Professional Veterinary Products Ltd.

The Client:
Professional Veterinary Products Ltd. (PVPL) is one of the largest animal health products distributors in the U.S., with a catalog of more than 27,000 products. Founded in 1982 as a small group of veterinarians wanting to increase buying power, PVPL has grown into a shareholder-network of more than 2,000 independent practices with 5,000 practitioners.

The Challenge:

• Create E-commerce site for 27,000 unique products
• Product promotions change daily and are even state-specific
• Point-of-sale shipping challenges

PVPL’s growth demanded a website with greatly expanded capabilities—moving from limited public information and intranet employee functions to an E-commerce site for more than 27,000 unique product offerings. Because hundreds of product promotions change daily and some are even state-specific, PVPL’s product base and distributor relationships require an extremely complex structure. With multiple distribution centers and shipping hubs, a sizeable number of the client’s products require specialized handling and create shipping information challenges at the point of sale.

The Solution:

• Developed and implemented continually expanding E-commerce site
• Devised complex promotions engine that is reconfigured daily
• Integration with AS400 system
• Support services in place

Over the course of one year from conception to implementation, Jelecos designed an E-commerce site that continues to be upgraded, with understanding of the client’s unique product, promotions and shipping challenges—not a small task with the pricing and promotions status of hundreds of products changing daily. Integration with an AS400 system for product and price information and order fulfillment identifies functionality for each end-user individually, and pinpoints product marketing and access for specific customers. Jelecos also developed on-going support services from its data center that include a help desk to aid new users with account setup and order entry.

The Results:

• Impeccable reliability and accuracy
• Sales goals ahead of schedule
• E-commerce capabilities expanding

With a five-year goal of generating 5% of its sales through E-commerce, 1.5% of PVPL’s sales already are coming through the website just six months after implementation. With only 300 of its potential 2,500 first-round users buying products online to date, PVPL has recorded sales of $86,000 in one week and a total of more than $1.5 million so far. Jelecos is working with the client to expand its E-commerce capabilities, including creating templates for standardized orders.

“We have worked with Jelecos a lot over the past few years, and we are very pleased with their work—especially when you consider the magnitude of projects we are working on together. If we ever have a concern, they are very good at immediately addressing it and solving the problem.”
Karen Rau
Technology Product Manager
Professional Veterinary Products Ltd.