Industry Case Study
Linkint

Link International joined TOTECS back in 2007. At the time, very few e-commerce platforms specialised in relationship-driven, integrated B2B eCommerce. Link offers their expertise through highly skilled sales representatives and customer service teams to a wide variety of clients.

Link and TOTECS have worked together to push the eCommerce envelope, and Link's current Content Managed website is on its 4th major iteration. Enhancements were applied at each step to factor in the rising popularity and mobility of the eCommerce workflows.

Link's fundamental business philosophy revolves around providing their dealer network with secure and real-time access to their product catalogue. Additionally, they utilise their website as a channel to attract and direct the general public to their network of dealers.

Another primary goal is to ensure that dealers and customers can effortlessly access the online platform, enabling them to browse the product catalogue, place daily orders, and efficiently address any account-related inquiries. Fundamentally, this objective focused on aligning the eCommerce Platform with complex customer account data from their ERP system, offering real-time account inquiries and management. It also aimed to provide user-friendly tools for managing product deals and orders tailored to customer groups, ensuring a seamless online experience that matched phone interactions.

The final objective was to provide Sales Reps with specialised access to the eCommerce website, equipping them with advanced functionalities such as seamless switching between customer accounts, real-time pricing and stock information checks, the ability to offer immediate discounts, and the convenience of creating multiple shopping basket orders on the fly. As a result, reps in the field can train customers on website usage and offer support to facilitate their online purchases, ultimately saving valuable time and decreasing the reliance on reps to process orders manually.

Streamlining and automating the online customer experience resulted in several notable advantages. Firstly, it allowed customers to place orders and make product inquiries at their convenience. Secondly, this transformation led to a substantial decrease in manual order processing, alleviating the workload on the customer service team. Traditionally, they had been handling orders received through phone, fax, or email, manually inputting them into the ERP system.

Recognising the need for business growth, Link International realised the importance of implementing an online system that could automate their existing operations while providing the flexibility to adapt to future business requirements.

Link International's decision to choose TOTECS as the online e-commerce partner was driven by the power of its advanced universal pricing model. Compared to their competitors, TOTECS offered a pricing algorithm capable of encompassing all the intricate variables managed within the ERP system. Link faced the challenge of handling 16 distinct price levels, customer-specific pricing, volume discounts across price tiers, and contract pricing. Replicating this intricate pricing model online while maintaining fast and precise product search results was a highly demanding task.

TOTECS demonstrated the capability to handle this intricate pricing structure and showcased other valuable tools, including the customer account enquiry feature. This feature allowed customers to conveniently access and review invoices, sales orders, back orders, and credits directly on the website.

The longstanding collaboration between Link International and TOTECS, spanning 15 years, reflects their ongoing dedication to advancing integrated eCommerce solutions. Together, they persist in their efforts to improve the online shopping experience for the public and retailer/dealer channels they support.