Success Story Manufacturing

Industrial Manufacturing Distributor Improves Customer Retention In The Cloud

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This leading distributor of industrial equipment has been serving the manufacturing industry for more than 25 years with a focus on increasing customer productivity and efficiency.

The company distributes all major brands of pneumatic tools, compressors and fasteners, and supplies thousands of packaging, maintenance, repair, and operations products. As ecommerce became more widespread, offering and managing its wide array of product offerings online became a significant challenge. So, the company turned to Apexon to help it address its immediate digital challenges and chart a path for the future.

Founded in 1995
Leading distributor of industrial manufacturing equipment
10 distribution centers across the US

the Results

Key Outcomes

Richer Customer Experience & Stronger Customer Engagement

Streamlined Order Processing & Fulfillment

An Industry-specific Interface & One-stop Dashboard

The challenge

A DISCONNECTED ONLINE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

To keep up with demand from customers preferring to do business online, the company started by deploying two separate websites – one for static product information and another for ecommerce.

This created several issues as customers bounced between platforms to find the next actionable cue:

The disparity between Bill-to and Ship-to customers required different data syncs between systems

Their ERP system was not fully integrated with the e-commerce site leading to erratic information and reporting

Enabling simple customer personalization required technical intervention for simple content and data management

A lack of standard operating procedures led to inconsistent information, site misalignment, and required frequent ERP updates

Undefined customer flows led to billing discrepancies, high volumes of customer inquiries and a lot of unmet client requirements

The Solution

A CUSTOM DEPLOYMENT OF OPTIMIZELY B2B COMMERCE CLOUD SIMPLIFIES THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Apexon began with a complete implementation of Optimizely B2B Commerce Cloud Online using Classic CMS to enhance the UX and customer experience on the platform. Interface modifications were made on the commerce and static web pages, creating a layered journey for the client.

From there, Apexon took steps to connect and further streamline the customer journey by:

Creating an information relay between the Optimizely B2B Cloud Commerce platform and the admin for activation of new customers via email

Building a recommendation engine with a new feature called My Products, enabling personalized customer promotions

Defining a ShipTo-centric customer flow for funneling billing information

Training the client’s staff to handle live customizations according to e-commerce guidelines on their own, without support from IT staff

Deploying a personalized display of category-specific pricing with stock messages and shipping calculations

Integrating Sage ERP for sync-up on Product, User Profile, Customer, Order History, Invoice History, Pricing Data, Salesperson, My Product and Order Submit

Incorporating Google Tag Manager to align structured data with adaptive SEO requirements

Outcomes

As a result of Apexon’s implementation of Optimizely B2B Cloud Commerce, the client was able to deliver a richer customer experience and stronger customer engagement. Some of the biggest drivers for the improvements included:

Streamlined order processing and fulfilment

An industry-specific interface and one-stop dashboard

A category and customer-specific pricing model