Hydraulic Connections of the U.K. is a supplier of pipe, valve and fitting products (PVF) – more specifically coupling and valve components for hydraulic systems. Their products are essential in everything from gas, fuel, and refrigerant lines to countless other mechanical uses.
Case for Change
Precision is the hallmark of the exacting products H.C. produces. They wanted their website and customer service to meet the same standard.
Previously, customers could only place orders by email or phone. This approach meant a slow quote-to-cash process and high error resolution expenses.
What’s more, H.C. has an extensive inventory of couplings and valves in their UK warehouse, and most of their orders are dispatched same-day. They wanted to increase same-day and next-day capacity by enabling transactions to happen more quickly in one fluid, automated process.
What they needed was a feature-rich, efficiency-enabling B2B ecommerce solution for P.V.F. products that could also function in a D2C capacity so that they could capture more sales from both constituencies.
The Solution
Key Features
✓ TRADE-ONLY & D2C HYBRID CHECKOUT
Not only is their new webstore setup to capture purchase orders from their trade-only clients, it’s also designed to serve in a D2C capacity whereby end-consumers can perform a guest-checkout at regular retail prices.
✓ INVENTORY VISIBILITY
Since a hydraulic breakdown can slow or stop their clients’ operations, the category and product pages of H.C.’s webstore were designed to provide their customers with timeframes for restocking so their clients enjoy greater inventory visibility and better predict soon they can get their hands on those critical parts so they can get their equipment back up and running.
✓ PRODUCT DETAIL DOWNLOADS
H.C. customers needed easy access to information about the valves and couplings for their projects, in order to properly match the correct components to the correct equipment. So their clients were given easy access, through their customer portals, to view, print and download, at their leisure, critical documents like size and pressure data sheets – encouraging customer self-service habits and reducing H.C.’s administrative overhead.
✓ SAGE 200 ERP INTEGRATION
Their new Cloudfy webstore connects with H.C.’s Sage 200 software – pulling in key information like client records, order history, invoices and product details and sending back orders from Cloudfy.
✓ MULTI-SELECT ATTRIBUTE FILTERING
Customers can filter parts down to what they need and submit their orders faster – powered by the ability to sort by a myriad of specs: brand, body size, end connection, thread, gender, material and series.
If you’re looking for similar B2B and D2C features to help create efficiencies for your business and boost your sales, contact us now to request your complimentary Cloudfy demo.
