Aphix takes the bark out of digital transformation for Trust Pet Products with 30% of their turnover and growing online in just 2 short years. The power of the Aphix SaaS platform paves the way for Trust Pet to move into new markets and emerging technology, but most importantly, and at the centre of their goal, they improved customer service, by enabling their busy B2B customers to self serve and order online 24/7 365 with live stock, pricing, product and customer information.
Trust Pet Products, with over 45 years in business, has established itself as a leading pet trade wholesaler in the UK. Based in Warwick, just outside Birmingham, Trust Pet supplies a full range of pet food and accessories throughout the midlands region and beyond.
As a family-run business, customer service is at the core of everything they do. They understand their customers needs very well and have a dedicated sales, warehouse and delivery team to meet them.
Trust Pet Products are also very mindful of their environmental impact and now recycle over 70% of their waste and their HGV vehicles have Euro 6 engines, the cleanest and most efficient trucks on the road.
The real challenge Trust Pet had was centric to their customer base. They understood how busy their customers were in their retail stores with their own customers and that ordering during office hours by phone or email often wasn’t convenient for them. Customers also needed information like statements, invoices and order history for repeat ordering. This meant they needed to contact Trust Pet directly on a frequent basis.
With Trust Pet’s vast catalogue of products, they also needed to find a solution for customers to access this easily and find the products they needed.
Their ERP system, Intact iQ, was key to running their business. It managed their inventory, customer specific pricing and sales orders. Orders taken by their sales team on the phone or by email would then need to manually input into the ERP system to get ready for picking. It worked, but with their strict delivery schedule, it was time and resource heavy and led to duplicate entries and admin errors. They knew there must be a better way.
They ventured into eCommerce with a stand-alone solution, but customers didn’t take the bait, with generic pricing, inaccurate stock information, poor catalogue search and no customer portal, it was not the user experience they or Trust Pet needed.
They also had an eye on the future and knew that today’s digital buyer whether B2C or B2B expects a seamless online user experience with omni channel solutions and Trust Pet just weren’t willing to settle for less. Going D2C (Direct-to-consumer) was likely a path they would take at some stage too, so any new solution they looked at would need to be always up-to-date, scalable and future proof.
After contacting Intact, their ERP provider, they were advised to get in touch with their technology partner Aphix.
The Aphix Digital Platform for Intact iQ had the solutions they needed now and for any future ventures they might take. As a SaaS platform new features and upgrades would come automatically keeping them forever up to date.
Vitally the platform also had the real-time integration with Intact iQ to provide the live data their customers craved. Once Trust Pet’s ERP system was integrated with the Aphix Digital Platform, Trust Pet could launch the tools they needed. They began with WebShop, the B2B eCommerce solution from Aphix, going live in late 2017.
Using the essential live data from their Intact iQ system, Aphix were able to bring it to life online, with a full content rich website, digital catalogue, B2B ordering and customer portal, all in one online location. Finally their busy customers could order and self serve at a time that suited them.
Customers could easily search the vast Trust Pet catalogue, with smart intuitive search and filtering such as animal, breed, product or brand, or simply do a quick search for the product code. All stock levels were live and accurate at all times and the only price the customer could see was their own.
With 30% of orders going through their WebShop and growing, Trust Pet has greatly reduced order processing times and increased efficiency across the board. Customers use the webShop for ordering, but even more frequently for product research and to access the customer portal with reports such as statements, invoices, order history and more. Repeat ordering is common so viewing order history gave the option to do a simple repeat order.
With the rapid shift towards digital ordering in 2020, Trust Pet Products wanted to provide even more convenience to their customers by giving them access to an app. Launching PocketShop from the Aphix Digital Platform means their customers can easily order on the go from their mobile device and scan barcodes straight from the shelves to the shopping cart. They can even use the app when offline!
Trust Pet operated a retail offering under the Percy & Pickles brand, selling pet food and supplies within their local region. They planned to eventually bring this arm of the business online too with a D2C (Direct to Consumer) eCommerce channel. The events of 2020 made this emerging consumer trend a necessity as selling in the traditional retail setting became impossible. Launching a second B2C WebShop means those end-users (well their owners at least!) who typically bought in-store, can continue to order.
The power of the Aphix platform was key to the success of Trust Pet’s ongoing digital transformation. Having their ERP system integrated with the Aphix Digital Platform in real-time gives them the competitive edge to quickly adapt to the marketplace and launch the digital tools they need to grow and scale their business.
Integrate in real-time with your ERP software
Considerably streamline your ordering process
Speed up the ordering process with less re-keying
Save time by placing orders directly to your ERP
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