Overview
The Jeske Company is a wholesale distributor of dozens of hardware brands and manufacturer of its own Stone Harbor Hardware brand. The company was founded in 1952 and distributes products from regional warehouses in Wisconsin and Mississippi to a network of retailers ranging from lumberyards to cabinet shops. Jeske has continued to grow and thrive through quality products and customer service, and by embracing emerging technology solutions.
Background
Jeske implemented the NetSuite enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution in 2017 to grow in both traditional and e-commerce channels. However, the application it chose to build its web presence did not meet the company’s or customer’s expectations for functionality. Therefore, Jeske wanted to modernize its e-commerce presence and build out more extensive capabilities to streamline the customer experience and take pressure off of internal resources. The company sought to implement a new e-commerce site quickly, and purchased NetSuite’s SuiteCommerce Advanced to create an effective and engaging sales platform. Jeske then consulted with its NetSuite account manager to select an implementation partner to transition the company to SuiteCommerce Advanced.
Project
Jeske’s NetSuite account manager recommended RSM for the SuiteCommerce Advanced implementation, based on our team’s depth of NetSuite and industry experience. The company agreed, and RSM began developing a rapid implementation solution to fit Jeske’s needs to the SuiteCommerce Advanced platform.
RSM initiated discovery sessions with Jeske to understand the company’s business strategy and what it needed to getout of the system, and develop a plan to get the company on the SuiteCommerce Advanced system as quickly as possible. The RSM and Jeske teams worked collaboratively, leveraging internal Jeske resources for some implementation tasks, while RSM focused on the features and functionality of the new e-commerce solution.
Within three months, RSM implemented the complete SuiteCommerce Advanced solution. Following successful live testing and positive feedback for the company’s new e-commerce presence, Jeske opened the site to customers.
“RSM has been great,” said Shawn Hansen, The Jeske Company’s e-commerce administrator. “They delivered on their promises and they are extremely knowledgeable. It’s been a very nice experience.”
Jeske’s new platform has both increased functionality for customers while reducing the burden on internal customer service resources. With enhanced account overview capabilities, customers can view their order status and tracking, and pay invoices online. Jeske can also now create promotions through SuiteCommerce Advanced to encourage people to use the site.
“Traffic has gone up every month since we launched,” said Hansen. “People are getting used to ordering online, but also using the account overview. That really takes pressure off of our customer service representatives because now our customers can see their own order information online.”
In addition, RSM customized the SuiteCommerce Advanced platform to meet Jeske’s shipping needs, integrating the PaceJet shipping software solution. Jeske utilizes several smaller regional shipping carriers, in addition to larger national companies. RSM customized PaceJet to efficiently return multiple shipping options and rates within the shopping cart, and also leverages its functionality to create shipping discounts and restrictions for certain customers.
The new SuiteCommerce Advanced platform has also helped Jeske to better categorize its inventory. While the company stocks a significant number of products, RSM leveraged native functionality within the system and some customization to enable Jeske to focus customers on specific brands, but also offer the potential to view all available hardware. Moving forward, the company now has the ability to change the featured brands within the system without the help of RSM.
Customers can also view and locate specific products much more efficiently within the SuiteCommerce Advanced solution. Jeske sells hardware with many different styles and finishes, and its previous e-commerce solution could not organize those products for quick browsing and purchasing. However, the new system has enabled customers to make much quicker decisions through more extensive facets and defined options while also viewing current stock levels.
NetSuite provides a single source of data, and the depth of product and category information was all located within the system, but RSM and the SuiteCommerce Advanced platform shaped that data into a functional and efficient shopping experience. It creates a rich e-commerce environment, with new items and information generated directly from NetSuite.
Furthermore, to prepare for evolving purchasing behavior, the SuiteCommerce Advanced platform has created a much more mobile-friendly environment. Jeske clients now have extensive mobility options with the new site, with a much more conducive interface for phone and tablet orders.
“Compared to what we were using before, the new site is much better,” said Hansen. “The site is very fast and people like the look and feel of it. People like the searchability because they are able to quickly find what they are looking for.”
Outcomes
RSM’s implementation of the NetSuite SuiteCommerce Advanced platform has provided Jeske with a much more modern and functional e-commerce solution. With RSM’s industry and NetSuite experience, the team customized the system to Jeske’s unique business requirements, positioning the company for sustained success. The quick implementation has enabled Jeske to create an engaging and streamlined shopping experience that can be further optimized as customer demands evolve.
- Key benefits of RSM’s relationship with Jeske include:
- Greater visibility, organization and product search capabilities
- Enhanced integration of shipping data and rates
- A higher level of detail of inventory for more efficient customer decisions
- More extensive account overview access for clients, reducing pressure on customer service representatives
