Case Study
Online Marketplace for Specialised Products
We worked with an industrial supplier to create an online store with flexible, customizable and searchable listings
About the Company
Innovative Marketing Resources (IMR) has been operating since 1994 and is best known for their successful inbound marketing strategy used by hundreds of HubSpot agency partners.
Website
boildersupplies.com
Headquarters
McDonough, GA, USA
Industry
Web Development, Internet
Technology used
Apache
MySQL
PHP
Javascript
CSS
HTML
jQuery
About the Users
This project was created for boilersupplies.com – a subsidiary of Power Plus International. Located in McDonough, GA, USA, Boilersupplies.com supplies over 3,000 different parts from their 14,000 sq. ft. facility. They are the leading supplier of parts for the boiler industry, with products such as heat exchangers, tube bundles, traps, valves, values, boiler controls and more.
This product provides online sales to companies that:
- have a very differentiated assortment
- offer products from different fields with many different characteristics, non-standard products
- sell products that are difficult to choose correctly without consulting a specialist, and a mistake in any product parameter can lead to severe consequences.
The Challenge
Online sales channels help companies stay ahead of their competitors. However, our client was unable to use a standard online store for the following reasons:
- Complex Goods
Our customer sells technologically sophisticated products that are smaller components of multicomponent systems. Such products require exceptional accuracy in the selection, but at the same time need standardization. For each product, they need the ability to create a new product card. - Multivariate Analysis
When designing a system for specific parameters – such as heating, our client’s customers use elements that need to be defined with clarity and precision. All characteristics of the goods that were sold were accurate and unchanged. However, suppose the necessary product was not available. It has to be replaced by combining other components with different parameters that could create a system with the required characteristics. - Rigid Standardization
The product purchased by a buyer must be quintessential for multiple other elements of the final system. Any error or assumption in the parameter of a system element can lead to a malfunction, so accuracy is vital to avoid dangerous accidents. - Delayed Consequences
An error in choosing a product may not appear immediately but lead to a system crash after a while. Then the pledged resource will already be exhausted, and the system will operate at total capacity, and stopping it will entail high costs. - User-Friendly Interface
Despite its complexity, it is important for the site to be easy-to-use for both our client and their customers. The products are presented for sale on a public domain and may be used by individuals with limited experience. The selection algorithm should be at maximum efficiency to provide both parties with a flawless experience.
The Solution
CorelianceIT developed an online store boilersupplies.com with a tool for creating customized product cards and a unique search algorithm for mating elements (made together with the client’s specialists).
The algorithm takes into account the strict operational requirements of each system element, including:
- dimensions
- load
- throughput
- efficiency
- duration of use (each system has a guaranteed service life based on the service life of the most short-lived part)
- conjugation of materials
- tolerances.