How OK4WD Supercharged B2B and B2C Sales with BigCommerce

Background: A Legacy Brand Searching for Agility

Since 1979, OK4WD has grown from a two-bay garage into a full-service four-wheel-drive parts and accessories supplier. Serving both retail enthusiasts and wholesale buyers, the company built a reputation for hard-to-find components and expert advice. But under the surface, their e-commerce platform was straining to keep pace with growth.

The Magento Bottleneck

For years, OK4WD relied on Magento to host their online storefront. While it offered complete freedom, it demanded constant security patches, custom development, and manual upkeep. Adding or updating products was laborious, and order entry felt like a treadmill. Every new SKU meant more back-office work, and maintaining both B2B purchase orders and B2C transactions became a drain on the team’s capacity.

Platform Evaluation: BigCommerce vs Shopify

With mounting internal costs and risk, the operations team compared BigCommerce and Shopify. They found Shopify’s focus on B2C limiting, whereas BigCommerce delivered robust wholesale features right out of the box. The ability to run B2B and B2C on a single platform, combined with an extensive app ecosystem, sealed their decision.

Solution: Streamlined B2B and User-Friendly Tools

OK4WD migrated to BigCommerce’s B2B Edition, enabling an invoice portal for wholesale buyers. Gone were the days of manual order entry. Automations cut approval time for a dropship order from five minutes to just 30 seconds. Customers could now log in, place orders, view invoices, and check inventory—24/7—without a phone call or email.

Meanwhile, adding thousands of SKUs no longer required developer intervention. The user-friendly control panel made it easy for the team to publish 45,000 products—up from 14,000—unlocking a broader catalog. They also integrated Klaviyo for email, ShipperHQ for shipping rules, and Google BigQuery for data analysis, turning raw site data into actionable insights.

Results: Efficiency, Growth, and Higher Conversion

Since launching on BigCommerce, OK4WD has reclaimed over 12 hours of labor each week—time once spent on manual orders and support calls. The wholesale team now dedicates those hours to strategic tasks, like stocking plans and customer service improvements.

On the retail side, site performance and ease of navigation have driven a nearly 2X increase in conversion rate. The team no longer worries about routine maintenance or scaling infrastructure, so they can focus on growth initiatives and enhancing customer experience.

Looking Ahead: Automate, Optimize, Expand

Building on this momentum, OK4WD plans to implement a PIM solution to synchronize product data across their POS and online store. Automating that process will free up more bandwidth and reduce manual errors. With BigCommerce’s flexible architecture and extensive API, they’re confident the next chapter will be even more efficient—and profitable.