Gesswein Stays on the Cutting Edge of B2B Ecommerce with BigCommerce

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

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10

months to implement both BigCommerce and Acumatica

12,703

total SKUs

10,300

customer groups

Performance metrics compare January 2022 to January 2023.

Building a bright future for the family business.

Gesswein has been supplying metalworkers and jewellers with high-quality, precision tools since 1914. Emerging from their original storefront in lower Manhattan, they now sell to customers around the world through their sophisticated sales network and well-oiled ecommerce machine.

Having built their first website in 2000, Gesswein was an early entrant into the world of ecommerce. This on-premise solution helped expand their reach and took many different forms, but a switch to new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software made them look for a new ecommerce platform that could help them grow and simplify operations.

CHALLENGE

Getting bogged down by the high costs of an on-premise solution.

Gesswein’s original ecommerce solution was customised in-house so that its tooling and functionality were all specific to their needs. Brilliance Business Solutions, a BigCommerce agency partner with a focus on B2B ecommerce solutions, helped manage Gesswein’s ecommerce site, but over time, this bespoke solution began to weigh down both teams.

“Their on-premise solution had a high total cost of ownership in terms of the maintenance required from it,” explained Lori McDonald, President and CEO of Brilliance Business Solutions. As this solution pulled valuable resources away from the team, Gesswein knew it was the perfect time to find a new solution that could help them overcome operational challenges.

First, Gesswein decided to move to a new ERP. They quickly found the right solution in Acumatica, and then set out to look for an ecommerce solution that could match Acumatica in terms of features, ease-of-use and growth potential.

“Their on-premise solution had a high total cost of ownership in terms of the maintenance required from it.”

Lori McDonald, President and CEO, Brilliance Business Solutions

SOLUTION

Leveraging BigCommerce tools to build a B2B machine.

Because the team at Brilliance Business Solutions knew how streamlined it was to integrate Acumatica with the BigCommerce back-end, they recommended BigCommerce over other ecommerce solutions for Gesswein’s digital transformation.

The Gesswein team had integrated their original ecommerce site with their ERP to pull in data like shipping information, pricing, product variations and more. After switching ERPs and migrating to BigCommerce, that connection was lost and had to be re-built.

“Instead of managing all of that within the BigCommerce dashboard, we set it up so that Acumatica could bring all that information into the back-end,” said Eric Dingeldein, Director of Project and Product Management at Brilliance Business Solutions. This allows Gesswein to manage all of their key information from one single source of truth.

“Integrating BigCommerce with Acumatica allows us to spend time on things that will drive more revenue and value versus having to spend time keeping the platform up and running,” he continued.

BigCommerce’s native promotions manager has also allowed Gesswein to enhance promotions that allows them to better compete within the market. Not only that, but they are also able to compete on more sales channels by leveraging BigCommerce’s native omnichannel integrations, like those with Facebook Marketplace and Google Shopping.

Using B2B Edition to maximise efficiency and improve workflows.

After deciding on a platform, they began work on building a solution that maintained feature parity with the customised site Gesswein had been using for more than two decades. To accomplish this, they turned to B2B Edition.

Gesswein has been able to use B2B Edition to expand on BigCommerce’s already robust B2B feature set to add in even more functionality to improve customer and sales team experience. This has proved especially useful when it comes to checkout. Gesswein is allowing its customers to choose from an extensive list of payment methods and purchase orders, and has even installed a quick order pad to make reordering products simple.

They have also leveraged B2B Edition’s roles and permissions feature to give certain individuals different user permissions within their companies, giving some the option to only add items to a cart, while others have full purchasing authority.

Additionally, as Gesswein began adding more and more products into their inventory, it became clear that a detailed search tool was necessary.

“They’re selling to jewellery manufacturers and metalworkers,” explained Dingeldein, “so the specs on their tools might go in quarter-inch or eighth-inch increments. There are a lot of SKUs involved, so they needed a very specific, detailed search tool.”

They scoured the BigCommerce app marketplace and found the perfect tool to meet their needs: Searchspring. “That’s something about BigCommerce’s Open SaaS approach, is that it enables businesses to get something up and running quickly, and then leverage different applications from the marketplace over time, depending on the need,” McDonald said.

Next, came recreating some of the custom functionality that made the Gesswein site so popular among its customers. Because of the vast amount of SKUs and products, customers often used the custom “Compare” tool to look at similar products on one screen. Brilliance Business Solutions took that idea and expanded on it.

“We created a comparison tool, but in a different way,” Dingeldein explained. “We put it into an almost schematic table format, so that way customers can see all of the products side-by-side.”

“Integrating BigCommerce with Acumatica allows us to spend time on things that will drive more revenue and value versus having to spend time keeping the platform up and running.”

Eric Dingeldein, Director of Project and Product Management, Brilliance Business Solutions

“With BigCommerce, Gesswein has been able to access more features and functionality more quickly than before. They don’t have to worry about upgrades or hosting anymore. This investment in technology is really going to help their team be more efficient and effective.”

Lori McDonald, President and CEO, Brilliance Business Solutions

Case study device tablet gesswein

RESULTS

Less time maintaining, more time growing.

In only 10 months time, the Brilliance team helped migrate Gresswein’s catalogue of over 12,000 SKUs over to BigCommerce and create 10,300 customer groups, each with their own custom prices. Not only that, but they were able to completely integrate Gesswein’s ERP, Acumatica, with the BigCommerce back-end, making product and resource management a breeze.

Since the migration was completed, Gesswein has been able to focus on growing their ecommerce presence rather than just maintaining it.

“With BigCommerce, Gesswein has been able to access more features and functionality more quickly than before,” McDonald said. “They don’t have to worry about upgrades or hosting anymore. This investment in technology is really going to help their team be more efficient and effective.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Continuing on the path toward success.

Gesswein continues to invest heavily in their digital transformation. As they expand their business, they know that BigCommerce and Brilliance will be there to continue supporting their growth with easy-to-implement integrations and the drive to help B2Bs succeed online.

“This was our first big project integrating BigCommerce and Acumatica, and being able to do that for the first time with a longstanding client of ours like Gesswein, it was an awesome experience,” explained Dingeldein. “We’re privileged to continue working with BigCommerce and Gesswein on this adventure.”

“We’re privileged to continue working with BigCommerce and Gesswein on this adventure.”

Eric Dingeldein, Director of Project and Product Management, Brilliance Business Solutions

Published: August 2023

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