How Irish Brands Can Sell to Trade & Retail In One Place

We were thrilled to be shortlisted for the Irish Ecomm Awards in not one, but two categories for our work with Scatter Box (read all about it here!).

Of course, it’s always wonderful to be shortlisted for industry awards but it’s even more rewarding to see the impact it’s had on the business to date. For every large Trade order coming in, especially for first time site users, we know it immediately helps reduce manual admin for Scatter Box and for every new retail customer, we know how much this will continue fuel growth and motivate the team. For Irish brands looking to grow their eCommerce function, you simply can’t get better than that.

For companies reluctant to take the leap to merge both B2B and B2C together into one unified platform, we know first hand that it can be daunting and challenging in many ways, but trust us it’s worth. Here’s our top five tips for

1. Trade customers will continue remain loyal

For long established brands afraid of ruining loyal Trade customers, as long as you launch your new Shopify site in a considered manner and take them on the journey with you, they will remain loyal. Communication is key. With Scatter Box we worked with the team to gradually communicate with Trade customers about any changes to how they normally order. Trade customers were only onboarded once the site had launched to retail first and we had ironed out any initial glitches. This is not about trying to grow your retail base without considering Trade customers as your most important revenue source. This is about you transforming how you operate and engage with those customers, to make everyones life easier.

2. Short term pain, long term gain

There is no denying that merging B2C and B2B on one unified Shopify platform means a full revamp of internal operations, it can be a beast depending on the number of SKUs, regions etc. However, why develop a standalone B2C and B2B Shopify sites, when you can maximise your budget to entirely reimagine your sales and plan for a more efficient and consolidated future, from one place. The results are worth it! No more separation of budgets, software, no more siloed product launches and most importantly you benefit from synergised learning. Trending B2C customer products help to inform how and when you launch collections, which in turn helps to maximise B2B revenue. Similarily, B2B sales help you more quickly understand what’s going on, on the ground – all from one central place.

3. Be open and ready for change!

If there’s one thing we’ve learned it’s that you need to be open to change. Scatter Box has not 1, but 41 different pricing layers. The architecture powering this was extremely well thought out, it took a lot of time and planning, but it was so worth it. Think about how you can make things easy both externally and internally for your Trade customers and be ready to whip those pricing spreadsheets out! A project like this offers a fresh opportunity to consider how you sell your products. For example, looking at how products are packaged and sold together and how your pricing framework actually is pieced together. For B2C, it also gives you a chance to step back and look more closely at your entire product database when building out your Shopify Product Catalog and to continue iterating based on how retail customers search and shop. A solid Product Catalog with properly defined Meta Objects is absolutely key and will set you up for long-term success. So be ready!

4. Consider the entire customer journey

Before you begin, consider your entire ecosystem. If you don’t currently use an ERP system or are considering migrating to another ERP, be mindful of the timing of site launch. Not only is the project huge in terms of front end Shopify development, but without careful planning about how everything will integrate with ERP software, whether that’s now or down the road and without a vision for how the data points will connect across systems, you may loose out on potential cost and operational efficiencies.

5. Remove ambiguity

Above all, no matter how you plan to transform how you sell online, the most important thing for us is to have a deep understanding of your customer and treat customers as humans. In principle, how you search, discover, browse and buy is the exact same as how your customer does. Remove all ambiguity from your site and give customers all of the information you would want to know about a product you’re selling. No matter how you build or whether you merge both revenue streams, do it with simplicity in mind. Keep your content and design clean, clear and give as much relevant information as you can, in an organised manner. This is easy to do but hard to commit to, on a continuous basis. Those who do however, will always win.

If you’re interested in hearing more about what we do, or would like to discuss a potential project, contact us today for a free consultation.