Ventum Builds Their Ideal Ecommerce Machine on BigCommerce

SOLUTION

BigCommerce allowed for peak performance.

Ventum turned to their agency partner TWIO for help. “In the beginning, we were really scoping it out and seeing what the major pain points were,” said Valerie Reaburn, Director of Interactive and Operations at TWIO. “From an operational perspective, we saw that nothing was really coming together how they would’ve liked it to. Everything was manual. They needed a much more robust system.”

They originally looked at two separate platforms, Magento and Shopify, as alternatives for WooCommerce, but both proved to have their own sets of challenges. Magento proved to be the wrong fit based on Ventum’s inventory management system, and required too much custom configuration to be efficient for Ventum’s internal teams.

TWIO then turned to IDP, a BigCommerce certified agency partner, for suggestions on how to move forward. “When we learned that the teams were considering Shopify for the build, we had to advise in a different direction,” explained Persinger. “Everything about this project sounded like they were looking for high levels of customisation and advanced functionality, which Shopify just doesn’t do. I knew we had to go with BigCommerce.”

Once they decided on a platform, it was time to get to work creating a high-performance machine that could match the products Ventum sold.

Developing the bike builder.

Perhaps the most important piece of the new site was the bike builder. This tool would allow customers to make the bike of their dreams, pulling items and various SKUs directly from Ventum’s inventory. The new builder had to integrate seamlessly with other internal systems, and provide customers with the highest level of customisation possible.

“We really wanted to amplify the bike builder,” Reaburn said. “The visuals, the ease of use, and the customer-facing side of it. We really wanted this to elevate the brand, because it was such an integral part of the customer experience. Having gone with BigCommerce, we definitely made the better choice there with how it integrates with all the other systems.” 

Using Doogma, a product personalisation and customisation software, the team created a bike builder that allowed Ventum’s customers to see real-time inventory data as they built their dream bike. Orders would then go directly to the Ventum warehouse and be fulfilled quickly, rather than invoicing and processing manually, as they were before. This meant less confusion with inventory, and more seamless operations overall.

A visual experience to match their bikes’ high-end engineering.

When your customers are accustomed to seeing vibrant hills and colourful sunsets from the saddle of a bike, you need to meet them with striking visuals and page designs. Using Shogun Page Builder, the team at TWIO was able to create truly stunning designs that could meet the visual expectations of Ventum’s customers. They developed product pages with captivating imagery, detailed specifications, and even videos showing their bikes in action across paved, gravel, and track conditions. 

The blog section of their site, or the “Journal,” utilises BigCommerce’s native blogging functionality to create posts that are more editorial in nature, featuring videos, custom blocks, and deep visuals. And they were even able to expand on their already extensive boutique and parts shop, which sells small accessories and exclusive Ventum merchandise.