
The Challenge
In the ever-shifting digital landscape, adaptability and foresight are essential for businesses to prosper. Previously relying on the soon-to-expire combination of Quickbooks Commerce and WooCommerce, Sturm-Miltec faced a pivotal moment and found themselves in a quandary with the impending sunset of Quickbooks Commerce in August 2023. Faced with a tight timeline and a pressing need for transformation, coupled with a vision to enhance their online operations, they began their quest for a robust digital platform.

- Platform Transition: Replacing Quickbooks Commerce & WooCommerce, BigCommerce became the foundation for Sturm-Miltec's eCommerce transformation, integrating seamlessly with Quickbooks Online.
- Mobile Friendly Design Enhancement: Utilizing BigCommerce's sleek and responsive B2B friendly themes, SwiftOtter presented Sturm-Miltec with an aesthetically pleasing online storefront. This ensured a cohesive shopping experience for users across all devices. This was vital given that nearly 70% of Sturm’s web traffic originates from mobile devices.
- Data Migration: SwiftOtter spearheaded the seamless transition of products and customer data from WooCommerce & Quickbooks Commerce to BigCommerce, ensuring data integrity and minimizing potential hiccups. With their deep-rooted expertise in Quickbooks Commerce, Out of the Box Technology, a specialist third-party migration partner, handled the migration of products from Quickbooks Commerce to Quickbooks Online. This alliance guaranteed meticulous and efficient product migration from the legacy systems, providing Sturm-Miltec with a hassle-free experience.

- Integrated Operations: Utilizing the BigCommerce Quickbooks Online app, the integration process between BigCommerce and Quickbooks Online became streamlined and efficient. Whenever orders are completed on BigCommerce, they are instantaneously relayed to Quickbooks Online. Concurrently, product inventory data from Quickbooks Online is fluidly synchronized with BigCommerce. As a result of this smooth workflow, BigCommerce always reflects an accurate inventory count, guaranteeing that products are consistently available for customers to purchase.
- Fulfillment: ShipStation emerged as the go-to solution for fulfillment. Thanks to its user-friendly app, integration with ShipStation was a breeze. Orders seamlessly flow from BigCommerce to ShipStation, enabling the Sturm team to dispatch packages swiftly and keep customers informed with tracking updates.
- Search Engine Optimization: Achieving top-tier search engine rankings was a key objective for Sturm-Miltec. The HTML structure was meticulously refined to comply with Google's standards. In addition, the robots.txt file was configured properly and the sitemap was ensured to be in full working order. All crucial 301 redirects were put in place, preventing any broken links from the old website. The results speak for themselves: after the launch, organic search now represents 56% of Sturm-Miltec’s total website traffic.
- Bulk Pricing: Operating in the wholesale domain, Sturm-Miltec provides a strategic pricing structure that encourages bulk purchases. Using BigCommerce’s bulk pricing feature, they were able to easily offer scaled discounts based on the quantity of a product that a customer buys. This means the more a customer purchases of a particular product, the higher the discount they receive.

Enhanced B2B Features
- Custom B2B Registration Flow: Sturm-Miltec's B2B business structure necessitates customer approval prior to any purchase. Recognizing this unique requirement, SwiftOtter implemented a custom registration workflow. This system conceals pricing details and "add-to-cart" options for guests. Only after a customer registers and receives Sturm-Miltec's approval do these features become visible.
- Payment Options: Sturm-Miltec offers a variety of payment methods, encompassing credit cards, net payment terms and COD, among others. However, these methods aren't available to all customers. Fortunately, with BigCommerce's B2B portal, Sturm-Miltec was empowered to allocate specific payment methods to individual company accounts.
- Price Lists: Sturm-Miltec uses BigCommerce's B2B portal to cater to customers with unique pricing agreements. Through specialized price lists, they set custom pricing for individual products, directly assigning these lists to designated company accounts. Unlike the previous manual order adjustments after order submission, this integration automates the pricing assignment, boosting efficiency and precision.

The Outcome
Sturm-Miltec’s transition to BigCommerce, facilitated by SwiftOtter, has set the stage for a robust, scalable, and efficient B2B eCommerce experience. With the foundational elements in place and a clear roadmap for future enhancements, the company is well-positioned to harness the full potential of digital commerce.