Got Your GearGearing up for e-commerce growth

Company Overview

Got Your Gear sells high-quality outdoor equipment and apparel for backpacking, rock climbing, skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts. From cameras, goggles and headlamps to backpacks, helmets and snowboards, Got Your Gear has the supplies for almost any adventure. The company is based in Layton, Utah, at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, and sells online via marketplaces and its webstore.

The Situation

Got Your Gear started using ChannelAdvisor Marketplaces in 2006 to automate product listings on Amazon and eBay, and the company quickly saw great results on both channels. Like many retailers, Got Your Gear wanted to accompany its strong presence on marketplaces with a compelling website where customers could purchase products directly.

Got Your Gear began experimenting with several developers to build its website, but ran into issues with each vendor. After investing thousands of dollars in website development, the company wasn’t seeing the results it wanted. Got Your Gear needed an engaging website that offered a convenient buying experience for customers, but it struggled to make that happen. “We’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars in the past on websites that didn’t do anything,” said Tyler Conlin, owner of Got Your Gear.

Got Your Gear was still searching for a web solution when ChannelAdvisor launched its Webstores Amplifier to help retailers integrate inventory data and product listings across a variety of webstore platforms and online marketplaces. With an already strong relationship with ChannelAdvisor, Got Your Gear jumped at the opportunity to find an optimal webstore option.

The Solution

Got Your Gear started using ChannelAdvisor Webstores Amplifier and launched a Shopify webstore. By using Webstores Amplifier in conjunction with Shopify, Got Your Gear automatically synchronized inventory data between its webstore and listings on marketplaces. “ChannelAdvisor makes it easy for someone to get one product in front of as many customers as possible,” said Conlin. “With ChannelAdvisor’s new Webstores Amplifier, we were able to just take our products and push them over to Shopify, and then we had a website.”

The company simplified its product listing creation with Webstores Amplifier and standardized fulfillment across multiple online channels. “It was incredible how fast it was,” said Conlin. “It’s so easy to use that even me, who’s a salesperson and not a programmer, can build the website and have my team make tweaks as needed.”

The Results

Got Your Gear nearly doubled its gross merchandise value (GMV) in the first three months after launching on Shopify. With ChannelAdvisor Webstores Amplifier, Got Your Gear had much more control over its inventory and finally created the customer-friendly website it was looking for. “I can show my inventory to all my customers on eBay, all my customers on Amazon and all my customers on my website — and I don’t have to stock a lot of product,” said Conlin. “Using everything all together is why ChannelAdvisor works for me.”

With a fully functional website and a strong presence on marketplaces, Got Your Gear has spent much less time juggling inventory and product listings. Instead, it’s focusing on expanding its business. “This year, we’re going to really beef up our Amazon business. We only get about 30 percent of our products on there right now,” said Conlin. “The other marketplaces we want to be on include Rakuten.com Shopping and Sears.com. We’re going to integrate into some more of those other marketplaces and grow our third-party business.”