ESS Direct
ESS has outfitted military, law enforcement and fire professionals with ballistic eye protection for decades. Agencies buy differently than consumers do: they order in bulk, pay with government purchase cards, and need tax-exempt pricing on every order. ESS asked Montana Banana to build a direct ordering platform around how those agencies actually buy.
The Challenge
ESS needed a B2B storefront that only qualified agencies could buy from. Every new account had to be reviewed and approved, with tax-exempt documentation on file, before pricing was visible. Buyers needed to move fast: find products by part number, order with no minimums or maximums, request a quote for larger purchases, and reorder what they bought last time. The platform had to feed ESS’s existing fulfillment and inventory processes without adding manual work for their team.
Built for the way agencies order
Quick Order lets a buyer type a part number, MPN or UPC and drop the item straight into the cart, skipping the catalog. Approved accounts see direct pricing, upload tax-exempt certificates at sign-up, and pay by credit card or Government Purchase Card. Request a Quote and Test & Evaluation requests route to the ESS team, and past orders can be reordered or downloaded as PDF receipts.
Connected to the back office
Behind the storefront, custom October CMS tooling keeps ESS’s team out of spreadsheets. Inventory levels import automatically on a schedule, new orders export in the format the fulfillment team works from, and new order notices go straight to ESS’s purchase order inbox. Payment runs through CyberSource with capture tied to shipment, and customers get a shipping notice with tracking as soon as an order goes out.
