A B2B portal that puts Mars orders in buyers' hands
With a portal that understands how each buyer orders, we gave Mars's sales executives more time for the business.
In this case study
Executive summary
For one of the largest candy makers in the United States, Taqtile rebuilt the ordering portal for distributors, wholesalers and retailers, and turned an order with hundreds of products and each buyer's own terms into self-service.
With the order in the buyer's hands, the time to close it went from up to 1 hour to, on average, 5 minutes, on a portal that is up 99.9% of the time.
With its own front end and a custom integration layer on top of Salesforce, the portal runs on the systems Mars already had and costs less than 0.1% of its revenue to support and evolve.
The challenge
In the United States, Mars sells some of the best-known brands in the country and has one of the largest portfolios in its category. Its buyers are distributors, wholesalers and retailers, in orders of hundreds of products, and each buyer has their own catalog, price and delivery day.
Mars already had an ordering portal to give these buyers autonomy, and the next step was to make it a sales channel as well. Each buyer arrived with the order ready in their own system, and entering it into the portal item by item could take up to 1 hour. To check the status, confirm the order or ask a question, the path was still the sales executive, by phone or email.
The case in numbers
- 90%
- less time to close an order in the portal: from up to 1 hour to 5 minutes
- More than 50%
- of the sales executive's time was freed up by the use of the portal
- 99.9%
- uptime: buyers can place an order at any hour
- Less than 0.1%
- of the portal's revenue is what it costs to support and evolve it
Numbers like these start by understanding how each customer buys. Let’s talk
Inside the technology
We've had them redesign the front-end UX for our B2B customers. What I think they did really well is they were very engaged with not only just building the tech but the design work that was done to get a great look and feel. The discovery work they did around meeting customers, getting feedback from customers before we even start [...] I think they did a really nice job.
The portal was born from the journey of the people who place the orders, and the technology came to serve it. That meant combining three systems Mars already had: Salesforce, the order management system that runs inside it and the marketing content manager. Taqtile built the missing piece between them and the buyer: its own front end and a custom server-side application that talks to Salesforce through its APIs.
The integration layer was redesigned before the front end, to give the experience freedom to evolve. It is where the truckload rules, bulk ordering by spreadsheet and AI reading of purchase orders live. Because the intelligence sits in this layer, Mars's systems stay as they are, and every evolution of the portal is a small, localized change. As a result, supporting and evolving the portal costs Mars less than 0.1% of what it brings in.
The solution
A B2B e-commerce portal where buyers place and track their own orders.
Catalog by channel
Recognizes the buyer and shows the catalog, terms and unit of measure of their channel: chocolate and candy, or ice cream
Smart storefront
Puts in-stock and best-selling items first, and suggests what similar buyers order
Mars plans and launches
Brings together the national marketing plans, the display and media calendars, the seasonal programs and the launches, with data by category and store format
Bulk ordering, each buyer's way
Accepts orders by spreadsheet, by saved template or by repeating the last one; in testing, also by AI reading of the purchase order
Load building
Shows how much is left to reach the minimum order and unlock direct shipping while the buyer builds the order, and suggests substitutes for out-of-stock items to complete the load
Self-service after-sales
Lets buyers change, reschedule or cancel the order, request a return, track the delivery and download the invoice
The results
Everyday ordering moved into the buyer's hands. They log into the portal, upload the spreadsheet or repeat the last order, see how much is left for the minimum order and track the status and delivery, with no phone calls, no emails and no waiting for business hours. Closing an order, which took up to 1 hour, now takes 5 minutes, on average, on a portal that is up 99.9% of the time.
On Mars's side, the sales executive gained time for what only they can do. Before, each one looked after 10 to 15 buyers, built the order with them and answered, by phone and email, whether each order had gone through. Now that buyers track order status on their own and handle changes, returns, deliveries and invoices in the portal, more than half of each executive's time was freed up to bring the marketing plan and the launches, anticipate trends and handle the non-standard order.
In a few weeks, we explore and prototype with you a new way for your customers to buy. Let’s talk
How we worked
The work began with immersion. In the first week, we interviewed portal buyers about how they placed orders day to day, and sat down with Mars's sales, marketing, supply chain and digital teams. That is where the buying profiles that shaped the portal came from: those who repeat the same order by spreadsheet every week, those who explore the catalog in the seasonal period, those who order for dozens of stores at once. Each profile became a path in the portal.
By the following week there was already a design to validate with Mars's teams, before any build. The integration came first, the front end after, with weekly deliveries. Since then, we have supported and evolved the portal: we built with the client the channel's metrics tree, which links each step of the order to revenue, and it is by these indicators that every change is decided and every experiment prioritized.
That is how it works in every Taqtile project: we deliver every week and decide by indicators. Lean teams of experienced people lead each project and build with AI agents, within our own method.
Questions this case answers
Does Taqtile have experience integrating with Salesforce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud?
Yes. Mars's B2B ordering portal in the United States is 100% integrated with Salesforce: its own front end and a custom server-side layer talk to the platform through the headless commerce APIs, and order, inventory, price and invoices stay in Salesforce. With Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Taqtile integrated Unilever's retail ordering app, migrated to the platform in less than 1 month and featured as a Salesforce case, and Sephora's app, both through their own integration layer.
Standard Salesforce B2B store or custom headless front end: which to choose for a high-volume ordering portal?
For a high-volume portal, headless. Today's buyers demand performance, an interface that adapts to the way each of them buys and AI built seamlessly into their processes. The standard store limits all three; headless commerce, with a custom server-side layer, delivers all three without taking any data out of Salesforce. At Mars, each buyer has their own catalog, price list, minimum order and delivery days, and buys their own way: by spreadsheet, by saved template, by repeating the last order. The custom layer is what made it possible to adapt the portal to each one and improve performance.
How much does it cost to support and evolve a large B2B ordering portal?
It depends on the size of the operation. In large operations, between 0.1% and 0.5% of the portal's revenue. In this case, less than 0.1%: Taqtile supports and evolves Mars's portal with 99.9% uptime, and every change is decided by indicators tied to revenue.