How TIMBER MART revisited its member portal as a central point of their focused strategy.
Building Materials
Founded in 1967, TIMBER MART is the largest national member-owned buying group in Canada for the true independent entrepreneur. With hundreds of members, including independent building-material and hardware retailers, commercial dealers and manufacturers located in every province across the country, TIMBER MART provides its extensive dealer network with a menu of competitive buying programs, comprehensive marketing services and personalized support to drive independent business success.
The TIMBER MART banner is known for its commitment to quality, customer service, and support for building professionals, and DIY enthusiasts, meeting the needs of projects of all sizes.
Size: 125+ employees
Headquarters: Calgary, Alberta
Timbernet, developed by TIMBER MART for its independent merchants, is a comprehensive platform designed to optimize operations, access group benefits, and enhance customer service. It centralizes administrative processes, improves efficiency, and provides tools for viewing buying programs, raw material prices, and internal communications.
After 20+ years, the application no longer met TIMBER MART’s standards for efficiency, user experience, or members' evolving business needs. Once innovative, the Timbernet portal had accumulated significant technical debt, making it difficult to use and maintain, and unable to support the company’s growing ambitions. It was time to modernize this legacy system.
The Timbernet portal is central to TIMBER MART’s strategy to support merchants by optimizing operations and improving customer service. To meet evolving needs, the modernization focused on two key areas: enhancing the human element and redefining the technological foundation.
The modernization highlighted the importance of investing in human capital. The team prioritized improvements in communication with members, enriching the user experience, and increasing the reliability and efficiency of the Buy Guide.
To support these goals, the portal’s foundation was overhauled. Key upgrades included enhancing software security and maintainability, improving the user experience (UX) through structural redesign, and optimizing the platform for mobile use.
The Timbernet portal features three unique interfaces designed to cater to its key user groups: an administrative portal for employees, a member portal, and a supplier portal. Here’s the team’s journey to deploying the new portal:
The team initiated a Discovery Phase, conducting in-depth research with users and stakeholders to understand their needs, identify key features to integrate and develop plans for future growth and platform customization.
Building on the Discovery Phase findings, the UX/UI team redesigned the platform to be more modern and user-friendly. They improved the hierarchy, simplified page layouts, and added tabs for easier navigation. New features, like the rebate calculator, were integrated to better meet user needs. Wireframes were then created and tested with users to validate their effectiveness.
To ensure flexibility and robustness across its three interfaces, the project followed an agile approach with three main releases. The initial stage focused on building a strong administrative portal to efficiently manage supplier data. The second stage refined core features, incorporating feedback from selected users. The final stage enhanced the user experience by adding features like an interactive search bar, daily activity reports, and a notification system.
After months of development and testing, TIMBER MART launched Timbernet 2.0 to 1,500 users. The phased deployment eased the transition, reduced risks, and ensured smoother adoption. Training videos, created with Spiria, helped users quickly adapt, while strong change management practices minimized disruptions for a seamless rollout.
With the business analyst diligently understanding our business requirements and then applying their technical expertise and skill to develop the product, we felt Spiria was not just a partner, but a helpful advisor in developing our new platform.
Timbernet 2.0 is a cornerstone of TIMBER MART's growth strategy, designed to drive improvements across key areas of the business. The updated platform significantly enhances member communication, streamlines the overall user experience, improves the accuracy and reliability of the purchasing guide, increases administrative efficiency, and strengthens software security. These upgrades reposition Timbernet 2.0 as a critical tool in supporting TIMBER MART’s long-term goals and enabling its members to operate more effectively.
The Timbernet portal is a key element of TIMBER MART's strategy to streamline merchant operations and enhance customer service. Built on cutting-edge technology with a human-centered design, the platform offers revamped and new features supporting TIMBER MARTs key partners and members.
Serving members, vendors, and employees across three interfaces.
Existing functionalities enhanced for improved performance.
Fundamentally redesigned features offering significant improvements.
Entirely original functionalities introduced for the first time.
The redesign has delivered a smoother, more efficient experience for users, reflecting the team’s commitment to innovation and usability. Between brand-new capabilities and transformed functions, the new platform includes a total of 126 feature enhancements.
These changes ensure the platform meets the evolving needs of its users while providing a solid foundation for future growth and adaptability.
Modernization of the Buy Guide with a greatly improved layout and presentation of information.
Centralization of legal agreements and development of a simple contract template, enabling automatic pre-filling.
Automation of rebate calculations, adapted to different promotional programs, and their specific requirements.
Transformation of the portal homepage to meet the distinct needs and behaviors of each user type.
Within a few months of its launch, the entire overhaul of the new portal has allowed users to fully enjoy the enhanced Timbernet experience. Among them, the new rebate calculator has proven to be the most notable and most used feature. The TIMBER MART team has seen a significant reduction in repetitive tasks related to manual rebate calculations. In addition, the number of phone calls regarding generic questions about material prices has drastically decreased, significantly increasing employee productivity.
Within less than a year of its launch, the platform has seen a substantial growth in registration rates, drawing more members and suppliers to Timbernet 2.0.
