Hills has announced its new e-commerce platform is now live, offering customers online purchasing with 24/7 real-time inventory and self-service capabilities, including customer statements, invoices, pricing, online payments and delivery information.

The new site forms part of a digital transformation strategy initiated by the company to revitalise its digital capabilities and provide a better customer experience.

Hills chief executive and managing director David Lenz says the site is attracting high volumes of site visits and account activations.

“Initial user uptake has exceeded our expectations. In the short time that the site has been live, there has been overwhelming interest and over 30% of site sessions were returning users. According to our statistics, users are dedicating time to setting up and populating their account pages, and downloading product information and technical documents.”

Hills partnered with Cognizant to build the platform, which is in its first phase. More enhancements are planned as the company updates its technology and business operations to better compete in the digital economy.

David says Hills’ digital transformation strategy is critical to refocus the company from a product-centre to a customer-centric business, to improve customer engagement and core business processes.

“The new e-commerce platform has been built in consultation with customers, vendors and staff, and involved extensive customer research to ensure improved functionality and a better customer experience. It is a company-wide transformation. Our decision to take control of our own supply chain and open a National Distribution Centre in Seven Hills, NSW is critical to the success of the e-commerce platform. We’re focused on improving warehousing and dispatch processes to ensure a better online experience, but customers will see improvements in our level of service across all areas of the business,” says David.

“We’re confident that it’s the step change needed to help drive sales growth across Australia and New Zealand.”