Dennis Carpenter
Sales have definitely increased from our online presence. The first couple of years, we were doubling our sales online.
– Bryan Fowler, Creative Director at Dennis Carpenter
Dennis Carpenter a valued customer for commercebuild
Interview with Bryan Fowler – Creative Director for Dennis Carpenter
About Dennis Carpenter
Dennis Carpenter manufacturers antique and vintage auto parts Ford no longer produces. Our founder Dennis is an antique car enthusiast who started making his own bolts and knobs for his vintage cars. After attending some car shows he realized there was a need in the market for these parts, so he invested in a mold-injection press and we were off to the races. In the last 21-years we have grown from selling our products in catalogs, using typewriters to manually enter orders, to now having an online webstore where customers can purchase 24/7 and orders are entered into our Sage system automatically and shipped.
Why did you pick commercebuild to create your webstore?
The most significant contributing factor is that we are utilizing Sage as our ERP system. They were first company licensed by Sage to build eCommerce websites that would work natively with the same software. It was the ERP system that drew us to them, we were able to seamlessly integrate and are very happy with commercebuild and all of its offerings.
Since launching your webstore, how have your core business metrics been impacted?
Sales have definitely increased from our online presence. The first couple of years, we were doubling our sales online. When we got on commercebuild, we were able to really leverage our online store. We built out a lot of features on the site, such as the make model search that worked out really well. We saw order volume go up and saw the number of parts ordered at a time go up as well. We were able to cut down attending shows by half and shifted more of our marketing efforts into our online store.
What advice would you give to someone who might be considering building out a webstore and why do you think they should pick commercebuild?
In the year 2020 and moving forward, you need to reach your customers online. Our business had already been doing well before COVID but connecting with customers online is very important as the pandemic continues and beyond. I would pick commercebuild again because of the ease of use, the integration, and the people they have working there. The commercebuild team is exceptional at their job. I’ve spent many late nights with their team trying just to fix our problems and help us meet our goals. You also do not need expertise when looking at building a webstore, you can have as little or as much complexity as you want. They have a lot of expertise in the area, and made it a fun process to build our website.