Orgill

About Orgill

Orgill, Inc. is the world’s largest independent hardware distributor, generating over $3.7 billion in annual sales. They support over 13,000 retailers, including hardware stores, home centers, and farm suppliers, across the U.S., Canada, and 50+ countries.

As a B2B2C company, Orgill empowers retailers with tools to reach their end customers while managing their own ecommerce experience. Their mission is simple but impactful: to provide their customers with tailored solutions that meet the demands of modern retail.

The challenge

Before working with Alokai, Orgill’s ecommerce operations were constrained by a monolithic system that combined backend and frontend functionalities. This setup created several issues:

• Cost inefficiencies;

• Limited scalability;

• Operational complexity. 

Cost inefficiencies

The main problem was that every added feature drove up various costs. Orgill found themselves in a position where scaling up wasn’t just operationally difficult – it was also financially unsustainable in the long run.

Limited scalability

Orgill’s system struggled to keep up with a growing number of implementations, resulting in frequent outages and delays. This created significant bottlenecks, impacting the company’s growth pace. 

Operational complexity

Because of the original platform’s setup, Orgill’s team had to go through a tedious process of setting up and managing multiple sites, and navigating within disparate systems.

“We ran into development constraints, the amount of overhead, the cost that comes with any kind of updates and upgrades for maintaining a monolith system. It just wasn’t cost-effective.”

Chris Tovar
Ecommerce Program Manager at Orgill

Why Alokai?

Orgill’s transition to a composable architecture was all about solving core issues that hampered growth. It turned out Alokai had just what they needed:

Focus on scalability

Aokai’s setup made expanding Orgill’s ecommerce operations feel easy as it supported rapid growth – no more surprise costs or scalability panic. This allowed the company to confidently hit its expansion goals without worrying about technical or financial barriers.

Composable commerce expertise

The MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-Native, and Headless) approach was exactly what Orgill was missing: a flexible foundation that could easily adapt to their evolving requirements. 

“With composable architecture, the more you add to the system, you’re not necessarily working with variable costs on a fixed curve – it hits a plateau at some point, where you hit a point of critical mass and each addition costs less and the profit margin becomes better.“

Chris Tovar
Ecommerce Program Manager at Orgill

Being a leader in composable commerce, Alokai proved to be the partner that matched Orgill’s expectations. 

The solution

Alokai worked closely with Orgill to transform their ecommerce infrastructure. The solution addressed the client’s core demands:

Modern architecture for modern needs

By moving to a MACH architecture, Orgill broke free from the limitations of their old system. Updates, new features, and growth became smooth and predictable. Having decoupled the frontend from the backend, Orgill could streamline their operations without delays or disruptions.

Data-driven performance insights

Alokai Console became the central hub for managing clusters, tracking performance metrics, and streamlining operations. This tool empowered Orgill’s teams with actionable data at their fingertips.

“Definitely, the Console was a huge step forward. I use it at least every other day. We're looking forward to pulling some of that data that resides in the Console back into the Admin Panel so that we can create a reporting dashboard that shows data on each of the clusters and how things are allocated, as well as performance.”

Chris Tovar
Ecommerce Program Manager at Orgill

Alokai Cloud enabled quick website launches

Alokai Cloud’s APIs enabled business-level users to deploy new sites in record time. This significantly reduced turnaround times and gave Orgill a competitive edge in launching their ecommerce initiatives.

“I was able to add things to the cluster via the API and that sped things up significantly. It also put the implementation power and launch power into the hands of our business-level users.”

Chris Tovar
Ecommerce Program Manager at Orgill

The results

With Alokai, Orgill unlocked a level of growth and efficiency they hadn’t seen before:

Hundreds of new sites launched

With the ability to launch sites in a matter of hours, instead of weeks, Orgill now has 100+ non-transactional sites running and is planning to triple the number within a year. This newfound speed gave them the confidence to tackle aggressive growth targets without hesitation.

Improved scalability

Orgill’s infrastructure now supports rapid growth with predictable costs, meeting its goal of handling 500+ implementations and beyond. This scalability ensures Orgill can respond quickly to market demands.

“We laid a foundation that made us extremely scalable, and I think that the way that the clusters have been set up and the speed in which we can spin up new ones fits our criteria perfectly. Alokai has helped us stay scalable and nimble.” 

Chris Tovar
Ecommerce Program Manager at Orgill

Greater operational efficiency

Orgill’s shift to a MACH architecture, composable commerce principles, and a modular design provided them with a wide range of options for different components. Tools like Alokai Console simplified daily operations. With fewer disruptions and a centralized system, Orgill could focus more on strategic initiatives rather than tedious processes. 

Looking ahead

With plans to triple their transactional sites and further optimize their clusters, Orgill is turning challenges into opportunities. The flexibility and power of their new composable architecture mean they can confidently adapt to market demands and outpace the competition.

By prioritizing scalability, Orgill is no longer limited by their infrastructure; the company can expand at a pace that matches its ambitions.