2. Freight Integration with Starship

Calculating shipping estimates before items are packaged presents challenges, since box dimensions and total weight are not yet determined, and handling charges vary by company. Demand Products (along with many other B2B distributors, wholesalers, and manufacturers) addresses this with StarShip, shipping processing software that integrates with Acumatic ERP to offer shipping estimates at the time of order, including all costs and fees. However, the lack of integration between BigCommerce and StarShip forced Demand Products into the less-than-ideal situation of having to manually determine shipping costs after the customer has checked out. This manual intervention not only introduced the risk of inaccurate shipping estimates but also significantly increased the likelihood that the customer would cancel their order. These inefficiencies necessitated a platform that could unify their eCommerce website, shipping software, and ERP, streamlining operations and allowing sales reps to focus on sales rather than resolving shipping estimate issues.

3. Shipping Discounts

B2B businesses often incentivize purchases by offering shipping discounts based on the quantity bought. This strategy is designed to reduce shipping costs, which can sometimes constitute a large portion of the total order price. However, supporting shipping discounts, especially in conjunction with platforms like StarShip, presents challenges due to BigCommerce's lack of support for shipping discounts, and (as seen above) a lack of integration with StarShip. Due to this inability to support shipping discounts, Demand Products could not implement any shipping promotions, impacting restricting them in terms of pricing flexibility and hindering upsell opportunities.

4. Unified Location-Based Pricing

It’s common for companies like Demand Products to operate multiple warehouses across the country to minimize long-distance freight charges. Different locations can lead to pricing variations due to costs associated with operating warehouses in different areas. This strategy also adds complexity due to the multiple shipping origins but keeps shipping costs as low as possible for customers. Acumatica ERP supports pricing by location, but BigCommerce lacks that ability, offering only a single price point for an item regardless of where it is stored or sold. This completely undercut Demand Products’ business model.

5. Simplified Sales Tax Exemption Solution

Navigating the complexities of sales tax across the United States is a significant challenge for many companies, given the existence of over 23,000 sales tax jurisdictions and the fact that many companies have a presence in multiple states, creating a 'nexus' that obligates them to collect sales tax in each of those states.

But for most B2B distributors, including Demand Products, the overwhelming majority of their transactions are tax-exempt since products are typically resold. They found traditional solutions (like Avalara) disproportionately costly for their needs and wanted to manage their large number of sales tax exemptions more efficiently. They wanted to implement a simpler, more straightforward solution that could directly pull data from their Acumatica ERP system to determine the tax status of a customer and the taxability of a product at checkout. This could not be done with BigCommerce.

6. Enhanced search functions

Most of Demand Products’ customers are contractors who might inaccurately enter an item number (or not know it) or misspell product descriptions while searching for a product while standing on a job site. This often led to a lot of difficulty in locating the right product to order and a lot of friction (in general) during the online ordering process. BigCommerce could not address this capability without the use of third-party plugins.

• Nomad enhances the sales process by notifying customers when they are close to qualifying for a discount, encouraging additional purchases to reach discount thresholds. This feature is particularly valuable for upselling, enabling businesses to drive higher order values by informing customers of potential freight savings with additional purchases.

The Importance of Direct ERP Integration

The core issue for Demand Products was data management, especially the inconsistent synchronization between Acumatica and BigCommerce. This problem was persistent, leaving Demand Products without any way to access needed data promptly, transform it, and send it to where it was needed during the customer’s ordering processing.

Their experience underscores the significant advantage of using Nomad for B2B eCommerce: efficient data management and ERP synchronization. B2C eCommerce solutions that are retrofitted for B2B are usually dependent on 3rd party connectors resulting in a lack of direct access to essential data and resulting in frequent data inaccuracies and synchronization issues. These services, while functional for basic tasks, fall short when customization or access to specific, unique data sets is needed.

Nomad's direct integration with Acumatica ERP ensures a seamless and reliable data connection. This capability for swift data access and customization without third-party services offers a strong value proposition: immediate and precise data retrieval, enabling automated eCommerce sales processes that align with back-office operations.

This access not only streamlines operations but also significantly reduces the potential for errors and delays, setting Nomad apart as a more adaptable and efficient solution for B2B wholesalers, manufacturers, and distributors using Acumatica ERP.