Case study · Manufacturing & industrial

Bromic Refrigeration: a stronger website for a refrigeration supplier.

Bromic is a privately-owned, 40-year-old Sydney-headquartered manufacturer and wholesaler. This fast-growing B2B group with separate operating divisions including the ultimate in commercial refrigeration needed a complete redesign and rebuild of the refrigeration website to improve the user experience across a variety of target audiences.

Sector: Manufacturing & industrial
Service: Website design and development
Channels: WooCommerce

Website projectDigital experience

The challenge

What needed to change.

Bromic is a privately owned manufacturer and wholesaler, headquartered in Sydney and trading for forty years. It is a fast growing B2B group with separate operating divisions, and its commercial refrigeration division, Bromic Refrigeration, sells to a wide mix of people: distributors, trades personnel and the general public.

Each of those audiences comes to the website for something different, and the existing website was not serving any of them well. The brand had built its reputation on pushing what is possible in commercial refrigeration, and the digital experience needed to live up to that.

Bromic Refrigeration needed a complete redesign and rebuild. The new website had to offer enhanced functionality, improved efficiency and the ability to cater for multiple user types, from a dealer checking stock to a member of the public comparing models.

The structure was the first problem to solve. Mapping the website revealed how much content, from product ranges to technical resources, had to be organised so that every audience could find its own path without wading through material meant for someone else.

Approach

How the work took shape.

The initial work was to build and refine a website that presented Bromic Refrigeration as a premium brand and brought together a variety of integrations behind a single, clear front end.

Through the development phase we shaped the user experience around specific tasks: searching for products and adding them to a cart, requesting a quote, finding technical information about a product, and giving the client a way to contact customers outside the website.

We also decided the backend should be fully customisable. Rather than fixed page layouts, we built the website from multiple components that Bromic can use across any page.

Moving a large product catalogue by hand was never going to work, so import and export functionality became part of the plan from the wireframe stage. We designed a custom import template so that Bromic can load bulk products onto the website from a CSV file.

A matching export function lets the team export users from the website. A second custom template handles this, so all the necessary data comes out in a form the business can use.

The shift

One website had to serve a dealer logging in and a shopper browsing, without either getting in the other’s way.

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The work

The work, up close.

The finished website gives a better user experience to every target audience, including distributors, trades personnel and the general public. Each group can search, browse and enquire in a way that suits how it buys, and the whole experience carries the look of a premium brand.

Behind that front end sits a set of integrations and tools that keep product data and stock information accurate without manual work from the Bromic team.

The multi-user solution is the heart of the build. We created one website for two separate user types. The general public browses as anonymous users and sees the product range, the resources and the ways to get in touch. Dealers log in to a dealer portal and see the information relevant to their trade relationship with Bromic Refrigeration.

Dealers also see more. A dealer library, available only to logged in users, can be filtered by resource type and product category to find user manuals, specification sheets, product images, Bromic logos, product brochures and catalogues. Product pages carry downloadable assets too, and a dealer sees more of them for the same product than a general user does. The design elements and mobile views hold up across both experiences, on a phone on a job or at a desk.

Bromic Refrigeration bromic design elements.

Bromic Refrigeration bromic mobile views.

Search is powered by Algolia, so results appear quickly and accurately as a visitor types, which matters on a website with a deep product catalogue. The homepage layouts were designed to move each audience towards the products and resources they need in as few steps as possible.

WooCommerce integration handles the commerce side, letting visitors add products to a cart and move through to a quote or an enquiry.

Bromic Refrigeration bromic rf homepage layouts.

The product pages draw on Bromic’s Microsoft NAV 2016 ERP system through RESTful APIs, so the recommended retail price and stock availability display directly from the business’s own records. When a visitor selects a fridge, the information they see is current without anyone updating the website by hand.

Gravity Forms handles the enquiry and quote forms, capturing the details Bromic needs to follow up.

Bromic Refrigeration bromic fridge selection.

Data import and export functionality works in different formats, so the Bromic team can bulk load products from a CSV file using the custom import template and export user data when they need it. This keeps the catalogue manageable as the range grows and changes.

The variety of views across the website, from product listings to dealer tools, all sit on the same component system, which is what makes the range of functionality feel like one coherent place rather than a set of bolted on features.

Bromic’s own customers noticed. One wrote to congratulate the team on the new website, calling it user-friendly, full of great information and easy to read, and describing the dealer portal as fantastic.

Bromic Refrigeration bromic variety of views.

A resource library brings together manuals, catalogues and specification sheets, so technical information is a click away for trades personnel and distributors rather than a phone call to the office.

The backend is fully customisable and content author friendly. Using the component system, the Bromic team can build and change pages themselves, keeping the website current as the business continues to grow.

Bromic Refrigeration bromic after results.

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