Streamline B2B Operations. Groove Commerce helped this client improve his B2B operation on the BigCommerce platform. B2B eCommerce businesses often run into problems when it comes to tracking inventory and processing orders. This was the case for one of our clients, so our team created a custom AS400 Integration to help the company modernize their website and upgrade the user experience.
Our client, Perform Group, is the parent company of Curtain Call, an online B2B store that sells dance class wear and costumes for recitals. Before working with the Groove Commerce team, Perform Group ran into many issues when it came to accurately tracking inventory and processing and fulfilling orders.
The Problem
Prior to enlisting our team’s help, Perform Group used outdated technology, managed their own servers in Magento, and needed a better platform to run their eCommerce solution on. They used an ERP system – the AS400 ERP – to track inventory; however, they struggled to accurately account for each piece of inventory.
Salespeople would call in orders; customer service would put the order down; and customers would fax in orders and place orders directly from the website. Operating in this manner caused frustrations for the sales team. The only way an order could be taken into account was when a salesperson would input the order into the AS400 ERP.
Inaccurate Inventory Tracking
With this, Perform Group found themselves overcommitted to orders, since they never really saw the live data or the accurate inventory amount for a given product.
For example, they only had 100 items in inventory of a specific product. However, they accepted a fax order for 50 items, while someone else ordered 100 items of the same product directly online.
This means that they sold 150 in inventory but only had 100 to sell – leaving their team extremely frustrated with the ordering process. To alleviate these frustrations and improve the overall customer experience, our team stepped in to help.
The Solution
We created a custom eCommerce integration – the AS400 Integration – which requires orders to be placed through BigCommerce, making BigCommerce the central point of sale.
Now, when a salesperson has an order, they input it into BigCommerce rather than faxing or calling about it. The AS400 Integration allows all inventory and availability to automatically update since the BigCommerce store is wired into the AS400 system.
Since inventory automatically updates, both customers and sales representatives can now see the exact amounts in stock at any given time. This means customers can now order the amount they need without worrying about the company calling back to say the item they ordered is actually out of stock.
How We Leveraged BigCommerce
The Groove Commerce team leveraged BigCommerce to make the migration process simpler and allow Perform Group to share more product information than they have in the past with their customers.
By requiring all orders to be placed through BigCommerce, Perform Group now has
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