After a year of development, Blaine Brothers and North American Trailer have released an e-commerce platform to give B2B customers access to more than 35,000 high-quality aftermarket parts for the trucking industry. The platform supports all trucks, trailers and tankers and is accessible via PC or mobile device.
“The site provides an easy-to-use product search and provides a seamless, one-step cart checkout process,” explained Wendy Sorquist, director of marketing at Blaine Brothers. “It informs users of our inventory levels at each of our facilities, allows you to pick and change your filling branch at any time, and get parts when and where you need them.”
The independent Minneapolis-based service and parts provider has four Minnesota locations and one in Wisconsin. Users can set up store pickup or local delivery, and any fleet across the country can gets parts shipped directly.
The company sees the digital ordering tool as a way to extend the expertise of its service technicians and shop managers.
“In order to maintain a solid reputation for high-quality service work, we have to install high-quality parts,” Sorquist said. “Due to the volume of our service business we can quickly identify any potential issues with a supplier or specific part.”
Furthermore, a product review committee—comprising the director of purchasing, sales manager, director of marketing, truck shop manager, and trailer shop manager a parts solution team—vet parts before they are used in the shop, while a parts solution team reviews feedback from the shop floor to verify their quality and effectiveness.
In the next phase of the site’s development, B2C functionality will be available.
“The site's architecture is flexible and scalable for the future,” Sorquist said. “We built a system that allows our team to easily add new items and optimized the workflow for easy visibility of our suppliers and partners.”
