Selco Builders Warehouse

Smashing revenue targets for six years for this PWA technology trailblazer

Bricks and mortar to digital trailblazer

This work comes with a warning: 6 years of improvements deserve 6 case studies We’ve had to miss out a lot. 

We’ve supported Selco the whole way, from its basic brochure site to today’s progressive web app; the world’s biggest B2B example in this emerging technology.

This transformational journey has seen them achieve double-digit growth every month. That would be impressive for any business, but in a sector which is hard to serve online, it’s pretty damn astounding.

Built from the ground up

When we began working with Selco 6 years ago, they had a WordPress site with an online catalogue. No online products. No online payments. No delivery. No integration with IT systems. 

They also had a network of stores that were sceptical about digital. To be fair, they were right to be sceptical. Building materials are tough to sell online.  But Selco didn’t just want to catch up with their competitors online, they wanted to overtake them. To go from a standing start to leading online would involve a huge mindset shift. 

We knew it would be a marathon not a sprint.
 

Shaking up building supplies

From the start, our shared ambition has been to raise standards for customer service in an industry, which (put politely) has traditionally been a “get what you’re given” approach.

So we continually look for ways to make their lives easier and deliver a best-in-class customer experience that puts them first, such as:

• The job planning tool that shows builders how much to charge for each project, with material calculators (not just for Selco products!) and picking lists so everything is ready in-store when they want to start
• Custom checkout flow with date picking for delivery and collection
• Optimised account registration and onboarding experience
• Click and collect fulfilment services with one-hour turnaround so they only need to make one trip to the branch

Although the existing site continued to drive exponential growth, we knew migrating to Magento Commerce Edition 2.3 (2.3.3) would enhance customer experience further.

Using its PWA, PageBuilder and GraphQL capabilities would radically improve speed, efficiency and responsiveness. 

Blending third-party solutions with our own cutting-edge approaches means that Selco can do in weeks, what takes others months, without needing to overspend or rebuild the site. 

Build it and they will come

Six years of tireless improvements to Selco’s site and digital transformation has seen them double their operation and become leaders in their space. Central to this is making the things their customers need and love, which has elevated Selco to a trusted brand rather than a mere commodity.

This has only been possible thanks to a trusted, collaborative and productive partnership, which continues to unlock success and new wins every month. 

Most recently we introduced bulky deliveries, allowing the website to send orders to local branches, who then send out a flatbed truck — this doubled transactions overnight.

It goes to show that when you put service first, sales follow.