INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

CHRIST UNIVERSITY
(IMCU)
A CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
OF
Ignify Creates a Transformational Shopping
Experience for Restaurant Supply Provider
http://www.ignify.com/pdfs/clipperdirect_ecommerce_case_study.pdf

AS PART OF
E-BUSINESS
CIA I
By
AMAL DEV M
1527505
5MBA L1

Introduction
The commercial foodservice supply dealer based in Carson, CA, Clipper Direct, provides its
customers with the quality supplies, tools, and utensils that a restaurant needs to keep in
business, and its reputation as the premier source for restaurant supplies has allowed the
company to establish an impressive customer roster that includes giants of the restaurant
industry Pizza Hut, Olive Garden, Corner Bakery Caf, and Jack in the Box are just a few
such customers who turn to Clipper Direct to fulfil their supply needs. But despite already
calling a number of high profile restaurants their clients, Clipper Direct sought to continue
expanding their customer roll by capturing the attention of a wider range of prospective
clients.

Problem Identification
In order to better reach out to their prospect pool, Clipper Direct understood the necessity of
offering a powerful, comprehensive shopping experience for people searching and purchasing
items from the Clipper Direct website. Finding a software solution that could deliver a
superior user experience was a strict functional requirement for the company. Looking to
further the companys growth by expanding its customer base, Clipper Direct sought to make
their products and services more accessible to a wider range of companies. To achieve this
goal, Clipper Direct required a software solution that could provide their customers with a
superior shopping experience.
Thus they approached Ignify eCommerce, a software solutions provider and ecommerce
enabler to develop an integrated ecommerce web software for enhanced customer experience.
Through Clipper Directs multi-year relationship with Ignify on previous projects, the
company was exposed to the capabilities that the Ignify eCommerce solution delivered, and
was well-aware of the many implementations that Ignify performed for other businesses.

Solution
With its in-depth catalog capabilities, functional scalability, and unique order form
purchasing model, Ignify eCommerce delivered a compelling, user-friendly shopping
experience that set Clipper Direct apart from their competitors. The solutions seamless
integration with the companys software systems and its robust marketing campaign
capabilities ensure continued operational efficiency and business development.

Leveraging the in-depth catalog capabilities of Ignify eCommerce, Clipper Direct is

able to offer detailed, visually appealing product pages that highlight the superior
items available in their inventory, giving their customers the best sense of what the
company offers.
With the high-quality product images, the ability to zoom in on product images, and
the extensive product descriptions for each item within the catalog, Clipper Direct
provides an attractive and informative shopping experience for their clients.
The scalability of the solution also allows Clipper Direct to tailor catalogs specific to
certain clients, enabling the company to provide products specific to particular
audiences regardless of the customers size. The ability to scale up or scale down
according to the size of the customers company supports Clipper Direct in creating
more opportunities for targeting potential customers in a wider-ranging market.

In addition to offering their customers an aesthetically pleasing overview of the

restaurant supplies, tools, and accessories in stock, what truly sets Clipper Direct apart
from their competitors in terms of user interface is the unique order form structure
that makes purchasing items a simple, timely, and cost-effective process.

Benefits from the solution

1. Interoperability with existing software systems creates effective and harmonious
business management.
The websolution provided by Ignify eCommerce integrated Clipper Directs ERP and
third-party tax calculation application leading to collection of both operational and
financial data under a single space.
2. The ability to have multiple stores on one platform ensures smooth, stable growth.
With Clipper Direct continuing to develop its operations and expand its customer
base, the promise of holding multiple divisions and stores on one single platform
made Ignify eCommerce a particularly attractive ecommerce option.
3. Enhanced opportunities for marketing and promotional activities.
With the Ignify eCommerce Marketing Module, Clipper Direct experiences the easy
creation of marketing and promotional activities, as well as full control over
managing and tracking their marketing campaigns.

Conclusion
Since Ignify eCommerce enabled Clipper Direct to provide smaller and emerging chain
restaurants the same access to the products and prices that the company supplies to its billion
dollar corporations, Clipper Direct has experienced a 90% greater market reach.