WebTrade solution has supported future growth plans for parts retailer
WebTrade solution has supported future growth plans for parts retailer
Excel Automotive Group (EAG), a supplier of parts and accessories to the automotive aftermarket, has reflected on how its recent investment in an ecommerce solution has helped revolutionise its business.
Managing Director Adrian Lamb explained that the company has been using Autopart, MAM's business management software, for some time and has now added a WebTrade portal to better enable EAG to carry out electronic trading.
"The portal is so easy for our customers to use - we've already seen a significant step up in the number of orders we're taking, which I'm delighted to see," Adrian noted.
The figures speak for themselves. Between January and February 2020, EAG experienced a 73 per cent rise in the total number of orders placed through the portal, while the value of these orders increased 25 per cent.
"The increase has been pretty significant from a relatively small base over the last couple of months," Adrian revealed. "We've set up each customer with a username and password, which they are able to change once they've accessed the portal."
EAG is keen to drive more of its customers towards electronic trading. Enquiry logs are available within the portal, which allow Adrian and his team to track how often users carry out registration lookups and place orders.
Handling the volume of online orders hasn't been an issue for EAG, mainly because the portal has eliminated the need to manually input information. Not only has this led to time savings for the factor, but it has also eliminated the likelihood of human error.
"With electronic ordering, you receive an incoming order, click on it and it produces a picknote. This goes through to our picking area in the warehouse where our guys pick and pack and dispatch it," said Adrian.
It now takes between 30 seconds and a minute to process an order of 15 to 20 lines; when done manually, this could take up to ten minutes to achieve without interruption. "From start to finish it is much quicker and more efficient," Adrian highlighted.
Looking to the future, there is still plenty of untapped potential within the platform that EAG has yet to maximise - but fully intends to in the coming months. This includes the ability to generate reports, copy invoices and retrieve information that will help out the accounts team; Adrian revealed that EAG is focused on "getting the basics right first" before investigating these additional features.
"We're living in an electronic era, so if we don't change then we will get left behind. Although it can sometimes be challenging to change people's habits, it's absolutely the right thing for us to do," Adrian added.
