Virtual Showroom Application
Objective
IBM‘s Emerging Internet Technologies Group develops prototypes and solutions to bring innovative technologies to clients around the world. One of IBM’s clients is a large international company, which has been producing luxury furniture for more than 125 years.
To improve the buying experience and reinforce the company’s leading position on the furniture market by optimizing sales processes.
The traditional workflow was weighed down by paper-based processes. Sales managers had to flick through bulky catalogues to find the necessary product information. The order-taking process involved filling out numerous forms by hand before manually entering the data into the company’s ordering system.
This laborious process led to sluggishness and mistakes occurring as a result of human error. Rather than interacting with customers, sales managers were forced to spend the majority of their time placing orders..
Solution
Axmor software specialists developed an application to facilitate the digital transformation of the client’s business processes. The application provides salespersons and customers with quick access to the latest product information, and includes many other functions including online ordering.
This application was used at The High Point Market, the largest furnishings market trade show in the world. This event draws more than 75,000 participants every six months. The buying decisions made by customers at this exhibition directly influence the company’s profit for the forthcoming year.
Our team developed a user-friendly content management system, which enables inventories, pricing, and availability status to be updated quickly and easily. The application incorporates a deep, internal classification system based on furniture type, price, stock-keeping unit, options, and real-time location in the showroom. Users also have access to additional marketing information, as well as photographs of every available item.
iBeacons were deployed throughout all the client’s 100,000 square foot showrooms. As a customer approaches an item, the app will send them notifications about the product.iBeacons enable the client to gain critical insight into sales processes, traffic patterns and product trends. Based on the information gathered, employees were able to make rapid adjustments to showroom configuration, pricing, and availability status.
The application provided access to real-time sales analytics during The High Point Market. A heatmap of the showroom was implemented to support the visualization of data such as the location of sales managers and their customers, recorded sales and product inquiries. As a result, the company’s team was able to make rapid changes to the inventory and future supply, as well as to identify optimal approaches to customers based on their behavior.
The application propelled the company’s data analysis to a whole new level. Previously, sales managers had to create reports on sales volume and product trends manually. Now reports are generated automatically and can be analyzed in real time mode.
The application’s wishlist feature significantly improves the customer’s ordering experience. It enables wholesale buyers to plan their future purchases and compare various products. To make the ordering experience as convenient for the customer as possible, the app is designed to update pricing and availability status in real time.
In order to simplify the authorization for customers, our team integrated the application with LinkedIn. The company’s employees can now log into the system with their IBM ID.
