Wholesale B2B and outdoor industry news, tips, and tricks.

Talking with Original Footwear: Envoy B2B, NetSuite, And More

Written by Mark Troast | 4/11/19 5:56 PM

Envoy B2B’s new turnkey connector for NetSuites SuiteSuccess AFA & Retail give brands the power to rapidly modernize their approach to wholesale. We asked a few of our clients to give us feedback on how Envoy B2B has affected their business.

Original Footwear’s Alexis Dean took time from her busy day to share some insights on what their experience has been with Envoy B2B.


How will this connector with NetSuite and Envoy impact your day to day business?

Alexis Dean:  Right now all of our orders filter through Customer Service, whether they are a phone in order, an email, or even a fax (yes, we know it is the 21st century and yes, some of our customers still fax in orders).  With Envoy B2B, the orders will bypass manual entry from our team, reducing any errors on our end. It previously took a few back and forths between our team and the dealer, as well as multiple departments having their hands on an order just to get the boots out the door - with the NetSuite connector it will go straight from the dealer to our shipping team, speeding up the process and getting boots to our customers faster!

Take a guess on how many hours will be saved each day or monthly now with these systems connected?

Alexis Dean:  We are estimating that 2-3 hours per customer service representative will be saved once we get 50-75% of our dealers on-boarded.  We have a total of five representatives which would mean over the month we could save up to 300 hours. Our Customer Service team does much more than just order placement, so this will allow them more time to focus on some of our more ‘service’ centric initiatives.

How was the Envoy B2B team during implementation?

Alexis Dean:  The entire Envoy team is amazing to work with.  Their commitment during our implementation and on-boarding process was above our expectations.  Between their response time and their attention to feedback, we couldn’t have asked for anything more.

How long did implementation take from installing the connector to rollout?

Alexis Dean:  The installation was completed on January 21, and it took exactly one month for us to rollout.  By choice we are onboarding in phases, so that we can be as hands on as needed for our dealers.

How will real-time inventory from NetSuite displaying in Envoy B2B to your buyers help your business?

Alexis Dean:  We love the real-time inventory piece!  Not that phone calls or emails asking about inventory are annoying, but it will certainly reduce the amount of interruptions with a simple lookup that now our buyers and our sales reps have access to.  Prior to Envoy B2B, buyers had no insight into what we had in stock; so they would have to blindly place an order. If, in fact, something was out of stock, there would be more back and forth between the buyer and our Customer Service team to let them know it is out of stock and to determine whether they want to find a replacement, remove it form the order,  or put on backorder. The real-time inventory will cut all of the back and forth out and make sure that whatever they are ordering is exactly what they will receive.

How do you expect having retailers review and pay invoices in Envoy B2B will impact your business?

Alexis Dean:  We are really hoping that our customers will take advantage of this feature to not only pay their invoices, but to also make them aware of where they stand financially.  As a business we are anticipating that it will cut back the percentage of past due customers, because often times a buyer may not be aware that their accounting team has not made a payment.  Envoy B2B gives the buyer access to see what has been paid and what is due, versus this communication solely going to their accounting department. Of course our own accounting team is excited that they will benefit as well, by reducing their workload.


Thanks to Alexis for answering our questions!  We love working with Original Footwear (check ‘em out!).

Are you a brand using NetSuite SuiteSuccess AFA or Retail? Learn more about how Envoy B2B can modernize your B2B and help streamline your wholesale channel, then get in touch, we’d be happy to talk.