Martins Saukums | The Cary Company | Enhancing Purchasing Experience for our B2B Customers

Summary

Martin Saums discusses the journey of improving B2B experience on a merchant site, focusing on streamlining purchasing, personalizing customer service, transparent communication, efficient logistics, and page performance. He highlights the challenges and solutions in integrating warehouse selectors, managing stock data, and implementing a JavaScript knockout component for a seamless user experience.

Takeaways

• 😀 Martin Saums, a Magenta expert, discussed improving the B2B experience on a merchant site with 10 years of experience.
• 🔍 The company specializes in containers, spill control, and filtration systems, with nine warehouses serving customers in Canada and the USA.
• 💼 The focus is on customer service, with over 177,000 products in stock to meet diverse client needs.
• 🛒 The aim is to move the company's professional offline experience to the website, enhancing the online customer service.
• 📈 They implemented steps to streamline purchasing, personalize experiences, ensure transparent communication, and improve logistics.
• 📊 The use of Magento's Luma theme was highlighted for its continued effectiveness in maintaining page performance.
• 📍 A 'Warehouse Selector' feature was created to determine customer location and provide a personalized shopping experience.
• 📈 The company uses Fastly to detect customer location, which is crucial for providing accurate delivery options and suggestions.
• 🔄 A system was developed to handle split shipments, offering customers choices on how to receive their orders based on availability and cost.
• 🛠️ The implementation involved complex integrations and validations, including the use of JavaScript and PHP to manage quantity increments and special pricing.
• 🔧 The team used Cypress for automated testing to ensure the new features worked seamlessly across the site and with the ERP system.
• 🚀 Future plans include suggesting alternative products to customers and optimizing shipping costs by consolidating items from the same warehouse.
• 📊 The success of the project was evident in customer service efficiency, positive reviews on Trustpilot, and a strong user experience.

Q & A

Who is presenting the talk at the technical track?

Martin Saums, a magenta expert currently working on B2B Merchant sites.

What is Martin Saums' background in terms of experience?

Martin Saums has 10 years of experience working with the biggest magenta agencies and has recently been working on B2B Merchant sites.

What is the focus of Martin's presentation?

Martin's presentation focuses on the journey of improving the B2B experience on their site, including streamlining purchasing experience, professional personalized experience, transparent communication with customers, and efficient logistics.

What is the company's core business?

The company specializes in containers, spill control, and filtration systems.

How does the company serve its customers in terms of location?

The company serves its customers from Canada and the USA through nine warehouses across the country.

What is the company's approach to customer service?

The company emphasizes professional customer service and aims to bring this professionalism to their website, mirroring their offline experience.

What is the significance of the Warehouse Selector feature?

The Warehouse Selector helps determine the customer's location and provides a personalized experience by showing available products and delivery options based on the nearest warehouses.

How does the company handle product availability and stock data on the website?

The company uses an index to display in-stock, out-of-stock, or back-order status on the product listing page, loading detailed stock data when a customer hovers over a product.

What challenges did the company face in integrating their website with their ERP system?

The company faced challenges in ensuring that the ERP system could handle multiple instances of the same product and in integrating shipping calculations with ShipperHQ.

What testing approach did the company adopt for their website improvements?

The company implemented Cypress for automated testing, which helped catch bugs and ensure the functionality of their website improvements.

What are the company's future plans for enhancing the customer experience on their website?

The company plans to suggest alternative products for customers based on their location, optimize shipping costs by checking if multiple items can be shipped from the same warehouse, and potentially implement location-based product suggestions on the category page.