PROVIDE A FULLY INTEGRATED ONLINE E-COMMERCE SOLUTION FOR BUSINESS CUSTOMERS AND CONSUMERS ALIKE.

Part of the MJ Abbott Group with over 100 employees LWS is UK’s largest irrigation company. Based in Wiltshire, the company specialise in the supply of quality irrigation products, with unparalleled sales and technical support.
The goal of the project was to move the wholesale sales operation online whilst maximising the value of the relationship with the customer.

Challenges

One of the main challenges was to accommodate a wide and complex product catalogue whilst making it easy for busy irrigation specialists to find what they are looking for and place orders quickly from desktops as well as their mobile devices.

Other challenges included serving both trade customers and consumers from a single site, especially when trade can place orders whilst home users can only request a quote.

Integration with Access Dimensions accounts software where LWS maintained key information such as accounts, buyers, stock and pricing treated added to the challenge. This meant that all catalogue and customer account related content on the website originated from Access Dimensions and all order information had to be automatically downloaded to the accounts system so all systems stayed up to date without LWS having to key in any data.

Solution

We have worked closely with the business to ensure the website reflects the high levels of customer care that has been provided for decades.

The project team started with a series of project scoping sessions with the client to arrive at a clear and agreed set of requirements. The outcome was a technical specification that defined the expectations and the features.

We then worked on the information architecture, carefully structuring the products uploaded from Access Dimensions accounts system to departments, categories, sub-categories and ranges with product filters further enhancing the user experience. A dynamically populated mega menu provided 2 click access to range lists.

Stack Technologies made the site fully responsive so the users are able to browse the catalogue and place orders whether they are stationary or on the move which was required for landscape and irrigation specialists who are on the road most of the time.

The Content Management System allows the content administrators to easily keep the site content up to date whilst our TranSync integration software provided the link between the accounts system and the website automating the catalogue updates, order downloads and accounts facilities such as statement delivery and invoice payment for both offline and online orders.

Other features include quick order facility, role-based content delivery, estimate tool, saved baskets and online buyer administration.

Results

The goal was to move the wholesale operation online whilst maximising the value of the relationship with the customer. Integration made the data to flow both ways automatically reducing the need for manual data entry whether it was to update the catalogue or to record online orders.

Integration with Access Dimensions has made it possible for customers to log in to their online account to see their own account pricing, account specific discounts and up to date stock information. They can also manage buyers, view order history, view and request statements and make account payments by card.

The site was launched in 2015. In 2016, LWS saw online revenue grow by 21% and in 2017 it grew by 34% compared to the previous year.

Screens