The challenge

Diesel-Electric is a network of independently-owned Bosch contract partners and franchise holders, supplying the Southern African automotive aftermarket industry.

Diesel-Electric’s customers often need vehicle parts urgently in order to complete a repair on time. The Stock2Shop B2B Trade Store enabled customers to see the price of each product, as well as its availability in each warehouse, and place orders directly into Diesel-Electric’s account on SAP Business One.

The goals

• Sync inventory and show stock levels for each product by warehouse.
• Sync contract pricing discounts.
• Sync customer data.
• Provide a streamlined product search.
• Sync each customer’s orders into their dedicated accounts on SAP.
• Manage expectations when items are out of stock.

The solutions

Stock2Shop tailored the settings on the Trade Store to better suit Diesel-Electric’s needs. Logic was programmed into the system to trigger information or prompt an action by the customer when certain products were added to cart.

Sync products

• Diesel-Electric can manage their inventory from SAP Business One, while Stock2Shop automatically updates their B2B Trade Store near real time.
• Stock2Shop integrated all their product data, including multiple price lists, contract discount structures, inventory levels by warehouse, alternative products and more.

Streamlined product search Diesel-Electric has many products, so it’s important that customers have effective search functions. The Stock2Shop B2B Trade Store has a few to choose from:

• Search bar - This elastic search function is likely to bring up the desired product even if the search key is slightly misspelled.
• Quick Order - Entering a SKU code or part of a product title will populate an easy-to-navigate list with all related products. Customers can then add what they want to their cart with just a few clicks.
• Layered navigation - The products are segmented by attributes such as brand or category, and customers can use these to filter the product listing, thus narrowing their search.
• Year/Make/Model - This powerful search tool was purpose-built for the automotive industry. It is similar to layered navigation, except the customer is first asked to select the year of the vehicle they are working on, followed by the make and model in quick succession. By the end they have whittled the thousands of products on the store to just those that are relevant.

Sync customers

• Stock2Shop is syncing customer data into the console so customers and sales reps can automatically access products and pricing linked to their account.

Sync orders

• When a Diesel-Electric customer places an order, Stock2Shop will attempt to raise it into their dedicated account on SAP Business One. If the customer is in good standing, the order will raise successfully as a sales order. If not, it will fail and Stock2Shop will notify the accounts department at Diesel-Electric.
• Sales reps can log in on behalf of the customer and place a sales order into that customer’s debtors account on the Diesel-Electric ERP.