Success Story Manufacturing
Industrial Manufacturer Elevates Customer Engagement With Latest Ecommerce Technology
This company provides fabrication, prefab, and machining products along with related services to the manufacturing, energy, mining, forestry and construction industries.
Over 35 years, it has grown into a world-class organization serving organizations throughout North America and into export markets. The various divisions of the company complement each other such that it is able to manage projects from one-off custom parts to assembly-line manufacturing. Its value proposition is the ability to manage any project, regardless of the customization required.
Translating that value proposition to an online world with an optimal customer experience proved to be a challenge without substantial investment. So, the client engaged Apexon to help them plot a path forward.
Founded in 1976 in Nova Scotia, Canada
Serving north American and the Caribbean
Over 60 staff; 30,000+ square foot manufacturing facility
The client had struggled to connect its customer’s journey between its corporate website and ecommerce portal. Each existed on its own, with little/no integration between the two. This created a static experience with no dynamic elements to help the customer move along in their buying and engagement process.
For example:
Its ERP system could not pull data automatically for order processing
A basic contact form led to piecemeal information and incomplete customer acquisition information
A lack of credit card payment options disappointed customers and created an outdated image for the entire company
Manual accumulation and processing of data caused meaningful delays in analysis, decisions, and actions
No shipping services were available, slowing the sales process and frustrating customers
All these factors disrupted the customer buying experience, causing a high rate of site abandonment, poor customer retention, and declining revenues.
Apexon stepped in with a full implementation of the Optimizely B2B Commerce Cloud Online using Spire CMS. This provided the company’s users with a modern, professional, and connected UX and CX that were much better aligned with the company’s B2B offerings.
Some of the specific functionality and capabilities deployed include:
Custom automated jobs within the SAGE 300 ERP for parallel sync of product, category, customer, order history, invoice history, pricing, and order submission data
Multiple-file attachment capabilities to the contact form, effectively creating a lead generation model
Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics, generating actionable data and customer tracking across the platform
Moneris gateway to provide users with access to all the payment methods
Integration of AD for file import of images and documents, completing the product display pages
Apexon also trained the client’s business team for autonomous maintenance with comprehensive standard operating procedures.
The client established a modern, professional online presence, increasing customer engagement, satisfaction and revenues. Sales cycles moved faster, and the cost of sale was reduced. Some of the key drivers were:
A personalized eCommerce experience across a new domain
Enhanced user interface that made the physical to digital transition seamless
A structured balance between the IT and business objectives
