CLIENT Rugged Outfitters
DATE COMPLETED October 2020
SERVICES PROVIDED
- eCOMMERCE WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT REDESIGN
- GRAPHIC DESIGN
- BUSINESS CONSULTING
- CUSTOM SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
- POINT OF SALE INTEGRATION/ IMPLEMENTATION
- GRAPHIC DESIGN
- SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
- SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
- PPC CAMPAIGN
Mobile Ready Web Design
The site works easily on phone, tablets, and desktops.
Gift Cards Delivered by Email
A gift card can be purchased on-line or in store and redeemed in either store or on the website.
Gift Cards Can be Save in the Wallet
This allows them to be stored and used on your phone.
The Goal
Since 1996, Rugged Outfitters has been supplying a complete line of workwear, professional and institutional uniforms, and footwear, as well as stylish casual wear, corporate wear, and outerwear for all seasons. They are proud to be an authorized Carhartt dealer and authorized dealers of Timberland, Wolverine, and Cherokee. With over 24,000 SKU’s available in-store and on Amazon, this was an enormous project and crucial to Rugged Outfitters operations. All Amazon orders, which can be thousands of items in a day, are fulfilled and shipped from their New Jersey-based warehouse/store. The systems they were operating on were incredibly inefficient and costing them a great deal of time in administration and management.
Rugged Outfitters, a family-owned retail clothing business for more than 25 years, approached us to help them integrate their two stores, warehouse, and Amazon store, into one system. They had spent years looking for someone that could do it to no avail. Although we knew it would be a challenge, we did not know how much of a challenge it would be.
Rugged outfitters had a website built in Volution that had only about 25 products and produced no revenue for them. The site was primitive, and not easy for them to add products. The two stores used a Point of Sale (POS) system that was not tied to anything for inventory maintenance, so store inventory management was largely done manually. They sold gift cards but tracked those manually as well.
Building The Concept
The amount of business the company does made working with a live inventory system very difficult. The owners wanted to change as little as possible in the way they operate, and that was different than the way most eCommerce store function. Because of the volume of sales from Amazon and the ease in which they could add new products to Amazon they wanted
to continue to use Amazon as the primary source of information to keep inventory and pricing accurate. This was where the greatest challenge was. Most eCommerce software with integration to Amazon uses the eCommerce platform as their source for data and then syncs that information to Amazon.
Challenges, Goals, & Solutions
Rugged Outfitters had spent three years looking for someone capable of providing a solution that would meet their needs. They came to us through a referral from another client. We discussed options with them and worked with the owners to determine the best solution for their business operation.
We engaged Rugged Outfitters in in-depth conversations to allow us to get to know their business, how it operated, and what improvements needed to be made. The aha! team then presented a solution using Shopify and some apps we identified, along with some customizations to create the functionality the client wanted. We then worked to design a store front end that reflected the business image and what the owners wanted and to implement the customized applications. With a lot of testing and fine-tuning, we were able to get the system implemented.
Rugged had issued gift cards for about five years and had the balances in a spreadsheet. aha! was able to take that data, import it, and make those existing cards part of the system. This meant that the spreadsheet was no longer needed, and those cards could now be used not only in the stores but on their website as well. We then designed several gift cards for them to sell online. These electronic gift cards can be used online and in-store. They can be emailed to a recipient through the website or to the person making the purchase. Once received, the card can even be added to their Apple Wallet and used in Apple Pay.
GOING FORWARD
In the end, we created and implemented a Point of Sales system for two brick-and-mortar locations. One operates as a warehouse and fulfillment center for Amazon orders, and the other operates independently with its own inventory.
We created an eCommerce website that works on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Inventory management is done through the system, primarily on Amazon, but within Shopify as well for products that cannot be sold on Amazon. The website is integrated into the shipping software they use for the fulfillment of Amazon orders, so a single system is used that required no additional training of staff.
With the reports generated by the website, they can now determine what is selling, what the profits are on each sale based on Cost of Goods, and accurately track inventory. Processing refunds and exchanges is easier and faster. Receipts can be printed in-store, and now can be emailed, and gift receipts can be provided for the first time.