Origlio is set to pass a milestone by the end of this year when web ordering will account for more than half of all orders placed. With roughly 600 orders coming through our online portal every week, web ordering has become a valuable tool for operations as well as our customers. We sat down with Peter Smith, Origlio’s Associate for Information Technology, to get a peek behind the curtain at how web ordering works and where this technology might be headed in the near future.
Heady Times (HT): Take us back three years – why did Origlio add web ordering to its toolbox in the first place?
Peter Smith (PS): To put it simply, people like to order online nowadays. Web ordering gives our accounts a simple, easy-to-navigate platform to place their orders. It’s also extremely convenient. Our customers can access their orders or items in their cart at any time of day. They can place an order at midnight if they choose to. Also, it can be difficult for some of our larger accounts to place orders over the phone or via fax. With an order of over 200 items, mistakes become more common. Web ordering allows our accounts to be in control of their orders.
HT: Who uses our web ordering platform?
PS: It’s certainly more popular with our off-premise accounts. Between our Reading and Philadelphia warehouses we have over 1,500 customers with web ordering login credentials. To give you a sense of scale, we are the largest web ordering account that EoStar (the company who developed our web ordering software) has – by a wide margin.
HT: How has Origlio’s web ordering process changed these past three years?
PS: One of the first big changes we made was adding the option for accounts to upload bulk orders through Excel. Previously, the only option for an account placing an order online was to scroll through our items and pick them individually. That can take a lot of time, and web ordering is meant to save time. Now, a customer can create an Excel sheet, fill out the item number and quantity and upload the order to our platform. Another big change was giving accounts access to their allocations. Previously, they would have to call into the office to find out what was on hold for them. Now they can access it all online. We’ve also added customer information to each profile so our accounts can easily view their sales rep, delivery day, recent orders and even past invoices to print for reference.
HT: What does the future hold for Origlio web ordering?
PS: A lot. Some are small fixes, like being able to reset your password without having to call Origlio. A bigger project we have in mind is adding “cards” to a profile homepage that display information like new releases and items on special. They’ll look a bit like the featured items on an Amazon homepage. It will make our platform more user friendly and allow for easier browsing. We’ll also be updating our product shots to look more like what you see on our beer pages on Origlio.com.
HT: To wrap up, what would your elevator pitch be to an account that’s never used web ordering before?
PS: I’d tell them it’s simple and convenient. What’s easier than using your smartphone, iPad or computer to place an order whenever you want? You don’t have to sit on hold or wait for your sales rep to stop by. You can place an order at your leisure. And now it’s much easier to browse our products. Need a new pilsner? You can search and see every pilsner we have in stock in our warehouse at a moment’s notice. It doesn’t get much better than that!
