Yardstore is a family-run business turned global aircraft supply empire. The company has been operating out of Wichita, Kansas, since 1946 and has grown into one of the premier providers of aircraft sheet metal tools and aircraft pneumatic tool repair in the world.
Yardstore has the biggest in-stock inventory of new and surplus tools specific to aircraft sheet metal work, such as threaded drill bits, right angle drills, countersinks, sealant guns, and Dotco-style tools. And they sell these tools at discount prices.
But Yardstore’s mission extends beyond selling excellent products — the company prides itself on top-notch customer service and employee satisfaction. eCommerce makes up about 40% of the company's revenue.
The Challenge
As the top supplier of aircraft sheet metal tools and equipment, Yardstore needed to reflect its inventory quality with a beautiful, easy-to-navigate site. Yardstore.com gets roughly 70 online daily orders, and 6% of those orders are managed by the customer emailing their shopping cart.
The company wanted to improve its UX and UI, implement Elasticsearch, and be able to manage payment rules for various B2B buyer personas. But their team was limited in what they could do with their Magento 1 instance and needed help upgrading to 2.4.4.
The Solution
Yardstore entrusted IronPlane with its migration to Magento 2.4.4. As a basis for this upgrade, IronPlane used their custom Alpaca theme, which not only sped up the implementation process but also laid the groundwork for future coding efficiency and stable integrations with Yardstore’s ERP and tax solutions.
In parallel, Yardstore began working with Zonos to manage international duties and customs calculations. IronPlane worked to remove i-parcel and replace it with a Zonos integration.
In addition, IronPlane reworked Yardstore’s navigation system. Whereas most eCommerce sites have a few product categories, Yardstore has several hundred. IronPlane used visual levels of navigation as well as Elasticsearch and quick order to help customers easily find and purchase the products they are looking for.
- Upgrade to Magento 2.4.4, including the use of IronPlane’s Alpaca theme
- Zonos integration with Magento
- Counterpoint integration with Magento
- Avatax integration with Magento
- B2B payment methods
- Elasticsearch
- Visual navigation
