A big e-comm overhaul with brick and mortar, e-commerce, sales reps, and education moving together. Kyler Nixon sits down with Jeremy Ott to unpack a massive ecommerce overhaul. The conversation walks through a six to eight month RFP process, executive buy-in from a forward-thinking CEO, and the push for more core out of the box functionality, personalization, and newer technologies. Jeremy shares regrets around more beta testing, internal testing, customer facing webinars, and customer advisory boards. He explains how data and being more analytical driven met real feedback on features like requisition lists, brands pages, and a personalized my top products view. The team reworked a brand statement, rebuilt customer personas across product lines, and aimed for an omnichannel experience that feels cohesive in store, email, social, and the website. Education, sales rep specific emails, and training videos help customers learn and buy.

ㅤ

👤 Guest Bio

Jeremy Ott is Director of eCommerce and Digital Marketing at Reinders Inc. Reinders is one of the Midwest’s largest full service distributors to the commercial green industry, a one stop source from growing grass to watering it, from mowing it to keeping it looking great. The team offers quality products and solutions with staff that includes degreed specialists in Turf, Plant Pathology, Soils, and Aquatics. Learn more at reinders.com.

ㅤ

📌 What We Cover

• A big web overhaul that went live in September of 2023 after a two year migration and an ERP to the cloud
• Re-platforming from a homegrown solution to Rock Commerce, then to Adobe Commerce with open APIs and less customization
• A three to five month RFP build, six to eight month vendor selection, demos, and signing with Adobe in October of 2021
• Executive buy-in with leadership focused on customer experience, performance, speed, and integration with the ERP
• What Jeremy would do differently: more beta testing, internal testing, focus groups, user groups, and customer facing webinars
• Data driven decisions vs real customer insights on requisition lists, brands pages, and a personalized my top products view
• Reevaluating the UI UX across desktop and mobile using heat mapping and video recordings to find frustration and drop off points
• A refreshed brand statement and rebuilt customer personas across product lines to drive a cohesive omnichannel experience
• Educational emails, sales rep specific emails, and in-house training videos on equipment like fairway mowers and sprayers

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Adobe Commerce
• Rock Commerce
• AmericanEagle.com
• Google Analytics