Harmonized Definitions Enable Trusted Reporting at Notino
Since launching its online store in 2004, Notino has grown into a leading beauty and personal care retailer with a presence in 28 markets, mainly across Europe. As the business expanded, so did its reporting landscape. Over time, hundreds of reports were created across teams and tools, supporting daily decisions in a fast-moving e-commerce environment. With growth came a new reality. To keep reporting reliable and trusted across the organisation, Notino needed stronger foundations under its data.
Challenge
E-commerce depends on fast, confident decisions. For Notino, reporting had become a critical asset but also a growing challenge. Many reports had been built over years, often with different naming conventions, definitions, and assumptions behind the same metrics.
This challenge was not limited to one team. Analysts, business users, and management all felt the impact. Analysts were spending time explaining numbers instead of analysing them. Business users sometimes questioned report correctness and created their own versions to feel confident. Management supported a broader transformation, including the creation of a data office department to take ownership of the data domain.
The root cause became clear. Reporting was growing faster than shared understanding.
Reports used different naming and definitions for the same metrics.
Business users frequently needed support to understand what numbers really meant.
Duplicate reports were created because shared reports were not always trusted.
There was no dedicated business glossary or data catalog to support consolidated reporting.
Notino needed a way to harmonise business definitions, increase trust in data, and support self-service reporting without slowing the business down.
Project in numbers
Notino presence across Europe
the online store was launched
actively used across teams
Solution
The shift in thinking was pragmatic. Before consolidating reports further, Notino needed to consolidate meaning.
Notino started with Accurity Business Glossary and Data Catalog, implemented as an on premises solution. The initial focus was on defining core business terms, metrics, and calculations used across the most important reports. To make progress without being overwhelmed, the team intentionally reduced scope and focused on fundamentals rather than documenting everything at once.
As reports were reviewed and connected to a new data server, analysts verified that metric definitions and underlying data sources matched exactly, including filters. Differences were identified and corrected directly. This ensured that what was written in business definitions could be trusted.
Accurity is used by the data team together with business owners of reports, including managers and domain stakeholders. Reports are tagged by department so ownership is clear and discrepancies surface naturally, supporting harmonisation across teams.
While features such as knowledge graphs and the Browser Dictionary plugin were explored, Notino chose to introduce them gradually and focus first on stable definitions and clean reporting foundations.
Benefits
Even at an early stage, the impact of shared definitions is already visible across the organisation.
Business users need less support to understand reports and definitions.
Trust in report correctness and data consistency is increasing.
The need for users to create their own duplicate reports is decreasing.
Reporting becomes more transparent, with clarity on which metrics each report contains.
Analysts can focus more on analysis and less on explaining numbers.
The usability of the solution has supported adoption, and feedback across teams confirms that harmonising definitions is both needed and valuable.
Looking Ahead
Notino treats this as a long-term initiative. Work is prioritised by the most used reports, then by domains and repeating data patterns. Monthly internal demos provide short progress updates, helping maintain visibility and momentum.
As more core terms are defined and the organisation moves toward mapping terms to data sources, consolidated reporting is expected to become easier to maintain, easier to adopt, and more trusted across the company.
The main driver was maintaining the same naming and data in the background for all our reports, increasing trust in data for business users, and aligning business definitions across the reports.
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