WHSmith develops own B2B cloud-based ecommerce platform

WHSmith has developed its own B2B ecommerce platform using Netsuite's SuiteCommerce solution to help its franchisees manage their businesses.

The ecommerce solution will help businesses under WHSmith's umbrella manage many of the tasks they need to monitor, including purchases, payments, review order history and account details. It will also ease the process of requesting refunds and returns from a secure, password-protected online environment, all from a simple to use interface on both desktop and mobile.

WHSmith will be using its ecommerce platform in stores across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia to ensure all sites are managing their processes, in the same way, with similar reporting across the board.

Using Netsuite SuiteCommerce has allowed the high street retailer to fully automate processes, getting rid of laborious tasks such as faxing and emailing orders and thereby improving the customer and franchisee experience.

“To meet the needs of our customers we needed to develop a world-class business-to-business commerce capability, explained David McGrath, Head of Shared IT Services at WHSmith. "NetSuite SuiteCommerce offers an ideal combination of rapid time to market and rich functionality that will help us support the growth of our franchise and wholesale business."

The system was implemented by consultancy Accenture, whose expertise working with Netsuite and on other complex digital commerce projects meant it was a solid choice to integrate SuiteCommerce into WHSmith's existing system.

“It’s a win-win for both WHSmith and our franchise partners that will streamline operations, help us future-proof our business and open the door to strategic opportunities for continued growth,” McGrath continued.