Creating a new wholesaler suite with Saris
Saris is a trusted name in the cycling world. Known for their deep passion and expertise for cycling, they offer high-quality accessories such as racks, training bikes, and storage systems. While the brand offers its wide range of products directly to the consumer through an e-commerce website, it needed to revamp and solidify the online presence of its wholesale offering. The Saris team approached Able Sense in search of both strategy and specific Shopify B2B expertise. With help from the team, Saris was able to transform its B2B business from a phone-only operation into a full-fledged and intuitive self-service B2B online experience.
When collaborating with companies that offer product for both direct to consumer and wholesale channels, it is imperative to create a unified experience. In this particular case, the Able Sense team reviewed the needs of the Saris team, their desired customer experience, and how they managed inventory to confirm how this can be achieved on Shopify B2B. The team recommend a separate dedicated site for Saris D2C and B2B, while mirroring the experience on both instances. This approach would allow Saris to support the online and wholesale business much more easily while crucially keeping customer data and analytics separate for wholesale customers. The Able Sense team built out unique features into the B2B customer experience, with customizations across the PDP and within checkout.
Platform & technologies
- Shopify B2B
SERVICES
- Development
- Consulting
Working collaboratively to make new discoveries
The Able Sense team worked closely with Saris to understand their internal B2B processes to ensure that the migration to Shopify was achievable and would have a clear, positive impact on the team’s workload. This collaboration involved in-depth meetings where a product matrix was fleshed out and customer segments and price lists were created so that customers with payment restrictions would be aware on the front end. A slew of new premium features such as a sign up page for wholesalers to submit info for approval, improved account nesting, distinct payment methods options, catalogs, checkout settings, and draft orders all resulted from this close collaboration.
Migrating the Saris D2C site theme to a new B2B-specific platform
Following suit with Able Sense’s strategic advice to move Saris’ B2B offering to its own dedicated site, the team adapted the D2C theme for wholesale, to ensure a unified experience across the two platforms. This creates a cohesive brand experience for both types of customer, as well as a strong framework that can continue to be built on as the brand evolves.
Adding an retailer credit limit on the PDP
As most wholesale purchases are not paid for upfront, a specific requirement of Saris’ B2B business is the ability to set credit limits for their retailers. The Able Sense team leveraged Shopify metafields to implement unique credit limits for customers that are managed on the backend, which is displayed on the PDP. The credit limit feature is informational, and does not lead to the transaction being blocked. Rather, all wholesale purchases are processed as draft orders, seeing as they need to be closely reviewed by the Saris team before complete processing.
Implementing new checkout UI extensions
The Able Sense team further developed the checkout process for Saris’s B2B customers by adding checkout UI extensions. This includes displaying the B2B client’s credit limit at checkout and providing the option of selecting their own carrier rather than being assigned one. This marks a huge step forward for the brand’s wholesale customer flow, seeing as initially there was no online process for carrier selection and beyond.
Related Projects
National. Invigorating the online experience for an intergenerational womenswear brand
