Who?
With their logo and strapline pinpointing Beacon Roofing Supply as a ‘beacon’ of hope for both private and commercial residences, one of the primary selling points of the Beacon brand is their established presence in the building industry.
Beacon Roofing Supply is one of the oldest distributors in the industry, operating in North America across 589 locations and 50 different States. As well as roofing supplies the brand also sell other building materials, insulation solutions, solar energy, and relevant tools and equipment supplies.
The business in numbers
The Project
Despite being one of the oldest and most established supply distributors in the industry, Beacon Roofing Supply found that its competitors were outselling them across the online market. Beacon has long been a customer-facing brand with over-the-counter and traditional sales reps the driving force for the majority of sales - but they knew it was time to expand online with a flexible and innovative digital presence.
AAXIS Digital was engaged to design and implement an online platform that could connect different Beacon stores and support online fulfillment in an efficient way. With live updates across regional availability and a digital commerce platform supporting online ordering and scheduled pick up of purchases, the project was to simplify and streamline a process whereby trade customers could track down the supplies they need, order them, and pick them up efficiently.
In short, the main project that AAXIS Digital was engaged to work on involved:
- The creation of an online ordering platform
- The implementation of a channel that supported and complemented existing customer touchpoints
- A focus on aligning availability across online and offline platforms
Our Approach
The team at Beacon Roofing Supply was concerned that an online channel would create competition with the existing order process, so every element of the project was designed to complement existing channels rather than completely eradicate them.
We decided to build an online channel that placed orders through specific stores and married orders to physical locations, using the existing over-the-counter channel to support the online fulfillment process. A centralized product portfolio was implemented with a live feed update to track overall stock and the sale of different products and materials, supporting the existing B2B platform while leaving room for a later project built upon the implementation of a B2C site.
This secondary project gave us an opportunity to establish a new front-end site, built to provide a B2C sales solution for private customers, which gave them somewhere to source supplies without losing the high-level experience, consistency, or seamless service. By creating this as a follow-up project, we were able to establish both the B2B and B2C platforms successfully, using a core digital platform to manage all operations.
A big part of our design and implementation strategy for Beacon Roofing Supply relied upon the connection between the online and office touchpoints, and so we focussed on creating a responsive site that also offered:
- Physical pick-up locations and dates for trade customers enquiring about different materials
- A responsive site experience across all devices, for on-the-go ordering
- A simple online quoting process for contractors and large building projects
- The opportunity for customers to create a LogIn and online account with Beacon Pro+
- Tracking on different materials and orders
By engaging our experience in the online customer journey and the importance of transparency throughout the purchase and order process, we created a robust online platform that not only tapped into a new online audience but also enhanced the existing offering of Beacon Roofing Supply.
The Results
The first phase of the project was to create an online site for trade customers, with the intention being to expand and widen the target audience to private buyers in the near future. The design, build, and implementation of a B2B digital platform and order site was the original goal of this project, taking the existing customer touchpoints and building them into the customer journey. Upon meeting this goal and widening the target audience for Beacon to include independent buyers, we were delighted to then continue working with Beacon to establish their B2C site for private customers.
The resulting online platform introduced fresh new channels for customers to place and manage orders, removing the number of manual processes required in the background for Beacon staff and streamlining the process for customers.
Some of the more detailed aspects of our results assessment include:
- The ability to place orders at any time, 24/7 - no longer limited by store opening hours
- A reduction in the number of customer service calls being managed by employees
- An increase in self-service orders, causing a drop in expenditure relating to sales
- An increase in the number of products per order
- Faster and more streamlined experience, improving customer satisfaction rates
- Improved conversion rates, with modern customers preferring and leaning towards a self-managed online ordering process rather than the need to go to a store or pick up the phone
AAXIS Digital is committed to delivering enterprise digital solutions that deliver the results you need. Get in touch for more information on how we can support your business and help your online presence thrive.