Founded in 1946, the Bishop Company is the industry-leading distributor of top-quality tools and equipment for professional arborists and landscapers. The company's clientele ranges from private tradesmen to authorized retailers across the United States.

1. IBM Software Retail
Smarter Commerce
Bishop Company drives
up growth and
profitability
Building a smarter e-commerce platform with IBM
and Zobrist
Founded in 1946, the Bishop Company is the industry-leading
Overview distributor of top-quality tools and equipment for professional
arborists and landscapers. The company’s clientele ranges from private
Business challenge tradesmen to authorized retailers across the United States.
Bishop Company wanted to increase
sales, bring products to market faster, and
cement its position as an industry leader Challenge
in the outdoor tool and equipment sector. Bishop Company was no longer able to find technical support to
The company needed to refresh its legacy
e-commerce platform to provide its online
improve and enhance its outdated e-commerce platform. Confronted
customers with an intuitive, informative, with low online sales and a lagging economy, the company knew it was
and intelligent shopping experience. time to take action to revamp its e-commerce platform.
Solution
Bishop engaged Zobrist to implement “We weren’t able to bring products to market fast enough,” says
eZcommerce, a complete e-commerce Keith McCormick, President of Bishop Company. “We’ve long held a
solution based on IBM WebSphere® position as a market leader in our retail sector, and in order for that to
Commerce. The system empowers
business users, ensures long-term continue, we realized that we had to bring our e-commerce platform up
support, and provides scalability for future to date.”
needs.
Bishop Company also wanted to end its reliance on paper processes, in
particular expensive catalog production. “We stock over 2,500 different
products, so our catalogs were extremely expensive to produce, both
in terms of time and money,” continues Keith McCormick. “We had
to employ a number of staff to take telephone orders. Compared with
online sales techniques, it was quite inefficient, but our e-commerce
platform wasn’t up to the task.”
Bishop Company wanted an e-commerce site that could meet the
expectations of the younger generation of tech-savvy online shoppers,
convince long-time print catalog customers to place their orders online,
and reinforce the company’s status as an industry leader. In order to
achieve this, the company needed to refresh its legacy e-commerce
platform to provide its online customers an intuitive, informative, and
intelligent shopping experience.

2. IBM Software Retail
Smarter Commerce
A powerful e-commerce platform
Business Benefits Bishop engaged IBM Premier Business Partner Zobrist to implement
eZcommerce, a complete e-commerce solution based on IBM
• Increased e-commerce channel sales
WebSphere Commerce software. “We liked the way that the
revenue by 200 percent in the first two
months after launch. WebSphere solution empowers business users,” says Keith McCormick.
“One of our key requirements for the new platform was long-term
• Increased e-custom from existing
support and scalability, and Zobrist’s offering ticked all those boxes.”
customers by 75 percent and new
customers by 25 percent.
Earlier this year, Bishop Company launched the new www.bishco.com
• Gained round-the-clock monitoring and website, which has swiftly become a go-to destination for an extensive
technical support, ensuring high service
availability. line of professional arborist and landscaper products. The quick-to-
market development capabilities of eZcommerce, combined with its
sophisticated marketing and merchandising capabilities, enable Bishop
Company to efficiently promote key products and react with greater
agility to market trends.
“The new e-commerce site has many new features that we’re really
excited about,” comments Keith McCormick. “There’s now an easy-
to-access ‘compare’ box that allows customers to drag and drop the
products they’re interested in buying. We’ve also streamlined the
checkout process to minimize card abandonment and drive up customer
conversion rates.”
eZcommerce is highly flexible, allowing Bishop to customize the site
according to the needs of different types of customers. Authorized
retailers can see the wholesale price for all products once they are
logged in. The platform also provides the ability to intelligently
showcase the products and special promotions that are most relevant to
each customer segment.
“We are very pleased with the work that Zobrist has done. While many
contractors wanted to simply build us a website, Zobrist took a whole
package approach that provided us with the e-commerce store, access
to technical expertise, a marketing plan to boost our online presence,
and ongoing 24/7 support,” says Keith McCormick. “Their ability to
deliver on all of these areas was a major factor in our initial decision
to work with them, and is the main reason why we continue our
relationship with 24/7 support and maintenance.”
Driving business growth
After the implementation of the solution from IBM and Zobrist,
Bishop Company has seen how a professional e-commerce website can
be a key enabler of business growth.
“Within two months of the new WebSphere platform going live, we
saw a 200 percent increase in online sales,” says Keith McCormick.
“The majority of this custom was from customers who’d only placed
telephone orders in the past; they’d simply been waiting for an

3. IBM Software Retail
Smarter Commerce
e-commerce site that was easy to use. The remaining 25 percent of that
sales increase was from completely new customers, which definitely
Solution Components
demonstrates the potential of a marketing strategy that integrates all
Software aspects of the business.”
• IBM® WebSphere® Commerce
Servers Today, Bishop Company’s 2,500 products are all catalogued online, and
• IBM System x3650 M2 RM the company has full visibility of orders and customer interest. “When
• IBM Power Systems™ 520 running I factor in the cost of the staff required to process catalog telephone
IBM i
orders, I anticipate that the e-commerce channel substantial long-
IBM Business Partner term cost savings,” says Keith McCormick. “The response to the site
• Zobrist redesign has been tremendous, from long-time catalog customers and
brand new customers alike. We definitely think we’re moving in the
right direction.”
“With eZcommerce, Planning for the future
we’re well-positioned Based on the immediate positive impact of the new e-commerce
to realize this vision, platform, Bishop Company is investigating the possibility of
making our extensive enabling authorized dealers to promote their own branded versions
of www.bishco.com as an alternative to turning customers away when
product assortment even an item is not carried in their brick-and-mortar store.
more widely available and
easy to shop for.” “The site would be branded for each dealer, with sales processed
through the bishco.com ecommerce system and commissions issued
to the dealer who referred the sale,” says Keith McCormick. “With
— Keith McCormick, President, Bishop
Company
eZcommerce, we’re well-positioned to realize this vision, making our
extensive product assortment even more widely available and easy to
shop for.”
Bishop Company remains fully satisfied with its IBM solution. “Now
we have the professional e-commerce platform we need to take our
business to a new level,” concludes Keith McCormick. “Thanks to
Zobrist and IBM’s investment in Smarter Commerce, we’ve gained a
commerce roadmap that’s helping us to increase our profits and ensure
that we’re well-placed to realize our future goals.”
For more information
To learn more about how Smarter Commerce solutions can help
your business, contact your IBM sales representative or visit
ibm.com/smartercommerce.
Zobrist
Consulting Group, Inc.
To learn more about products, services and solutions from Zobrist,
visit: www.zobristinc.com

4. © Copyright IBM Corporation 2012
IBM Corporation
Software Group
Route 100
Somers, NY 10589
Produced in the United States of America
January 2012
IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Power Systems, System x and WebSphere are
trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions
worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other
companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright
and trademark information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.
This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed
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operates.
The client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual
performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and
operating conditions. It is the user’s responsibility to evaluate and verify the
operation of any other products or programs with IBM products and programs.
THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS”
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF
NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms
and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided. eZcommerce is
not an IBM product or offering. eZcommerce is sold or licensed, as the case may
be, to users under Zobrist’s terms and conditions, which are provided with the
product or offering. Availability, and any and all warranties, services and support
for eZcommerce is the direct responsibility of, and is provided directly to users by,
Zobrist.
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