Inhaven Builds a Five-Star B2B Experience with BigCommerce

SOLUTION

Access to top-of-the-line tools.

With the help of its agency partner Cronix, Inhaven successfully launched its ecommerce site, taking advantage of a wide range of features to build a successful B2B store.

“We needed to set up customer accounts at the company level to allow multiple users with different access levels. We also needed the functionality to build tiered pricing by volume quotes. BigCommerce had all of the B2B features that I needed to quickly launch the site,” explained Ashley.

In addition to BigCommerce’s suite of B2B tools, Inhaven takes advantage of the platform's ability to integrate world-class technology. To optimise the customer experience and team efficiency, the brand integrates Flxpoint — a dropship solution that feeds real-time inventory information to retailers and its BigCommerce site so shoppers can see if any products are out of stock.

“Flxpoint is a tool we use that creates a seamless customer experience from a product information perspective and an order management perspective,” remarked Ashley.

The brand also integrates Searchspring — which enables customers to look for specific products based on keywords or aspects like colour — and Zoho CRM to manage tasks as well as customer and vendor data.

Building a new way to shop B2B.

To simplify the shopping process for property owners, Inhaven developed checklists to help customers determine everything they need to furnish their rental home.

“When we were researching with our customers, a lot of them talked about needing checklists. These are businesses, and they do not have time to shop in the traditional way of searching on Amazon and sorting through 50,000 results,” explained Ashley. “Instead, they want expert advice on what to buy based on their budget. So we created a new way to shop B2B by implementing these checklists.”

BigCommerce’s freedom and flexibility allowed Inhaven to combine native tools and custom-built features to create checklists that allow shoppers to easily purchase everything they need for a specific room in bulk or individually. 

“What I love about BigCommerce is we can build on top of existing BigCommerce tools to provide our customers with a unique and relevant experience,” remarked Ashley.

The platform enabled Inhaven to strategically display products based on the quality level a business wants to offer in their rental property. Once an existing customer selects a checklist item, it goes to their shopping cart, which already has their shipping and payment information stored for an efficient checkout.

After a checklist item is purchased, this information links to the shopper’s customer portal, allowing them to communicate their product standards with other account users and easily restock items.

Optimising the restock process.

In addition to the checklist component, Inhaven developed a progressive web app to streamline the process of restocking items. This app connects to Inhaven’s BigCommerce site, enabling users to see the approved products for a specific property and send a purchase request to the property manager, who can quickly buy the item through a one-click checkout.

“Let's say a housekeeper needs to replenish pillows. They can select the items easily through this visual first tool. They can also upload pictures of damaged items or add notes to the purchase request. Once they submit the purchase request, it goes directly to who's in charge of purchasing for that property so they can approve it,” explained Ashley. “This tool ensures that property managers are maintaining the hospitality standards with the specific products approved for that property.”

Inhaven even optimised the customer portal’s search functionality and checkout process to create an easier and more efficient experience for those sending and approving purchase requests.

“We have improved the search functionality within the order management portion of the customer portal so users can search by reference number, comments, or property. We've also created a one-click checkout on the purchase request area of the portal, so when those housekeeping teams send purchase requests for specific properties, the purchaser can quickly checkout,” said Ashley.