How do you reduce manual processes in B2B commerce?

A lot of trade organisations make significant investments in facilities on their own premises. This may be a new, large-scale, highly automated distribution centre and a new ERP system so that they can take full advantage of all possibilities that the new distribution centre offers. EDCO, the world-renowned trading organisation, have also invested in this. In contrast, their existing webshop, was outdated and the manual processes required were extremely labour-intensive. In collaboration with EDCO, we developed an international B2B commerce platform, including integration of the iO Product Information Manager (PIM) and M3 Lawson. The commerce platform, stock and order process are now automatically linked, which means that in this process, manual actions are no longer necessary.
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Client

EDCO

Challenge

A new, labour-intensive processes free webshop

Solution

An international B2B commerce platform, including integration of a PIM and M3 Lawson

B2B Commerce specialist

To demonstrate where a website would fit and how it would function and add value, we conducted analysis and offered advice that helped EDCO to rationalise the existing product information infrastructure. This enabled the organisation to make optimal use of its existing systems and the information they contain.

Based on this advice, EDCO decided to set up a new international B2B e-commerce platform. iO mapped out EDCO’s expectations and wishes during a preliminary study. During this study, we created so-called clickable wireframes in order to safeguard the webshop’s usability and completeness even before its actual realisation.

website products EDCO

"The right approach, combined with the expertise of iO, has brought us fantastic results."

Bas van der Weerden

Bas van der Weerden, E-commerce Manager EDCO

Product Information Management (PIM) is the answer

iO developed the international B2B webshop for EDCO. We integrated the usual B2B requirements, including client-specific prices, a differentiated product range per country, and billing and credit features into to the webshop. The webshop is powered by iO’s Product Information Manager (PIM), to allow central management of the product range and to save the webmaster from wasting time entering, filtering, and selecting products.

Complex features such as client-specific prices and product ranges, group rates and environmental charges are fully automated and integrated into the ERP application. A quick-add button allows visitors to add items to their shopping cart immediately, without having to visit the item’s specific page first.

The end result is a contemporary, fast, B2B webshop that integrates seamlessly with EDCO’s IT landscape. Integrating the shop, the product range and the order process so that EDCO can count on consistent, top-of-the-line B2B performance.

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