Developed in collaboration with digital agency, Brave Bison, Product Information Management technology provider, Pimberly, and construction industry consultant, The Journey, the Branch of the Future accelerator equips builders’ merchants with a comprehensive toolkit to digitise operations, meet the expectations of next-generation buyers and futureproof their businesses.

To further support the sector, BigCommerce has also joined the Builders Merchants Federation, an authoritative voice for UK builders’ merchants, plumbing, heating, roofing, decorative and timber merchants and their suppliers.

Digitising a traditionally offline industry

The building supplies sector has long relied on offline interactions, phone calls, inperson visits and paper-based workflows. Today’ s trade buyers, however, expect more. A new generation of customers demands the same seamless, omnichannel experiences they encounter in other sectors. Yet most builders’ merchants have been underserved by generic e-commerce platforms that fail to support complex trade pricing, quoting, account relationships and real-time inventory.

“ The Branch of the Future accelerator is about helping builders’ merchants unlock new growth by delivering the seamless, customer-first experiences today’ s buyers expect, whether in branch or online,” said

Lance Owide, General Manager of B2B at BigCommerce.“ By combining proven technologies with deep industry expertise, we’ re enabling builders’ merchants to modernise their online experience more quickly, more affordably and with less complexity while deepening the relationships they have with their customers.”

The new accelerator combines:

• Business transformation consulting from The Journey, leveraging over 25 years of experience in the building materials sector

• A turnkey e-commerce implementation by Brave Bison using BigCommerce B2B Edition and Catalyst, tailored for complex B2B workflows

• Integration with Pimberly’ s leading Product Information Management( PIM) platform, offering robust content management and access to over 1.5 million pre-optimised SKUs [ Stock Keeping Units ] tailored to builders’ merchants

This composable commerce solution enables merchants to streamline operations, improve customer experience and boost sales team efficiency.

“ Builders’ merchants have an important opportunity to reduce operational costs by automating repetitive tasks like order tracking and invoice enquiries, freeing up teams to focus on higher-value work,” said Al Ward, Vice President of Commerce at Brave Bison.“ At the same time, they can deliver a more personalised, self-serve buying experience for trade customers, complete with negotiated pricing, curated product access and seamless quote-toorder workflows.”

B2B functionality out-of-the-box

The accelerator leverages BigCommerce’ s B2B Edition to deliver capabilities often missing from legacy platforms, such as customer-specific pricing, product visibility and quoting – all available outof-the-box. x

BY COMBINING PROVEN TECHNOLOGIES WITH DEEP INDUSTRY EXPERTISE, WE’ RE ENABLING BUILDERS’ MERCHANTS TO MODERNISE THEIR ONLINE EXPERIENCE.

www. intelligentcxo. com

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