Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery

Overview

Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery is a plant nursery wholesaler based in the United States. The client needed a new, multi-language website to showcase the nursery’s products, provide informational resources, and be a sales channel for its B2B and B2C customer segments. They contacted Coalition Technologies to migrate from their old, slow platform to BigCommerce with B2B capabilities.

Devil Mountain Nursery Home Page with New Trees for Changing Climate

We built a robust, scaleable BigCommerce website that meets Devil Mountain’s immediate and future needs. The client is happy with the site’s multilingual capabilities, content, and design as it showcases the themed colors, font, and overall branding of their catalog of products. Additionally, our email marketing and SMS efforts netted a 71% open rate and a 12.3% click rate from campaigns launched.

Problem

The client wanted to leave the old platform due to slow page load speed, poor admin experience regarding site setup, and inability to add product custom fields for more advanced filtering for customers. They, however, wanted to keep Epicor, the Point of Sale system that they were already using.

BigCommerce is the best fit to meet all the requirements as they are able to provide: an API for Epicor, a single checkout page, multi-language versions, multiple search and filtering qualifiers – such as English or Spanish common names, botanical Latin name, plant collections, growing conditions, and landscape use.

The brand also has a network of brick-and-mortar locations distributing their products. The new website showcases upcoming events and products available at all locations as well as the option to pick up orders at these locations. The client also wanted to automate its invoices and offer custom pricing for its different customer segments, as well as facilitate the transition from its current manual to new automated processes. They requested enterprise resource planning software to integrate its core business processes into such as sales, inventory management, and procurement.

Solution

BigCommerce B2B Edition

BigCommerce B2B Edition hosts a comprehensive suite of functionalities that enhances the online selling experience for distributors and wholesalers. The client selected the B2B Edition for its wide array of features to meet their current needs and future business goals. With B2B Edition, we can leverage the tools and flexibility of APIs to integrate with third party and custom scripts.

Search Options

Devil Mountain Nursery wanted shoppers to be able to quickly and easily find the right plant they need. To improve user experience, we set up multiple ways for customers to find their products via advanced search, advanced filters, and even a submission form.

First, we ensured that the products took full advantage of the labeling system in BigCommerce. Products were assigned to multiple categories and subcategories, as well as brands, features, model numbers, and more. We installed Coalition’s Metafields app to augment the store’s metafield capabilities for inventory and bulk data management, easier updates, and greater customizations.

Next, we set up advanced search results. Users can enter a partial botanical name or common name, or the SKU if known. With this added search feature, customers can enter queries in English or Spanish.

Updates were made to the search cursor. When customers click on the search button, their cursors will be automatically placed in the search field as opposed to the customer needing to manually move their cursor. This helps customers searching for multiple products or those making multiple product orders. 

Advanced filter capabilities were also enabled. On the category page, shoppers can refine their search for products using multiple attributes such as plant genus, plant collections, water needs, or other filtering options. 

If the refined results don’t return what the user is looking for, they can also submit a form to Devil Mountain Nursery to request that either a specific plant or any plant that meets their criteria be sourced for them.

California Native and Drought Resistant Emerald Carpet Plant on Devil Mountain Nursery

Brand Logos

To display the different plant categories on the website, we created a Plant Catalog listing page with customized logos for each plant category. From the Plant Catalog landing page, shoppers can view the botanical and common names of plants and a brief description. We utilized the BigCommerce Brands page, implemented custom category conditions, assigned all products to each brand, and added the branded logos. Some of the branded logos include collection name, native location of plant, and water and light needs. Once new products are added to the brand’s portfolio, they are added to the plant catalog under the appropriate category based on the category conditions selected.

Customer Login

Devil Mountain has multiple customer segment groups with unique pricing and payment options. The client wanted prices and product availability to be viewable to logged in users only. We implemented conditions for the Add to Cart button and price viewing for logged in customers. Also, only logged in users are able to download a list of currently available products, add products to their wishlist, view and learn more, and complete their purchases. For website visitors who are not logged in, the add to cart button is disabled until their application to become a customer is approved.

We integrated MiniOrange to provide quick and secured access for BigCommerce store owners and a seamless login experience for customers. This Single Sign-On (SSO) option provides an all-in-one, centralized solution for the storage and management of customer data, order status notifications, and social logins.

Customer Application Form for Devil Mountain

Customer Applications

Our team integrated a modified customer application form using 123Form. In addition to the name, address, and phone fields, we modified the custom form for different Devil Mountain customers. Professional landscapers, for example, can set up a customer account with the option to add or reject the addition of online access setup.

From the customer application form, prospective customers can upload business documents, select if they want to be assigned an English or Spanish speaking representative, select their preferred store locations, and choose their preferred statement option.

Devil Mountain Nursery then evaluates the request and assigns the new customer to the appropriate customer group in BigCommerce.

Additionally, we integrated the Secure Privacy app which automates privacy policy, cookie consent and declaration management, and visitor preferences to ensure data privacy compliance. The client is now able to keep track of requests that they receive.

Checkout page for Devil Mountain Nursery

Secured Checkout Process

We used BigCommerce’s extensive API support to implement several integrations. We integrated the client’s POS system on the newly launched website using Epicor iNet Business Suite via Modern Retail. This integration eliminates many of the client’s manual inventory and price management processes. The client can now track and monitor inventory levels, as well as streamline their pricing management processes for multiple customer segments. This also helps the brand expand its presence across other online marketplaces. Additionally, Devil Mountain Nursery’s product selection can now be integrated with other third party data feeds and catalogs.

Devil Mountain offers financing options to their clients. With secure online access, customers can view their orders, review and print invoices and statements, and save items to their carts for later checkout.

The website also provides multiple customized shipping options. A customer can have their orders shipped or picked up at any Devil Mountain Nursery location. When a pickup location is selected at checkout, customers can enter a pickup date and time without a delivery wait time as well as add additional comments such as substitutions or other delivery options.

Persistent Cart

BigCommerce Pro plans offer merchants a Persistent Cart option that conveniently links customers’ carts to their accounts. When customers log out of their accounts, with items in their carts, the client did not want the carts to be cleared out upon exit. Our team enabled the persistent cart feature so that customers’ carts will not be emptied upon logging out. Customers can retrieve their carts from any device.

Celigo and Netsuite Integrations

The client wanted several customizations done to the cart and checkout pages in BigCommerce. Our developers updated the cart and checkout pages to include a comment field, selection for preferred pickup location, and the ability to select shipping options. Using the Celigo app integration, other business applications can be added to the BigCommerce store to further streamline ecommerce and payment processes. Customers can now add comments or notes to their shopping carts, add their purchase order numbers, and select their preferred delivery dates. At checkout, customers who select delivery options are notified that delivery charges are not finalized until the order is complete. Customers are also notified that taxes are subject to change.

To automate and sync the order-to-cash process, we integrated the NetSuite app. Netsuite allows the client to keep inventory and price lists, customers details, orders, and product updates accurate and consistent across all Devil Mountain’s locations. This allows them to automatically process orders, streamline inventory management, and accelerate financial processes.

Devil Mountain Nursery Shopping Cart

Unique Informational Pages

We created a locations page showing all of Devil Mountain’s stores. We added each location’s address, business hours, contact information, services offered, and integrated Google Maps. All location banners were created and added to the location page. Devil Mountain Nursery periodically hosts events and wanted a customized events page developed separate from its blog posts page. We customized the BigCommerce blog template with an event tag. After adding the event tag attribute, we styled the events page accordingly and added the unique coding split to differentiate events from blog posts.

Klaviyo Email Integration

Our team integrated Klaviyo to assist with email and SMS marketing automations and campaigns. New email marketing landing pages were created and SMS automations implemented. We designed and implemented a brick-and-mortar location signup email and SMS marketing strategy (available in both English and Spanish) to engage customers visiting the nursery’s locations. Other email automations were implemented and analyzed as well.

Migration and Redirects

Although products, orders, and customer migration were handled by the Modern Retail integration, Coalition migrated Devil’s Mountains page content from their old site to their new BigCommerce site. In order to speed up the process, we wrote a custom script that automatically exports and imports blog posts with all associated data intact. Once the content was migrated, we created a custom redirect strategy for around 6,000 URLs so that Devil Mountain could maintain the SEO value they had built over the years.

Final Product

Browse through the images below to see our work.

Results

The client is extremely happy with the multilingual, quick-loading, and expanded functionalities of their website. They no longer need to rely on manual and cumbersome inventory, sales, and administrative processes. This BigCommerce B2B Edition website is robust and will be able to evolve with the brand. The client was so happy with our work that they signed on for website maintenance and email and SMS marketing services.

Our efforts with email automations have resulted in a 71% open rate as well as a 12.3% click rate within the first six months after launch, exceeding industry averages. Our integrations have helped Devil Mountain respond to their customers’ email related requests within 24 hours, and see a 100% success rate in resolving customers’ queries.

71%

Increase

In open rate

12.3%

Increase

In click rate