Success Story Manufacturing

Us Distributor/fabricator Re-ignites Growth With Enterprise B2b Commerce

This distributor and fabricator of process equipment offers a comprehensive set of solutions for industrial, commercial, and municipal companies across the U.S.

Founded in 1965, the company represents over 85 leading manufacturers of process equipment including pumps, blowers, heat exchangers, valves, instrumentation, IIoT and hydronics. It also designs and fabricates complementary process systems – from pump skids, seal pots and valve automation units to complex process skids, electrical control automation systems and robotics.

While its breadth and market reach were unparalleled, its online presence was not. Over the years, it had fallen behind its competitors in online commerce capabilities, and it was starting to hurt its business and partner/customer relationships.

To keep up with the growth and image of the 85 brands under its hood, the company partnered with Apexon to implement a new B2B eCommerce platform and customer portal solution with the goal of enhancing the customer experience.

  • Founded in 1976

    Process equipment distributor and fabricator founded in 1965

  • A comprehensive line of dental and surgical instrumentation made in the USA

    Representing over 85 manufacturers of process equipment

  • Direct sales model

    Serving industrial, commercial and municipal companies in the U.S.

The challenge
LEGACY SYSTEMS CREATING AN OUTDATED & DISCONNECTED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

As a business aggregator representing 85 brands as well as its own complementary offerings, the ability for customers to search for, navigate to, and order the products they needed to operate their business was a required point of differentiation. But as this distributor grew and continued to add new offerings, its legacy commerce platform was differentiating it in the wrong way.

no responsive mobile web page

There was no responsive mobile web page in place, alienating a whole segment of new and existing customers

separate corporate and eCommerce sites

Separate corporate and eCommerce sites created disconnected customer journeys and required additional maintenance and costs

challenge was on-premise legacy commerce platform

Its on-premise legacy commerce platform made updates and maintenance more difficult, hampering efforts for improvement

challenge was Unspecific product attributes

Unspecific product attributes compromised the holistic view from different geographical locations

A lack of personalization

A lack of personalization in the user interface caused customer journeys to break down at key touchpoints

All these factors began to impact the customer experience, hurting sales and making it difficult to appeal to new customers and partners.

The Solution

A MODERN B2B ECOMMERCE PLATFORM UNIFYING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Working with the client, Apexon assessed its requirements, technology environment and resources. As a result, Apexon recommended Optimizely (formerly Insite) a cloud-based B2B commerce platform designed to help manufacturers and distributors drive efficiency, increase revenue and create meaningful experiences that keep customers coming back for more.

In particular, Optimizely focuses on CX as a starting point for both corporate and eCommerce sites. It enables a unified environment that is fully configurable to meet the client’s brand design standards. Its cloud-based infrastructure is extensible to scale with the business and built with a deep integration architecture that connects seamlessly to the client’s ERP, PIM and other backend business systems.

Some of the key aspects of Apexon’s Optimizely deployment include:

Delivering omnichannel capabilities

Delivering omnichannel capabilities through a mobile responsive site

Applying brand-specific user interfaces

Applying brand-specific user interfaces (UIs) for category and geographical personalization

Creating templates for easy uploading and updating

Creating templates for easy uploading and updating any product catalog information

Supporting customer-oriented product attributes

Supporting customer-oriented product attributes with simplified processes

Optimizing product landing pages

Optimizing product landing pages to prime them for conversions

Creating ample space within the online environment

Creating ample space within the online environment for easy expansion and scale

aining the client team on the platform

Training the client team on the platform including aligning business objectives and eCommerce developments

Outcomes

With the new B2B commerce platform, the company is once again differentiating itself online and growing market share with new, existing and past customers. The revamped online presence is delivering by:

Enabling seamless customer journeys and personalization

Enabling seamless customer journeys and personalization

Reduced dependency on IT to maintain the platform

Reduced dependency on IT to maintain the platform and address problems

Reduced maintenance costs

Reduced maintenance costs

An ERP-ready platform for organizational access and integration

An ERP-ready platform for organizational access and integration