Petra Industries, a consumer technology distributor, has launched an innovative new B2B eCommerce platform. The announcement is part of the largest website overhaul in the company’s 34-year history. Core to the new Petra.com is a state-of-the-art B2B purchasing platform called PetraCentral, powered by OroCommerce an eCommerce platform from Oro Inc.
A new digital presence
Petra’s new digital presence builds on decades of innovation and experience in distribution and eCommerce. “The new Petra.com is all about creating an online foundation. This will allow us to deliver a world class digital experience to our customers and vendor partners,” says Josh Williams, Petra’s director of marketing.
Petra is the industry’s consumer technology authority. It distributes products for more than 800 brands, bringing tens of thousands of top name-brand products to tens of thousands of retail/e-tail partners. Founded in 1985 with a focus on and passion for accessories, Petra is now active in spaces including smart home technology, gaming, outdoor tech, and more.
Number 1 B2B eCommerce platform
Named No.1 B2B eCommerce platform by Frost and Sullivan, OroCommerce is purpose-built with B2B digital commerce use cases in mind. The platform provides a comprehensive set of out-of-the-box features. These greatly reduce the total cost of ownership and product deployment time.
“We worked closely with Oro to develop a platform that gives customers a modern and efficient purchasing experience,” says Williams. “PetraCentral has the convenience of consumer eCommerce sites but is specially designed to suit the needs of our customers’ businesses.”
The solution features new user-management options that give customers more control over how their organisation makes purchases. This includes who can place orders, and what items they can buy.
Additionally, customers can now view product variants. They can take advantage of matrix ordering. This allows multiple product variants to be purchased from a single screen. PetraCentral also features in-depth product sorting, enhanced autocomplete search suggestions, and multiple shopping lists to streamline the purchasing experience.
According to Williams: “The new shopping list feature is one of the most advantageous tools for our customers. Customers can create and work on multiple shopping lists simultaneously. Save shopping lists for later, and quickly purchase from previously saved lists.”
The new Petra.com also aims to educate vendor partners and customers on the resources and services available to them. Petra Industries president Tate Morgan says will both help customers and pave the way for Petra’s future growth.
“Petra has set a new industry standard for how B2B distributors can modernise their eCommerce operations,” commented Yoav Kutner, Oro’s co-founder and CEO. “Our team was pleased to collaborate with Petra to build an integrated, user-friendly B2B eCommerce platform tailored for their needs.”
Enterprise Times: What this means for business?
Petra began as a simple operation conducting business out of a garage. But, as consumer technology and retail industries evolved, so too did Petra. In 2015, Petra more than doubled the capacity of its pick and pack operations. Today, Petra Industries is involved in product curation and supply chain management. This gives vendor partners and customers the tools needed to connect and grow in a rapidly changing industry. The move into eCommerce is a sensible direction for the company.
Frost & Sullivan are bullish about Oro’s market prospects. It cites Oro’s strong focus towards a very robust product strategy. It sees it continuing its market outreach through continued capitalisation on this value proposition. The analyst suggests Oro stands to gain tremendously over the forecast period and could gain enough momentum to become a major challenger. We will have to just watch this space to see if Petra has chosen wisely.
