Sector(s)
Team Members
Project Team
For this build, as with every other, we recognized that project management would be just as important as the finished product.
We have invested a significant amount of time and effort in refining and creating an efficient and streamlined project management process, ensuring that when we take on new clients, we are well-prepared to meet project timelines and milestones. We have even taken the time to develop our own project management software to ensure a project is managed correctly from start to finish.
Bar Codes Talk and Acro Commerce would have regular communication and meetings to ensure everything was on track and timelines were being met. We made it our goal to answer any questions or concerns as fast as possible to ensure the client had the best possible experience.
Bar Codes Talk, a wholesale supplier of labels and barcodes, needed a robust and scalable ecommerce platform to support its rapidly growing business and global expansion.
With a customer base of over 150,000 wholesale and B2B companies, their existing website was unable to handle the increasing demands of larger orders and international sales.
Acro Commerce partnered with Bar Codes Talk to create a custom solution using Drupal and Ubercart, building an ecommerce powerhouse designed to grow with their business.
About the project
The Challenge: Overcoming B2B Ecommerce Hurdles
Bar Codes Talk faced several key challenges that are common for growing B2B businesses:
- Scaling for High-Volume Orders: The original website was designed for smaller order quantities and would crash when customers placed large orders for hundreds of thousands of barcodes at once.
- Automating Complex Workflows: The business needed to streamline the entire process from order to fulfillment, including generating and printing barcode graphics, managing order packages, and shipping. Manual processes were time-consuming and inefficient.
- Building a Global Platform: To expand internationally, Bar Codes Talk needed a solution that could handle multiple languages and currencies while maintaining a single, synchronized database across all country-specific sites.
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The Solution: Custom-Built Integrations on a Scalable Platform
Acro Commerce developed a custom, open-framework ecommerce solution to address these challenges, leveraging the flexibility of Drupal and creating bespoke integrations to automate complex business functions.
- Automated Order Fulfillment: A custom Barcode Generator module was created to automatically maintain a repository of pre-generated barcode graphics, allowing for instant customer downloads and faster order processing. The system was optimized to handle large orders by providing customers with a PDF and a spreadsheet of their barcodes and notifying them once the order was processed, preventing the website from crashing.
- Streamlined Label Production: A custom module for Nicelabel/NiceForm was built to communicate with Bar Codes Talk's label printing software, automatically adding purchased labels to the printing queue. This automation eliminated manual, repetitive tasks and significantly sped up the time to print. The platform also included a Label builder with a live preview, allowing B2B customers to easily create custom labels with configurable options.
- Global Ecommerce Architecture: An integrated architecture was designed to support multiple front-end experiences (English, Chinese, Spanish) while operating from a centralized backend and database. This single database ensured that each barcode was sold only once, creating a seamless process for syncing orders across different sites. This architecture enables Bar Codes Talk to reach customers in their preferred language and currency and can easily scale for future international expansion.
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The Result: A Scalable Ecommerce Powerhouse
By partnering with Acro Commerce, Bar Codes Talk successfully achieved its objectives of improving the customer experience, streamlining internal processes, and building a system capable of reaching global markets. The new platform offers a scalable, product-focused content management system with modules and integrations specifically designed to address the most complex business functions.
Bar Codes Talk came to Acro Commerce with clear objectives: Make the barcode and label buying experience as easy as possible, streamline internal processes to increase efficiency, and build a system capable of reaching global markets.
With the power of integrated architecture and the scalable solutions we have developed, we can confidently say that we have accomplished these objectives with 100% certainty.
Working with Bar Codes Talk has been, and always will be, about continuous innovation. Through our strategic development process, based on Agile principles, we continue to refine the solutions we have built to meet Bar Codes Talk’s growing needs and create new and exciting solutions as they expand their business internationally.
Bar Codes Talk and Acro Commerce have partnered for over ten years, working closely as a cohesive team to drive growth and competitiveness in the B2B enterprise market.
Ready to streamline your B2B operations and scale your ecommerce business?
Visit acrocommerce.com to learn how we can assist you, or contact us to schedule a call for more information.
Why Drupal was chosen
This one is simple. Bar Codes Talk is an ecommerce business with a unique product(s) and needed a very customizable and powerful ecommerce solution that would be able to achieve the goals at hand. We all know Drupal has the power and functionality to make just about any idea come to life and this is exactly why we used Drupal and Ubercart to create the ultimate ecommerce powerhouse solution for Bar Codes talk.
Technical Specifications
Drupal version:
Key modules/theme/distribution used:
Barcode Generator (custom module) — Automatically maintains a repository of pre-generated bar code graphic files so user orders can be put together as soon as possible and downloaded instantly.
Hubspot — Automatically inputs all Bar Codes talk customers into the Hubspot CRM and separates each customer into different tiers based on their purchase.
Pay After — Originally a Drupal Ubercart module which has been heavily customized to better suit this specific site. When users purchase labels from outside the US or request custom shipping options the order will need site administrator intervention so the checkout process is finished without payment. Once the admin has contacted the customer to finalize the sale the module will send an email requesting a payment which will link the customer to a checkout screen populated with their previous order which simply requires payment information.
Unpaid Label Invoice Handling (custom module) — Some accounts are allowed to pay for their label orders on credit. This module tracks all those orders and when they're due or how long they've been overdue. It also sends out an alert email to the admins whenever an unpaid order hits the past due threshold.
Packing Slips (custom module) — Creates PDF packing slips of label orders showing an itemized list of each label purchased. It also displays a sample of each item.
Stamps (custom module) — Communicates with the Stamps.com API for enhanced USPS shipping automation during shipping fulfillment process.
Ubercart — Bar Codes Talk needed a solution for selling their products online. With their unique product and business model we needed a commerce platform that could adapt and change as needed.
