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Discover how Ultra Commerce empowered Australia Post to build a streamlined, omni-channel procurement marketplace, enabling over 2000 Licensed Post Offices to seamlessly manage trade purchases through integrated web and mobile experiences.
Introduction
First launched in 2014, the Australia Post LPO marketplace is a B2B Procurement Marketplace enabling over 2000+ Licenced Post Offices to purchase stock-in-trade directly from Australia Post and its Vendors.
The problem
Australia Post engaged Ultra Commerce as their preferred partner to deliver a truly omni-channel experience for the LPO Trade Expo. This included a fully integrated web and mobile experience, where Licences could plan and order online, and on-site using smart devices. The solution was required to support complex product types including product bundles with sophisticated pricing discounts based on order quantities, order combinations, SKU’s in cart and more.
Additionally, it was important that the entire solution be made extremely simple to use, to maximise up-take and drive engagement.
Alex Lewis, Head of Technology – Australia Post Retail Merchandising – “There were two key functional areas we had to consider when selecting a platform, one was having a conference related application, such as information about speakers, suppliers, products, locations on the floorplan and so on, and the second part was around the order capture side, we wanted something that could be easily used by the attendees and could capture both of those requirements.”
Richard Stock is the organiser of the entire LPO Trade Expo from within Australia Post and was a key driver of the omni-channel platform implementation for the event. “A lot of the stuff we wanted to do, was available straight out of the box with Ultra Commerce, but we did have some stuff that needed to be tweaked and developed in order for us to be able to deliver what we traditionally delivered.”
The omni-channel solution included a full commerce website and mobile applications for both iOS and Android.
The solution
Ultra Commerce implemented an omni-channel, multi-vendor marketplace solution that combined a web based marketplace with mobile IOS and Android Marketplace Apps to deliver a comprehensive procurement shopping experience to Australia Post’s LPO customers.
Ultra Commerce’s innovative PIN based checkout ensured that ordering was a breeze and retained the required security for Licensees. The solution leveraged existing accounts and account numbers to place orders while enabling customers to confirm the orders using a secure PIN.
Over the past six years, Ultra Commerce has continued to enhance and evolve our marketplace offering, that is still in use and servicing Australia Post’s LPO procurement. Integrations with SAP and the launch of Ultra Commerce Closer – Vendor Sales App, has provided more control, transparency and streamlined order processing to the marketplace solution.
The outcome
The solution was launched in under 2 months and has been in used for over 5 years, delivering multi-million dollar sales revenue and simplifying order processing and fulfilment.
In relation to the omni-channel capability of the platform, Makarla added “It’s just like shopping online with any other platform or application. Licensees can use their own device, it can be a laptop, a smartphone, a tablet, a samsung, an apple device and that’s the great thing, it’s not just one technology, not one device or one platform, it can be used across any device or channel.”
“…the business is really happy, especially with the data that we’re getting in real time, and at the end of the event, which has been fantastic. We’ve had licensees call up and congratulate us on how quickly we’ve fulfilled the orders, so it’s been a real step change for us ”
Alex Lewis, Head of Technology at Australia Post
