Al's Taping
Brief
Al’s Taping Tools is a family-owned, Minnesota business founded in 1985. They are the largest independently owned drywall tool supplier in the world. The tapped Irish Titan to move off Magento onto BigCommerce, and to provide marketing strategy and execution.
WHY
Al's Taping Tools partnered with Irish Titan to migrate their Magento 2 site to BigCommerce. We were working with multiple agencies and vendors in harmony to execute the migration. But over time, the Al’s Taping ran into issues with different areas of the build. Needing a unified team to correct these issues and get the project across the finish line, they looked to Irish Titan.
WHAT
Migrating their Magento 2 site to BigCommerce.
Addressed core issues with inventory and data synchronization: Resolved problems with inventory being managed in multiple channels, inconsistent logic across channels causing order backlogs, discrepancies between Magento and internal systems, and clarifying the role of systems like ShipStation and Teapplix.
Data mapping efforts: Extensive data mapping from old systems to new sources of truth.
Revisited their tech stack recommendation to address emerging complexities.
Overall project management for the BigCommerce build.
Establishing a "Source of Truth" for Data: The main goal of the second phase of the project is to establish a reliable source of truth for product data that can be consistently maintained across all channels. This involves:
Data Overhaul: Performed a full data overhaul to create a product super key.
QuickBooks as Main Business Hub: Cleaned data within QuickBooks to match all products, including bundled and kitted items, and using it as the main business hub for record-keeping.
SkuVault for Inventory Management: Utilized SkuVault as the inventory management system in the warehouse for receiving, ordering, and other warehouse-related activities, which will feed into QuickBooks and BigCommerce.
BigCommerce as Online Order Hub: BigCommerce was the main hub for online orders to sync into.
ShipStation for Pick-Pack-Ship: Used ShipStation as the pick-pack-ship solution to manage products going out of the warehouse, syncing with BigCommerce and SkuVault.
Data Migration and Manipulation:
Product Data Manipulation: Created a super key to unify data and appropriately matching and mapping fields in various software.
Data Imports: Imported data to QuickBooks, SkuVault, and BigCommerce.
SkuVault Implementation: Included product data import, scanner implementation, and assisting with training and implementation as needed.
Order Data: Determined new historical order sync and facilitating order import via API.
Customer Data: Created an export of customer data from QuickBooks and/or Magento, cleaned and synced the customer list, and performed a delta prior to go-live.
Front-End Experience Enhancements: Reimplemented custom elements like a mega menu, custom tags, a Prop 65 warning element, and search results customization. Ensuring the look and feel of the BigCommerce store aligns with Al's Taping Tools' expectations.
Blog Migration: Migrated any existing blog content from October 2022 to the current date prior to go-live.
Custom Features and Functionality:
Request for Repairs: Launched an MVP form request on a landing page.
Payment Gateway: Migrated existing payment gateways or suggesting new ones that work with BigCommerce, including Braintree and PayPal.
Clicklease Financing: Assisted with the implementation of Clicklease financing functionality.
Tax Management: Assisted with the installation and configuration of Avalara for tax management.
Digital Marketing Support:
Email Marketing: Integrated Active Campaign for email marketing campaigns.
Reviews: Implemented and migrated Trustpilot reviews.
Performance Marketing: Managed all ongoing performance marketing work, moving away from other third parties.
Quality Assurance, Training, and Launch: Conducting internal QA, facilitating user acceptance testing (UAT) with Al's Taping Tools, providing content training, and managing the launch process including redirect plans and DNS updates.
HOW
They needed Irish Titan to address these core issues:
Inventory was being managed in multiple channels.
Lack of consistent logic across channels led to order backlogs and inventory problems.
Magento inventory data didn't sync with other internal systems, causing data discrepancies in BigCommerce.
ShipStation was mistakenly assumed to be an inventory management system.
Manual processes with Quickbooks, acting as an inventory source, caused data to be out of sync.
The use of Teapplix (OMS) was unclear during discovery.
Irish Titan took over the build as a "rescue" project, moving back to a discovery process to uncover some root causes that weren’t identified at the beginning. To resolve these, Irish Titan recommended a full data overhaul to create a product super key for unified inventory management. They reviewed existing platforms like Quickbooks and Teapplix and other tech stack decisions.
TECH STACK
Quickbooks
Webgility
ShipStation
SkuVault
BrainTree
PayPal
ClickLease
Avalara
Active Campaign
Trust Pilot
