Customer profile : Fastparts

With a network of 450 dealers nationwide, Fastparts distributes quality components from world-leading manufacturers for tractors and other agricultural machinery: everything from tractor seats to harrows.

Challenge

Tackling the Peak Periods

Prior to the implementation of an e-commerce solution, Fastparts was primarily operating their order process by phone, with dealers calling head office directly and sales representatives manually processing orders.

Parts Director Sinead Scrivener explains, “Due to the seasonal nature of agriculture, we encounter our busiest periods between May and September. During this time we were inundated with calls. Customers couldn’t always get through to place orders and we were unable to dispatch products the same day.”

In addition, Fastparts was printing product catalogs in-house, which was proving an expensive, time-consuming and ineffective way of marketing new products.

Out-of-Date Paper Product Catalogs

“The tipping point was when we printed our last catalog in 2012 and it was immediately out of date,” explained Sinead. “Adopting an e-commerce solution was a natural progression. Up until this point we were quite an old-fashioned company, but we realized we needed to move on fairly quickly to protect our future growth.”

Having previously trialed two unsuitable retail-based web store platforms, it was crucial for Fastparts to find the right partner and roll out their e-commerce operation.

Want to know how Fastparts tackled these challenges and what kind of results they got? Then be sure to get your copy of their reference case!