Zesco future-proofs B2B operations with Salesforce Commerce

Jasen Ward
September 10, 2024
5 minutes

Zesco distributes restaurant equipment and supplies to all participants of the foodservice industry - from chain restaurants and resorts to food trucks and caterers.

Challenge

Zesco was looking for a solution to improve their complicated data model, set it up for scaling and supporting the product structure required for the future.

The solution had to facilitate the distribution of Zesco’s restaurant equipment, improve their site performance, and overall user experience.

The new B2B eCommerce store had to be seamlessly integrated with several existing IT systems, which constituted one of the biggest challenges of the project

Solution

Zesco selected Salesforce's B2B Commerce platform for its eCommerce solution and hired forténext to support the implementation.

forténext introduced a robust data model tailored to Zesco's needs and created a Salesforce B2B commerce solution that streamlines buying experiences and empowers sales team.

Key deliverables

Unique shipping logic

  • "Virtual Box" shipping logic allows Zesco customers to ship orders at a lower cost using fewer boxes.
  • At checkout, customers can split orders and choose different shipping option, address, and warehouse for each item.
  • Zesco’s algorithm combines products into virtual boxes for the lowest shipping cost.
  • Customers can view estimated shipping costs and configure settings.
  • Admins have control over available shipping options.

Auto registration

  • Zesco customers can delegate the ability to auto-register and manage users within their accounts to sales reps.

Product surveys

  • Zesco team can create product surveys and add them to the product pages for the customers to fill out.

Accurate & quick cost calculations

  • Seamless pricing sync b/w Salesforce and Infor ERP (via Jitterbit), integration with UPS and FedEx for shipping cost calculation.

Robust data model

  • The new data model supports the actual product structure and is tailored to Zesco's needs.

Results & added value

The new B2B store enables Zesco to efficiently manage catalogs and create product variations, provide cost-effective shipping options, and adapt services and products based on customer feedback.

Google Analytics now tracks customer behavior at every stage of purchase. Google Ads get approved smoothly without security or content issues. Sales can see visitor carts, provide effective support, and assist customers in completing orders, even in challenging situations.

The Zesco team also enjoys the flexibility to modify advertising and landing pages as well as fine-tune shipping metrics without developer assistance. Response time from developers, often within less than a day ensures swift support when required.

  • Greater sales analytics & insights
  • Empowered sales team
  • Enhanced ordering process
  • Streamlined Google Ads experience
  • Improved digital agility
  • Improved B2B experiences

Feedback

“forténext is a great partner to have and has made a difficult project with many complicated situations easy and enjoyable." - Jasen Ward, IT Manager at Zesco
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