Sass & Belle Ecommerce Case Study

Giftware wholesaler and retailer choose tradeit for their international B2B & B2C ecommerce.

Sass & Belle deliver stunning UX with the tradeit B2B and Retail ecommerce platform. Sass & Belle is a creative giftware wholesaler supplying everybody from small and independent stores, to large multinational customers around the world. They also sell direct to the end user via their retail website and stores.

"Expectations were very much exceeded! Our customers love the new sites, they find them really easy to use despite the fact they're far more complex than the old sites. My team and I also love the sites as we can do so much with them ourselves, instead of relying on a developer to make even simple changes."

Head of Ecommerce, Sass & Belle

Project Highlights

B2B & Retail ecommerce
Specific B2B ecommerce functionality such as master and sub accounts, pre-order functionality, quick order pad and the ability to view and pay invoices online
Advanced search
Advanced search capabilities powered by Elasticsearch plus mega-menu, facets, predictive search and sort options meaning products are easy to find for users
Multiple sites
Multiple templates for different B2B and Retail ecommerce requirements, some shared, some unique to each
Gift vouchers
Capability to create and send individual customers both physical and e-gift vouchers for use on the retail site
Responsive design
Fully responsive sites with four breakpoints, optimised for all devices, helping to ensure the best possible user experience
Easy administration
Superior CMS and ecommerce administration features meaning websites are much easier to manage without development resources
Seamless integrations
Integration with SAP Business One ERP system including importing orders, invoices, users, stock, prices and back-order items
Shoppable Content
Shoppable content through Foursixty integration on blog pages

Project Integrations

Project Overview

Having traded online for a few years, Sass & Belle were looking to replatform in order to have more control over their B2B & Retail ecommerce sites, as well as benefit from a single set of integrations and the efficiencies of a single platform. Their research led them to look at several ecommerce platforms before deciding on tradeit because it offered more flexibility and control for both B2B & Retail ecommerce than other platforms they considered, as well as Red Technology being more forward thinking than the other providers they looked at.

Sass & Belle ecommerce sites on tablet and mobile phone

Sass & Belle retail ecommerce site on mobile phone

User Experience

Key to the project was user experience which meant starting with a responsive design so the sites were optimised for all devices, whilst also ensuring that the customer journey was significantly improved.

As they carry thousands of lines, the ability for users to find what they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible is vital. Elasticsearch and a new mega menu allow immediate filtering of products by giving users the ability to shop by look, product type or collection, as well as highlighting new products and those on offer. All product listings pages can then be filtered using facets like price, product type, theme or colour, as well as sort options such as Product Code A-Z or Z-A, Product Name A-Z or Z-A, Price Low to High or High to Low, Best Sellers and New Products.

The flexibility of tradeit means sort options are easy to manage and new options can be created based on any attribute they define. Not only that, other sort options can be automatically populated based on metrics such as number of orders, number of page views etc…

tradeit’s rich B2B specific functionality also helps further enhance the user experience for their trade customers. A sophisticated ‘My Account’ means companies can have multiple people placing orders against the same account - with different rights - all controlled by a super user, invoices can be viewed and paid online, along with a quick order pad and the ability to pre-order items.

Ease of Use

The second most important aspect of the new sites was improving the efficiency of Sass & Belle’s ecommerce operations. Being a fairly small team, and not overly technical, they required a platform & CMS that was able to deliver the sophisticated features their customers required whilst being easy to manage and administer. They love the fact tradeit enables them to change and enhance almost anything themselves, instead of having to rely on developers to do things for them. Sharing functionality and content between the Retail and trade sites, but administering it from a single system is another great plus point.

Sass & Belle are seeing their ecommerce sites generate a much bigger share of their business revenue. Feedback has been extremely positive with customers loving the sites and their ease of use.