Enabling Growth Through Integrated Solutions
This lumber manufacturer’s new eCommerce solution enhances and streamlines their customer experience through complex integrations, robust product information, intuitive process flows and user interface, and custom logic.
Services Provided
Consulting & Implementation, Custom Salesforce Development, Salesforce Architecture, Salesforce E-Commerce, Project Management, Business Analysis
The Story
Background:
This client is one of North America’s largest hardwood lumber manufacturers, distributors, and exporters. They are a provider of hardwood logs, hardwood lumber, and proprietary-grade hardwood lumber products. Founded in 1923, they have grown from a regional supplier of domestic hardwoods to a global hardwood manufacturer that can ship hardwood lumber to any region of the world.
Challenge:
This client was utilizing a homegrown eCommerce system to sell their products; however, the system was not able to meet their needs. Their system was managed and built in-house, it did not integrate with their other systems, and the cost of ownership and time spent coding necessary changes were both very high. In addition, the customer experience was not ideal; customers couldn’t sort/filter products by category and customers couldn’t easily view things like order status, freight charges, and invoice history.
Without a proper CRM or eCommerce system, the client team was using SAP to try to manage both their business operations and sales opportunities. Their homegrown eCommerce and SAP system gave only limited visibility of quotes and orders; attempting to use these systems without the proper integrations required a significant amount of manual effort. Trifecta’s challenge was to establish a platform that delivered immediate benefit through a modern architecture and solution set, create a foundation for full online quoting and ordering, create a self-service environment, and decrease the client’s total cost of ownership.
Without a proper CRM or eCommerce system, the client team was using SAP to try to manage both their business operations and sales opportunities. Their homegrown eCommerce and SAP system gave only limited visibility of quotes and orders; attempting to use these systems without the proper integrations required a significant amount of manual effort. Trifecta’s challenge was to establish a platform that delivered immediate benefit through a modern architecture and solution set, create a foundation for full online quoting and ordering, create a self-service environment, and decrease the client’s total cost of ownership.
Our Work
Strategy:
Through detailed conversations with the client, we determined that the best solution was the implementation of Salesforce B2B Commerce on Lightning Experience. Trifecta’s team developed a complex integration between SAP and Salesforce B2B.
One of the interesting aspects of this client’s new eCommerce site is the ability for customers to fill their cart and select from the following options: Request a Quote, Make an Offer, or Buy Now. While the “Buy Now” option is a standard eCommerce function, the Quote and Offer options are more unique. Trifecta’s eCommerce team developed custom logic within the checkout flow to enable these processes. During the Quote process, customers fill their cart with desired products. This generates a Quote in Salesforce, which flows over to SAP via Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) middleware. The client’s sales team then negotiates directly with the customer to create an order, which then flows back into eCommerce, allowing the customer to track the progress of their order. The Offer feature allows customers to load their cart and then suggest a total price for their order. They have the option to add a comment or explanation for their offer. Like quoting, Offers generate an Offer in Salesforce and flows to SAP, where the client’s sales team can review and negotiate prior to accepting the offer.
One of the interesting aspects of this client’s new eCommerce site is the ability for customers to fill their cart and select from the following options: Request a Quote, Make an Offer, or Buy Now. While the “Buy Now” option is a standard eCommerce function, the Quote and Offer options are more unique. Trifecta’s eCommerce team developed custom logic within the checkout flow to enable these processes. During the Quote process, customers fill their cart with desired products. This generates a Quote in Salesforce, which flows over to SAP via Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) middleware. The client’s sales team then negotiates directly with the customer to create an order, which then flows back into eCommerce, allowing the customer to track the progress of their order. The Offer feature allows customers to load their cart and then suggest a total price for their order. They have the option to add a comment or explanation for their offer. Like quoting, Offers generate an Offer in Salesforce and flows to SAP, where the client’s sales team can review and negotiate prior to accepting the offer.
Solution
To further improve the customer experience, Trifecta developed options to streamline the order process. Customers now begin the order process by selecting how they’d like to shop: by lumber yard (location of the product) or by wood type. Product detail pages include robust product information, images, inventory information, pricing, and the ability to immediately add the item to their cart. Pricing is custom and based on the customers preferred shipping address. The price shown to customers is the final, single price (base price plus freight). During the checkout process, additional custom logic calculates load sizes and indicates how much more product could fit on their delivery truck.
This client’s new site has multilingual capabilities to serve a multitude of customers. Specifically, they work with many customers based out of China who need the ability to navigate their site. Trifecta worked with the client to understand what areas of the site (such as headings and navigational cues) needed to be translated to Chinese, versus other areas of the site (such as the names of wood species and yard locations) that would be understood in English by their customers in China.
This client’s new site has multilingual capabilities to serve a multitude of customers. Specifically, they work with many customers based out of China who need the ability to navigate their site. Trifecta worked with the client to understand what areas of the site (such as headings and navigational cues) needed to be translated to Chinese, versus other areas of the site (such as the names of wood species and yard locations) that would be understood in English by their customers in China.
Results
Results:
This client’s eCommerce site launched in August 2021. Within a week of launch, they had onboarded three customers, with plans for 20 additional customer onboardings by end of year and full customer adoption in 2022.
Due to the extensive amount of training provided by Trifecta’s team, the client felt confident independently launching their customers on the new eCommerce site – despite not having an in-house staff of Salesforce Administrators or Developers. In addition to the standard reference documentation, our team wrote step-by-step procedures for frequently used features and recorded reference videos to demonstrate more complex tasks. We conducted demos and trainings with their team and provided post-launch support from an advisory perspective. These efforts have not only enabled the client’s team for independent success but will also support them in reaching their customer adoption goals.
Due to the extensive amount of training provided by Trifecta’s team, the client felt confident independently launching their customers on the new eCommerce site – despite not having an in-house staff of Salesforce Administrators or Developers. In addition to the standard reference documentation, our team wrote step-by-step procedures for frequently used features and recorded reference videos to demonstrate more complex tasks. We conducted demos and trainings with their team and provided post-launch support from an advisory perspective. These efforts have not only enabled the client’s team for independent success but will also support them in reaching their customer adoption goals.