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KegWorks Taps BigCommerce for Better Ecommerce Performance
Discover how customizable, cost-effective and reliable BigCommerce is and why we built it that way.
7%
increase in average order value (AOV)
12%
increase in revenue
25%
increase in conversion rate
Performance metrics compare Aug. 26, 2019-Aug. 25, 2020 to Aug. 26, 2020-Aug. 26, 2021.
Bringing an idea to life
Not every business is started in an office or on a factory floor. For David Rivers, his business began in a Buffalo, New York, apartment. This bootstrap entrepreneur refused to focus on the things he didn’t have, but rather turned his attention to what he did have – an idea he could bring to life.
In 1998, from his living room, David launched KegWorks as an online one stop shop for draft beer dispensing equipment. The company has since evolved into an expansive and diverse multi-channel retailer selling draft beer equipment, bar rails, kegerators, drinkware, cocktail ingredients and bar accessories.
CHALLENGE
Self-hosted limitations
David actually hand-coded KegWorks first website, but over the course of time the site migrated to its first official ecommerce platform, X-Cart, and then later Magento.
“We had limited internal resources who could work on Magento. It became a challenge to continuously improve the site experience as well as maintain a self-hosted solution,” said Ryan Wilson, ecommerce manager at KegWorks. “We wanted something that was more self-sustaining so we could focus more on marketing and merchandising.”
“We had limited internal resources who could work on Magento. It became a challenge to continuously improve the site experience as well as maintain a self-hosted solution.”
Ryan Wilson Ecommerce Manager, KegWorks
SOLUTION
BigCommerce: Self-sustaining SaaS platform
KegWorks selected BigCommerce over Magento 2, Demandware and Shopify. “BigCommerce allowed us to move away from maintaining a self-hosted solution. That was very important to us. But, ease of use was an important factor too,” Ryan stated. “We found BigCommerce to be far more intuitive than Magento, the platform’s pricing structure fits our business size and needs.”
“Groove Commerce helped us identify the right SaaS platform for our needs and to design the site’s current layout. They also played a major role in integrating our site with HubSpot by developing the HubSpot and BigCommerce integration to help us capture abandoned carts and follow-up with customers after they've made a purchase,” Ryan explained. “We continue to use Groove to make updates and improvements to the site.”
“With the BigCommerce and HubSpot integration our sales team can more easily manage customer quotes and contacts. The integration also gives us the advantage of being able to manage a blog and email marketing. It’s a really nice set up,” Ryan stated.
KegWorks is a B2C and B2B company, and BigCommerce powers KegWorks’ wholesale B2B online shopping experience. We use BigCommerce customer groups to allow our B2B customers to view commercial pricing while they shop on the site.
BigCommerce’s APIs enable KegWorks to extend the basic functionality of its online store. The company makes use of APIs to integrate into Hubspot for its welcome series email code generation and creating accounts for commercial customers. Then there is its Feedonomics integration.
“Feedonomics brings the management of our feed integrations into the ecommerce department. With this integration we send our product catalog to our site’s search and merchandising tool, Sitecore Discover, to our international shipping tool, Borderfree, and to our advertising channels such as Google, Facebook and Pinterest,” Ryan commented. “For the record, when we previously needed to make edits to the feed it required internal IT resources to get it done. With the BigCommerce and Feedonomics integration, that’s no longer required.”
Notable Applications:
Feedonomics automates product listing and order management, as well as optimizes product catalog data to improve search relevance and conversion.
Justuno is a conversion optimization platform with personalization, onsite messaging, and AI-powered product recommendations that help high-growth brands turn more website visitors into customers.
InStockNotify helps boost sales by notifying shoppers when out-of-stock products are back in stock.
ShipperHQ enables B2B or B2C merchants to build custom shipping strategies to manage, update and simplify the checkout and shipping experience.
Technical Features:
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
NetSuite
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
HubSpot
Customer Service Manager
BigCommerce University Training
“BigCommerce allowed us to move away from maintaining a self-hosted solution. That was very important to us. But, ease of use was an important factor too.”
Ryan Wilson Ecommerce Manager, KegWorks
“When we previously needed to make edits to the feed it required internal IT resources to get it done. With the BigCommerce and Feedonomics integration, that’s no longer required.”
Ryan Wilson Ecommerce Manager, KegWorks
“The increase in site traffic and business during this time was noticeable, but so was BigCommerce’s performance. I was impressed how well it stood up to the added demand while delivering a smooth end-to-end shopping experience for our customers.”
Ryan Wilson Ecommerce Manager, KegWorks
RESULTS
Growing in unprecedented circumstances
During the 2020 pandemic lockdown, KegWorks saw a decrease in B2B business and an increase in B2C shopping. “That's when we started seeing the surge in traffic. Definitely a lot of people interested in drinking at home, whether that's dispensing beer from a kegerator or making cocktails. We saw an uptick in people purchasing glassware, cocktail ingredients and looking at our content to learn how to set up a kegerator,” Ryan said. “The increase in site traffic and business during this time was noticeable, but so was BigCommerce’s performance. I was impressed how well it stood up to the added demand while delivering a smooth end-to-end shopping experience for our customers.”
Comparing 12 months before and after launching on BigCommerce (YoY Aug. 26, 2019-Aug. 25, 2020 to Aug. 26, 2020-Aug. 26, 2021), KegWorks improved its conversion rate by 25%, improved revenue by 12%, average order value by 7% and increased transactions by 5%.
And on a more personal note, by participating in the BigCommerce University Training, Ryan gained the skills and knowledge he needed to hit the ground running in managing the BigCommerce platform.
“I was newer to the ecommerce manager role when I took the training. The hands-on experience I received creating my own test site gave me the confidence that I'd be able to navigate the ins and outs of the platform,” Ryan stated. “I quickly realized just how intuitive BigCommerce really is and recall thinking to myself, ‘I got this.'”
“I quickly realized just how intuitive BigCommerce really is and recall thinking to myself, ‘I got this.'”
Ryan Wilson Ecommerce Manager, KegWorks
LOOKING AHEAD
Improving the user experience
What’s ahead for KegWorks?
The company will continue to expand its catalog to serve commercial and home bars with new and unique products. Additionally, enhancing the post-purchase experience to deliver improved order status follow ups as well as streamlining its B2B experience by utilizing BigCommerce’s price lists and customer groups is on KegWorks roadmap.
Here’s to KegWorks’ current and future success and to BigCommerce being there to support it.
Cheers!
Published: December 2022
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