How an industrial parts shop delivered customized shopping experiences for a diverse range of customers
See first-hand the features that empower businesses like HVAC Parts Shop to grow with BigCommerce.
reduction in overall bounce rate
products managed
reduction in bounce rate from paid channels
HVAC Parts Shop began as a HVAC repair shop serving local customers more than 30 years ago. With the rise of DIY home repairs, as well as the explosion of multi-residential complexes across the country, the company saw an opportunity to expand nationally by selling online to both consumers and business customers.
Its team decided to set up a website offering hard-to-find parts needed for repairs. The online business took off quickly due to rising demand and relatively low competition online. After 12 years selling through a basic ecommerce website with minimal features, the company knew it was time to upgrade ecommerce platforms, both to enhance customers’ experience and increase efficiency.
HVAC Parts sought an ecommerce platform provider that would scale alongside its growing business, with support for its massive inventory and features to sell effectively to each of its diverse audience segments.
After an exhaustive review of competitive platforms, HVAC Parts Shop found the combination of BigCommerce’s built-in feature and tightly-integrated apps provided the functionality needed to build their ideal multi-dimensional site.
As told to BigCommerce by Patti Erickson, Chief Financial Officer and Steve Gilmore, Chief Operating Officer, hvacpartsshop.com
Our site was 12 years old and desperately needed a facelift. Our previous hosting provider, Network Solutions, was strangling us. Even small changes were difficult because their support team was hard to get in touch with. Additionally, we couldn’t have service manuals on the website and didn’t have the ability to host our own blog directly on our website, which hurt SEO.
We also have 10,000 products in our catalog, and we knew our old website made it too difficult for customers to find the parts they need quickly. Ultimately, we wanted a platform that would enable us to continue to grow, which is the reason we chose BigCommerce.
The search functionality was very important for us and was probably the biggest immediate improvement after going with BigCommerce. Since migrating our site, organic traffic has increased.
In our industry, our site is way ahead of most of our competitors. I’ve received many comments from customers since going live about how easy the new site is to navigate. The frontend of our website is 10x better than it was before.
“Our site was 12 years old and desperately needed a facelift. Ultimately, we wanted a platform that would enable us to continue to grow which is the reason we chose to BigCommerce. ”
Steve Gilmore Chief Operating Officer, hvacpartsshop.com
One of the main reasons we went with BigCommerce was the ability to choose from so many apps and integrations in order to deliver the specific functionality we wanted our site to offer.
We chose to partner with Arizon Digital to help us design and build our new site. Based on our unique requirements, they created a custom app for us we call “Product Finder” which further enhanced our site’s search functionality. It has been incredibly powerful for our customers, helping them quickly find the products they need from our catalog.
After familiarizing ourselves with the BigCommerce App Marketplace, we also integrated Rewind, which allows us to create a backup our entire store with one click — a huge benefit for given our extensive product catalog. The LivePerson LiveChat + Messaging has also helped further reduce our bounce rate by increasing our customer service capabilities.
“The search functionality was very important for us and was probably the biggest immediate improvement after going with BigCommerce. Since migrating our site, organic traffic is increased. ”
Patti Erickson Chief Financial Officer, hvacpartsshop.com
“After going live with Arizon Digital, our bounce rate decreased by 44% across all channels and 51% across paid.”
Steve Gilmore Chief Operating Officer, hvacpartsshop.com
We loved how the Arizon Digital team handled the site migration, working with us hand-in-hand to ensure we didn’t experience a dip in sales, traffic or search ranking after switching our website over to BigCommerce. After we went live, our bounce rate decreased by 44% from all channels and 51% from paid channels.
Throughout, we felt extremely comfortable working with both the Arizon Digital team and our BigCommerce success manager, who made us feel confident every step of the process.
Both Arizon Digital and BigCommerce’s teams were very patient, taking time every week to answer our questions, address our concerns and find out exactly what we wanted so they could tweak the site until we were happy.
We're neither computer nor marketing gurus, so we’re always just figuring things out as we go. We like that there are plenty of self-help options and tutorials, and BigCommerce’s support team is easy to talk to. They’ve addressed each problem and answered every question we’ve had.
We knew that we needed a different platform to be able to grow like we envisioned, and we’re grateful we decided to move our business to BigCommerce. We now have more customers than ever visiting our new site, and once they arrive they’re able to find what they need better than ever before.
“We now have more customers than ever visiting our new site, and once they arrive they're able to find what they need better than ever before. ”
Patti Erickson Chief Operating Officer, hvacpartsshop.com
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