Aspin's Login Newsletter #SF14

Spring Fair Special 2014aspin.co.ukImproving sales performance

If these sound familiar, visit Aspin at Spring Fair, Hall/Stand: 5K66

to discuss how we can solve these issues.

2-6 FEBRUARY 2014

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PixSell is proving to be an amazing sales aid to our representatives. Aspin have guided us through the implementation from day one and provide an excellent on-going support. We have recommended Aspin and feel very confident to do so.

Fallen Fruits using PixSell with the Opticon OPN2002 barcode scanner at Spring Fair.

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We are pleased to say; this is Aspin’s sixth consecutive year exhibiting at the Spring Fair (Hall 5, 5K66). During that time, we’ve seen a huge change in the way distributors work with technology. We’re talking about a shift away from traditional sales and marketing formats, to methods that allow the distributor to become more networked and connected with both the retailer and the end user.

eCommerceAspin implemented the first InterSell B2B eCommerce website over 11 years ago (freedomgreetings.com). As Internet speed and capability has progressed, retailers have embraced the role of the Internet as a key aspect of their interactions with key suppliers – ranging from social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn, to dedicated B2B eCommerce portals.

This has allowed the retailer a greater sense of control in the relationship; ordering when they want, easy access to order history and reports, even making payment at their convenience. Waiting for the monthly sales visit, trade shows or calling Customer Services is no longer the only way to interact with suppliers, instead browsing new products at their leisure (often prompted from social media) and placing orders whenever necessary is key.

“Many of Aspin’s clients have reported that in the run-up to Christmas 2013 some retailers were placing daily top-up orders each evening, in response to the day’s sales.”

iPad ordering for sales repsFor sales reps and agents, we have seen a transition from handheld ‘zappers’ to iPads as the preferred order

capture tool. The iPad is proving hugely successful as a business tool for both the sales person and the retailer, allowing for a far more interactive experience.

Aspin’s PixSell app allows the iPad to become a valuable sales tool, rather than purely an ordering device, with additional CRM and activity based functionality. This provides a richer experience, and one that can closely tie in with a branded sales and marketing strategy.

If you remain unconvinced about iPad ordering, head over to page 7 to hear what Aspin’s clients say about it.

We hope that you all have a successful and prosperous Spring Fair 2014. Should you wish to learn more about Aspin’s eCommerce and | iPad ordering, please come to our stand (Hall 5, K66) or visit aspin.co.uk.

Login newsletter: Spring Fair 2014 edition

Spring Fair Special 2014

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aspin.co.uk

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10 good reasonswhy distributors invest in B2B eCommerce

For a demonstration please call 01794 500 200 or visit aspin.co.uk/ecommerce

From working with distributors and eCommerce over the last 10 years, here are the top ten reasons our clients decided to implement a B2B eCommerce website with Aspin.New business - As a distributor with an attractive, easy to manage website, you have the power to market your company and products to prospective customers and project a strong brand.

Export - Overseas customers can quickly and easily re-order large multi-line orders at their pre-agreed price and correct currency. Who knew selling your products abroad could be so straight forward?

Independence - Retailers need to place orders at a time to fit in with their busy working days. An effective B2B website takes the pressure away from them, encouraging them to place frequent orders whenever they want.

Integration - with robust integration to your back office systems, your retail

customers are always fully up to date with their account, product offering and availability.

Reach - A B2B website provides a platform to expand your business, to gain new accounts in areas that cannot cost effectively be serviced by reps or agents, such as small independent retailers.

ROI - Invest in a web presence that is both engaging and useful for your customers, and watch your market position and sales grow.

Flexibility – a website with a built in content management system allows you to easily keep your website up- to-date and relevant.

Support - InterSell is supported by the same people who develop InterSell. We know our business, our products and the difficulties you face as product distributors.

Long-term - A professionally designed, flexible and fully integrated eCommerce

website provides a lasting platform for future growth.

Pedigree - Aspin have 30 years of experience of working with distributors. We understand your industry and have developed our applications with you in mind. InterSell is Aspin’s B2B trade ordering solution.

“Having this trade ordering system has really helped us focus on how, and what, we need to promote in order to generate future business.”

Crabtree & Evelyn

“We chose InterSell because its ‘out-of -the-box’ functionality was very good. For Fab & Fix, InterSell is the sweet-spot. It provides a good pricing structure which most of the entry-level eCommerce systems just don’t have.”

Fab & Fix

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Amscan USAHaving launched their European B2B website in 2011, Amscan then contracted Aspin to build their USA eCommerce site. This was a two phase project, firstly delivering a trade site for Grasslands Road (homeware and decor), and then rolling out a secondary phase as Amscan launched their partyware range in the USA.

The strong relationship Aspin built with Amscan here in the UK, and the success of the Grasslands Road website were the basis of a successful InterSell implementation for Amscan USA. The American product offering however was somewhat larger than that of the UK, consisting of a wonderful array of decorations for Halloween, Valentines, baby showers and many more. This was a great challenge for the Interactive team as they had to create a product management tool for over 35,000 products that enabled the staff at Amscan to add and remove SKUs, update product images and manage the product categories.

The site went live in Spring 2013 and as Susan Beer, Marketing director suggests,

the site has gone from strength to strength! “Our customers are very pleased with the easy navigation and check out process, as well as the added features and benefits such as checking order history, retrieving Barcodes and UPCs, and using Fast Track for easy ordering. We appreciate the support and dedication from the Aspin team who have helped contribute to the success of our online trade ordering sites.”

William SinclairDistributors of horticulture products to over 60 garden centres and nurseries, William Sinclair’s B2B website site originally went live in June of 2010. In 2013 however, Aspin were commissioned to create an enhanced product list as part of improving the customer experience. The product list needed to be tailored to the bespoke ordering needs of William Sinclair trade customers, which included the following additions; thumbnails which can be clicked to reveal high resolution images, customer specific pricing, product dispatch site, shopping basket with a running total and all products displayed on one

page. Users needed to be able to categorise and filter the full product list which InterSell would update and display in one list, thus never displaying any number of products across more than one page.

Simon Heyward, head of IT at William Sinclair commented, “The solution also had to be optimised for the iPad to accommodate all customers and has so far had very positive feedback.” William Sinclair will facilitate an extra push to the site in the New Year to kick-start the 2014 spring sales.

Carl KammerlingAspin have deployed three InterSell sites for Carl Kammerling International (CKI) and have played a significant role in their online marketing schemes. The Interactive team have sent around 4-5 e-marketing campaigns on behalf of Carl Kammerling in order to drive traffic to both their website and their trade show stands. “We had no facility to do this in-house”, Brand Manager Vanessa Molloy tells us, “having only employed a graphic designer in the second half of 2013”. Known as e-flyers

at Carl Kammerling, Aspin receive the copy and design and place them into a HTML template. Once arranged and tweaked to perfection, Aspin then load the email into CKI’s e-marketing platform, and CK schedule the send time and date.

“Aspin were very helpful with the design and coding, which really was out of their remit. Our most memorable campaign has been the ‘Online Reward Scheme’ which increased registration of online accounts by 385.7%, encouraged 15% more of our online accounts to start ordering and increased online orders placed by 5%”, says Vanessa. “Aspin’s Graphic Designer, Al, designed the direct mail and an e-flyer, and the process was very productive and rewarding. Carl Kammerling were particularly pleased with Aspin, which meant the small but busy marketing department at Carl Kammerling were able to continue working to their tight deadlines, whilst Aspin took care of the marketing schemes.”

The latest in eCommerce excellence with Aspin’s InterSell team

PixSell is proving to be an amazing sales aid to our representatives. We have recommended Aspin and feel very confident to do so.– Fallen Fruits

Make the selling process easier for your sales teamPixSell has rich features enabling reps not only to sell into their accounts, but manage them comprehensively too. I would be lynched if I tried to withdraw it! – Historic Originals

A great app that has hit the ground running. Fantastic for business, we have noticed an increase in our average order and our clients are very impressed. – Half Moon Bay

We have not looked back. This app makes the selling process easier for our sales team and more importantly, our customers. It is easy to use and intuitive. – Lesser and Pavey

We have now been using PixSell for nearly twelve months and it is putting us at the top when it comes to technology with our customers, and enabling our representatives to perform their roles as professionally as possible. Overall, an excellent choice! – Citizen Watch UK

Our sales team have been using PixSell for about 5 months now and it has had a positive impact on our entire business. Both the customers and sales reps love it and our Sales Director is able to keep a better track of each reps’ performance. – Louella Belle

Aspin are always available to help no matter the time of day. They are a provider we can trust and have faith in to resolve any issue - in the rare case there might be one. Any business wishing to have the competitive edge over their competition really should invest in PixSell now, as it just gets better with every update. – Rochford

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Download PixSell for free.

The app gives our sales reps more tools to work with – maximising sales opportunities. The interface is intuitive and the system is slick, this is one serious weapon for the sales team arsenal. – Ty Uk

Make the selling process easier for your sales team

Of all the benefits of PixSell, we feel the main one to be stock efficiency, allowing agents to avoid selling out of stock items, and therefore maximising sales. The app has proved invaluable, and we would highly recommend PixSell. – Caroline Gardner

The real time information available to the sales team is proving invaluable. All reps have found the system easy to use, making them more prepared for day to day contact with customers. Information at their finger tips saves phone calls to the office for sales information, and this is a real asset.

– Dartington Crystal

We have found PixSell extremely useful in improving efficiency in both placing and processing orders. – Talking Tables

Our reps have found PixSell extremely easy to use and a very good tool to help them secure business. Well recommended! – Weston Beamor

PixSell is a professional product that we believe, enhances our company image. We look forward to a long standing partnership with Aspin. – Gerrard International

This app has helped focus our sales team’s efforts and has really put the life back into each sales call. It is very easy to use meaning more time selling, and less time taking orders. Great product.– Rosewood Pet Products

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Scan the QR code on this page or visit aspin.co.uk/pixsell for more information.

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... and here’s some we prepared earlierAspin deliver high impact, fully integrated, eCommerce websites. Here are some examples:

www.cwuk-shop.co.uk - Citizen Watch is the world’s largest watch distributor. Citizen Watch UK use InterSell to serve their UK retail customers.

www.artis-uk.com - John Artis distribute tableware to the UK foodservice industry.

trade.gibsonsgames.co.uk - HB Gibson distribute board games and puzzles.

www.CarlKammerling.com - Carl Kammerling are a tools distributor.

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Come and see Aspin in hall 5 stand K66 to see more

www.cathtatecards.com - Cath Tate is a publisher of humorous greeting cards and gifts.

www.hillsart.ie - Hill Agencies distribute fine art and craft materials.

www.culinaryconceptsliving.com - Culinary Concepts distributor of design lead kitchenware, tableware and interior decoration.

www.leonardo.co.uk - Lesser and Pavey is one of the UK’s leading import distributors of giftware and housewares.

the reps using PixSell, Citizen were far more paper driven in the field, with the sales team using aged hardware combined with paper based processes. Citizen decided it was high time to move the team and their daily activities into the 21st century with an all encompassing tablet based system. “We were looking for an incorporated system, accommodating differing call objectives across the sales persons and merchandisers employed in the field”, Brian recalls, “with the ability to take photos and pass those back to head office being a strong requirement.” The area sales team take stock, orders, and obtain business intelligence, whilst the merchandisers are predominantly CRM driven and perform stock takes. Equally, the system would need to deploy all of these capabilities and directly import the data for order processing and interrogation back at head office. Aspin were able to

Now utilising 17 PixSell licences for field order capture and stock count, and having recently gone live with InterSell B2B eCommerce, Aspin caught up with Citizen’s Finance and IT Director Brian Gillingham to see how Aspin’s products and services have benefitted their business processes in the last year.

“directly import the data for order processing and interrogation back at head office.” Keen to know what attracts our clients to Aspin, we asked Brian why Citizen proceeded with Aspin as their provider. “Having seen three suppliers, we felt that PixSell best met our specific requirements, rather than on a vast global scale – PixSell fitted our key business objectives, we didn’t have to fit the software.” Prior to

Client Focus:Citizen Watch UKBack in the summer of 2012, Citizen invited Aspin to their Wokingham offices to demonstrate PixSell in response to their requirement for a tablet based field sales solution. The rest is history.

Citizen’s InterSell B2B homepage

Citizen’s PixSell iPad presentation screen

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Scan the QR code on this page or visit

aspin.co.uk/pixsell for more information.

meet these requirements with PixSell. Furthermore, Citizen felt Aspin gave the best presentation and in January 2013, the Citizen reps went live with the application.

Post implementation, Brian has some very complimentary words for PixSell. Aspin asks, “What value has PixSell brought to your field sales team and their retail visits?”

“PixSell has not only given Citizen Watch the confidence that their reps are capturing accurate data in the field but also provided a system that incorporates all key objectives into one device.” Indeed, the reps’ ability to perform all required activities using this one application, Brian tells us, is truly brilliant, putting us at the fore of technology with our customers, and enabling the Citizen Reps to perform as professionally as possible.

November 2013 saw the Citizen B2B eCommerce platform go live which has received some great feedback both internally and externally. Whilst Citizen are delighted with the look and feel of the site corresponding with their global brand and image, customers are impressed with the ability to review order histories that predate the platform and describe the new website to be fresh and contemporary.

Looking at Citizen’s branded editions of PixSell and InterSell, with their references to Watch Brand of the year and it’s not difficult to see why the Citizen reps, their PixSell app and the InterSell site are such a hit with jewellery and watch retailers.

A big thank you to Brian Gillingham for talking to Aspin.

Aspin’s Doug Mendes and Brian Gillingham

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eCommerce has been around for a long time, however awareness and focus has tended to be on retail. Often overlooked as a business tool for wholesalers and distributors, Aspin have seen their clients successfully service their retail customers with a trade ordering portal. With the economic pressures of today, eCommerce is often seen as a money saving tool that expands retailer reach and business opportunity.

Our B2B trade ordering solution InterSell is a leading eCommerce platform providing distributors with a system to sell their products globally, 24 hours a day, at agreed pricing. Additionally, products can be profiled to customer groups to enable licensed items to be sold correctly across agreed territories.  

Why do Aspin’s clients opt for InterSell? Would it not be easier to employ your IT resources to develop a shopping cart in-house? InterSell is more than just a shopping basket – designed from the ground-up for distributors and wholesalers, Aspin offer you an experienced team of professionals to implement and support the solution that is right for your business.

InterSell is the B2B eCommerce solution for many UK businesses including:

Amscan

Artis

Carl Kammerling

Cath Tate Cards

Citizen Watch

Coloplast UK

Crabtree & Evelyn

Culinary Concepts

Feridax

Freedom

Gibson Games

Hill Agencies

Kenro

Lesser & Pavey

Nevis

Paperlink

Paul Murray

Petty Wood

Thorite

Trend UK

Time & Space

Windhorse

William Sinclair

InterSell 3.0 the ‘sweet spot’ in eCommerce

Visit aspin.co.uk/ecommerce

to see what Windhorse thinks of InterSell 3.0

For 10 reasons why distributors choose InterSell, go to page 3

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We have recently rolled out PixSell for our sales agents to use in the field. We have found it extremely useful for improving efficiency in both placing and processing orders. The catalogue is a great feature it is easy and intuitive to use and a great sales tool also.

Talking Tables using PixSell on their stand at New York Gift Fair

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Spring Fair Special 2014

Aspin, 3 Horsefair Mews, Romsey, Hampshire SO51 8JG© 2014 Copyright Aspin Management Systems Limited.All Rights Reserved. MiniSell, InterSell, MiniPick, PixSell and AMSolve are registered trademarks of Aspin Management Systems Limited. All other logos are the property of their respective owners.

Come and visit us at Spring Fair 2014

2-6 FEBRUARY 2014