When Hisco Inc. launched Hisco.com as an e-commerce site in 2015 after a 9-month deployment project, its e-commerce team was thrilled.
“We thought we had arrived,” says Gary Niemand, senior vice president, information technology. “Then the skeletons came out with all the bad product data.”
Hisco, which distributes a diversified range of industrial products and services to companies such as aerospace and medical device manufacturers, learned from its sales team and others that its product data was inconsistent and difficult to use in marketing pieces and website promotions.
It was also surprised to learn that its site’s debut was not received as well as expected by its intended users. Although Hisco communicated the features of the new site to its customers and internal staff, that communication was apparently not heard by many customers as well as by Hisco employees, says Julie Stewart, director of e-commerce.
She noted, for example, that, because of the problem with product data, one sales rep told a customer that Hisco didn’t have an e-commerce site. Another expressed surprise when he realized that Hisco could provide customized contract pricing to customers, even though that option had been available for more than a year.
“I’m still shocked to this day,” Stewart says. “We can’t assume that everyone was aware of the changes. If I could do it all over, we would have put more effort into change management.” Change management refers to the practice of helping employees and customers learn how to use a new business process or technology system.
Niemand and Stewart discussed Hisco’s e-commerce site development during a presentation at the B2B Online conference yesterday in Chicago.
Hisco, which runs its new e-commerce site on software from Insite Software Solutions Inc., took several steps to improve how customers and employees used Hisco.com.
It worked with an outside consultant to improve its product data, making it consistent across it website and its enterprise resource planning, or ERP, system. ERP systems include software for managing inventory, financial and customer activity records.
It also organized programs to educate employees and customers, and upgraded its customer service team to help customers become aware of the site features.
Niemand and Stewart didn’t comment on results in conversion rates or sales, but said Hisco is continuing to work on product data to provide more effective cross-selling and upselling product recommendations. It has also restructured its compensation policy for sales reps, providing them credit for online sales.
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