Decades ago, a brand was often confined to a single sales channel like a brick-and-mortar store. There was a greater emphasis on face-to-face interactions between sellers and buyers. Sellers needed to concentrate on providing a pleasant in-store experience and forming personal connections with customers.But the game changed.
To keep up with the times and the increasing number of consumers, brands had to adapt to the advent of technology and expectations. The number of retail channels available has expanded dramatically, making multichannel selling a critical strategy for success.
Mad Sports Stuff learned this lesson shortly after they began selling sports socks. A humble team of sports enthusiasts discovered that multichannel selling was the key to their company’s growth. However, only an all-star team could overcome the challenge of obtaining that key.
Could a group of underdogs beat the odds and create a wave of momentum that continues to this day? Or did they strike out?
This story is about how Mad Sports Stuff grew its sales and simplified its operation by moving to StoreAutomator, a complete multichannel commerce platform.
Introducing the Home Team
In 2012, Mad Sports Stuff was established to teach the founders’ children how to run a business. They thought the business would be a small eBay store. However, they soon discovered a gap in the market for parents to purchase sports socks for their children. Dealers sold to leagues and high schools. There was no convenient place for individual customers to purchase these products. This led the founders to believe that it was unreasonable for customers not to be able to buy sports socks for their kids on Amazon.
“We started the business in our house and started with one brand,” Mason Kimble, COO said. “Then we started carrying inventory and we kind of built out a little warehouse in our basement.”
As the business grew, Mad Sports Stuff moved to an actual warehouse. Around 2014, they recognized that the third-party market on Amazon was rapidly expanding. To remain competitive, they realized the need to establish their own brand.
In late 2014, Mad Sports Stuff launched its brand. While the company tried multiple iterations on other channels, including Amazon Canada, Mexico, Australia, Walmart, and eBay, they have prioritized selling on Amazon US.
The Challenge is Made
Mad Sports Stuff recognized that managing the ecommerce part of their business would require software. With multiple sizes and colors to consider, particularly in the sports industry, the SKU count was intensive. To handle the complexity of the task, they adopted a solution early on. Utilizing the software helped the company scale and bring products to market quickly. It worked – for a while.
Although the company used multichannel ecommerce management software, it had no system for inventory management. As their business grew, they needed to improve their operations. They migrated to another platform that offered more advanced inventory management capabilities. However, that platform did not provide product listing features so the company had to integrate it with another platform.
The business experienced delays in introducing new products due to using various inventory management tools, which resulted in missed revenue opportunities. Recognizing the need for a more efficient system to handle its product information management (PIM), the business sought out a single ecommerce platform to streamline its tech stack.
The Challenge is Accepted
After a chance encounter with StoreAutomator co-founder Gökhan Erkavun in 2018, Mason Kimble saw an answer to his PIM and Digital Asset Management (DAM) problems.
StoreAutomator streamlines every step of an ecommerce operation, making it a robust and comprehensive commerce solution that is accessible to brands, retailers, manufacturers, and distributors alike.
“The product was designed to integrate with other products pretty easily,” Kimble said. “What we like about StoreAutomator was that the concept of your products are separate from your inventory. You have a product data management system and then you also have inventory and you have listings and these things are different and they’re managed separately.”
Kimble switched to StoreAutomator due to its capability of easily listing a single product in different ways on different channels. Kimble has integrated StoreAutomator seamlessly into the other platforms in the company’s tech stack. He appreciated the convenience so much that he hasn’t looked back.
Mad Sports Stuff’s transition to StoreAutomator was relatively smooth compared to others. The platform’s onboarding process impressed Kimble.
“I don’t think you want to tell other people this, but basically it was a bunch of calls with the owner. You know, whenever I needed them. He was super supportive.”
The most valuable user experience didn’t end with the onboarding process. Kimble appreciated the ability to manage their data in StoreAutomator. They also expressed frustration with other feed platforms that were complex and would not allow users to manage their data without an account manager.
“For someone who wants to be able to manage all their data and channels and customize the feeds for every channel and all that, I think it’s the best platform out there.”
Score One for the Home Team
As Mad Sports Stuff grew its product line and brand presence across multiple platforms, inventory management and order fulfillment became a significant challenge. The company streamlined many of its processes by teaming up with StoreAutomator to manage product data and listings and Extensiv’s Order Manager for orders and inventory.
Kimble also highlighted an essential and often underestimated feature of StoreAutomator, which is the ability to easily import data from a variety of sources and export data in any desired format. This functionality makes the platform highly adaptable to complex environments, making it easier to integrate than many other solutions.
Kimble’s team was able to launch their products to the market seamlessly using StoreAutomator’s templating and channel features. Kimble mentioned that it was easier to use these features compared to using spreadsheets.
“The benefit of a system like StoreAutomator,” Kimble said, “is that it helps you get products to market quicker. And it helps you automate that process at scale. If you have thousands of SKUs like we do, you really need a platform that can enable you to get those products to market quickly.”
The results, like in most sports, are in the numbers. Kimble stated Mad Sports Stuff was selling double the SKUs due to StoreAutomator’s support for multiple SKUs per ASIN.
“We’re able to increase revenue,” he said. “Probably about 10% based on that.”
Mad Sports Stuff is just one of the many brands that have scored a victory with the help of the multichannel visibility, control, automation, and efficiency that StoreAutomator provides. The thriving company has grown its sales and streamlined its operation by joining forces with a platform that recognizes the challenges facing many ecommerce businesses.
Teamwork is only as effective as the partner you choose. Begin your winning streak today and request a free demo from StoreAutomator.