The Challenge
Whilst RH Amar had an eCommerce platform for its sales team to place orders, prior to moving to TrueCommerce, the company did not have an online ordering platform that could be used by its B2B customers, instead receiving orders via email, telephone and fax.
Whilst digital transformation had been on the company’s agenda for some time, the catalyst that prompted the company to implement a B2B eCommerce platform was the Covid-19 pandemic, explains John Lilleystone, IT and Systems Manager at RH Amar. “People were working more remotely and wanted to place orders online outside of office hours and we just didn’t have the facility. There is also a new generation of buyers coming through that have grown up ordering from Amazon who were saying ‘why on earth can’t we buy from you online?’, so we felt that it was time we gave our customers another way of ordering from us”.
The Solution
With integration to Sage X3, an affordable subscription based model, and the ability to fulfil all of the company’s requirements, RH Amar chose the TrueCommerce B2B eCommerce platform.
“We knew a couple of companies that had the TrueCommerce B2B eCommerce solution and our Sage partner, Mysoft, had experience of interfacing with the platform which was a huge advantage for us, as all the framework for the integration was already there.” said Lilleystone. “We also liked the look and feel of the TrueCommerce platform, it seemed like a user-friendly tool which is really important as it needs to be easy for our customers to use and navigate. Finally, the functionality…every question we asked, can we do this, can we do that, there was an option to do it out-of-the-box”.
The project to implement the platform was swiftly executed with RH Amar being operational with their new online sales channel within 3 months.
“The transition to the TrueCommerce platform was really well project managed. You can see that the team have done this a million times before, with a clear implementation framework.” said Lilleystone.
Detailed Results & Business Impact
Following the move to TrueCommerce, RH Amar conducted a soft launch of their B2B eCommerce platform with a sub section of its customers. After receiving some good feedback, the roll-out continued and the uptake by customers grew exponentially.
Customers now benefit from the ability to place orders 24/7 with access to accurate and rich product data, visibility of real-time stock availability and lead times, promotions and special offers, excellent searching capabilities with attribute filtering. This is all delivered through the latest B2C type user interface that provides a compelling yet simple and intuitive customer experience.
With an extensive range of products on offer, speed of ordering is a key consideration for RH Amar’s customers and quick order pads provide each individual customer with rapid access to the products they typically purchase, ensuring that the online ordering channel provides measurable benefits over some of the more traditional sales channels that the customers have used until now.
“Once the customers started to use the platform and they could see how easy the platform was to use, the online store became their go-to for placing orders.” said Lilleystone. “The TrueCommerce platform is now the default method of placing orders for all new customers and we continue to encourage existing customers to transition from placing orders via traditional methods.”
In addition to optimising the purchasing process, all customers benefit from being able
to self-serve, through real time integration they can access all of their orders (whether
online or offline) to check and track the status at any time of day.
The benefits available to RH Amar’s customers are also driving a rapidly accelerating transition of customers’ ordering habits with the amount of revenue transacted online now considerably surpassing initial expectations.
“Prior to launching our online store, our customers were unaware that we had such a wide portfolio of products and consequently we have found that they are browsing the range more, and as a result of cross selling, average order value has increased.” said Lilleystone.
In addition to the sales and customer service benefits, RH Amar has benefited from increased efficiency. Through in-depth integration with Sage X3, the company’s online B2B store is automatically updated with all product, customer, pricing, stock and sales history, removing the need for additional administration such as rekeying orders, which is time-consuming and notoriously error prone. The issue of managing back-orders has also been removed as customers are able to see stock availability on the platform through the self-service functionality.
The company has also seen a dramatic decrease in pricing queries and invoices that are placed on hold, due to the pricing transparency on the platform and the automated order acknowledgments that are sent. This has not only increased customer satisfaction, it has freed up staff who previously spent time investigating the queries and pricing claims.