The Challenge

Sugarboo and Co., a thriving wholesale and retail business utilizing Shopify Wholesale for their online presence, faced significant operational hurdles during trade shows. The out-of-the-box Shopify Wholesale platform proved inadequate for the dynamic and fast-paced environment of trade show transactions. Key limitations included:

• Lack of visibility into product minimum purchase numbers.
• Inability to quickly ascertain if customer credit cards were vaulted or unvaulted on a single page.
• Difficulty in identifying the specific company location a customer was purchasing for, especially for businesses with multiple addresses.
• No clear system for identifying replenishment dates for out-of-stock products, making it challenging to distinguish between immediate and future shipments based on product availability.

These shortcomings led to inefficiencies, slower transaction processes, and a less fluid customer experience during critical sales periods at trade shows.

Our Strategy: A Customized Application for Enhanced Trade Show Efficiency

To address these challenges, we developed a custom application specifically designed to integrate seamlessly with Sugarboo and Co.’s existing Shopify platform. The goal was to create a highly customizable solution that mirrored Shopify’s look and feel while providing the essential functionalities missing from the standard platform.

Over a rapid 60-day development cycle, our strategy focused on implementing critical features to empower Sugarboo and Co.’s team:

Product Minimums: Integrated the ability to instantly view product minimum purchase requirements, ensuring compliance and efficient order building.

Vaulted Card Visibility: Enabled quick identification of vaulted or unvaulted customer cards on a single transaction page, accelerating payment processing.

Multi-Location Customer Management: Introduced functionality to clearly see and select the specific company address a customer was purchasing for, streamlining order attribution for businesses with multiple locations.

Identifying Future Shipments for Backordered Items: Developed a system to track estimated return dates, allowing for the easy identification of products as immediately shippable and future-shipment components.

This application was designed to move more quickly, work more efficiently with clients, and significantly ease the transaction process for the Sugarboo team at trade shows.

The Takeaway

The new application launched successfully at Sugarboo and Co.’s trade show in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 15th, running through July 21st. Our representatives were on-site to provide immediate technical support, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Technical issues were minimal, primarily consisting of minor tweaks rather than significant breakdowns.

The impact on Sugarboo and Co.’s trade show operations has been substantial:

Sales Growth: Sales are up 35% year-over-year, directly attributed to the increased speed and efficiency of the new system.

Improved Customer Experience: The streamlined purchasing process allows customers to complete their orders more fluidly and quickly, reducing friction and maximizing sales opportunities.

Enhanced Team Efficiency: The Sugarboo team can now assist customers and process transactions with greater ease and fewer headaches, enabling them to focus more on sales and customer engagement.

We refined the application further to streamline the user experience on the Las Vegas trade show which showed a 33% increase in sales on the first day of the trade show compared to the previous year.

The Ask

Sugarboo & Co. was referred to us from a Shopify Plus representative who knew we would be able to help them with some technical compatibility issues they were having with ShipStation, a third-party integration that manages shipping, invoicing and payments.

Our client needed more flexibility when it came to wholesale payments and the templates within ShipStation’s standard model weren’t meeting the expectations of the business. In addition, Sugarboo & Co.’s payment processing was being done manually, causing them to lose precious time and money. They had to find a solution soon.

The Answer

Our technical partnership with ShipStation allowed us to expedite our client’s customer service requests and resolve a number of technical issues. We were also able to create a custom app that automated a portion of a payment depending on fulfillment of the product. Gadget, a quick app builder, allowed us to meet the client’s tight deadlines and provide solutions to their problems immediately.

The Impact

It was imperative that our developers and project managers maintained a high level of communication with the Sugarboo & Co. internal team. We were “in the trenches” with them as we troubleshooted their payment challenges and brainstormed new ways to solve them.

We quickly became an extension of their team, and we continue to assist them in refining their ordering, fulfillment and payment process. Our partnership has even extended to assisting them in-person at trade shows in order to fully understand the intricacies of their business and continue to help them grow.