Case Study | How Howard Elliott modernized wholesale selling and increased revenue by 15% with AI — B2BEA

Case Study Overview

The Howard Elliott Collection is a home accents wholesaler serving retailers and interior designers across North America. Like many wholesale businesses, the company still receives a significant volume of orders through emails, PDFs, and faxes, formats that do not fit neatly into modern ecommerce workflows. As order volume increased, the cost of handling those manual orders began to add up, both in time spent and in the risk of errors.

Brian Berk, President, The Howard Elliott Collection

The Howard Elliott Collection is a home accents wholesaler serving retailers and interior designers across North America. Its product lines include mirrors, furniture, and decorative accessories, categories where visual merchandising and ease of discovery directly influence buying decisions.

The company sells through a mix of showroom interactions, field sales reps, and a growing B2B ecommerce channel. As Howard Elliott expanded its assortment and deepened its focus on the design trade, the pressure on its sales systems and operational workflows increased.

“WizCommerce has given us a platform we can actually grow with. It’s familiar, scalable, and built in a way that supports how our customers and sales teams really work.”

The Challenge: Fragment tools slowing reps and confusing buyers

Before WizCommerce, Howard Elliott’s sales and ecommerce workflows were spread across disconnected tools. The website experience changed significantly once customers logged in, creating confusion and friction at a critical moment in the buying journey. Customers were not always sure they were browsing the same site, which slowed decision-making.

Sales reps faced similar inefficiencies. Writing orders, checking inventory, and helping customers find alternatives required switching between systems. Inventory visibility was limited, and recommending similar products depended heavily on individual memory rather than system intelligence.

Operationally, order handling and merchandising were equally manual. Orders often required review or correction before entering the backend system. Producing lifestyle imagery was time-intensive, involving sample coordination, photographers, editing cycles, and long lead times that slowed how quickly products could be launched.

“Our previous platform was clunky. There wasn’t an easy flow between the website and the sales app, and customers were getting confused.” – Colleen Daly | VP, The Howard Elliott Collection

The Turning Point : Rethinking wholesale selling as one connected system

Rather than continuing to work around limitations, Howard Elliott chose to rethink the foundation entirely.

The team adopted WizCommerce as a unified platform to support both self-serve buyers and rep-assisted selling. WizShop became the central storefront for customers, offering consistent design, advanced filters, and real-time stock visibility. WizOrder put those same capabilities directly into the hands of sales reps, allowing them to create quotes, wishlists, and orders without relying on back-office teams.

Orders could be reviewed and finalized within WizCommerce before flowing into the backend system in the correct format. This eliminated many downstream corrections and reduced delays between order placement and fulfilment.

“When WizCommerce tells us a feature is coming, it usually means one or two months, not six or nine. That reliability matters.” – Brian Berk | President, The Howard Elliott Collection

AI’s Role : Manual effort replaced by AI, speed, and confidence

With the core workflow unified, AI became a practical layer that removed manual effort across the business.

Sales reps began using Kai, AI Sales Copilot, to access customer summaries before meetings, understand category preferences, and receive product recommendations aligned with each customer’s buying behavior. Image-based search allowed reps and designers to upload inspiration photos and instantly find similar products, helping them pivot quickly when items were unavailable.

Ella, AI Order Entry Assistant, transformed order processing. What previously took several hours of manual review and data entry could now be completed in as little as 15 minutes, dramatically reducing operational effort and speeding orders toward fulfilment.

WizStudio, AI Lifestyle Image Generator, reshaped how Howard Elliott handled product imagery. Instead of spending four to six weeks coordinating photography and editing, the team used AI-generated lifestyle images and line drawings to produce ecommerce-ready visuals in as little as two weeks. This accelerated product launches while significantly lowering cost.

“Kai tells our sales reps exactly what products and categories to show customers based on how they actually buy.” – Colleen Daly | VP, The Howard Elliott Collection

The Results : A 15% revenue lift powered by faster, cleaner workflows

After adopting WizCommerce, Howard Elliott saw measurable improvements across sales, operations, and merchandising. In six months, they acquired 600 new website customers and drove a 15% increase in website order volume after launching its B2B portal on WizCommerce.

Customers activated quickly and began shopping within hours of gaining access. Improved discovery, real-time inventory visibility, and consistent design reduced friction and increased conversion.

Sales reps became more productive. With AI-driven recommendations, mobile order writing, and instant customer context, reps spent less time navigating systems and more time selling. Order values increased as reps were able to confidently present broader assortments.

Operationally, order processing moved faster with far fewer manual touchpoints. Ella reduced order handling time from hours to minutes, while WizStudio shortened go-to-market timelines by weeks. Together, these gains allowed the business to scale without adding complexity or headcount.

“Our move to WizCommerce increased online revenue more than we expected and made selling easier for both reps and customers.” – Colleen Daly | VP, The Howard Elliott Collection

“WizCommerce has been a reliable partner for us. When they commit to something, they deliver, and that gives us confidence as we continue to scale.” – Brian Berk | President, The Howard Elliott Collection

Industry

Home Goods & Furniture

Technology

(https://www.b2bea.org/directory/technology/wizcommerce),

Services

AI, Automation, Digital Transformation, Platform Selection

More from WizCommerce

How PD Home achieved a 15% sales lift with a faster, more intuitive B2B site

Contributed by: (https://www.b2bea.org/directory/company/wizcommerce)