Business Solution – TEP Technica Wheels eCommerce website

Fusionsoft wheels out an exceptional website for TEP

Websites that are used for ecommerce not only need to look attractive – they also need to be highly versatile. When TEP Technica wanted a website with a high degree of functionality that would integrate with its other in-house systems, it opted for a solution based around Fusionsoft’s Weblinc product. The result was a site that has transformed the volume of sales that TEP now handles online. 

TEP Technica specialises in the supply of wheels for a wide range of industrial applications. In particular, the company has established itself as the UK market leader in the provision of replacement wheels and spare parts for forklift trucks over the past 12 years. It prides itself in delivering products with the highest standards of quality, reliability and durability. TEP’s success has been underpinned by a strategy of lean culture throughout its business.

Three years ago, the company decided that it needed to expand its customer base – and the obvious solution was to invest in the development of a strong online presence. Its vision was for this presence to gradually evolve into a full ecommerce site, incorporating an online shop.

The business issues

Unfortunately, the company’s first website wasn’t sufficiently sophisticated to deliver the expected amount of business. Although, in theory, it would allow customers to buy TEP’s range of wheels, it proved to be very difficult to use and didn’t attract any traffic. There were three main issues involved:

Processing issues – The registration process was unnecessarily complex and there was no credit card integration: customers had to apply for an account before they could purchase anything.

Product issues – A vast range of products were hosted on the site, but it was difficult to find the right item for a specific type or make of forklift truck. There was also no indication of stock availability.

Pricing issues – The site couldn’t handle account-specific pricing, so it was unable to highlight the attractive discount structures available to TEP account customers.

Simon Downs, TEP’s Marketing Director, comments: “The small number of orders actually generated by the website could be handled manually by our back office team. They could print off the orders and then type them into our Access Dimension Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and stock system. However, we wanted a site that could bring in far more orders – and handling those manually just wouldn’t have been a feasible proposition.”

He continues: “We realised that we needed a website that offered far more than just a pretty design. We wanted a highly functional ecommerce site that would allow our customers to find and purchase the right products quickly and easily. It needed to be a robust and stable but flexible solution that would integrate seamlessly with our other systems.” 

The options

TEP also wanted a system that could provide different sales order processing routes for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) clients. Simon carried out a thorough search of the marketplace and whittled the potential options down to two very different alternatives – one based around design and the other primarily around functionality.

The first was a central London web design agency, which had a track record of designing exciting looking websites and building brand presence. The company proposed to redevelop and improve the site’s user interface and to tie this into a third party shopping cart system. However, the major issue would have been the building of a robust link to TEP’s Access Dimensions ERP system to enable orders to be transferred from the website.

The second option was Fusionsoft’s Weblinc product. Fusionsoft’s proposition entailed the use of the company’s Weblinc ecommerce engine, which has been specifically designed to link into ERP systems. Weblinc already had the functionality needed to understand the difference between B2B and B2C sales, and could also handle the concepts of stock, account pricing and the sales order process.

As a result, TEP Technica chose Fusionsoft’s Weblinc as the foundation for its new ecommerce website solution. The new website subsequently went live just 12 weeks after order confirmation. 

The benefits

TEP’s new website (www.technicawheels.co.uk) now provides a strong and established income stream for the business, allowing the company to reach a much wider range of customers. Whilst spreading TEP’s net wider, the website has also enabled the company to develop new relationships. It has been able to encourage customers to migrate from being ‘anonymous’ B2C customers until they eventually become account-holding B2B customers.

The key issues originally raised by TEP were all addressed by Fusionsoft’s solution:

Processing – The new website has a simple registration process for B2C customers. However, the key to its success lies in its integration with TEP’s Access Dimensions ERP system. This manages the company’s accounts, stock, sales orders, discount and price matrixes. All website credit card and account transactions are recorded automatically in the accounting ledgers. Web orders are entered so that they appear in the existing sales order process – the TEP team didn’t need to learn any new skills to process and fulfil orders. The website also integrates with the accounts of credit card merchants. There are now two different order processing routes for regular, B2B account-holding customers and casual B2C customers.

Products – The website’s user interface incorporates sophisticated search tools that enable customers to find specific products very quickly. For instance, they can search according to the forklift truck manufacturer, the model, and the wheel size. The website will also show the customer whether or not the item is in stock. If it is, they can then add it straight into an online shopping basket. 

Pricing – Account-holding customers can now see the actual price for each wheel as agreed with TEP. The new website also strengthens TEP’s excellent reputation for both its customer service and its delivery service. Forklift truck wheels are heavy and bulky items, so the pricing structures for delivery charges are complex and rely on several metrics (such as quantity, dimensions and weight). For this project, Weblinc’s delivery charge module was significantly upgraded to take these factors into account. However, the customer sees none of this complexity: the website calculates the delivery charge and adds it to the basket as a single line. 

The new ecommerce website therefore provides TEP with a continuously open shop that allows customers to place orders whenever this is convenient to them – even if this is during a night shift in a busy freight warehouse.

The verdict

The feedback from TEP’s customers is that the ecommerce website helps them to find the wheels they need rapidly; to buy them easily; and to know that they will be delivered on time.

Simon Downs remarks: ”The website that Fusionsoft has developed has exceeded our expectations – we’re delighted with it. They really are experts in this field, and they’ve provided us with a great and very stable online business application. This integrates seamlessly with our ERP system and exchanges data with it in real time. The website is responsive, robust and secure – and it also looks very stylish and professional as well! We are now planning to make additional product areas available later this year.”

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