ARCA Supply Cuts Costs and Accelerates Growth with BigCommerce

SOLUTION

Simpler setup and stronger results.

David's frustration with the custom development approach led him to test several ecommerce platforms during a weekend trial period. With BigCommerce, he accomplished more in two days than months of custom development had delivered. He connected their ERP system via API, pushed products through, processed test orders, and configured product pages and categories.

The contrast was stark. When David showed the development company what he'd built on BigCommerce's trial platform, they fell silent. The platform's out-of-the-box functionality eliminated the need for custom development while providing superior results.

Platform stability has been remarkable since the migration. The team rarely receives calls about site downtime or broken functionality. BigCommerce's automatic status notifications and responsive support team handle issues quickly when they do arise.

"We wouldn't be able to support the systems that we're supporting if BigCommerce wasn't as it was. We've definitely had to go in and tweak things here or there. But I can't remember the last time that I got a phone call that was, ‘the site went down’, or ‘this broke’, or ‘this product page doesn't load,'" remarked David.

Streamlined integration with existing systems.

BigCommerce’s open architecture made it easy for ARCA to integrate with Sellercloud, their existing omnichannel and order management system. With built-in compatibility and simple API key entry, ARCA quickly synced product data, pricing, and inventory, with no custom development required.

This seamless integration became the backbone of their operations. Sales teams could now rely on BigCommerce as the central catalog, with real-time data consistency across every connected system. In fact, BigCommerce soon outperformed ARCA’s ERP for customer-facing use, giving reps a faster, more reliable way to guide customers through the sales process.

“We've leaned more heavily on BigCommerce to be the catalog for the sales team. I’ve even started enforcing that the sales team put all orders through the website rather than directly into the ERP, because that way it creates consistency on the customer side,” said David. “All orders are in the same place. They’re getting notifications through the same formatting. It’s been really, really helpful.”

ARCA now saves approximately 20 hours per week by eliminating manual Excel imports, data entry, and customer notifications, freeing up the team to focus on faster order processing, consistent follow-up, and a better end-to-end experience for every buyer.

Strong B2B features out-of-the-box.

When evaluating platforms, David quickly saw that BigCommerce wasn’t just keeping up with B2B, it was leading. While Shopify was rolling out similar features, it consistently trailed BigCommerce’s B2B roadmap by months.

BigCommerce’s dedicated investment in B2B functionality aligned directly with ARCA’s distributor-first strategy. Features like customer portals, company accounts, tiered pricing, personalised catalogs, and simplified order management weren’t add-ons, they were ready to go out of the box, purpose-built for the way B2B businesses operate.

ARCA now uses these tools to manage complex buyer relationships, streamline reorders, and deliver a tailored experience to every customer. These capabilities also dramatically improved back-office efficiency, order processing time was cut in half, and their customer service manager saved roughly 20 hours per week by eliminating manual data entry and customer notification tasks.

“I like the customisation of the customer portal, where you can change how things look and add your own logo,” shared David. “Our customers like it because they can go to one spot, get all the information they need, and our sales team can walk them through the experience from the back end.”