26
YEARS IN BUSINESS SINCE
ITS FOUNDING IN 1994
12
WEEKS FROM FINDING ZOEY
TO BEING READY FOR LAUNCH
The Challenge:
A new owner acquired Backyard Nature Products, a business established in 1994 that sells an array of outdoor products, particularly furniture and bird feeders. The business’ existing Drupal website was outdated and an obstacle to accomplishing the new owners’ goals.
The website development priority increased when the site was unexpectedly hacked, said Mike Kasdorf, Director of Backyard Nature Products. “Around two weeks after we closed on the business, the site got attacked by hackers overseas. Our hosting company locked down our database and the site was completely stuck. That incident immediately elevated the site development priority to #1.”
What They Like About Zoey:
- B2B first: Zoey’s core feature set supports a modern B2B and wholesale business, while still allowing for B2C sales.
- Customer segmentation: specific product lines can be made available only to certain, qualifying customers, and pricing for each customer segment can be managed individually.
- Reporting makes it easy to analyze trends and stay on top of sales on a daily basis.
- Automation: Ordering for many B2B customers can be moved online, reducing manual order processing.
- Support: The Zoey team ensured Backyard Nature Products would receive the appropriate support to launch the site, instead of having to do everything themselves.
Evaluating Their Options:
Initially, research began on some of the most common platforms, such as Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce. “All of those were good, even great platforms, but were lacking the thing that we needed that most of all,” Kasdorf said, which was the ability to manage both B2B and B2C customers through a single storefront.
“Backyard Nature Products’ bread and butter is selling wholesale to retailers and that’s still our top priority. We had to be able to sell at wholesale while also offering the opportunity to up our B2C game, do better marketing, build our brands, and integrate some beautiful elements of design around as well.”
The platforms which did offer some way forward, including Magento Commerce and Shopify Plus’s B2B offering, were too expensive. “We looked at planforms which could do everything in the world for you. Those were attractive… until we saw it would cost us $2k or more per month.”
After working through those solutions, Kasdorf began alternative searching online and tripped across B2B-focused Ecommerce solutions, such as Zoey. Kasdorf and the Backyard Nature Products team found these solutions much more in line with what they wanted. Ultimately they narrowed down the choices to both Zoey and the B2B Ecommerce solution provided by RepZio.
Kasdorf said it was the sales and support model offered that led to the selection of Zoey. “We started pushing hard on that button both with [Zoey] about what service looks like and the other company. Zoey’s team clearly brought a problem-solving approach. That was very attractive to us.”
Kasdorf added, “[Zoey] was quick to put us in touch with [development support], walking us through the support picture with Zoey. Nothing’s perfect, but we felt more comfortable with the service we could have through and around Zoey vs. the other one so we said let’s do it.”
To learn how Zoey can help you, request a customized walkthrough with our team!
To learn more about how Backyard Nature Products transformed their online presence and ability to sell to customers with Zoey, download the full case study:
