Caboodle Ecommerce Case Study - Red Technology UK

B2B, Multi-channel commerce for this Office Supplies & Stationery wholesaler.

Moorside Office is one of the UK’s largest independently owned suppliers of office supplies, furniture, stationery and printer consumables. Having acquired Caboodle a few years ago it was time to give it some added attention, starting with a complete site rebuild on the tradeit ecommerce platform, followed by a relaunch of their other brands, Monkey Office, and Office Supplies, on the same tradeit installation.

"Within just a month of launching we already saw a 30% increase in sales against the same period last year. This has fully vindicated the decision to move to Red Technology. We are now in the process of moving the rest of our brands across to the tradeit platform as soon as we can!"

Managing Director, Moorside Office

Project Highlights

My Account
My Account functionality for 3 distinct buyer types with full user management and self service capabilities including: view and pay invoices, unlimited gross & net pricelists, master and sub accounts (with full control and order approval system), view saved and back orders, & multiple saved baskets/quick order pads including order file upload function
Responsive design
Fully responsive sites with 4 breakpoints, optimised for all devices, helping to gain competitive advantage
Advanced promotions
Advanced promotions and offers capabilities to drive up conversions and average order value
Sophisticated personalisation
Sophisticated personalisation engine meaning users can be individually targeted with relevant content and offers.
Integrations
Integration with Enterprise ERP system including two-way feed of customer, product, quote and order information
Loyalty scheme
Smooth transition of existing online loyalty schemes to new websites, helping to increase user re-engagement
Multiple sites
Three separate and individually designed sites managed from a single instance of the tradeit platform
Ink & toner finder
Customised ink & toner finder

Project Integrations

Project Overview

With the growth of mobile & tablet devices, and Google intent on punishing sites that are not mobile-friendly, it was agreed that the new websites must use a responsive web design (RWD) with four breakpoints each. The delivery of the RWD was handled by Red’s in-house design services team who created prototypes of the sites along with core HTML5 templates and style guides, which were integrated with the tradeit B2B ecommerce platform to produce the basis of the new websites. Once approved, the remaining templates were designed and rolled out.

Monkey Office ecommerce site on a computer

Office supplies ecommerce site on a mobile phone

Monkey Office ecommerce site on a mobile phone

Sophisticated B2B Functionality

Having finished the design, attention turned to the new functionality required to stand out from their competitors, and the tools required to engage, convert and re-engage users on a more personal level. As the tradeit ecommerce platform is designed for both retail and B2B environments, Monkey Office, Office Supplies and Caboodle were able to harness the power of both worlds. That meant they had the advanced personalisation, search, merchandising and marketing tools normally associated with leading retail ecommerce sites, alongside sophisticated B2B functionality such as complex pricing matrices, master and sub account management, online invoices, quick order pads, regular/re-ordering tools and complete 24/7 control over orders (including order history, back orders, order approvals and more). They were also able to share resources and content between the three sites without any duplication of effort.

ERP integration

The other main element of the project was delivering the two-way integration between Moorside Office’s ERP system and the tradeit ecommerce platform. With over 20,000 products and thousands of customer, order and quote records from the previous three years needing to be shared between the two systems, seamless integration was paramount. With dedicated integration expertise, and years of proven experience, Red are adept at handling this level of complexity with all data now easily shared between the two systems at intervals of the merchant’s choosing.

The combination of design, functionality and integration delivered by Red means Monkey Office, Office Supplies and Caboodle can offer their customers a class-leading ecommerce experience and drive aggressive sales targets within a highly congested market. It also helps improve their own processes and services, with the site even developing into a sales tool for their internal teams!