Creating exceptional digital experiences through streamlined content management
Crescent Electric Supply Co.
Dubuque, IA
Electrical supplier
Introduction
Crescent Electric Supply Company has been a trusted source for electrical contractors since 1919. With more than 130 locations nationwide, Crescent Electric brings the industry insight and intelligence their customers need to achieve their goals for any project.
Modernizing the digital presence
After being in business for over 100 years, Crescent decided it was time to modernize their digital presence and bring a full omnichannel experience to their customers. The digital storefront did not reflect the same level of expertise and ease that Crescent was known for and recognized a need to turn this into a reality.
They had grown through acquisition of multiple brands (with their own ERPs) taking them from a smaller regional footprint to a full national presence. Due to the complexity of the existing systems and processes in place, a phased approach made sense to focus on user adoption and functioning integrations to allow scaling.
Building a foundation for continuous growth
Utilizing an MVP approach, we helped Crescent quickly launch Optimizely CMS within a couple of months. This allows Crescent to not only start collecting data based on customer usage, but it also allows us to continuously work in the background on building more features based off that consumer data and get the Crescent Electric team more comfortable using the new platform.
The new CMS solution enables Crescent customers to self-select target markets, such as Construction and Industrial; along with the option to self-select services and select product type by manufacturer all within a single hub.
Optimizely
After enabling the Opimizely CMS, Crescent Electric focused on utilizing the Commerce portion of the Optimizely DXP to enable transactional orders for both new and existing customers. Crescent requires a powerful platform that can be very extensible to their business needs. Optimizely DXP offers powerful, cloud-based features that allow for a seamless integration into existing workflows and extensions of Crescent’s business requirements.
inriver
Crescent Electric elected to have inriver as their PIM, which allows them to build out their website with a more robust use of product data. These updates allow product detail pages to have enough information on them to give the customer all the information they need in order to make an informed purchasing decision or to troubleshoot in the field.
Information such as the item number, universal product code (UPC), and manufacturer number, along with manuals and documentation so the customer can understand everything about the product. All of which are means of search for the specific product, giving multiple options to ensure the customer finds the right item they are looking for.
Hawksearch
By utilizing Hawksearch, Crescent Electric offers an enterprise search experience to their customer base that allows for continuous optimization of search results and the search function in general to keep feeding customers relevant products and content. Hawksearch allows customers to use a quick search pad so they can easily add multiple products to their cart along with advanced type ahead so they can find items quicker as well (by searching for product numbers, synonyms, and more).
Crescent Electric is a widely spread-out company across the United States, meaning a lot of different storefronts. Their website now has store specific pages where each store can update their own hours and map showing its direct address and image relating to each location.
Epicor Eclipse
A driving factor behind the information showing up seamlessly on the new website is due to the back-end integration to Epicor Eclipse, providing a flexible, scalable integration approach. With a focus on website performance and speed, the website is optimized to ensure minimal wait time between loading pages and feeding relevant information, including customer specific pricing, inventory, and order rules.
The Results
With Hawksearch driving the search so customers can seamlessly find what they are looking for and analytics through Optimziely to follow what is trending with their customers, the project is not over just yet. Crescent’s new tools and analytics allow them to continue to optimize based on client feedback. Phase 3 involves utilizing that data to continue to provide a truly customer-centric approach.
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