Case Study -Bespoke Wholesale E-commerce Case Study

Building a bespoke B2B e-commerce system for a leading, luxury confectionery brand.

Client
Laura's Confectionery
Year
Service
E-commerce Development

The Challenge

Founded by Laura while studying at University, Laura’s Confectionery is a leading luxury confectionery brand, that originally started at farmers markets and country shows. In more recent years, the company has expanded its online presence through their own Shopify site, as well as retail and e-commerce partnerships with leading stores such as Selfridges and John Lewis.

After completing a previous project, updating the look and feel of their B2C Shopify website to more closely match their brand, Laura and her business partner Harry came back to me for help with the B2B sales channel.

Laura wanted to expand their wholesale offering, however, they were reaching the limits of what Shopify could provide without a massive increase in costs.

Shopify only offers wholesale features on their Shopify Plus plan, starting at $2000 per month, a massive 100x increase on their current spend. Alternative options, such as apps within the Shopify App Store had their own costs, and most involved hacks or workarounds in order to be functional. Even then, the functionality was severely limited and restricted.

“The platform that he has built has led to more sales, as we are now not missing leads and it is easy to convert.”

Laura Jackson & Harry Saint — Owners – Laura's Confectionery

Photo of Laura Jackson Photo of Harry Saint

The Solution

After discussing the options with Laura and Harry, we decided that the B2B side needed to move away from Shopify, and that a bespoke solution built from the ground up would be the best option for the business.

The new solution was built from scratch in Laravel + Vue.js, allowing for complete flexibility and integrating new features in more streamlined and user-friendly way than could ever have been achieved within Shopify.

The Outcome

The newly created wholesale e-commerce system now allows Laura’s Confectionery to manage new customers applying for wholesale accounts, decreased order times with bespoke features such as quick ordering and streamlined business workflows by directly integrating orders and customer data with the company QuickBooks accounts.

A cost effective solution

$78p/m

Monthly savings on Shopify app fees

Compared to Shopify + Net Terms Shopify App.

36.4%

Reduction in fees per direct transaction

Compared to Shopify's fees for European cards. Both platforms charge 20p per transaction.

$2000p/m

Monthly savings on service fees

Compared to Shopify Plus for volume pricing features

Additional Features

Arranged Payments

Granular, customer level access control to multiple payment methods, including direct online payments, and arranged net terms.

Bespoke Component Based CMS

Block level content editor, providing full control over pages + content with an easy to use editor.

Customer Approval System

Pricing + product details are hidden until the customer's account is approved in the system.

Quick Order Page

Customers can add any product to an order from a single page: faster orders for the customer, and more revenue for Laura's.

Brand Asset Manager

Fully featured brand asset manager, allowing approved customers to download all the branded resources they need to become a stockist.

QuickBooks Integration

Orders, customers and products are automatically synced with QuickBooks, creating and sending new invoices to the customer.

We were recommended Steve by a friend we had conducted business with a few years ago. We had a problem with converting wholesale accounts and orders in an e-commerce way, as the options on the market were not suitable and too expensive. Steve helped and supported us from the idea right through to the concert. His professionalism, knowledge and skills have been apparent in everything he has done for Laura's Confectionery. The platform that he has built has led to more sales, as we are now not missing leads, and it is easy to convert. We would recommend Steve for any SME on a E-comms journey and want a bespoke platform making, he really is an ‘E-comms’ wizz!


Laura Jackson & Harry Saint Owners – Laura's Confectionery
Compared to Shopify + Net Terms Shopify App.
Monthly savings on Shopify app fees
$78p/m
Compared to Shopify's fees for European cards. Both platforms charge 20p per transaction.
Reduction in fees per direct transaction
36.4%
Compared to Shopify Plus for volume pricing features
Monthly savings on service fees
$2000p/m