Industry: B2B / B2C
Platform: Shopify Plus
Website: https://www.qcsupply.com
Background
QC Supply provides products and services to farmers and homesteaders across the United States for over 40 years. Their current ecommerce platform was based on Magento and had many problems. Their Magento website was based on an aging platform and they needed a modern solution. QC Supply approached Ecommerce Partners after one of their partners, Network Doctors, a top managed IT support company, referred them to find a solution that will modernize their website and set them up for the next 40 years.
- High Cost of Maintenance: Ongoing Magento maintenance required significant development hours, resulting in substantial costs.
- Inefficient Site Updates: Even basic content or design changes took an inordinate amount of time to implement.
- Cumbersome Deployment Process: Code deployments were manual, causing extended periods of website downtime during releases.
- Poor Site Performance: Pagespeed scores were critically low (33 on mobile, 36 on desktop), negatively impacting user experience and SEO.
- Scalability Limitations: The site lacked auto-scaling capabilities to handle high-traffic events or peak demand periods.
- Unreliable Load Balancing: Load balancing mechanisms were not functioning correctly, creating performance bottlenecks.
- No Redundancy or Backups: There were no standby environments or backup systems in place, leaving the business vulnerable to system failures.
- Frontend Security Vulnerabilities: The site had unresolved frontend security flaws that posed serious risks to customer data.
- Manual ERP Integration: Product data had to be manually entered into Magento. The ERP integration lacked automation, causing operational inefficiencies.
- Outdated Infrastructure: The website was running on obsolete versions of PHP and its database, increasing technical debt and compatibility risks.
Solution
Ecommerce Partner’s (ECP) first task was to gather all requirements for QC’s website business in order to recommend a platform that will work best for them. They conducted extensive interviews with each department to make sure that all stakeholders were taken into account when making their recommendation. There were many requirements to take into account, including heavily customized ERP integrations, ease of use, user and staff permissions, scalability, security, comprehensive API needs, website speed, complicated shipping quoting, complex tax and extensive B2B functionality.
Ecommerce Partners recommended the Shopify Plus platform because it has built in B2B functionality and integrates easily with most third party software companies. Shopify is easier to work with than other platforms which makes development time faster and cheaper. Shopify has the best built-in user experience of any ecommerce platform and introduces improvements faster and more often than any other platform on the market.
The development process was divided into two phases in an effort to quickly stand up a brand new site and user experience. Together with QC Supply, Ecommerce Partners divided all tasks into a prioritized list and got to work.
- Improved performance with Google Pagespeed scores of 77 on mobile and 94 on desktop, significantly enhancing load times and user experience.
- Delivered a fully ADA-compliant website, ensuring accessibility for all users.
- Built a robust Shopify site that supports both B2B and B2C customer experiences.
- Implemented a custom B2B Pro Portal tailored for enterprise clients, enabling admin users to create and manage multiple company locations, add sub-users, and assign permission-based access to products and pricing.
- Utilized Shopify’s advanced B2B features, including Companies, Catalogs, and Locations, to streamline complex workflows.
- Led the ERP and PIM integration efforts, ensuring seamless connectivity with the ecommerce platform and alignment with key business processes—resulting in more accurate product data, reduced manual workload for employees, and the ability for third-party vendors to update product descriptions without requiring client involvement.
- Installed a custom GroupBy solution for advanced, high-performance onsite search capabilities, leading to improved product discoverability and increased customer satisfaction.
GOOGLE PAGESPEED SCORE
QC Supply
Desktop Pagespeed Score
Product Details Page
B2B / B2C Pricing, Images, Variants, Related Products
Custom PLP with Sub Categories and Filters
Buyers only see the products they are approved to purchase, not the full catalog.
Main contacts can add users, assign different buying permissions, and manage multiple shipping locations without the merchant team’s intervention. Saves time on both sides!
Custom B2B Pro Portal
Custom Navigation Menu
