Provincial Floor Coverings, PFL, is a long-established, flooring distributor serving retailers and contractors across Ireland.
Founded more than 50 years ago, the business has grown from its Limerick roots into a nationwide operation with four distribution centres across Limerick, Dublin, and Belfast, supported by extensive stock holdings and next-day delivery for most customers.
As the business expanded, its customer service and sales teams were managing a growing volume of repeat order, stock, and pricing queries from trade customers.
Key Benefits
Fewer stock and pricing phone calls
Improved order accuracy through customer self-entry
Increased use of online ordering
Better visibility for customers into their own orders and account limits
The Challenge
Before introducing B2B eCommerce, PFL handled most customer orders through phone calls and email. This created a high volume of repetitive enquiries, particularly around stock availability, customer-specific pricing, and order status.
Sales reps regularly received calls while on the road from customers looking for stock checks, forcing reps to call back into the office before giving an answer.
Email ordering also created manual administration work. Every emailed order had to be rekeyed into the ERP, adding around five minutes of processing time per order and increasing the risk of errors. As order volumes and the customer base grew, this way of working was becoming difficult to sustain without adding more administrative overhead.
“Real-time pricing has taken a lot of admins out of price updates. Instead of sending letters, emails, or asking reps to contact customers individually, we can simply direct customers to their login to see the latest pricing themselves.”
The Solution
PFL introduced an ERP-integrated B2B webshop from Experlogix, connected directly to its Intact ERP system. The main requirements were:
- Live-stock visibility
- Customer-specific pricing
- Direct order entry into ERP
- Customer access to order history and account limits
- Order status visibility through a self-service dashboard
The ERP integration was central to the project. Orders placed online now enter Intact ERP automatically as sales orders, where the team can review and convert them into picking notes before fulfilment. This removed the need for duplicate data entry while keeping a final internal check before warehouse processing.
The webshop also gave customers direct access to current pricing, stock levels, previous orders, and shipment status without needing to contact the sales office.
Orders placed online now enter Intact ERP automatically as sales orders, where the team can review and convert them into picking notes before fulfilment.
The Result
The most immediate result was a sharp reduction in routine phone and email traffic, particularly for stock and pricing queries. Sales reps saw the biggest day-to-day benefit, as many of the calls they previously received while travelling were redirected to the webshop.
Manual email order processing was also largely removed. What previously took around five minutes per order now happens instantly through the ERP connection. For customers, the time spent waiting on hold or waiting for replies to stock and pricing emails was replaced by immediate access online.
PFL also noted that customers adopted the system quickly because it was easy to use. While some longer-standing customers initially preferred phone ordering, daily usage of the webshop became common across the customer base.
Outcomes
The introduction of online ordering coincided with a period of significant business growth. While PFL does not attribute all growth directly to B2B eCommerce, the platform gave the business the operational capacity to support that growth without simply adding more administrative workload.
Key operational outcomes included:
- Reduced email order handling
- Fewer stock and pricing phone calls
- Improved order accuracy through customer self-entry
- Increased use of online ordering as a meaningful share of total sales
- Better visibility for customers into their own orders and account limits
The business also gained a practical advantage in the market by offering trade customers a service many competitors did not yet provide.
“Since introducing the webshop, revenue has grown significantly. While phone sales remain key, online orders have increased from zero to a substantial portion of our business. The sales team also saves time by no longer manually processing emails and orders.”
Benefits to the Business
The biggest business benefit was time returned to the sales team. Reps now spend more of their day on customer visits, product promotion, and account development rather than answering repeat stock and pricing questions.
The business also reduced internal administration by removing duplicate order entry and giving customers direct access to the information they need. This helped PFL support continued growth without increasing pressure on office staff.
Most importantly, the platform changed how the business could scale. As PFL’s growth accelerated, the webshop provided the infrastructure needed to support higher order volumes, faster customer service, and better use of the sales team’s time.
