First Supply

The Challenge

First Supply is a fifth-generation, family-owned distributor serving contractors across the Midwest. After enlisting Xngage to help implement, manage, and transform their ecommerce operation, the First Supply team knew they wanted to get a better handle on their ecommerce data. After working with other ecommerce partners over the years, First Supply’s Ecommerce Manager Staci Otradovec says that they wanted to verify the accuracy and quality of their data to inform their decision making. After meeting with Xngage Digital Marketing Growth Services Director Rebecca Boggs, Staci and her team decided to move forward with Xngage’s custom analytics program.

“One of the biggest reasons I was interested in the offerings of the digital marketing growth services team could bring to us was just having more visibility and confidence in our data,” says Staci. “At First Supply, we don’t have a dedicated internal ecommerce analyst, and I wanted to make sure we had the right tagging and tracking in place across the site.”

Check out our interview with Staci Otradovec about her experience working with our digital marketing growth services team.

The Xngage Solution

The Xngage Digital Marketing Growth Services team conducted a data audit, identifying all sources for First Supply’s data and then verifying the accuracy of that data. Rebecca and her team worked with First Supply to understand the company’s unique goals and challenges, and then crafted a custom, 25-page data dashboard. Over the years, the Rebecca and Staci have worked together to nearly double the size of that report, adding new metrics to track as their ecommerce operation has evolved and matured.

“At the end of the day, if you want to make smart decisions about what’s working, what isn’t, and where customers might be struggling, you need analytics telling that story,” says Staci. “That’s where Becca and her team helped us build that foundation, so we could make more informed decisions instead of relying on assumptions.”

The reports not only help guide First Supply’s ecommerce sales strategies but also help guide updates and optimizations to the site, which are executed by our user experience design team and developers. These optimizations help better serve their customers, tailoring the site to exactly how customers want to use it. Not only does it increase self-service, but it also helps improve customer loyalty.

“One interesting example came after we redesigned the site a little over a year ago,” says Staci. “We had always heard from customers that once they logged in, they were primarily going straight to My Account areas like Order History. So, we, of course, took what we were hearing, and we re-worked the visual design of the website to bring those features more to the forefront after they log in. We also built analytics around that behavior to validate whether customers were actually using it the way we expected.”

The Results

The updates to the My Account section of their site has led to double- and triple-digit growth in engagement with those areas.

“It validated that we were listening to customers correctly and designing around their behavior and needs,” says Staci.

First Supply had ambitious growth goals for its ecommerce operation, but Rebecca says that the company had already captured a large portion of their potential audience. Spending time and resources trying to gain new customers was not going to be the most efficient strategy to help them meet their goals. With the reports and a wealth of experience working with other distributors, Rebecca was able to identify that First Supply was underperforming on average order value (AOV) compared to the industry standard. With this data in mind, Rebecca and Staci worked together to craft a strategy to get their current customers to purchase a bit more with each order.

“We knew from experience that our customers respond well to giveaways, so we brought back promotions that worked before and increased the minimum order amount to qualify,” says Staci. “That helped drive higher average order values while still creating excitement for customers. We’ve repeated variations of that strategy multiple times now, and it continues to perform well.”

While giveaways and promo codes are more common in the B2C space, First Supply has proven that they can be successful in B2B when implemented strategically. Staci says that First Supply leadership is always thinking about margins, so instead of relying heavily on direct discounts, the company often structures promotions around giveaway entries, such as event tickets or physical prizes. She says their customers love the chance to win something, and this strategy allows First Supply to protect margins while still driving engagement and increasing average order value.

Not only has First Supply seen positive year-over-year growth as a result of these campaigns, but the company is also seeing meaningful increases in customer engagement.

First Supply’s ecommerce team meets with Rebecca each month, and they continue to gain actionable insights from their data dashboard. Rebecca says that the First Supply team is great at making consistent, small optimizations that are adding up to major impact for the ecommerce operation.

“What stands out most to me is that Becca genuinely cares about our success. She doesn’t feel like an outside vendor. She feels like an extension of our team. I feel that way about everyone at Xngage,” says Staci. “The whole team is proactive, collaborative, and willing to challenge our thinking when needed, which ultimately helps us make better decisions. That partnership approach has been incredibly valuable.”