Palmer & Harvey (P&H) has launched a new transactional website, claiming it sets a new standard in the wholesale industry.

The new site is organised on a grid system, allowing each product to be accompanied by a colour image plus product and code information, and is designed to look more like a consumer-friendly internet shopping interface than a traditional b2b site.

The website includes clearly-marked promotions, a predictive search function and saved regular ‘shopping lists’, along with a self-learning capability to make personalised recommendations for customers based on previous order history. Seasonal products can be highlighted according to conditions, such as soft drinks or ice pops during periods of hot weather, for example. The site is fully optimised for laptop, tablet and mobile devices across all platforms.

Edmund Chartier, ecommerce manager at P&H, said: “We have chosen to invest in a completely new website as we have seen a significant increase in retailers who prefer to order online. Recent research shows more and more customers are now using this as their primary order method, making it important for Palmer and Harvey to offer a best in class service to support this.”

P&H md Martyn Ward added: “This is a major investment for us, and it’s all about freeing up time for our customers. Every retailer is going to need to up their game this year and this is only going to be achieved by spending the maximum amount of time in-store improving the experience that customers get when they walk in.”

The site has been tested with 50 retailers, whose experiences and recommendations have been taken on board prior to today’s national roll-out. The increased speed and ease of use compared to making telesales calls has led to an average increase in order of 25%, P&H reports. A second phase of the website, integrating a barcode scanner app, will go live in April 2017.

The website, which has been developed with key experts Port80 and Brandbank, can be found at https://order.palmerharvey.co.uk