, ensuring customers always have access to the most up-to-date instructions.
- Aligns with Monster Group’s sustainability policy by significantly reducing paper usage.
2. AI-Powered Translation & Content Management
Monster Group was already leveraging AI tools, but StepAlong’s integrated AI translation feature eliminated the need for manual copying, pasting, and reviewing of translations. This dramatically reduced time spent on multilingual instruction production. Additionally, StepAlong adapted its translation management system based on Monster Group’s feedback, making it even more efficient.
3. Expanded Language Support & Market Testing
By shifting to StepAlong-powered online instructions, Monster Group gained the flexibility to:
- Easily support additional languages without complex logistics.
- Test new markets without the overhead of mass-printing instructions in multiple languages upfront.
4. Ensuring GPSR Compliance
StepAlong enables Monster Group to meet GPSR requirements by providing:
- Instructions in both online and printable PDF formats.
- Pre-purchase access to instructions, ensuring compliance with EU safety regulations.
- Seamless integration with product pages, making it easy to add instructions to new products.
5. Enhancing the Customer Experience
With StepAlong’s Instruction Player, Monster Group ensures customers receive:
- A visually appealing, user-friendly online experience when accessing instructions, that works seamlessly across devices without having to download an APP:
- A downloadable PDF version that maintains the same high-quality standard.
The Results
By adopting StepAlong, Monster Group has:
- Saved significant time on instruction creation, translation, and updates.
- Eliminated costly reprints and logistical challenges associated with outdated printed instructions.
- Improved operational efficiency, allowing the Buying team to focus on product innovation.
- Enhanced regulatory compliance while maintaining a seamless customer experience.
With StepAlong, Monster Group has streamlined its instruction management process while ensuring customers continue to receive clear, accessible, and up-to-date product guidance—helping them confidently set up and use their purchases.
Amy Gilbank, Head of Buying for Monster Group, said:
“StepAlong empowers us with efficiency and ease, giving us the ultimate flexibility in producing our instruction manuals and enabling us to offer them in more languages, making them more universally accessible.”
You can see the StepAlong-powered Monster Group Instruction Hub at instructions.monstershop.co.uk, please use the form below to request a demo to see how StepAlong can transform your product instructions