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URL : https://inhaven.com/
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Business Type : Business to Business
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Focus : Ecommerce
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Client Industry : Hospitality & Travel
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Platform : BigCommerce
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Services Provided : Email Marketing, Social Media, Web Development
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Launch Date : 07/21/2022
Overview
Inhaven supplies furnishings, supplies, and other products to short-term hospitality and travel service providers. After discussions with several hospitality property owners and managers, the client wanted to solve the procurement challenges they were experiencing. A comprehensive inhaven.com was needed to meet these needs, supply products at affordable prices, and sustain the marketing goals of the brand.
Read on to see how we meticulously developed a custom B2B BigCommerce website for this brand and continue to assist them to stand out in the hospitality and travel industry.
Problem
Inhaven needed a modern and easy-to-use website to solve the procurement challenges experienced by short-term rental providers. This brand’s owner was often disappointed with the challenges in finding quality and affordable products for short-term rental operations.
The client stressed the desire for a simple layout and navigation. As their goal was to be a preferred supplier of short-term rentals products and generate revenue, they sought a modern website that balanced image and content and was visually appealing.
Solution
The client envisioned inhaven.com to be the first B2B ecommerce website to solve the procurement challenges affecting the short-term rentals industry. The website provides short-term rental operators access to curated, affordable, and high-quality products and to resources needed to furnish, manage, maintain, and grow short-term rental brands. Short-term rental owners will then be able to focus more on creating memorable stays for their guests. The new website offers cost-saving opportunities to its customers, is easy-to-use, is loaded with great and relevant content, and offers a loyalty program.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Functionality
BigCommerce was selected based on its robustness to handle the UI and functional customizations requested by the client. BigCommerce’s Enterprise B2B edition has a host of B2B sales features along with smooth and continuous integrations with other platforms. The B2B functionality allows Inhaven to easily manage all their B2B customers’ pricing and accounts from one place. This functionality also enables the quick approval process for new B2B customers and enhances the personalization of customer-specific content.
With the B2B functionality, Inhaven has a hierarchical set of accounts for the brand and its employees. The B2B functionality affords Inhaven the ability to offer customers different products as a bundle. Our team designed badges for these bundles, which not only quickly alert the customer to the variety available but also double as a filter option to streamline the selection process. Customers have the option to request a quote for bundle products that better meet their needs.
To support Inhaven’s goal of providing quality products to its customers, our team reviewed and installed applications that would simplify its distribution and shipping processes. The site now has an app that provides real time synchronization, automates its tracking and product feed processes, and condenses the brand shipping process.
Product Setup
Our team focused on developing high-converting product pages that allowed shoppers to easily find what they are looking for. Each product page is based on experience or room type, and customers are able to shop for bundle products with the option to receive bulk and/or discounted prices.
Automated Lead Approval Process
The brand owners wanted to offer extra services to shoppers who became registered users. Once customers sign up, they have access to multiple vendors, pricing tiers, different shopping checklists, and additional perks. To create this customized experience, we used BigCommerce’s Page Builder to enable and disable content based on the user’s login status.
In order to streamline the process of approving leads for our client, we installed Zoho Forms: used for automating the lead capture and approval process, as well as the creation of customer accounts. Zoho Forms work well with the automated marketing platforms Klaviyo and Yotpo. This integration with Klaviyo allows Inhaven to create welcome emails based on the user’s browsing history. Integrating with Yotpo makes it easier for website users to give their feedback and showcase customer reviews on the website.
SearchSpring Integration
To further enhance advanced search functionality, SearchSpring was installed. The website now has easy-to-use, high-performing search functions. Products are displayed and arranged more efficiently to simplify the shopping process for users. The client can now analyze the behaviors of website users to incorporate into other business processes.
ShipperHQ Integration
The brand’s owner sources and supplies their products using drop shipping. Our development team provided management resources to implement this solution. ShipperHQ was integrated for advanced shipping features. Its application programming interface (API) uses more than 10 shipping points and provides detailed and accurate shipping information at checkout. This app provides complete details on the arrival times as well as the shipping costs to customers, further improving the user experience.
Klarna Integration
Shoppers now have flexible payment options available and can pay for their purchases in installments using the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) app Klarna. This credit and payment financing alternative partners with retailers to offer multiple payment options in order to enhance the shopping experience and boost conversion rates.
Custom Blog
Inhaven.com has a custom blog feature installed with its own unique flair. Users who visit the blog section can view the Newsroom section that our team created using a combination of static page templates and detailed blog listing pages. Website users can see announcements, press, and info sections when they visit the blog section.
Custom Category Pages
We used two category page templates to showcase product pages: a product category landing page and a product listing page. For example, if shoppers are looking for beddings, they can search from the beddings landing page, as well as from the bed linens page which lists beddings.
The website’s owners can now manage the website’s content using BigCommerce’s built-in page builder. The BigCommerce stencil handlebar allows the brand to manage its content as they see fit. The client has the capability to rearrange and show or hide the content viewed by users depending on their login status.
Custom Script
Inhaven carries other product brands in its inventory. We streamlined the product import and export process by automating the custom script used to read data from vendors’ CSV files. This simplifies the inventory update process as the custom script pushes products easily to BigCommerce. The client can also access product reports for their inventory.
Mega Menu
Our team created an easy-to-navigate mega menu with clean, bold images by developing a dynamically populating menu in BigCommerce. This mega menu featured categories and subcategories that would serve the needs of the brand’s customers.
Tax and Accounting Solutions
For tax and accounting needs, we installed Vertex. This app simplifies and streamlines how brands register, file, and remit their sales tax obligations. The client will be able to upload and review sales tax returns, monitor each jurisdiction’s tax liabilities, and ensure compliance.
The brand’s products, customers data, discounts, orders, shipping charges, and sales were automatically synced from the BigCommerce store to QuickBooks online. This integration reduces manual bookkeeping and inventory balance tasks, as well as errors attributable to manual accounting and reconciliation efforts.
Email Marketing Solution
As the client engaged our services for email marketing, Klaviyo was integrated to deliver personalized experiences for customers. This automated ecommerce marketing solution provides brands with email marketing and short message services to increase brand exposure. The brand’s goals for the marketing campaign were: acquiring new customers and boosting customer retention; providing valuable information to customers; communicating promotions, coupons and other discounts; and converting potential leads into new customers.
Here is one of the email templates created by our team:
Final Product
Results
Continued Partnership
Inhaven was so satisfied with our services that they engaged in recurring retainer services to continue website improvements as well as marketing services including email and social media marketing.
Through the current recurring retainer agreement, we provide ongoing support, configuration assistance, and other related tasks the brand needs for the drop shipping fulfillment process. After launching the website, our team’s continued work has included: creating images for the website’s brand search page, adding an easy-to-understand terms & conditions section, and installing a checkbox on signup and alternate pricing options features. We also created tutorials for the client to assist them to create, post, and format blogs, and used customized fields on their website.
