G Porrelli was founded in 1925 and we spoke with a 4^th generation family member Dario Durante.

The business has grown rapidly in the last few years and this growth was further accelerated during lockdown as the demand for takeaway food increased and people were spending time walking and outdoors.

G Porrelli sells an increasing range of luxury ice creams and adjacent products with flavours such as Scottish Tablet, Cookies & Cream, Iron Brew and Kinder alongside more traditional flavours to a growing number of ice cream parlours, supermarkets, hotels and restaurants.

Dario says “People want variety and we now have more than 80 different flavours of ice cream to offer.”

This fast growth meant that the phones were ringing non-stop and there was little time left to process the orders.

“The team was working longer and longer each day.”

G Porrelli needed to streamline processes, maintain a high quality of customer service and reduce any mix ups that can happen with manual and double entry ordering processes.

The aim was to have an eCommerce website that was very visual –

“customers pick our products with their eyes, not descriptions over the phone.”

It needed to be easy to use for all their customers as well as a wish list that included:

1. Hosting a growing range of products online.
2. Pull through pricing, SKU details and stock from their accounting software.
3. Process orders automatically and eliminate double entry.
4. Enable customers to choose visually rather than just with a description.
5. Customers could repeat, build, save and have those orders checked and confirmed by email.
6. Adjacent products and alternatives could be suggested as customers order.
7. “Flavour of the month” suggestions and cross selling promotions.
8. Enable them to provide top quality customer service with no mix ups.
9. A site that is very visual and is going to evolve and develop as the business grows

 

They also had a tight deadline which was to GO LIVE! in 6 weeks.

G Porrelli chose GOb2b’s unique eCommerce platform which gave them a very visual, feature rich website that made it easy for customers to order not just the traditional ice cream flavours but also the new and exciting flavours and the cones, topping sauces and other adjacent products.

GOb2b is fully integrated with their Sage 200 accounting software to sync orders, stock information, product data, customer records and pricing.

“It was great that products linked to the Sage product ID were mass loaded into the Gob2b site and that brought over prices and descriptions automatically.” Dario.

Dario tells us that the “integration connection means that G Porrelli’s sales people can have up-to-the-moment data on who is ordering, and what they are ordering. They can go through the order history and recommend add on products. Customers are buying ice cream they weren’t previously!”

SAVE TIME & MONEY

By reducing team intervention and eliminating manual data entry, the GOb2b platform has freed up both time and money –

“Our people can now spend their time speaking and selling to customers. The risk of human error has been eliminated, customers place their orders and get an instant email confirmation which has meant no more mix ups.”

“WE DIDN’T EXPECT THE UPTAKE TO BE SO FAST AND THE FEEDBACK FROM OUR CUSTOMERS HAS BEEN GREAT”

1.      Customers like the repeat order feature – it saves them time.

2.      The product listing reflects their own price list which everyone likes.

3.      We now have favourites and customers can set bookmarks.

4.      The analytics and reporting means that the sales manager can instantly see who is actively ordering and who is not.

G Porrelli’s sales people can nudge a reminder to the customer and in some cases offer an incentive to take additional products and flavours.

IMPROVED CUSTOMER SERVICE

“When you’re managing quick growth, mix ups could have begun to happen and we want to ensure that our customer service levels remain high. The Gob2b site has freed up time so that we can spend more time with our customers, know that their orders are correct and we can focus on making more exciting flavours for everyone.”

“The integration with Gob2b, Opayo and Sage means that we are no longer having to chase customers for payment and it means no bad debt!”

Of course, customers can now place orders 24/7.

Dario tells us that “restaurants can now order at 10pm rather than leaving a message on voicemail or waiting for the next day”

and this has made life easier for both customers and staff.

 

BUILT TO GROW

The GOb2b platform creates sites which are built to last with regular updates as part of the monthly fee as well as support from the Gob2b team of experts during the life-time of your site.

“We are the biggest manufacturer of scooping range ice cream in Scotland and we continue to look forward. We have had great feedback from our customers so far and we are very happy with the site.”

“We have learnt a lot along the way and I didn’t expect uptake to be so fast”.

New products can be added directly from Sage which keeps everything consistent. The mass upload of products with the Sage product ID was great during the onboarding phase.

“The Gob2b team has been great and everyone has been very helpful. Each person has been a credit to the company and they explain everything well”

G Porrelli is on track with phase 1 and is already seeing more than 20% of all sales going through their Gob2b ecommerce site in just a couple of months.

Now, working with GOb2b they have plans to further the benefits of promotions, alternatives and suggestions throughout the customer ordering and checkout process.