The new www.plumblink.co.za is live

By: Lesego Malete | PLUMBING AFRICA • Vol 16 No 4 • June 2010

Excitement was abuzz as Plumblink gave Plumbing Africa the inside scoop of their newly launched website.

On 12 April 2010 a new life was breathed into the stale and outdated website by gigantic merchant, Plumblink as they launched their new live online tool. With their new service providers, Kerridge and Eliance, the company introduces the new www.plumblink.co.za website.

The new website, according to Plumblink is the first of its kind in their line of work and is an interactive tool that allows users to buy online and chat with the company while logged on. "What we’ve done here now, first of all is launch probably the most comprehensive online plumbing and sanitaryware catalogue in South Africa." Development for this multi-million masterwork began in November 2009 and this has been developed with all their customers in mind says Gareth Vermaak, Plumblink’s national sales manager who also admits that although Plumblink is a big company, with 26 branches across the country, "we found that we were still not able to be close enough to our customers. We actually needed to develop this website so that it effectively becomes another enhanced selling and distribution tool of products and get our staff to the customers".

Improvement from the old

While the old website was controlled by their service provider and not updated on a regular basis, the new website is live and customers have full access to what the company can view from their system. With this new system, Plumblink has full access and as soon as there’s a change on the system; the company wants their customers to know about it. "If an item is discontinued, the old way, we had to send this information to our service provider to make changes. This way, we click a button and our customers are notified immediately that the item is discontinued," says Oswald Abrahams, the company’s ERP systems manager. The pricing is maintained live all the time and the maintenance is done live on the system on an hour to hour basis. The existing customer base will be able to download invoices, see account information and also be able to view any orders they’ve placed with the merchant. Viewing their credit limit online is another option which is available. Any person who has an account with Plumblink has access to their account regardless of where they are in the country as the branches all use one server for the site. Additionally, users can see which branch has the stock which they require and can therefore place their orders online and wait for their 24 hour delivery.

Customer base

Gareth states that "this website is not directed only at Mrs. Jones. Plumblink is a specialist plumbing supplier and specialist bathroom supplier company. A very large chunk of our customers are contract plumbers, Mrs. Jones and maintenance plumbers. We believe that this website is directed at all three of them."

Incorporating other technologies

Abrahams, the brainchild behind this website, says "we’ve also taken other technologies into account like Facebook and Twitter so we can interact more with our customers and find out what their needs are. Plumbing Africa magazine is also on board with Plumblink as a media partner and we will be supplying the new website with two articles per month which will be linked back to our website: www.plumbingafrica.co.za.

Need help?

The online support department is waiting and willing to support those customers online who need assistance. The online support department has access to who’s logged on, what they are viewing and this provides the customer an option to seek help while online. The department will receive an alert that someone needs help after a notification has been sent. Competitions,promotions and give-aways are a click away asthese can also be viewed on this new website.

E-commerce

A major enhancement to the website is the inclusion of the online catalogue, customers have a full view of what is available in the stores and they can place orders online and make payments using this system. A new feature also includes a new payment system which pushes efficient business acumen. "As soon as payment is done online, it prints out a slip and dispatch will arrange for that item to be delivered to the customer," says Abrahams. With this new and innovative feature; the company believes it will separate them from their competitors. Payments are made via credit cards and, for those customers who do not have a credit card, they can place their orders and make a quotation online with a guarantee that the sales personnel will be in contact with them to help them further.

Challenges

Vermaak says putting the catalogue together was quite challenging. "This is a new concept for the plumbing industry so the biggest challenge was to compile the online catalogue. We had to do a lot of work to get the correct photographs and the second phase we’re busy with now is, that every product will have a technical specification." The website is interactive and allows the user to be in contact with the stores while online waving lengths for better communication and business skills. The website also links to other company websites. "The initial idea was to get Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Khumalo to buy online but it has developed into an interactive tool." "Although the current studies are giving us information that say the online user market is small, we honestly believe that South Africa’s trend will follow world trends and this will grow, we are expecting huge trends in this." For more information on this new website; visit: www.plumblink.co.za