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LIVE STOCK: A GAME-CHANGER FOR ONLINE AND OFFLINE
T
ime is precious for everyone and wasted journeys are not good customer service. It also makes trade and retail customers think twice before returning to that
branch to do more business.
It is also time-consuming and a huge headache for many businesses when they have to arrange for stock to be moved from one branch to another.
So, what is the solution? The ideal would be for customers and business managers to have real-time updates on stock availability across your branches.
It will not only set you apart from the competition, it will lead to more business, increased sales and higher profits as well as very happy customers who are likely to keep coming back.
If all of this sounds like an idealised version of the world, think again. One builders’ merchant based in the South-West, Inter-Line, has managed to get it up and running thanks to joint working with their online solution provider, eCommonSense, whose solution is integrated directly into their business trading system. It has not only led to increased customer satisfaction and sales, but it has helped land them an historic second win in the Online Digital Strategy category of the Builders’ Merchant Awards 2020/21, which were held virtually recently [May 14, 2021]. They beat off some extremely stiff competition from much larger merchants thanks to the way that they had increased their website functionality. Inter-Line Finance Director Neil Robinson says: “eCommerce solutions need to be constantly reviewed and improved just to stay ahead. Digital is such a fast-moving area that to stand still is to move backwards. Customers like the Live Stock capability, online invoices, the ability to get up-to- date statements, and the online quote builder. “It’s also paying off with increased sales and online now making up about 5% of our total. That is something that was beyond our wildest dreams. We think will only continue and grow even further. We are in an enviable position now. We continue to believe in a multi-channel approach so that we can be open for our existing customers and new customers 24/7.” The 5% sales were also achieved while still very much operating with the brake on due to stock supply issues and having to prioritise trade customers over the new retail ones, who make up
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One of the biggest frustrations for any customer is to go to a merchant branch only to find that the product they have spent the last hour travelling through traffic for is out of stock.
the bulk of the online purchases.
Robinson adds: “Our aim has always been to offer the same excellent customer service across all of our channels. Anyone visiting the Inter-Line website should get the same standard that we deliver in our branches.
“The online solution by eCommonSense allows us to deliver on that promise. We needed the additional levels of functionality that is offered by the eCommonSense solution.
“The ability of customers to see stock availability before they travel is a huge improvement and has helped our in-branch sales as a result with people being able to see if we have what they want before they travel.”
The journey to get Live Stock up and running stretches back to when they first set up the website just over two years ago. The steps needed to set up a successful website lay the foundation for the ability to deliver stock visibility. Central to the online operation has been the need to sort out one thing in particular – product data. Without this being in the right shape, it is not possible to deliver a class-leading eCommerce site and, crucially, it is not possible to deliver Live Stock. In addition to making sure that all products have correct and up-to-date technical information and relevant images, every item needs to have a unique identifier. Inter-Line currently have about
12,500 products on their website.
Once the product data is in a fit state, there is the challenge of being able to get this file out of the back-office trading system in a format which your eCommerce solution provider is able to use and show stock availability.
Inter-Line uses the Counteract back-office solution and it was necessary to develop code that would interrogate the database every 15 minutes to extract a stock file for the website to display. Since the Live Stock functionality went live last year, the system has worked seamlessly. eCommonSense founder Andy Scothern said: “Getting Live Stock up and running is really a game-changer for all of our clients and sets the new benchmark that all others will need to be aiming at from now onwards. While it is not easy to achieve, the benefits are significant for both online and in-branch customers and it’s something we do as routine for all our clients, no matter what back-office system they use. “We are constantly evolving our solution and this is just one example of the additional functionality that can be achieved if there is a well-planned and executed digital strategy in place. The bar is continually being raised and just having an eCommerce solution in place without any additional functionality is no longer enough if you want to stay ahead.” BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net June 2021
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