USCutter Leverages BigCommerce to Get a Cut Above the Competition

Discover how customisable, cost-effective and reliable BigCommerce is and why we built it that way.

https://images.ctfassets.net/wowgx05xsdrr/7s7dx7BnyMnQtxU76LqXPJ/47fd33b0b008efb4e26451af31b9f587/case-study-device-laptop-uscutter_401x.png

12%

increase in conversion rate

28%

increase in average order value

51%

decrease in cart abandonment rate

Performance metrics compare March 2, 2021 through June, 6, 2022 to March 2, 2020 through June 6, 2021.

A cut up of a business

Vinyl, in and of itself, is not something most people get excited about. But add equipment like vinyl cutters, heat presses, sublimation and wide-format printers, and you get a company that enables the signage, craft and apparel customisation industry.

Enter USCutter. This growing retailer has done just that for consumers ranging from B2C hobbyists to B2B printing professionals. And the company’s growth has not gone unnoticed. Seattle’s The Puget Sound Business Journal has recognised USCutter as one of the Northwest's fastest growing companies for three consecutive years.

CHALLENGE

For a growing company, CORESense made no sense

USCutter’s ecommerce journey began in 2011 when it launched its first online store on the CORESense platform. “It was an all-in-one platform that addressed the needs of the company at that time, but it was built for smaller companies,” said Sean Flaherty, marketing director at USCutter. “As the years passed, the look and feel of the front end became dated and the platform’s functionality was causing us to fall behind our competitors.”

From Sean's perspective, CORESense's focus was not centered on improving the platform, but rather addressing issues ad hoc at cost. "Our big concern with COREsense was that there was never really any new development and that they were only developing things when something was needed. And then we would have to pay for it," Sean stated.

SOLUTION

BigCommerce delivers growth and innovation

“We began to ask ourselves, what features and functionality do we want that we aren’t able to add onto our site now? That’s when we started looking at Shopify and BigCommerce as potential providers,” Sean said.

USCutter selected BigCommerce for a number of good reasons, including:

  • Flexible B2B enterprise capabilities to manage large product catalogs

  • Seamless application integration with existing technologies

  • Ability to create B2C-level experiences for multiple audiences

The company worked with the development agency Mercutio, prior to it being acquired by Overdose, a BigCommerce Elite partner, to bring the site to life. Integrating BigCommerce’s native platform functionality to enhance the overall B2C and B2B buying experience was top of mind during the site build. Full advantage of BigCommerce’s open SaaS ecosystem provided the freedom to build USCutter’s tech stack to best fit its use case. When everything was in place, USCutter officially launched on BigCommerce in March 2021.

Having more than 100,000 SKUs, USCutter needed a simple way to merchandise consumable products and machinery for its B2C and B2B audiences. BigCommerce and Overdose meticulously navigated the tech and user experience landscape to deliver solid front end and back end functionality to allow USCutter to engage with customers and scale its online business.

“Whether through price lists, customised commercial quotes or tax support, BigCommerce’s native functionality and extensive partner app marketplace delivers the hybrid B2C and B2B capabilities we needed to tailor our site to our diverse audiences. Plus, the speed with which the pages load creates a positive customer experience,” said Karl Bowman, president of USCutter.

“From where we stood, BigCommerce seemed really committed to growth and innovation. We noticed as a company how BigCommerce consistently and proactively looked for ways to further develop and improve the platform. We also saw how your relationships with tech partners could provide us with various types of apps to help extend the B2C and B2B functionality of our store and reach more customers,” Sean said.

Click and Collect, provider of buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) services is one of those apps. “Click and Collect enables our customers to view what we actually have in stock, place their orders and then go and pick them up either at one of our two retail stores or at our will-call locations,” continued Sean.

Another app USCutter uses is Easy Upsell. It optimises product upselling by displaying pop-ups to encourage additional purchases at checkout, driving tens of thousands of dollars in additional monthly revenue for USCutter. And Searchspring facilitates and automates intelligent site search to make sales recommendations using actual sales data.

“All these automated systems, including Klaviyo for email marketing and managing cart abandonment, have really powered sales. They are tools that collectively bring in millions in revenue each year by helping us optimise and leverage data to sell more in a way that is far less manual,” Sean said.

Notable Applications:

Technical Features:

  • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

    • BrightPearl for inventory, order management, accounting

BigCommerce Services:

  • Implementation Project Manager

  • Customer Success Manager

  • SEO Audit

“We noticed as a company how BigCommerce consistently and proactively looked for ways to further develop and improve the platform.”

Sean Flaherty Marketing Director, USCutter

“Whether through price lists, customised commercial quotes or tax support, BigCommerce’s native functionality and extensive partner app marketplace delivers the hybrid B2C and B2B capabilities we needed to tailor our site to our diverse audiences.”

Sean Flaherty Marketing Director, USCutter

Case study device tablet uscutter 1x

RESULTS

Delivering proven success

BigCommerce simplifies USCutter’s ability to show different variants and possible choices of a product to customers on a single page. For instance, a single roll of vinyl can come in various lengths and a multitude of colors.

Additionally, BigCommerce makes it easy for USCutter to create and manage multiple price lists. “It’s not an involved and complicated process any longer for us. It's quick and easy. It’s even allowed us to do new things like create an official reseller program for one of our very large manufacturers,” Sean said.

A user-friendly front end and back end, optimised checkout and cart abandonment functionality are a few areas Sean attributes to USCutter’s strong conversion rate. “Our conversion rate is really good. I think, in part, that's due to our intentionality in being really efficient with our customers,” said Sean. “The faster we can get customers to the right place, and show them what they're looking for, the faster we can close the sale.”

In looking at USCutter’s performance metrics comparing March 2, 2021 through June, 6, 2022 to March 2, 2020 through June 6, 2021, the company experienced a 12% increase in its conversion rate, a 28% increase in average order value, a 51% decrease in its cart abandonment rate, and for good measure, a 59% decrease in its checkout abandonment rate.

LOOKING AHEAD

Steady as she goes

USCutter plans to continue to sell its products worldwide via BigCommerce, Ebay and Walmart, and extending its marketplace footprint in the future is not off the table. The same is true for social media. The company has a strong YouTube presence, and selling on Facebook and Instagram may soon follow.

Published: November 2022

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