Project Description

ABOUT COMPANY Distributor of hydraulic and pneumatic seals and related parts. Context & Background Information H&D is an industrial distributor of hydraulic and pneumatic seals and related parts. Currently we receive orders through our e-commerce website, fax, e-mail and phone. Approximately, 12-15% of all ordered line items originate through our e-commerce website. The processing of e-commerce orders is much more efficient than any other type of orders. Additionally, e-commerce eliminates the opportunity for H&D to make order entry errors. H&D has a reputation in the marketplace for being very accessible. As we navigate more customers to place their orders on-line it is critical that we do this without jeopardizing our accessibility. PROJECT SCOPE Develop a plan to encourage more customers to place their orders on line through our e-commerce website rather than via phone, fax, or e-mail. This plan may include making changes to our e-commerce store to make it more user friendly, as well as other ways of incentivizing customers to place their orders on-line. It is imperative however, that as we navigate more customers towards placing their orders on-line that we do not jeopardize our reputation for having technical expertise that is readily available. To accomplish this, we believe you will need to conduct the following research: 1. Best practices around e-commerce of industrial parts in a B to B environment a. Opportunities to make our website more user friendly b. Opportunities to make our website more helpful to customers, such that entering orders on-line becomes easier than call/fax/e-mail. 2. Programs that incentivize customers to order on-line. Please consider cost/benefit of the incentives. Also, please verify that the all stake holders are aligned. 3. How to keep our technical experts engaged with customers who place their orders on-line. If a pure e-commerce world, Amazon will win. Therefore, it’s imperative that we don’t jeopardize our differentiator (customer service, including the accessibility of our technical experts) as we migrate more customers to e-commerce orders. Final deliverables should include: Clear and concise recommendations of how to drive more customers to place their orders through our e-commerce store, without compromising our reputation of being very accessible. Summary Develop a strategy to migrate more customers to place their orders on-line through our e-commerce website rather than via fax, e-mail, phone, etc.