Midland Power Machinery Distributors
MPMD is a well known and established trade only supplier of garden machinery and spares, with an extensive catalogue of over 15,000 products available to their dealerships.
Getme have been working with MPMD, establishing a front running web site for over 5 years, in that time the web site has developed into a feature rich online store.
The web site plays a vital role in the companies sales and publishing process, providing an online catalogue that also drives the offline printed catalogue, reducing duplication, time and costs.
Recently the web site was given a new look 'n feel, with several new features added to the search system.
A visual way to search
One of the key features added to the web site was the facility for customers to review part diagrams of the machines, this enabled a visual drill down to the the exact part required, including cost and the ability to add the part directly to their order...
By providing a parts diagram for each machine, a servicing mechanic or parts buyer can bring up the appropriate part diagram, select the parts they need (which get automatically added to their order pad), and then place the order.
Producing the part diagrams was the immediate task, each machine manufacturer provided the diagrams. Once all the part diagrams had been collated, MPMD matched each number on the diagram to their product/stock list.
The next task involved, intergrating the diagrams with the web site, Getme developed software to automatically re-number (for quality) each part, and provide a link to be used to order the part. Automating the process greatly reduced the time and cost element of the task.
The part diagrams substantially increased the number of sales through the web site, and dramatically reduced the number of telephone parts enquiries to the office.
As well as the visual search, the parts search allows for MPMD product numbers, OEM numbers (including superseded OEM numbers), and keywords (matched against the products name and description) to be used.
Finally, any product can be found by selecting either a manufacturer and/or part type, much the same as a customer might do when using the printed catalogue version.
Recycling product information
With 15,000 products to sell it's essential that the information held on each product only needs to be entered once. Since all the product information is stored in the most part on the sales order process system (SOPS) internally at MPMD, this provided the basis for product data. Product data is uploaded from the SOPS to the web site each night, once it arrives, additional fields not supported by the SOPS application can be specified, including:
- Image information
- Additional descriptions
- Catalogue information
- More complex products such as machines are given their own web page supporting movies, parts diagrams, etc.
The additional information allows products to be presented in web or print for customers. Using Quark (a publishing application) which interfaces via an ODBC connection to the Air system. The product data from the web site can then be selected and templated into a printed catalogue format.
Conclusion
The improved search facilities, in particular the parts diagrams, and support for online promotions via a tight integration with the SOPS, have seen a significant rise in sales through the web site.
By integrating the SOPS and Quark applications with the Air based web site, the order and print processes are now automated, not only has this saved time and cost, it has also improved the quality of the information by preventing mistakes through duplicate data entry.