Hose of South Texas

Project Details

Problem

Hose of South Texas – a mainstay in the industrial hose industry since 1978 – considers themselves more than just a company that sells hose; they’re a partner in finding solutions. Over the years, the distributor has expanded their products and services to offer custom solutions, hydraulic and pneumatic equipment repairs, hose testing, and an online storefront. One of the early adopters of eCommerce in their industry, Hose of South Texas implemented their website in 2016 to create a user experience that would encourage customers to make repeat purchases and drive retention.

Katina Yoakum, Director of Online Business & Marketing for Hose of South Texas, helped with their eCommerce efforts. “Our goal was, and still is, to create customer stickiness with our digital branch,” said Yoakum. “We feel the more we can offer on our site, the more our customers will keep coming back.”

For their initial site, Yoakum personally sourced all their product data, emailing every vendor for information, writing the content, and putting it into multiple spreadsheets. Without a product information management (PIM) tool, curating content for 12,000 items was not only time-consuming but the manual process also made it difficult to maintain data consistency across manufacturers.

Adding to their challenges, the distributor’s site had limited backend functionality. Yoakum said she couldn’t make simple changes, such as changing a banner, without creating a case ticket with the eCommerce provider. On the front end, their site lacked two key elements – robust content and supporting documents and the ability to show product availability online – which resulted in little organic sales, no existing customer sales, and poor internal site adoption by the sales team.

Solution

To discover how Unilog helped solve Hose of South Texas’ eCommerce challenges, download the case study and learn more!