Collier Turf Care Case Study
The Challenge
Collier Turf Care Ltd – Increasing sales of amenity turf care products. Bespoke E-Commerce, CRM & Mobile App. Users: Managers, admin, sales, customers.
Off the shelf platforms such as Shopify could not deliver the mix of advanced features and Sage 200 integration required for its new website. Collier asked RD Research to design a fully bespoke e-commerce platform with a companion mobile app and an integrated CRM, all working as one system.
Collier Turf Care had the ambition to become the UK’s number one supplier of sports and amenity turf products. To achieve that, they needed individual pricing for thousands of trade customers, live links to Sage 200 for stock and accounts, and a bespoke application that lets customers measure areas accurately and order the correct quantity first time.
Collier management also wanted a fully bespoke CMS to allow them to control and update every aspect of the site themselves.
The Development Process
We worked with their existing web site designers. We started with discovery workshops across management, sales and support to map pricing rules, trade tiers, credit terms, bundles and hazardous shipping constraints. From this we produced a detailed specification covering every screen, role and workflow, the data model, and the APIs to and from Sage 200.
Wireframes and clickable prototypes allowed rapid feedback on catalogue structure, search facets, account areas and the measurement flow in the mobile app. We agreed a migration plan for products and price lists, plus performance budgets for search and checkout so the store remains fast under load.
A mobile app using AI for weed identification was also developed. This allows ground staff to identify weed and disease and then select the correct chemical and finally use the app to calculate the area and order the correct quantity of product.
Build ran in phases: core e-commerce, Sage 200 integration, CRM, then the mobile app. Test scripts were taken from the spec, with UAT by sales and service teams. Training, documentation and staged release ensured clean adoption with minimal downtime.
Key features
- E-commerce and order management with real time stock, Sage 200 integration, contract pricing, tiered discounts and credit terms
- Mobile app for turf care to map and measure treatment areas, calculate product need and place orders, with offline capture and sync
- CRM and engagement for customer history, quotes, campaigns and sales team pipelines linked to store activity
- Precision application and compliance including spray record sheets, weather capture, COSHH documents and safe use prompts
- Advanced search and filtering by application, grass type, active ingredient and treatment need, with data sheets and cross sell
- Bespoke Content Management System to allow control of the site internally
- Automated stock and alerts for low stock, back in stock, expiring products and rep notifications
Outcome
The bespoke platform positions Collier Turf Care to increase online sales, improve customer convenience and scale confidently. Trade customers see their exact prices, orders are accurate first time, and stock, accounts and CRM stay in sync.
“RD Research...”
FD Nick Holmes
Collier Turf Care Ltd