Border Merchant Systems customers can now have a trading website developed in a Magento 2 platform that’s fully integrated with their CounterAct system.
Phil Davies, commercial manager at Border Merchant Systems explains why the company is ideally positioned to offer this expertise.
“Border is part of the Hermitage Innovation Group (HIG),” he said. “HIG has two specialist web development companies in the group – Stratus 21 and WKd. This access to knowledge allows Border to offer a single point of contact for both CounterAct and web projects.”
Owned by Adobe, Magento is one of the world’s leading ecommerce platforms. It’s used by thousands of companies around the world of all sizes to trade online. Magento is endlessly customisable, so websites can look distinctive. Magento also has a massive range of extensions available through its Marketplace which Border can utilise to keep development costs down.
Border’s Magento web integration caters for cash sales, account sales as well as providing online account management facilities (the portal).
Information about stock is held in CounterAct in the normal way. Additions and changes are automatically synchronised with the website. CounterAct allows for multiple pricing options allowing separate web pricing to branch pricing, if required.
Once a customer’s web order is processed and payment taken, it is then sent down to CounterAct for fulfilment. The web load has been written so that an order can be supplied in various ways from stock, another branch or direct from a supplier.
CounterAct users can have a simple retail site where a customer builds up a basket of goods, pay by credit card, and then the order is loaded back into CounterAct for fulfilment. Another option is for the merchants’ account customers to log in to see their special pricing terms and generate an order for delivery or click and collect.
Account customers also have the option to request a quote from the merchant through the portal, or use the quote builder facility to generate a quote of their own, adding margin and other items such as labour onto their customers quote.
Other options include stock integration with advanced inter-branch stock sharing rules. Other facilities that can also add value to the site are ‘project calculators’ such as a paving or fencing calculator, all linking back into CounterAct.
“We see the web as playing a key part in how our customers will trade and interact with their customers in the future,” said Mr Davies. “It is a key component in our development plans. Border has already built a comprehensive portfolio of completed web projects that are generating additional revenue for our customers and we are currently working on several more new sites.
“Having a single point of contact for both the website and system integration makes life easier for our users,” he continued. “We can manage the whole project from initial design concept right through to go live and beyond.”
