Background
Widely recognised for its refined design and enduring performance, Smithey Ironware’s cookware combines beauty with serious culinary performance, earning a dedicated following among home cooks and professional chefs alike.
With a decade-long legacy, Smithey Ironware’s expansion hasn’t just been centred around growing their product range, but their customer base, too. They began selling at a wholesale level in late 2023 and turned to SparkLayer to support their scaling plans.
The challenge
With a strong B2C presence in the US, Smithey Ironware were looking for a scalable solution to build out their wholesale. Serving over 500 stores in their network and many accounts requiring bespoke pricing, their existing process created friction both for staff and customers.
Supplying premium retailers, such as Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, and hundreds of independent kitchen stores across the country, the team needed a platform that saved them time, resources, and money while delivering a consistently high level of customer experience.
The team needed a way to manage multiple pricing groups, including establishing specific discounts, volume-based prices, and flexible editing on the fly. They also needed to ensure everything was kept up to date, and inventory and product data were displayed in real-time.
Due to their large range of B2B buyers, they also needed the option to manually process large wholesale orders for accounts that preferred submitting Purchase Orders (POs) over self-service.
It was important to the brand to maintain their legacy customers while modernising their processes and tech stack for internal efficiency. They wanted to continue empowering their less tech-savvy customers while adopting a new digital ordering system.
The solution
Smithey Ironware integrated SparkLayer into their existing Shopify setup to streamline their processes and drive operational efficiency. With SparkLayer, the brand has been able to enable 24/7 online ordering for their customers, with bespoke product and price lists for each established customer group.
For their legacy customers or those who prefer to submit POs, our Sales Agent tool means that the Sales team can create baskets, place orders, and manage the admin side of wholesale for their end customers. These orders all adhere to specific buying rules and criteria that Smithey’s have set for their customer groups - for example, minimum order quantities, tiered pricing, and order value rules.
Their complex price structure is all managed through Shopify tags that are pulled directly into SparkLayer’s pricing tools, saving the team time and reducing the risk of manual errors.
SparkLayer’s ease of use has led to speedy onboarding for both the internal Sales teams as well as for their end customers. Smithey’s have been able to create a resource hub to guide their B2B buyers using videos, onboarding tools, and direct access to the self-service portal.
The results
As a result of implementing SparkLayer, the business has significantly reduced the time spent processing orders manually, which is crucial for their small but growing team! They’ve also established order rules to further reduce the risk of human error, as orders can’t be processed unless certain parameters or thresholds are adhered to.
This has boosted their customer satisfaction levels as their B2B buyers can place and manage orders at a time that works best for them. The increase in transparency has also reduced the level of support required and, while their team remains very hands-on, they have more time to spend on higher-value tasks.
Smithey’s have seen an increase in order volume and higher levels of accuracy thanks to their new, streamlined processes. They have improved sales visibility due to the Sales Agent tool and have better oversight of PO management. Smithey is actively expanding their use of SparkLayer features. They're rolling out new onboarding content using tools like Klaviyo to increase customer adoption. With plans to expand their sales territories and onboard new reps, Smithey sees SparkLayer as a vital part of their growth strategy.
““SparkLayer has definitely increased our revenue; it’s been a huge solution for us. We support over 500 stores and the majority of them order via SparkLayer on our website and it’s amazing! It makes our job much easier - since we’re a small team, doing things the best way with less friction and fewer clicks is crucial. That's what our goal is.
The Sales Agent tool is vital - our Sales team is all about people so they need a tool that adds to that experience. Some brands send us a PO and we input it through using the Sales Agent function. We have set rules for each customer where it's not going to let us add an item unless it's a certain quantity, so it helps us maintain efficiency and I don't have to go into Shopify to double-check all the details.” ~ Alex Wilson, Sales Account Manager
Explore more
To learn more about Smithey Ironware, their product range, and the story of their brand, visit their website.
To see how SparkLayer works with Shopify, you can explore via the links below: