Cornell's launched its website several years ago, but recently the company recognized the need to make it easier for customers to use the site. They decided to upgrade to the Epicor iNet eBusiness Suite, which offers two key components: an eStore where customers can go online to research pricing and purchase items, and an eBusiness center where customers can access password-protected account information-including access to custom pricing lists, product favorites, invoices, statements, and more.
Self service access empowers customers
"Customers expect to see us online, to look at our inventory, and to be able to come in the next day and make a purchase-now they can," said John Fix III, president of Cornell's. "Our account customers can change their user settings, update account information, and add authorized people to their account for pickups or enable them to charge on the account."
Since iNet implementation, Fix has seen a large improvement in the process of mailing monthly statements. "Our customers more easily maintain their accounts, which now results in fewer calls to the store," said Fix. "Many of our customers do their own account research, print their own invoices, or get reprints. It has eliminated 85% of the statements we have to mail. We have over 500 accounts and about 300 are using iNet. It used to take three to four hours per month to send out statements. Now it only takes minutes and we save $150/month on postage and printing alone."
Cornell's is getting paid faster, too. "Days outstanding have been reduced by ten days, from 37 to 27," said Fix. "One of our customers was in our store when he received a statement via email on his smartphone. Since he was already in the store, he walked up and paid us immediately."
Gains from robust eStore
Cornell's has also seen big improvements with the online store. The layout is search engine optimized (SEO), which means that when product searches are performed in a search engine, Cornell's appears more often than previously. "More people are finding Cornell's online," said Fix. "It's great to see that independents like us are showing up next to national chains on product searches. The longer our items are on our site and searched, the more our search position improves."
The eStore, which effectively allows Cornell's to offer nearly their entire inventory online 24/7, has also shortened the buying process-more customers are coming into the store already knowing what they want to purchase. "We are getting more customers from further away who have found a specialty item on our website," said Fix. "Since our iNet presence has really expanded, we also have more customers signing up for our loyalty program online. Customers are driving by 10 or 20 other hardware stores to come to ours not just for niche departments, but for basic hardware items, too. The difference is that our store is online, and those other stores are not."
Epicor iNet eBusiness Suite has helped Cornell's reduce costs associated with statement mailings, improve customer service, and increase sales. "Our online sales have increased since we upgraded, and we save on labor hours, postage, and printing every month," said Fix. "Epicor iNet is instrumental to our business."