Musgrave MarketPlace invests in digitisation strategy

Servicing more than 50,000 customers across the island of Ireland, Musgrave MarketPlace currently provides an expansive selection of products from food and beverages to equipment, packaging, office furniture and electricals to the foodservice, retail and SME sectors.

This new website now offers customers a one-stop-shop for all their business needs. Customers can purchase more than 14,000 products from the core Musgrave MarketPlace range, as well as the option to buy from the new Extended Range.

Extended Range is a digital only curated range, hosted on the site on behalf of trusted suppliers, delivered directly to customers from the supplier’s own distribution centre. As this service grows, it will give customers even more choice and offer local suppliers the opportunity to access Musgrave MarketPlace’s vast customer base across foodservice, retail and SMEs.

On the improved and optimised website, User Experience (or UX) is at the forefront of the design. The new website boasts an intuitive search function and an enhanced navigation system, improving the customer journey and making finding products simpler and more efficient. Optimised across multiple platforms, the site works seamlessly on desktop, mobile phones and tablets.

With a host of brand-new features, customers can benefit from real-time stock information, notifications for when items are back in stock and suggestions for alternative similar products. Accurate delivery lead times are also available on all products, letting customers know when they should expect to receive their order and allowing them to plan accordingly. Additionally, a click and collect service is available from local Musgrave MarketPlace branches nationwide, 7 days a week.

The new login system permits multiple users per company to sign up with various permissions, allowing staff to put orders together and managers to approve them before they are processed.

In addition, orders can be uploaded using the brand-new Quick Order function where customers can use barcode scanners to create a list or enter the SKU codes on the site placing the products directly into their basket. Favourite lists can also be created to organise orders and store regularly ordered items, saving time and streamlining the process.

Financial information including invoices, statements and previous orders can also be accessed at the touch of a button with the facility to add a purchase order number.

Michael McCormack, Managing Director at Musgrave MarketPlace commented on the launch: “Covid has accelerated a move to digital for many of our customers, indeed we’re seeing online as the fastest-growing channel for our customer and expect that 60% of our orders will come through online by the end of 2024.

“With this in mind, it was crucial that we invested in making our online ordering experience as simple and user friendly as possible. The digital space is a core part of our strategy and we are committed to innovating in this space to deliver world-class customer experiences.”

“Designed with our customer in mind, we undertook an extended period of market and customer research at the beginning of this project to identify customer pain points with our old site and to identify best-in-class examples, so that we could deliver a much-improved proposition. Following a pilot with customers and some final tweaking I’m delighted to launch, what will become, a one-stop-shop for our retail, SME and hospitality customers, where they can find everything they need to run their business in one place.”

Musgrave MarketPlace customer, Rory Stack, Head Chef at The Yacht Bar & Restaurant, Clontarf said: “Working in the fast-paced environment of the hospitality industry, we’re always looking for ways to save time and keep costs down. As a long-time customer of Musgrave MarketPlace, I was excited to be part of the customer panel whose feedback helped to shape the site features to meet the needs of our business. During the pilot phase we were able to help to identify possible issues during development and ways to make things easier for customers.

“The new website is slick, easy to navigate and, as ever, contains everything that we could possibly need to run our business. Often we are ordering similar stock week to week, so the new features that let you save lists and flag your favourite items makes placing repeat orders simple for all our employees. The easy access to our financial information, statements and invoices also cuts down on admin for our busy management staff saving much needed time.”

Caption: Rory Stack, Head Chef at The Yacht Bar & Restaurant and Michael McCormack, Managing Director at Musgrave MarketPlace launching Musgrave MarketPlace’s new website.