Modernizing B2B Ecommerce for a Relationship First Distributor
Founded in 1933, Hirsch Pipe & Supply is one of Southern California’s largest plumbing and HVAC supply distributors. The company combines deep industry expertise with a strong relationship-based sales model that supports both residential and commercial contractors.
Challenges
Hirsch’s customers were accustomed to placing orders by phone through trusted internal contacts. While effective, this model limited digital adoption and created friction for customers who wanted faster access to pricing, inventory, order history, and invoices.
The legacy website compounded these challenges, offering limited usability, slow performance, and minimal integration with Hirsch’s ERP system, SHIMS. Hirsch needed a modern B2B commerce platform that could support customer-specific experiences, integrate deeply with back-office systems, and scale as digital engagement increased.
Solution
Hirsch partnered with the digital agency Americaneagle.com to replatform their site to ROC Commerce. Built to support complex pricing models, authenticated customer portals, and deep ERP integration, the platform enabled Hirsch to deliver a digital experience aligned with real-world buying behaviors.
Using ROC Commerce’s robust API framework and integration engine, Hirsch implemented comprehensive data synchronization with SHIMS. This enabled customer-specific pricing, location-based inventory, order history, quotes, invoices, AR balances, and saved shopping lists to be surfaced directly within the ecommerce experience. When a new user is added, it automatically creates an account in the ERP system, simplifying account setup and improving efficiency for the Hirsch team.
ROC Commerce’s modular, extensible architecture also allowed the site to be tailored through user-informed UX and design updates, improving search, navigation, and performance without sacrificing scalability.
With ROC Commerce, Hirsch Pipe & Supply now has a modern B2B ecommerce platform that complements its relationship-based sales model while encouraging greater digital engagement. Customers can self-serve when it’s convenient, sales teams are supported by real-time data, and Hirsch has a scalable foundation to evolve its digital strategy for future growth.