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Case study · Professional tool distribution
Iberline: its whole catalogue in plain sight, without depending on a phone call
Its entire professional tool catalogue, organised and in plain sight in an online shop connected to its management software. The client buys when they can; the salesperson attends to what really needs them.
Iberline distributes tools and consumables to carpenters, wood and metal workshops, installers and builders. Its catalogue, very broad and constantly growing, existed only at the trade counter and in its management software. We built it an online shop connected to that same software, with the full catalogue, organised by category and with pages carrying technical data, prices and images. Today it sells with the physical shop closed too. And we did not build it inside-out and then wait to see what happened: before placing a single reference we studied how the professional client searches, and the catalogue was organised around that, so the shop appears on Google when someone searches for what Iberline sells.
100%
of the catalogue, published online
24/7
shop open, at night too
1
a catalogue connected to your management system
0
manual updates to the catalogue
* Catalogue metrics verified in the shop; sales results pending confirmation with the client.
The context
A professional tool distributor lives off three things: the trade counter, the sales rep and the phone. Iberline has all three and they work. Its clients are carpenters, wood and metal workshops, installers and workshop people who come in, ask for their usual and come back the following week.
The problem was not the selling: it was the size of the catalogue. Iberline works with an enormous, continuously growing catalogue: tools, woodworking, workshop, metal, measuring, construction, workwear, lighting, cleaning, packaging. That volume does not fit in a paper catalogue, still less when it changes every week.
Until now it lived in two places: the management software, which nobody outside can look at, and the team’s experience. That means selling always depends on someone being available, and that the client never sees everything Iberline can supply: they buy what they already know is there.
On top of that come the opening hours. The workshop professional works the same hours as their supplier. By the time they finally sit down to go through what they are short of, it is eight in the evening or it is Sunday. All that time was time in which nothing was sold.
The challenge
Every small repeat order — a box of discs, a tub of adhesive, some saw blades — takes up a call and several minutes of a salesperson’s time. Multiplied across the days of the month, it is an enormous part of the working day of people whose time is worth far more advising on a big purchase or visiting a new client.
There is a second, less visible cost: the availability and price enquiry. “Do you have this?”, “how much is it?”. The challenge was to take off the phone everything that does not need a person, without losing any of what does.
- An enormous catalogue the client could not consult on their own.
- Repeat orders that ate up calls and hours of the sales team’s time.
- Outside opening hours nothing was sold: not at night, not at weekends, not in August.
- Having that volume of references and prices to hand without duplicating work.
- Putting an online shop in place without taking the limelight from the trade counter.
The solution: putting the whole catalogue out in the open
We built a new online shop on a clear principle: it is not a shop window, it is the complete catalogue. No uploading the hundred best sellers and hiding the rest. And for that to be sustainable with a catalogue this size, the shop had to maintain itself almost entirely.
1 · Putting the whole catalogue online
The catalogue is published in full. All of it. From machinery by benchmark professional brands — Festool among them — to the everyday consumables: abrasives, glues and adhesives, staples, saw blades.
The commercial effect is immediate: whoever comes in looking for a jigsaw discovers that Iberline also supplies the workbench, the extractor and the discs. Before, they had to ask.
2 · Making the catalogue maintain itself
The shop is connected to Iberline’s management software. The two talk to each other: whatever is added or modified in the management software appears on the website. There is no second catalogue to update by hand.
It is the piece that makes everything else viable. With a catalogue like this, maintaining the shop by hand would be a full-time job. This way the catalogue updates itself.
3 · Making the product easy to find fast
A large catalogue nobody knows how to navigate is a useless catalogue. The fine work was in the organisation: families, categories and subcategories with names the professional recognises: jigsaws, edge banders, nailers, routers, mitre saws, drills.
To that is added a search box for whoever goes straight to it. Whoever knows what they want types the reference and gets there in one step; whoever is comparing works down the categories and sees the options side by side.
4 · Product pages that answer before anyone asks
Every product has a page that has really been worked on: a real technical description with features, dimensions, compatibilities and recommended uses, the catalogue reference, the price with VAT included and images. In many cases there is video too.
That is what used to be asked over the phone. Every doubt the page settles on its own is a call that never comes in and a sale that is not held up because the client did not know whether the part fitted.
5 · Built for the repeat buyer
The professional client does not browse: they re-order. They often buy the same thing and want it to take no time. That is why there is a client area with its own login, a basket and a short route to completing the order.
The typical case is the carpenter who on a Friday afternoon realises they will run out of discs by Monday. That used to mean a call first thing on Monday. Now it is a two-minute order from the phone.
6 · Organised to be found on Google
A catalogue can be organised in two ways: the way the company holds it internally, or the way the client searches for it. We chose the second. Before building anything we looked at what a carpenter or an installer actually types when looking for a sander, a disc or an adhesive, and in what words they ask for it.
That is why the catalogue is broken down far more than it would be internally: each category answers a real search, with its own page and its own text. That way, when someone searches for a specific product, they can go straight to it instead of landing on a front page and getting lost. It is the difference between having a shop and having it found.
7 · The shop does not replace the trade counter
Iberline has physical shops and they are an essential part of the business. The website does not compete with them: it supports them. There is a shops page so people know where they are, and the customer service phone number is clearly visible for anyone who would rather talk to someone.
The approach is simple: let each client buy however suits them best that day. Some will come to the trade counter, others will call and others will order at night from home. They all see the same catalogue.
The shop from the inside
Whoever comes in finds a shop that gets to the point: at the top, the search box and the main families. From there you get down to specifics in two or three clicks: from Tools to sanders, from Workshop to workbenches. Each category shows photo, name, reference and price.
Inside the page is the detail a professional needs in order to decide: what the machine does, what it is compatible with, what its dimensions are, what it is recommended for. Where video adds something — a router, a mitre saw — the video is there.
The rest is handled by the basket and the client area: register once, log in when needed and order. And if they would rather confirm something with a person, the phone number is in plain sight. The website never leaves the client alone with a doubt.
Results
The most immediate result is also the biggest: the whole catalogue is available at any hour. Iberline has gone from selling only when someone is there to serve to having the full catalogue working seven days a week. The stretch that used to be blank is now selling time.
The second change is internal. Repeat orders and price enquiries no longer have to go through a call. That frees the salesperson from the most mechanical part of the day and leaves them time for what does sell: advising on an important purchase or visiting a new workshop.
The third is about image. A distributor with a catalogue this broad and this well presented says something different to anyone comparing them with two other suppliers. And it reinforces the trade counter: plenty of people look online and buy in store, with the decision already made.
On the sales figures we will be straight: the shop needs time for the numbers to mean anything. We will publish the order data once there is enough history and the client confirms it. What is measurable today is the catalogue: complete, organised and in a shop that never closes.
Why this case matters
- In distribution, the catalogue is the asset: if it only lives in the management software and in the salesperson’s head, the client never sees half of what you could sell them.
- An online shop does not take clients away from the trade counter: it takes repeat calls away from it and gives hours back to the sales team.
- With a catalogue of thousands of products, what decides the project is not the design: it is that the catalogue maintains itself, connected to the software the company already uses.
- Putting the catalogue online is no use if nobody finds it: organising it around what the client searches for is half the work.
What it includes
It is not a template you plug in and that is that: it is a shop built on the company’s real catalogue and designed for a buyer who knows what they are looking for. This is what was put in place at Iberline.
Its own online shopThe full catalogue onlineConnected to their management systemCategories designed around the clientProduct searchProduct pages with technical data and photosProduct videosCustomer area and cartBuilt to show up in Google
“What we value most is that the shop maintains itself. We carry on working with the software we have always used and the website follows along, with nobody having to be on top of it. And the client who used to call to ask a price now looks it up themselves, at whatever hour.”
— Iberline management
Frequently asked questions
Does selling online not take sales from the trade counter or eat my margin?
The same cake is not being divided up: it gets bigger. What comes in through the website is, to a large extent, what used not to happen at all: the Friday afternoon order, the Sunday one, the one from the client who needed something and did not call.
You set the margin: it is your shop and your terms. What does change is the cost of fulfilling a small order, which today costs a call and a few minutes of a salesperson’s time. That same order, through the website, comes out cheaper.
How do you keep such a large catalogue up to date?
By itself. That is the key to the project. The shop is connected to the management software: whatever is added, modified or withdrawn there is reflected on the website. Nobody has to key products in by hand.
If it were not so, the project would not be viable. Maintaining a catalogue like this by hand always ends the same way: the website goes out of date within three months and nobody trusts it. That connection is what keeps the shop true two years from now.
Will my professional clients really buy online?
They already do, just sometimes somewhere else. The carpenter who buys at your trade counter also orders materials online when it suits them. The difference is whether you are there when they feel like doing it.
What is more, the professional client is the best online buyer there is: they know what they want, they know the reference and they repeat the same order over and over. They do not come in to browse, they come in to get something sorted.
How long does it take to build something like this?
It depends above all on the state of the catalogue in the management software. If references, prices and descriptions are in order, it moves fast. If families have to be reviewed or technical data completed, that phase drives the timetable.
It is work that is worth doing in its own right. Putting a catalogue of thousands of products in order brings duplicates and meaningless descriptions to light. That order is useful inside and outside the website, at the trade counter too.
Can I set different prices depending on the client?
Yes, and it is common in distribution. A client with an agreement should not see the same price list as a one-off buyer. The shop allows different terms depending on who logs into their client area, drawing on what is defined in the management software.
The important thing is deciding the policy first: what price lists there are and what someone who is not registered sees. At Iberline prices are shown with VAT included, so the client sees from the outset what they are going to pay.
Who maintains the shop afterwards?
The client can maintain it themselves, we can, or any other supplier can. It is built on PrestaShop, a standard and very widespread platform, and we decided that on purpose: Iberline is not tied to us in order to touch its own website.
Day to day the maintenance barely exists: because the shop is connected to the management software, products and prices update themselves. What is left is the usual — reviews, improvements, the odd campaign — and that gets decided at leisure.
And what use is the shop if nobody knows it exists?
Not much use at all, and it is the most common mistake: building the shop and expecting clients to turn up by themselves. That is why the project does not start with the design, it starts with understanding what people are looking for and in what words, and organising the catalogue accordingly.
Every category and every product page is designed to answer a specific search. That means the shop keeps gaining visits on its own, without depending solely on advertising or on telling the regular clients one by one.