As a business aggregator representing 85 brands as well as its own complementary offerings, the ability for customers to search for, navigate to, and order the products they needed to operate their business was a required point of differentiation. But as this distributor grew and continued to add new offerings, its legacy commerce platform was differentiating it in the wrong way.
Success Story Manufacturing
Us Distributor/fabricator Re-ignites Growth With Enterprise B2b CommerceApexon deploys Optimizely platform (formerly Insite Commerce) to scale business in new and existing markets 
This distributor and fabricator of process equipment offers a comprehensive set of solutions for industrial, commercial, and municipal companies across the U.S.
Founded in 1965, the company represents over 85 leading manufacturers of process equipment including pumps, blowers, heat exchangers, valves, instrumentation, IIoT and hydronics. It also designs and fabricates complementary process systems – from pump skids, seal pots and valve automation units to complex process skids, electrical control automation systems and robotics.
While its breadth and market reach were unparalleled, its online presence was not. Over the years, it had fallen behind its competitors in online commerce capabilities, and it was starting to hurt its business and partner/customer relationships.
To keep up with the growth and image of the 85 brands under its hood, the company partnered with Apexon to implement a new B2B eCommerce platform and customer portal solution with the goal of enhancing the customer experience.
-
Process equipment distributor and fabricator founded in 1965
-
Representing over 85 manufacturers of process equipment
-
Serving industrial, commercial and municipal companies in the U.S.
the Results
Key Outcomes
A differentiated online commerce experience with seamless customer journeys & personalization
Recaptured market share from new, existing & past customers
Reduced IT service dependency & maintenance costs
The challenge
LEGACY SYSTEMS CREATING AN OUTDATED & DISCONNECTED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
There was no responsive mobile web page in place, alienating a whole segment of new and existing customers
Separate corporate and eCommerce sites created disconnected customer journeys and required additional maintenance and costs
Its on-premise legacy commerce platform made updates and maintenance more difficult, hampering efforts for improvement
Unspecific product attributes compromised the holistic view from different geographical locations
A lack of personalization in the user interface caused customer journeys to break down at key touchpoints
All these factors began to impact the customer experience, hurting sales and making it difficult to appeal to new customers and partners.
The Solution
A MODERN B2B ECOMMERCE PLATFORM UNIFYING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Working with the client, Apexon assessed its requirements, technology environment and resources. As a result, Apexon recommended Optimizely (formerly Insite) a cloud-based B2B commerce platform designed to help manufacturers and distributors drive efficiency, increase revenue and create meaningful experiences that keep customers coming back for more.
In particular, Optimizely focuses on CX as a starting point for both corporate and eCommerce sites. It enables a unified environment that is fully configurable to meet the client’s brand design standards. Its cloud-based infrastructure is extensible to scale with the business and built with a deep integration architecture that connects seamlessly to the client’s ERP, PIM and other backend business systems.
Some of the key aspects of Apexon’s Optimizely deployment include:
Delivering omnichannel capabilities through a mobile responsive site
Applying brand-specific user interfaces (UIs) for category and geographical personalization
Creating templates for easy uploading and updating any product catalog information
Supporting customer-oriented product attributes with simplified processes
Optimizing product landing pages to prime them for conversions
Creating ample space within the online environment for easy expansion and scale
Training the client team on the platform including aligning business objectives and eCommerce developments
Outcomes
With the new B2B commerce platform, the company is once again differentiating itself online and growing market share with new, existing and past customers. The revamped online presence is delivering by:
Enabling seamless customer journeys and personalization
Reduced dependency on IT to maintain the platform and address problems
Reduced maintenance costs
An ERP-ready platform for organizational access and integration