The perfect blend of B2C and B2B commerce.
The soft drink giant revolutionised the Neverfail Spring Water webstore using Magento Commerce. Now it’s a breeze for both types of customer.
Sales doubled
every 3 months since launch
Products:
Objectives
Upgrade outdated and confusing website
Use online technology to find and keep customers
Relaunch Neverfail e-commerce business
Develop online self-service platform
Results
70,000 B2B/B2C customers
Website sales doubled every three months since launch
50% of online sales now self-managed subscription revenue
“Magento is the answer to a lot of our technology and business challenges. The launch of the new site has become very successful and is delivering on all objectives. We are excited about the future and the overall impact on our business.”
Nicole Crivelli
National Digital Marketing & E-commerce Manager, Coca-Cola Amatil
A refreshing digital transformation
Neverfail Spring Water is a great Australian success story. The business was created in 1987 by a New South Wales entrepreneur called Harry Hilliam and his family. They lived on the Hawkesbury River and boasted a natural spring water source so reliable they called it Neverfail, because it “never failed to produce water, no matter how dry it got.” At that time nobody was selling bulk bottled water directly to customers, but Harry started delivering it from the back of his truck. In 2003, Neverfail was purchased by Coca-Cola Amatil (Amatil) and is now “Australia’s #1 Spring Water Cooler brand.”
Amatil is one of the largest bottlers of non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages in the Asia-Pacific region. It is Amatil’s mission to refresh everyone, every day, everywhere. In addition to the four iconic Coca-Cola products, their portfolio includes Sprite, Fanta, Lift, Mount Franklin, Pump, Powerade, Barista Bros, Grinders Coffee, SimpliciTea and distribution agreements for Monster and Mother.
Today, Neverfail has over 70,000 customers and 130 independently owned local distributors. Their core product is natural spring water delivered in returnable 15-litre or 11-litre bottles and the renting of water coolers for use in homes and businesses throughout Australia. They also deliver a number of other hydration solutions including water filters and one-way bulk water.
But in 2015, facing softening sales and a lack of focus and investment from the broader Amatil business, the Neverfail business was at a crossroads. Should Amatil sell it or invest further in it? After an extensive review, an executive decision was made to refresh and invest in the Neverfail business, including the creation a new Neverfail leadership team, with the objective of transforming and improving every aspect of the business. In the digital space, their e-commerce website was outdated and confusing, with low online sales. Amatil had a strong desire to use online technology to acquire and retain customers.
At the Magento Live conference, Nicole Crivelli, National Digital Marketing and E-commerce Manager for Amatil, listened to stories about Magento implementations within the Coca-Cola Company and realised that Commerce Cloud was the best choice for the Neverfail business, which operated independently from the broader Amatil business. Together with eWave, an enterprise solution provider, the team started a mission to relaunch the Neverfail e-commerce operation.
One platform - two distinct experiences
In 2016, Neverfail implemented the first phase of their digital transformation. They updated their original website to improve the customer journey, while enabling the ability to collect customer feedback through a series of online surveys. The team collected more than 100,000 data points about customer service and experience, delivery, call centre support and their range of products. Their findings clearly showed that one of keys to improving the overall customer experience was enhancing and simplifying the online experience. They needed to increase customer visibility of their accounts with the goal of enabling an online self-service platform.
The new site supports both B2C (residential) and B2B (commercial) customers while tailoring the experiences to the unique requirements of each segment. Now, customers can subscribe to Neverfail deliveries by selecting the type of product, delivery frequency, while managing orders and delivery online. Customers can even pause their subscription or an individual product in a subscription, for a set amount of time. This removes the friction from the ordering and ongoing order management processes. And with a custom-built water calculator, users can receive a calculated amount of product for the size of their business.
B2B customers have a range of online account management features including managing multiple locations and grouping locations and assigning various user roles and permissions. A procurement manager, for example, can assign different user roles to managers of specific company locations in order to present the appropriate products, delivery schedules and pricing for each location. Prices are presented either regionally, pre-log in via a postcode or post-log in based on user information. Catalogues and products are organised by region, since products available in Western Australia might differ from those in the Queensland.
Managers can also view and control groups of locations within a single account allowing them to approve purchases, track spending and manage multiple offices within one commercial business. This is a key competitive advantage for Neverfail, as they continue to grow market share and increase sales.
Customer feedback made clear that PayPal was the preferred payment method. So Neverfail combined with Braintree for payment processing, creating a frictionless, secure checkout. Customers can also pay via credit card, debit card, EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) and BPAY (a popular Australian bill pay service). The platform also supports external invoices.
“Magento is the answer to a lot of our technology and business challenges,” Crivelli said. “The launch of the new site has become very successful and is delivering on all objectives. We are excited about the future and the overall impact on our business.”
A fully-optimised experience
The e-commerce platform, based on Magento Commerce, launched in April of 2018, aiming at Neverfail’s broad range of 70,000 B2B and B2C customers. With subscription and one-off purchasing delivered and online account management for key and national account customers, the Magento platform quickly became a significant competitive advantage for Neverfail.
Recognising the demand for online access and greater customer control over account management, Neverfail’s digital transformation helped to revolutionise customer service interactions, making the call centre a value-add to the customer. With Advanced Call Centre functionality and custom-built FE applications, the call centre team can manage customer accounts and see what customers see on their own screens. More than half of Neverfail’s B2B customers now use the self-service platform, saving time and money.
Their webstore is the perfect blend of B2C and B2B e-commerce: Commercial customers, whether small or large, now have full autonomy over their users, account creation, ordering and invoice payments for multiple locations providing a simplified, complete end-to-end solution. Meanwhile B2C customers can make smaller, individual purchases with ease. The result is a fully optimised, cross-device commerce experience for both commercial and residential customers.
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