The RD Store is a B2B e-commerce website from Jetro Cash & Carry that sells restaurant equipment and supplies to restaurants across the country. They have an established network of physical stores, where restaurants and caterers can purchase goods in person. Their website therdstore.com is a public-facing website where any shopper can purchase from among their extensive line of foodservice products.
The RD Store came to us to help them improve their existing Miva Merchant website, with a more modern and intuitive interface, and specific functions based on their business requirements. In addition to standard e-commerce functionality, they needed custom features such as MAP-controlled pricing, integration with backend systems, a custom payment module, and custom modules to support their in-store operations.
About the Project
Colossus ReadyTheme
We began by helping The RD Store choose from among the ReadyThemes provided by Miva Merchant. They chose Miva’s Colossus ReadyThemes, because it supports a large navigation structure and has ADA-compliance features built in. Because of its native mega-menu navigation, Colossus is a great theme for stores who have either a large number of top-level categories, or who want to show more than two levels of categories in their menu.
Together with The RD Store team, we customized the Colossus theme, changing fonts, colors, and images, and tweaking the layout. We also improved upon the accessibility of the theme, and are continuing to make efforts for additional compliance levels.
SearchSpring
The RD Store was already using SearchSpring for their on-site search, and we integrated their search results, filtering, and auto-complete functionality into the Colossus site. Shoppers are able to take advantage of SearchSpring’s advanced product search, including merchandising tools, support for synonyms and misspellings, and user-friendly filtering/faceting of results by criteria such as manufacturer, category, price, and even category-specific facets such as the number of burners for a stove range, or compressor location for refrigerators.
Third-Party Modules
In addition to standard Miva Merchant functionality, we added some out-of-the-box modules to allow shoppers to sign up for a waitlist for out-of-stock products; to integrate with ShipStation for order management; and to calculate shipping rates using a third-party tool called United Shipping.
Custom Modules
The RD Store also had some unique needs for which there was no existing solution. For these, we built several custom modules. Some of these modules are:
Payeezy with TransArmor Tokens – The RD Store already used a payment gateway called Payeezy for other credit card processing needs. However, there was no existing integration between Payeezy and Miva Merchant. We created a payment module that can accept payment authorizations, capture the authorized funds with the order is ready to ship, void authorizations if an order is cancelled, and refund a transaction in the case of a returned product. Additionally, we added support for Payeezy’s TransArmor tokens, which allow a credit card to be tokenized and thereby stored securely. This gives shoppers the ability to “save a credit card” to their account for use on future orders, while maintaining complete PCI-compliance.
Manufacturer Advertised Pricing (MAP) – MAP pricing is a scenario where a manufacturer controls pricing and only allows retailers to advertise a certain price. However, advertisers can sell below the MAP price once certain criteria have been met. The challenge is that different manufacturers have various requirements that allow the MAP price to be obtained. Some may only require a shopper to log into an account, where others may allow the price to be shown once the item is added to the shopping cart. The most stringent method is manufacturers who require the price to be sent to a shopper via email, and the shopper can only obtain the better price when adding to the cart from that email. We built a module and corresponding front-end templates, as well as the email communication system, to allow The RD Store to meet its manufacturers’ requirements to sell at their chosen price.
Backend System Integration – The RD Store has a proprietary backend system that they use to manage their business internally. Miva Merchant needed to integrate directly with this system in order to identify customers and their account information, to share pricing updates, to obtain a specific store’s inventory for products, and to collect orders from Miva. We built several modules and templates to support this transfer of data between their in-house system and their Miva Merchant website.
Payment via Pin Pad / Swipe Terminal – When a shopper is in one of The RD Store’s individual stores, they may wish to place an order via the website for items that are not currently in stock at that particular store. When this happens, The RD Store needed to allow them to make payment for their Miva Merchant order by using the store’s credit card terminal to swipe their card. We developed a module that tests whether the shoppers is in a branch, and if they are, exposes a payment method that communicates with the terminal to accept payment.
Financing Applications – The RD Store also allows shoppers who purchase a certain amount to apply for financing through a third party. The financing company has an API for accepting the application information as well as the details of the products being purchased. We developed a Miva payment module to collect the application information, send it to the third party’s API, and if approved, to store the application number and complete the order.
Words from Our Client
We have been working with NetBlazon for years. They have been a huge part of our online success and growth. They have also stepped up to the challenge of integrating our website with some of our legacy systems. I don’t think we would have been nearly as successful without their insights and help. — Larry Cohen, Restaurant Depot