OK4WD Accelerates Team Efficiency with BigCommerce

Discover how customizable, cost-effective and reliable BigCommerce is and why we built it that way.

OK4WD laptop

12

hours of efficiencies gained per week

3.5

hours saved daily in order processing

4.5

minutes saved per drop order processed

Engineering a much-needed brand

Like many brands, OK4WD was born out of a need to fill a supply gap. After founder James Oostdyk rolled his Jeep, he quickly realized that aftermarket parts and accessories for four-wheel-drive vehicles were hard to come by — especially in the New Jersey area. To fill this gap, Oostdyk launched OK4WD — a four-wheel drive parts and accessories supplier.

Since their inception in 1979, OK4WD has grown from a small two-bay garage and gas station to a thriving brand with a seven-bay shop, showroom, and team of experts.

As a business serving both B2B and B2C customers, OK4WD needed an easy-to-use, scalable ecommerce solution that would allow them to seamlessly cater to both types of shoppers. After experiencing countless challenges hosting on Magento, OK4WD knew it was time for a change.

CHALLENGE

Hitting roadblocks with Magento.

OK4WD initially hosted their online store on Magento. While the platform provided them with total control and freedom, it was a bit more than they bargained for.

“Magento was just too much. It was all on us as far as security and development. Adding products was very labor-intensive and it just wasn't scaling with our needs based on the amount of products we were trying to sell online. It really bottlenecked our ecommerce presence,” said Sam Wheeler, Operations and Account Manager at OK4WD.

To optimize their ecommerce business, OK4WD knew they needed a modernized, scalable solution with out-of-box tools that would drastically reduce the level of maintenance required. This led them to two options — BigCommerce and Shopify. After comparing the platforms, it was clear BigCommerce was the superior choice — enabling them to seamlessly serve both B2B and B2C shoppers.

“BigCommerce is more of a software solution platform than Shopify. It has significantly more options, and that's what we really like about it. It also supports doing more than just B2C, which is a big limitation of Shopify. Overall, Shopify is not as robust and doesn't have as many options as BigCommerce,” explained Tim Earls, Operations Manager at OK4WD.

“BigCommerce is more of a software solution platform than Shopify. It has significantly more options, and that's what we really like about it. It also supports doing more than just B2C, which is a big limitation of Shopify. Overall, Shopify is not as robust and doesn't have as many options as BigCommerce.”

TIM EARLS, OPERATIONS MANAGER, OK4WD

SOLUTION

Optimizing the B2B experience.

With BigCommerce’s robust B2B features, the brand has drastically improved the user experience for wholesale buyers and the internal team. Specifically, OK4WD takes advantage of B2B Edition to offer shoppers an invoice portal.

Prior to launching the invoice portal, Wheeler spent a large portion of time inputting purchase orders.

“We used to get email purchase orders. When I first started here, I spent 90% of my time inputting these orders. Most of the time, people didn't have part numbers or prices right, so it was on me to make sure everything was correct,” explained Wheeler. “With BigCommerce, we have automations in place that make it so it only takes 30 seconds to approve one dropship order, when it previously took five minutes. Before the invoice portal, it could have easily taken 5 hours in one day to process purchase orders, but now it takes me an hour and a half at most.”

Now, OK4WD’s customers can place orders at any time through the brand’s BigCommerce site. Not only has this significantly freed up the team’s time for other tasks, but it’s also created a faster, more convenient shopping experience for B2B buyers.

“Obviously, not having to manually input purchase orders is very helpful, but having our customers go in and place orders whenever they want is even more beneficial. In addition to placing an order online at any time, they can see their invoices, make payments, and get updates on new products — all through our website,” remarked Wheeler.

This has eliminated the need for OK4WD to manually send new price lists to B2B customers after adding products or updating information. Now, shoppers can automatically see inventory changes and stock levels through the OK4WD site — streamlining their overall user journey.

Taking advantage of user-friendly features.

In addition to BigCommerce’s B2B capabilities, OK4WD enjoys the platform’s wide selection of easy-to-use, out-of-the-box features. Since migrating tools, the brand can effortlessly add products and update information without needing a developer.

“With BigCommerce, we can go in and do whatever we need without getting developers involved. That was one of the biggest issues we faced with Magento. Now, Tim and I can go in and change anything in a matter of minutes,” explained Wheeler.

When using Magento, OK4WD only had 14,000 items listed online out of the 200,000 SKUs in their brick-and-mortar-store. BigCommerce’s user-friendly interface has enabled them to list 45,000 SKUs since joining the platform.

OK4WD also takes advantage of BigCommerce’s diverse partner ecosystem by integrating tools like Klaviyo and ShipperHQ. These have significantly streamlined business functions related to marketing and shipping.

“There are a lot of very good out-of-the-box features and integrations BigCommerce has. We use tools like Klaviyo for email marketing and ShipperHQ for shipping and fulfillment. These different features have seriously improved business efficiency and made things a lot easier for us internally,” remarked Earls.

Gaining valuable customer insights.

With BigCommerce, OK4WD has the power to automatically pull customer and sales data through the Google BigQuery integration. With this data, they’ve gained insights into customer behaviors, allowing them to tailor their website and marketing strategy to cater to consumer preferences.

“Having data that we can pull right off the site through BigQuery has been really helpful because then we can plug Power BI into BigQuery. This has allowed us to gain new insights on what our customers buy and look at that we can't necessarily do with our point of sale system data alone,” explained Wheeler.

In addition to using Google BigQuery to learn about shopper behaviors, OK4WD also uses it to learn when customers place B2B orders. Having access to this information helps them build a more accurate stock plan for the following year.

“When I go to make the stock plan for the year, having this data makes a huge difference,” remarked Wheeler. “We’re just excited to have the integration even though we haven't dug far into it yet. What I've been able to pull from it so far has been way more helpful than the data that we had in the past.”

“With BigCommerce, we have automations in place that make it so it only takes 30 seconds to approve one dropship order, when it previously took five minutes. Before the invoice portal, it could have easily taken 5 hours in one day to process purchase orders, but now it takes me an hour and a half at most.”

SAM WHEELER, OPERATIONS AND ACCOUNT MANAGER, OK4WD

“Whether through price lists, customized commercial quotes or tax support, BigCommerce’s native functionality and extensive partner app marketplace delivers the hybrid B2C and B2B capabilities we needed to tailor our site to our diverse audiences.”

Sean Flaherty Marketing Director, USCutter

Case study device tablet uscutter 1x

RESULTS

Delivering proven success

BigCommerce simplifies USCutter’s ability to show different variants and possible choices of a product to customers on a single page. For instance, a single roll of vinyl can come in various lengths and a multitude of colors.

Additionally, BigCommerce makes it easy for USCutter to create and manage multiple price lists. “It’s not an involved and complicated process any longer for us. It's quick and easy. It’s even allowed us to do new things like create an official reseller program for one of our very large manufacturers,” Sean said.

A user-friendly front end and back end, optimized checkout and cart abandonment functionality are a few areas Sean attributes to USCutter’s strong conversion rate. “Our conversion rate is really good. I think, in part, that's due to our intentionality in being really efficient with our customers,” said Sean. “The faster we can get customers to the right place, and show them what they're looking for, the faster we can close the sale.”

In looking at USCutter’s performance metrics comparing March 2, 2021 through June, 6, 2022 to March 2, 2020 through June 6, 2021, the company experienced a 12% increase in its conversion rate, a 28% increase in average order value, a 51% decrease in its cart abandonment rate, and for good measure, a 59% decrease in its checkout abandonment rate.

LOOKING AHEAD

Steady as she goes

USCutter plans to continue to sell its products worldwide via BigCommerce, Ebay and Walmart, and extending its marketplace footprint in the future is not off the table. The same is true for social media. The company has a strong YouTube presence, and selling on Facebook and Instagram may soon follow.

Published: November 2022

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