23 June 2020 | 3 Minute(s) to read
Hurricane Products came to Smokeylemon to redevelop their websites for the specific products they import.
They have two main products they import; Parsun Outboard Motors and EP Equipment
These products once imported are then distributed to dealers throughout the country.
All their order management is done within one Unleashed Software so they have full control of their inventory up to the minute that data is entered.
The client
Robyn & Jeff Strampel have built up a solid business which has grown year-on-year. Whilst trying to keep on top of the importing side, direct enquiries were coming in via phone and email. A lot of the questions were around ‘What is the price for this?’, or ‘Do you have this part/product in stock?’ They were constantly fielding calls and felt that they couldn’t grow the business further without employing an administrator to manage all of this, as stock does not sit still!
How we helped them grow
We set out to develop a new website for each brand which would be easy to use in the front end, make it easy for enquiries to come through and go directly to the dealer and above all, their new administrator could update themselves.
We took it a step further
We sat down with them and listened to their ever-pressing time issues and the plan for the future. Having a good understanding of a business model yet not being fully involved in it gave us a lot of perspective where we could establish pain points and address them.
What they hadn’t thought about was integrating Unleashed into each website. Why? Because they didn’t realise it could be done, and also didn’t realise what problems that the integration would potentially solve for them.
Unleashed is their source of truth
Having identified that their entire business is hinged on up-to-the-minute information about stock levels and orders through Unleashed, we set out to develop a user login area for each dealer type per website.
Each dealer has a personal login to the website which they log into every day. When an enquiry comes in, or a customer is standing in front of them asking for a part or product, they have the facility to do the following which is being pulled directly from Unleashed which is updated every 15 minutes:
- Search part/product numbers
- Check stock levels
- Check pricing - specific to that dealer
- Place an order directly
The dealers are able to see what stage the orders are in, expected date, and transaction history, without having to request this.
Is that it? Yes.
There’s more we could do, but this is the starting point. Silverstripe is open-source so we are able to customise what comes in & out with API integrations (they make two pieces of software ‘talk’). This is a better option for bespoke delivery of information over the likes of Shopify and other pre-built website applications.
The result was better than they could have anticipated
Increased sales
The ease of use, plus not having to call for information means that the dealers have the freedom to place orders when they want to with up-to-date information, giving them confidence on delivery and continued sales.
Better administration
The order is automatically fed into Unleashed, saving administrative time in both double handling written content, but also reducing the possibility of human error in handling orders.
Better accountability
Not only that, with the Unleashed & Xero integration, all the accounting and inventory management is up-to-date in real time, reducing accounting fees and providing accurate financial reports as needed. Critical for business management.
"Smokeylemon gave us options we hadn’t even considered. Integrating Unleashed has saved us so much time and has given us confidence that data is up-to-date. The dealers love it. The insight from this team has been invaluable." Robyn & Jeff Strampel, Owners - Hurricane Products.
