HLS Outdoor Brings the Outdoors Inside with new Personalized and Scalable eCommerce Platform
HLS Outdoor
Brooklyn Park, MN
Irrigation & Landscape Distributor
Introduction
HLS (Heritage Landscape Supply) Outdoor, a provider of the highest quality irrigation, landscape, and outdoor lighting products in the Minneapolis market, needed a modern commerce approach (HLS did not have eCommerce on their previous site). HLS Outdoors’s main goal was to sell online and allow for an enterprise B2B buying experience. This meant that they were going to need a platform that is flexible and scalable so they can launch new websites going forward.
Ultimately, HLS Outdoor decided to use Optimizely because of the knowledge their parent company (SRS Distribution) already had working on that platform and the CMS capabilities the platform has. They chose Luminos Labs as their implementation partner because of their integration experience and existing InRiver Connector. A PIM (Product Information Management) was a focus for HLS Outdoor because managing catalog data had been a difficult task previously.
It was also determined that the overarching Heritage solution and HLS specifically would use a different code base than the existing SRS website because of an overall different business model. As Heritage launches their future storefronts, they will also be deployed under the same unified code base that HLS is using. This approach allows for a flexible and scalable B2B-focused eCommerce solution that can be managed by a core eCommerce team.
Integrations
HLS Outdoor applied two different integrations through the instruction of Luminos Labs. They chose InRiver for their PIM to simplify managing their catalog and decided to use their in-house ERP, Agility.
Also, they determined that after the order is placed online, instead of a backend solution, they would have the purchaser put in a call to conduct logistics because overall the shipping implementation would have been too complicated to run through the website and didn’t make sense to add-on.
Features
Search
An improved search bar allows for customers to be more efficient in their search with type ahead programmed in. Also, they are now able to add to cart directly from the search instead of having to click into the specific product page.
Pricing
A new pricing system was implemented by Luminos Labs that was able to assign a price to a specific log-in. This capability provided HLS Outdoor to have pricing unique per customer as well as per job.
Product Information Management (PIM)
HLS Outdoor created a whole new way to be able to manage their catalog through the Luminosity InRiver Connector. This also allowed for each location to have its own store specific details page.
MyAccount
The construction for HLS Outdoor “MyAccount” was constructed with the order history to be called externally through their ERP, Agility, versus internally through Optimizely directly. HLS Outdoor and Luminos Labs then created the ability to have sub accounts within the organization. As employees leave and come-in, HLS Outdoor can manage which employees have permissions to manage different portions of the website.
Built-In Lists
A new ability of “quick order lists” were developed to allow customers to go back to the website and not have to search through their products for a past order. They simply create different combinations of orders and then click into the Reorder Pads; select which Reorder pad they would like and go to their cart to purchase.
Luminos Labs and Optimizely were able to provide a seamlessly integrated commerce ecosystem allowing for online purchasing to augment the customer experience through unique capabilities such as MyAccount and QuickOrder Lists. They will now have a base code to use as they look to continue to have a scalable platform for affiliated companies to launch from going forward.