E-mail: info@wipcore.se 
Kilsgatan 4, SE-411 04 Göteborg, Tel: +46 (0)31 762 30 00
Tel: +46 (0)8 410 928 50
E-mail: info@wipcore.se
Kilsgatan 4, SE-411 04 Göteborg, Tel: +46 (0)31 762 30 00
Tel: +46 (0)8 410 928 50
| CUSTOMER CASE: HALL MIBA
An E-commerce Solution That Revolutionized The Company During the past year, Hall Miba has been able to reduce its workforce by more than half and reduce their costs, while at the same time dramatically improving their customer relationships. A smart e-commerce solution made this possible. Now they’re launching new solutions and their customers are rejoicing. Hall Miba is an independent wholesaler in the car-driver industry. They supply hundreds of thousands of products to gas stations, grocery stores and specialty stores every day. Time-consuming order management Hall Miba has 1,500 customers who place large orders once or twice a week. The company used to mail out a binder containing separate catalog parts to present their offerings. The binder was constantly being updated with new products and price changes, and sometimes customers were asked to cancel out discontinued items. Two employees worked full-time taking pictures and writing product descriptions. Other employees were in charge of the administrative and logistical tasks, making sure that each customer received the right catalog version and the right price list. Ten employees processed orders via the phone and fax. At its peak, 15 sales reps managed customer contacts out in the field. - This solution sounds very old-fashioned, but that’s the way this business works. But this method costs a lot of money and it didn’t work very well. In 2005, we started to seriously consider an e-commerce solution, says Lars Åman, business development manager at Hall Miba.
Hall Miba employed the services of Pernilla Stillgren, an e-commerce consultant, to manage the project. She worked closely with Lars Åman, who knows the business and the customers. Furthermore, he is one of the company’s owners and one of its executives. This means that he can make quick decisions and gain executive buy-in. They put together a specification of requirements and began looking for a supplier that was up to the challenge. It was obvious that their e-commerce solution would be complex and need to manage a large number of orders. Easy to manage Hall Miba has 1,500 customers, in 27 different customer groups. Each customer group has its own price list, products and campaigns. Some of them even have their own branded products. They place large orders once or twice a week, which requires high performance from the solution. Hall Miba needed a complex yet flexible e-commerce solution that would be easy to manage and easy for their customers to use. Each customer group was to view a tailor-made e-commerce site where they could see which unique products were available, their customer-specific price list and any campaigns that they could take advantage of. On top of this, each customer would be able to view their own order history and be able to track individual deliveries—24/7.
- Using Wipcore’s platform and Cordovan’s know-how, we have created a good solution that is also capable of handling our future ambitions, says Lars Åman. The phones went quiet Development of the e-commerce solution took eight months and was launched in May 2007. The first order arrived after just half an hour. The number of phone calls to the Customer Service desk decreased. - Our migration to an e-commerce solution was completely painless. We almost expected that something would go wrong, but it didn’t. Today, more than 90% of all our incoming orders are placed online. Our customers are very satisfied with the solution, says Lars Åman. Enormous savings The e-commerce solution has saved a lot of money. Hall Miba have reduced their costs by millions of crowns, now that they no longer need to produce, print and send out their product catalogs. Just postage used to cost them 250,000 crowns a year. One half-time employee manages the web site, their suppliers provide the pictures, product managers write the product descriptions, five people man the Customer Service desk and Hall Miba no longer employs any sales reps. – The e-commerce solution has made our work easier and allowed us to reduce our workforce by more than half. The change has been dramatic and we were sorry to lose some talented colleagues, but the company has helped superfluous staff to find new jobs, says Lars Åman. Strengthened customer relationships Hall Miba has made their customers’ work easier. They have given them the freedom to be able to place orders when it suits them, not when Hall Miba’s Customer Service desk is open. The number of order errors has been reduced to a minimum, since customers now can review their orders before they are submitted. The system also provides customers with correct information along the way. For example, if an item is not in stock, the customer can either choose to substitute the item with another one or wait another week for it. If a customer orders 150 units of an item, but the item is sold in packs of 100, the customer is informed of this and can then choose to order either 100 or 200 units of that item. Customers can also be informed about rebates on a certain item in coming campaigns, so that they can choose to wait with that specific order. - We give communication with our customers high priority, so as an organization, we want to be transparent and honest. Our customers should never feel like they’ve been had. Our e-commerce solution isn’t just a web site, it’s a sales strategy. Instead of processing orders, we can focus on business development, which translates into increased profitability and better service for our customers. Our e-commerce solution is priceless to us, says Lars Åman. Pernilla and Lars work with Cordovan Digital on further development of the e-commerce solution and launching new services. - Lars and Pernilla are very driven and have plenty of good ideas for further development that both facilitate the process for Hall Miba’s customers and strengthen their customer relationships. Our job is to develop new ideas in collaboration with Hall Miba that will strengthen their business, and then implement them and make sure that they work, says Roger Brovik at Cordovan. - E-commerce has both met and exceeded our customers’ needs. We will continue throughout the year to launch solutions and services with the aim of making our customers’ lives easier and increasing their profits, says Lars. Helping our customers help their customers Hall Miba is launching an informational display on which customers in the store can search for the right wiper blade, light bulb or battery for their car. They can even view tutorials that show them how to install the product in question. This helps the stores provide more and better service to their customers. - When our customers saw these informational displays, they wanted them yesterday. They help them provide better service, says Lars Åman. These informational displays are integrated in our e-commerce solution and based on our platform. Making life easier for customers A handheld scanner has just been launched. This further facilitates the e-commerce experience. The store’s personnel can walk up and down the aisles and scan any products that are running low. They then dock the scanner with their computer and transfer the order to the e-commerce solution. The customer can then view information about item availability, as well as ongoing and future campaigns. This allows them to plan and optimize their order before they confirm it.
- Our e-commerce solution is popular among our customers because it makes their lives easier. It gives us time to listen to our customers’ needs and work on further developing our service offering. It allows us to focus on supporting our customers’ sales and increasing their profits. This makes our position much stronger than our competitors, says Lars Åman. - Hall Miba’s e-commerce solution has really changed and strengthened our company. One of the most important reasons for their success is that Lars and the rest of the management team have been genuinely interested, supportive and knowledgeable about the project. Moreover, they’ve managed to convey the message of how e-commerce is going to change the company’s way of doing business to their employees and gained their support, Pernilla Stillgren adds.
The solution
Results
2008-05-28 |
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