Projects TMC Agro
An e-commerce platform for distributors and for farmers.
TMC Agro sells technology for agriculture. We built its WooCommerce e-commerce platform, with a wholesale portal for distributors and a store for end customers, both connected to its stock system.
- Client
- TMC Agro, Luján and Salta
- Industry
- Agricultural technology and equipment
- What we did
- Information architecture, WooCommerce development and integration with the stock system
The context
TMC Agro sells equipment for farmers: Gripple tensioners, shearing machines, water monitoring, scales and identification readers, electric fencing and telemetry. It has offices in Luján, in the province of Buenos Aires, and in Salta.
It sells to two audiences. Distributors buy in volume, at wholesale prices. Farmers buy for their own land, at list prices.
The challenge
TMC Agro needed a single website for both audiences. While planning it, we identified four issues to resolve.
- Two price lists. Wholesale prices could only be seen by distributors approved by TMC.
- Prices in dollars. The price list in TMC’s system is in US dollars, and end customers pay in Argentine pesos.
- Stock from the system. The website had to pull stock and prices from the system TMC already uses.
- A large catalogue. Six categories, technical data sheets and manuals, all of which had to be quick to find.
How can one website serve a distributor who buys in volume and a farmer who buys a single unit, with different prices for each?
The decisions
Three rules shape the entire website.
Two portals, one catalogue
Distributors and consumers see the same products. The price and conditions depend on who signs in.
Approved distributors
Anyone who registers as a distributor sees wholesale prices only once the TMC team approves their account.
TMC’s system is the source of truth
Stock and price lists come from the system TMC already uses, so nobody enters them twice.
First, the site map.
Before designing screens, we organised the website: who arrives, where they come in and what they find.
What we did, screen by screen.
A home page that leads to the product
The hero section features a product, such as Heiniger shearing machines. Below are the six categories with photos, and the products are grouped into popular items, bundles and promotions.
At the end, an invitation for anyone who wants to become a distributor: ‘Would you like to become a distributor?’.
A portal for distributors
To see wholesale prices, distributors register with their name, tax ID (CUIT or CUIL), phone number and email. The TMC team reviews each registration and approves or rejects it.
Once their account is approved, distributors see the wholesale price list and place their orders through the portal. Their profile brings together their details and the products they have viewed recently.
Prices in dollars, payment in pesos
The price list in TMC’s system is in dollars. In the consumer store, the website automatically converts each price to pesos at the dollar exchange rate TMC chooses. The list stays in a single currency and nobody has to update prices by hand when the dollar moves.
Product pages with stock and technical manual
Each product page shows the code, the price and the availability reported by the system: available, in the warehouse or to reserve. The technical manual can be downloaded from the same page.
Below are the description, products from the same category and links to the rest of the catalogue.
Cart and delivery
Consumers build their order and choose how to receive it: parcel delivery, collection from the warehouse or delivery to be confirmed. They then enter the address and confirm the purchase with the summary in view.
The system emails
Every step in the portal and the store sends an email with TMC’s branding. When someone registers as a distributor, the TMC team receives the request with their details and accepts, rejects or reviews it in the admin panel. The distributor receives the outcome by email.
Purchases follow the same design: order received, being prepared, dispatched and delivered. There are also emails for account verification and password recovery.
Illustrative example with sample data.
A design system of its own
We defined the typography for desktop and mobile, the buttons, the product cards and the status labels. The colour of each label indicates stock (available, in the warehouse, reserve) and order status (being prepared, dispatched, on its way).
Designed for mobile
On mobile, the categories are laid out in two columns and the product page places the price, the quantity and the buy button within easy reach of the thumb.
The stack
We built the website on WordPress and WooCommerce. Distributors and consumers have different roles, each with its own price list. The website connects to TMC’s stock system to pull stock levels and the wholesale price list.
- WordPress
- WooCommerce
- PHP
- Integration with the stock system
- Wholesale price list
- Dollar-to-peso conversion
- Distributor and consumer roles
Results
The website was live until a few months ago. TMC Agro is currently adding improvements, which is why the images in this case study come from the Figma design, with sample text on the product pages.
What we learned
- The site map comes before the screens. With a large catalogue and two audiences, the information architecture spared us from redoing designs.
- Wholesale prices must be protected. Showing them only to approved distributors protects TMC’s relationship with its network.
- A single currency in the system simplifies everything. Converting from dollars to pesos on the website avoids touching the price list every time the dollar moves.
- Stock has to come from a single source. Pulling it from TMC’s system avoids selling items that are not in the warehouse.
