A wholesale store goes from 15-second searches to a stable, capable platform

The Challenge

A B2B store too slow for the people who had to use it

Sims Pottery distributes pottery, planters and floral supplies to trade customers, who order in volume and search constantly.

After moving platforms, searches took 10 to 15 seconds, order edits dragged, and the site suffered outages — the kind of experience that sends wholesale buyers back to the phone.

There was no technical owner pulling the developer, the host and the open task list together.

The Strategy

Take ownership, then fix causes in order of pain

PeakBeyond took over technical direction and carried the open tasks forward, so the work had one owner across the developer and the host.

The performance work went after the mechanics — a message queue to take load off the request path, caching and scheduling fixes, and an evaluation of the search tool itself rather than tuning something unsuitable.

Once stable, the platform could grow: point of sale, a version upgrade and carrier shipping options, each scoped as a contained piece of work.

The Solution

Stabilize, extend, hand over

PeakBeyond took over technical direction for three years and gave the engagement a deliberate ending.

• Took ownership — Carried the open task list forward so the work had one owner across the developer and the host.
• Went after the mechanics of the slowness — A message queue to take load off order processing, caching and scheduling fixes with the developer and host, and an evaluation of the search tool itself rather than tuning something unsuitable.
• Grew the platform once it was stable — Scoped and managed the point-of-sale installation, the platform upgrade and carrier shipping integration, each as a contained piece of work.
• Ended it properly — Supported a clean handover when the business moved to a consolidated platform.

Causes were fixed in order of pain, and nothing was layered onto a struggling site until the base could hold it.

The Results

A store trade customers can use, and an exit done properly

Searches that had taken 10 to 15 seconds, slow order edits and outages were addressed at their causes, with one owner coordinating the developer and the host.

Point of sale, the platform upgrade and carrier shipping were added once the base was stable, rather than layered onto a struggling site.

When Sims moved to a consolidated platform, PeakBeyond supported the handover instead of holding on.

The engagement left the business faster than it found it — and free to move on.