Sathish:
“You spent years in big B2C companies. What made you shift to B2B manufacturing?”
Carla:
“I spent about 15 years in ecommerce at eBay. Before that, I did a couple of early dot-com startups. When my eBay journey was over, I was looking to join a smaller company, and I had a huge passion for design. I worked briefly at a commercial interior design company specializing in office design, and I was always attracted to the outdoor spaces we worked on. When I had the chance to meet the owner of Tournesol and talk about joining his executive team to oversee marketing, the brand, and the customer journey, I was intrigued. The more I learned, the more attractive it turned out to be.”
Sathish:
“What is the biggest shift you are seeing in the market right now?”
Carla:
“Two things. First, an older workforce is aging out. The principals at design firms and construction companies are shifting from a Baby Boomer and Gen X ownership group to millennials and Gen Z. So, we are adjusting our user journey to meet our current users where they are. That means being more digital-first in how we approach sales and marketing. Second, we have begun adding ecommerce to our business. We are developing a new Shopify site launching later this summer. It will allow all of our products to be either shopped or put into a quote basket online. That is very different from the experience today. The traditional way was a sales rep contacting a design firm, setting up a lunch and learn, doing a presentation, and that is where it would end. The digital approach lets people who do not know us find us, and makes the journey very easy. Everyone is a consumer. We all shop online for everyday products, and now we want that experience in our B2B work. The more I can shape the B2B buyer journey to feel like a consumer experience, the easier it is for the customer to understand us and trust us.”
Sathish:
“Are buyers starting their journey in ChatGPT instead of Google? Is that affecting your industry?”
Carla:
“Absolutely. Our younger users are looking for specific products. Our products are built for commercial applications in terms of quality, durability, long-term performance, and warranty. So they might start in ChatGPT, saying, I am looking for high-quality commercial planters for my rooftop. We are writing our content, whether it is blogs, projects, or product detail pages, with that user in mind and how they might start their shopping journey. We also test it ourselves. We go into the different LLMs and put in search terms to see if Tournesol comes up. We have been dabbling in ecommerce for the last year with a limited product portfolio. About 80 to 90% of our first 100 orders were net new customers. They are finding us through search. Most say Google right now, but there is definitely a percentage coming through other sources like ChatGPT.”
Sathish:
“What is the biggest challenge for your business right now?”
Carla:
“We make our products more or less to order. We do not build up a lot of inventory. Companies doing longer projects order in advance, so longer lead times work for them. But the ecommerce customer wants everything as fast as possible. They are not expecting overnight, but one to three weeks feels reasonable to them for a large group of planters shipped across the country. Meanwhile, they are looking at Amazon and Wayfair, where they could get something in two to three days. There may be something that looks like our product on Wayfair. But that might not be the product you want for your restaurant rooftop in Chicago. That planter is going to take a beating over a few winters. We are not importing. We make our products here, for the most part in North America, engineered to the standards of an architect or specifier who knows the product needs to endure. The challenge is addressing these two markets at the same time as a relatively small SMB. The interesting part is that many buyers, especially homeowners, have never purchased from us before. There is clearly a gap in the market when Amazon and Wayfair solutions are not right for them.
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Sathish:
“Why Shopify, and what will the new site change?”
Carla:
“A lot of people recommended Shopify, and after researching, it looked like the best platform for us. Part of it is the B2B component. We can have a trade program built in and a B2B experience where buyers build a quote that goes to our sales team. We do not have to offer only ecommerce on the site. We had a fusion website with BigCommerce added on with a small product profile. That was a short-term fix, and it did not work very well. The new Shopify site will hold all of our content and products. Some products can go into a cart and check out. Others can be configured. A specifier can add a light pocket, casters, or extend the length. That puts the product into a request-a-quote basket. An estimator and a sales rep review it, add pricing, and respond to the customer much faster than a random email sitting in someone’s inbox. It goes right into a queue. The site will integrate with our ERP and Salesforce. Our first year was healthy with a small portfolio. We launch in July, and our plan is to 3x our first half in the second half, then around 3x again next year. We are talking millions.”
Sathish:
“What is your advice for other manufacturers in the design space?”
Carla:
“Marketing is your friend. Do not deprioritize it. Marketing covers a huge scope of responsibilities these days. Understanding your customer, understanding the buyer journey, tailoring your marketing to meet your customer’s needs, and then analyzing the performance data is invaluable in shaping company strategy.
If you think marketing is just creating a couple of brochures, you are missing a huge opportunity to learn more about your business and grow. And AI is here. Learn to use it as soon as you can, and get help where you need it.”
