Snyder Performance Engineering builds automotive aftermarket parts that outperform the original manufacturer’s designs. Their journey began when Dan Snyder, Co-Founder and former mechanic, started developing his own parts from his home-based repair shop. Word spread quickly, transforming their small business into a major manufacturing operation. But their growth nearly stalled when their manual order process couldn't handle the surging demand. That's when Snyder turned to Shopify to scale operations while preserving the personalized service that built their reputation.
Since launching Shopify B2B just 18 months ago, Snyder Performance Engineering has already achieved:
- 25% reduction in time spent on back-office administrative tasks
- 40% increase in average customer spend
Challenge: Manual Ordering Limits Potential Growth
After successfully growing their business to serve repair shops nationwide, Snyder Performance Engineering faced a new challenge. Every B2B order required a phone call or email, forcing customers to rely on Snyder's team to make a purchase. This manual process created a bottleneck that capped their growth and limited the number of customers they could effectively serve.
Amy Snyder, Co-Founder & COO, led the search for a solution that would allow customers to self-serve their orders online to solve these challenges. Their first attempt was with an open-source ecommerce platform that billed itself as a low-cost option. They quickly discovered the platform had very few out-of-the-box features and prioritized selling add-ons.
"The platform was clunky, hard for us to navigate on the back end, and difficult for our customers to use," says Amy. The platform also didn't connect with their back office systems that handled pricing, inventory, and customer data. This meant that they had to repeat every task, like changing a price list, across multiple platforms.
Solution: Self-Serve Buying That’s Intuitive & Fully Integrated with Your Tech Stack
Everything changed when Amy stumbled across Shopify in an online forum, where users raved about how intuitive it was to use. Unlike their previous platform, Amy immediately found the admin to be easy to navigate. Despite having no technical background, she was able to set up and manage a new site for her B2B customers all on her own. "You just knew what to do in the admin. It didn't feel scary, and I didn't feel like I needed a developer to do it for me,” says Amy.
Anybody on my team can go in and use the Shopify admin without having to second guess themselves.
With Shopify B2B, Snyder’s ecommerce team gained access to dozens of out-of-the-box features built just for wholesale, like customer-specific pricing, product publishing, and payment terms. These powerful tools allowed Snyder to personalize the buying experience for each customer without resorting to workarounds or custom development that would consume time and money.
They integrated Quickbooks and ShipStation with Shopify to sync real-time inventory data and automate order fulfillment for their warehouse team. The integration process was relatively quick and straightforward thanks to direct integrations available in the Shopify App Store. "My team doesn't have to wait for an order to get manually plugged in. By the time somebody places an order, it can literally be packed and shipped within a couple minutes. That's big in wholesale," says Amy.
After configuring their store and back-end operations, Snyder launched their new self-serve B2B portal. For the first time, their wholesale customers could assemble bulk orders and check out at their own convenience—using an interface as familiar as their everyday online shopping.
Results: Time Saved, Increased Customer Spend
The switch to Shopify B2B has transformed Snyder's operations. Their team has saved 25% of their time by eliminating manual order processing and data entry. Given the success they’ve seen so far, Snyder plans to move more of their business operations to Shopify, including all reporting and analytics.
Nobody's going from system to system to check 'did this actually ship?'. We don't need to question it. It saved us a ton of money and time because things aren't happening twice.
Snyder's customers have increased their spending by 41% since launching Shopify B2B. Amy believes it's because they've made it easier for customers to place orders. "My B2B customers are enjoying placing orders on Shopify. I hear a lot from people that our website is super easy to navigate and track what they've ordered.”
With higher revenue and an intuitive platform for all users, Snyder has shifted their focus from fixing problems to driving growth. They're now bringing new items to market faster than ever before. What started as a solution for better order processing has become the foundation for their future growth.