Elevating a B2B eCommerce Experience.
Anipet
Case Study
Design & Discovery
Strategy & Support
Web + Mobile Development
The Need
The Need
“We need a custom B2B eCommerce solution to support seamless transactions for both our customers and our sales team.”
Anipet, a B2B pet product distribution company, needed a complete transformation of their online catalog to achieve this. In a retail market that was slow to transform digitally, Anipet hoped to not only make buying easier for their customers. They also wanted to gain ground on their competitors by providing an eCommerce experience far and above anything else offered in the space.
Q.
Why didn't Anipet just buy an off-the-shelf solution?
A.
They felt like they were being sold a square peg for a round hole.
Their vision was a mobile application that seamlessly integrated with their legacy ERP. First, to increase sales through a user-friendly experience that removed all friction from the buying experience. Then increase efficiencies for their internal team and sales staff by streamlining workflows.
The Build
Building a smooth, efficient eCommerce experience is actually very hard. For the Anipet users, “easy” meant very different things.
Our first hurdle was Anipet’s legacy ERP system (Microsoft NAV) that had very little support for integration. This was compounded by the need for Anipet’s internal team, sales staff, and customers to have their own interface with a uniquely streamlined experience.
We started by building a lightweight API layer on top of the ERP system that extended into online and eCommerce abilities—accommodating existing internal and sales workflows with minimal disruption. Thought was given to building it in a way for the future transition to Microsoft D365 Business Central for the future.
The Build
We then built a robust React Native application on top of their new custom API layer with features Anipet had only ever dreamed of offering its customers.
Specifically, a “barcode scanner” pet store owners could open within the app—simply walking down the aisles of their store to instantly re-order items as needed. Once launched, this feature quickly became the preferred way to purchase for Anipet’s customers.
The Relationship
The Relationship
The agile process kept this project highly adaptive and allowed for maximum transparency.
For Anipet, this collaborative relationship was significant. Progress could be seen in real-time and helped us work together to create real change and address issues as they came up—delays were never a surprise or even an issue.
With so many moving parts, our design team’s ability to turn various processes into one cohesive mockup showed how the required ease of use would come to life and laid the foundation for the project goals to be achieved. This, paired with the heavily researched technical plan and all necessary integrations accounted for, made the project plan clear and solid from the beginning.
A few times, our work has been described as “magical” by the Anipet team. A front-row seat to their project coming to life played a role, but our ability to “demystify” software development for the team was a more significant impact.
Following this project, we were brought back in with Anipet to evaluate other workflows and existing manual processes—ultimately finding a way to automate and digitize them.
In simplifying complex technology challenges, we ushered in a new perspective on digital advancement for the Anipet team.
The Transformation
By transforming Anipet’s B2B eCommerce experience, we successfully transformed efficiency across the organization.
Orders happen faster for both customers and the sales team. Bulk orders can be done by uploading CSV files, and the barcode scanner puts quick reorder in the palm of customers’ hand. Extensive automation delivers every order directly into Anipet’s ERP system minimizing intervention from the internal team.
The feedback from staff and customers has been nothing but positive, with existing customers exceedingly appreciative of the new effortless purchase experience—also giving new customers reason to switch to Anipet as their distributor of choice.
In the end, Anipet received a B2B eCommerce solution that made effortless experience a defining characteristic and indicator of future success.
The Transformation
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