The Challenge:
A previous solution stopped getting updated, and got increasingly difficult to use as the business grew. So West Coast Distributors turned to Zoey to provide a more modern solution that the business can grow into over time.
The Success:
- Many orders are done on the ground with mobile trucks (which act as mini-warehouses for the business)
- Their buyers are increasingly able to pre-order, making the trucks more productive on their routes, helping the business continue its growth trajectory
- Their team can identify upselling opportunities based on what the customer has and hasn’t bought
- Draft Orders can be adjusted as often as needed before final delivery, and the order can be converted at that time
What They Like About Zoey:
- White glove service getting setup with Zoey is different than most businesses. The Zoey team saw
through what they said could be done. - Zoey can manage complex pricing scenarios, such as tier pricing across a group of products, as opposed to just individual SKUs.
- The web platform allows customers to reorder with ease, especially those comfortable with the products West Coast Distributors sells.
- A pending order can be updated and edited on the go with the Zoey App, since many customers will purchase additional products on the go.
- Invoicing through Zoey is simple for their customers to login and review, and makes managing what’s due simple for both sides.
Migrating to Something More Robust
West Coast Distributors has been in business for awhile, and had established themselves on a different platform, Insitu. However, they were noticing that what they had been reliant on was not being kept up as much as it had previously.
“With our previous vendor, in the beginning they were doing a lot of things, and fixing bugs,” said Ben Bartell, owner of the business. “As time went on, that work stopped happening and they even stopped responding to emails. It’s not a good sign if we’re not getting responses. We can’t have our website go down.”
They further struggled with bugs and issues that impeded their business’ ability to function normally. “The bugs that they had were not getting resolved,” he said. “It created tons of frustration with invoicing and keeping track of inventory. It was rough.”
He and his wife decided it was time to look at other options. His wife took on the responsibility of researching options and seeing what was out there. She kept him informed about the process and noted that Zoey seemed to have a different approach than other vendors.
The key was to get organized beforehand, something Zoey facilitated in the conversation. Bartell said, “Before you begin the setup process, you have to think through how you want to group different products and make it easier for your customers to find things. Once you’ve thought through that and how you want the website to look and function. It was super easy. Zoey has lots of features and lots of settings.”
