Pacific Coast Fruit Company, one of the Northwest’s largest independent produce distributors, recently launched an innovative new ecommerce experience for their customers as part of the company’s commitment to digital transformation within the wholesale produce industry.
This new digital shopping system has intelligence that makes it more powerful and is a natural extension of the hands-on service the company is known for, providing a high level of control and personalization for customers in the foodservice, retail grocery and wholesale industries.
In addition to creating an elevated user experience, the company also implemented other new technology as part of its digital transformation to improve upon the already established processes of a wholesale distributor such as picking productivity, warehouse storage capacity and making routing more efficient, thus reducing the company’s overall carbon emission.
“It has been said in the past that produce distribution is a few years behind the rest of the food industry in technology,” said Tom Brugato, President of Pacific Coast Fruit Co. “Rather than continue to develop a solution within our current network, we went to the outside and found someone who could help us build a rocket to mars, rather than shooting for the moon. Our customer-facing technology, partnered with constant improvements in our internal controls, will help keep costs in check while providing the cutting-edge services that our customers expect and deserve.”
The creation of the ecommerce website was anything an overnight process. Pacific Coast Fruit Co. understood the magnitude the shift would have not only for its own company but also in the industry as a whole. Early in 2019 Pacific Coast Fruit Co. decided to pursue a digital transformation to update its technology and focus on an improved customer experience that would prepare for the future.
As part of that decision, Pacific Coast Fruit Co, hired Bonnie Fuson to be VP of Customer Experience and spearhead the digital transformation. Fuson brought more than 15 years of experience with a Global Fortune 500 company, leading divisions through multiple ecommerce deployments and establishing enterprise digital solutions that integrated CMS and ecommerce to deliver exceptional customer experience.
The company also hired a lead developer as a commitment to building a self-managed roadmap to release future enhancements and ongoing innovation to online ordering. This team and the Pacific Coast Fruit Co. industry experts have innovated a solution that manages a bi-directional data sharing from the ERP directly to an ecommerce platform. This removes much of the dependency on a third-party system allowing for improved ownership and stability for their online ordering platform.
By managing the data and serving it to a desired display and configuration, Pacific Coast Fruit Co. has gained more control over its ability to achieve its vision for online shopping specifically tailored for B2B customers who are purchasing fresh food from a distributor. These hires were unique for a wholesale distributor but critical for Pacific Coast Fruit Co. to ensure that the ordering platform and website was built both for an exceptional user experience and in line with the already established processes of a wholesale distributor, such as picking, transportation and billing.
Customers can expect the design to reduce the time it takes to plan, revise and call in their orders by putting greater control of their ordering at their fingertips. The easy-to-use interface offers familiar features like shopping based on past orders and “Shop My Menu,” which displays a curated list of their preferred products displayed in an order that aligns with how they like to organize their inventory. It also features “Shopping Lists,” which allows customers to create their own shopping list on the fly to expedite ordering and the ability to design a list by product category, department or even specific delivery days.
“Popular Picks” and shopping by local farms are two other ways products are being highlighted for seasonal availability and to support purchasing by farm or brand.
In the future, customers will be able to get suggestions based on their specific type of business, restaurant or past purchases. Product views provide detailed information, including local and organic tags, farm links, recipe links, similar products, and nutrition facts when available.
David Nemarnik, CEO of Pacific Coast Fruit Co., said, “We believe that it’s important to constantly innovate, improve, and anticipate the evolving needs of our customers. I believe in addition to being user-friendly and easier, it has intelligence that makes it more powerful as well. Being of service to each other, building trust with our growers, and honoring our commitment to provide quality products and thoughtful service is why we are here!”
The launch of the new e-commerce website is just the start of Pacific Coast Fruit’s digital transformation strategy. The company recognizes the lack of technological innovation and adaptation in the wholesale and produce industries and is committed to changing that by always evaluating other industries and optimistically thinking of ways to better serve customers.
