SUCCESS STORY

Modernizing a Long-Standing Industrial Distributor

A long-established industrial distributor had built a strong B2B business serving repeat customers. They managed a large product catalog, complex pricing, and long-term customer relationships — all powered by Epicor Prophet 21 (P21).

They also had an eCommerce site. But it functioned more like a catalog than a place to actually order.

Executive Summary

This wasn’t a story about launching a new website.  It was about reducing risk in a business that had outgrown manual processes.

The distributor already had strong customers, a capable sales team, and Epicor P21 running the core of the business. But digital ordering hadn’t kept pace with how the company actually operated. Pricing lived in the ERP. Orders lived in email. Sales teams acted as human middleware. And the portal existed—but didn’t meaningfully change behavior.

Groove worked with leadership to design a B2B eCommerce experience that respected the reality of the ERP, the workflows of the team, and the expectations of repeat customers. Instead of replacing systems or forcing behavior change, the focus was sequencing: extending Epicor P21 to customers in a way that felt familiar, reliable, and safe to adopt.

Epicor ERP Logo

Where Groove Came In

Groove Commerce partnered with the leadership and operations teams to plan and implement a true B2B eCommerce experience, grounded in how the business actually ran inside Epicor P21.

Groove’s role included:

  • Clarifying priorities and risks before execution

  • Designing the B2B buying experience

  • Implementing deep integration with Epicor P21

  • Supporting rollout and adoption

The goal wasn’t to replace existing systems. It was to extend P21 to customers in a usable, self-service way.

What We Built

The new B2B portal reflected real business rules from the ERP, including:

  • Real-time pricing pulled directly from Epicor P21

  • Customer-specific pricing and catalogs

  • Support for Net 30 terms and standard B2B payment workflows
  • TradeCentric integration, allowing customers to order through their procurement systems

  • Real-time visibility into orders and availability

What customers saw online matched what the business ran on internally.

What Changed

After launch:

  • Routine orders shifted from phone and email to online self-service

  • Customers could place orders confidently using their approved pricing and terms

  • Sales teams spent less time on order entry and more time supporting accounts

  • Pricing updates in Epicor P21 appeared online without manual work

The portal stopped being an extra system to manage. It became part of how the business operated.

Why This Worked

This project didn’t start with features. It started with sequence.

Groove focused first on:

  • ERP reality

  • Operational workflows

  • Adoption risk

Only then did execution begin. Because the eCommerce experience was designed around Epicor P21 — not on top of it, adoption followed and risk stayed controlled.

Operational Impact

Within months, the business saw:

  • Higher online adoption

  • Larger average order values

  • More repeat orders placed digitally

More importantly, teams trusted the system — because it reflected how the business already worked.

Where to Go Next

If you’d like to explore what that would look like inside your organization, start by requesting a complimentary copy of the book — or schedule a consultation to review your current ERP and digital readiness.
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