Elastic Suite Archives - 国产吃瓜黑料 Online /tag/elastic-suite/ Live Bravely Fri, 04 Nov 2022 18:31:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cdn.outsideonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/favicon-194x194-1.png Elastic Suite Archives - 国产吃瓜黑料 Online /tag/elastic-suite/ 32 32 How Elastic Suite Helped These Brands See Double-Digit Sales Growth /business-journal/brands/how-elastic-suite-helped-these-brands-see-double-digit-sales-growth/ Sat, 16 Jul 2022 01:04:58 +0000 /?p=2591295 How Elastic Suite Helped These Brands See Double-Digit Sales Growth

Brands and retailers are clear: the stalwart B2B sales platform lives up to the hype

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How Elastic Suite Helped These Brands See Double-Digit Sales Growth

Consumers don鈥檛 know how good they have it: while customer-facing e-commerce platforms make it easy for shoppers to load up their carts, B2B markets have been slower to catch up. But as the pandemic has accelerated the arrival of the digital buying age, one tool has risen through the ranks, drawing than any other.

That tool is the B2B wholesale platform . As one of the first B2Bs on the market, Elastic has more than 20 years of experience and iteration behind its powerful technology. Over the past few years, VF, Fj盲llr盲ven, Orvis, Patagonia, and hundreds have used Elastic to streamline buying, increase sales, reduce costs associated with paper B2B marketing materials, and organize digital merchandising assets in one place.

So how does it all work? For starters, Elastic functions as an interactive, 360-degree digital catalog, enabling retailers and dealers to see products available in real time. The platform gives retailers a quick-service portal for writing orders and a dashboard that shows everything they鈥檝e ordered in previous seasons. The ease of ordering has led to 鈥渢remendous growth鈥 for Stanley PMI in small-business accounts, said director of program management Ray Brown, who manages and implements third-party SaaS solutions for the brand. On top of that, Elastic has helped standardize the way Stanley PMI鈥檚 products are merchandised. Now retailers are all 鈥渋n lockstep鈥 with Stanley鈥檚 branding, vision, and most up-to-date technical product knowledge.

鈥淣o matter what size retailer you are, you get VIP access to our portal so you know what we鈥檙e launching, when we鈥檙e launching it,鈥 Brown said.

Here are a few more ways Elastic鈥檚 tools have revolutionized B2B shopping for brands and retailers in the outdoor industry.

Retailers Can Shop like Consumers鈥攊n as Few as Six Clicks

Gone are the days of complicated order forms. Elastic offers an intuitive e-commerce platform鈥攖hink shopping carts and in-depth specs on every SKU鈥攖hat lets retailers both place new orders and repeat orders in as few as six clicks. Elastic鈥檚 system also creates more intentional touch points between retailers and sales reps: when retailers place reorders, they can browse similar products that might also sell well in their shops, and their reps will be notified. This gives the reps an opportunity to increase sales by suggesting relevant related products.

Merchandising Assets Are All in One Place

Before Elastic, Brown said, retailer merchandising for Stanley鈥檚 products was all over the place. Elastic鈥檚 system allows the brand to upload photos of all its products in an intuitive library that retailers can pull from at any time. With logos and product imagery right at retailers鈥 fingertips, Stanley鈥檚 branding is now far more consistent across retail sites, Brown said.

With Elastic Suite, retailers can shop sales and order multiple sizes of a product at once. (Photo: Courtesy)

Retailers Can Shop Sales鈥擝oosting Order Size

Elastic鈥檚 intuitive B2B shopping platform automatically helps retailers qualify for tiered promotions. According to Brown, the feature has resulted in bigger orders with deeper, rather than wider, assortments. If your brand has a minimum order size for a specific category discount, for example, your dealers will see exactly what they need to add to their cart to qualify. The result can benefit both brands鈥 and retailers鈥 bottom lines. For Stanley, Brown said, the result has been 130 percent growth in North American specialty sales. Because the order processing and confirmations are far more efficient, manual ordering went down 41 percent in 2021. 鈥淲e鈥檝e also seen an increase in future ordering,鈥 he said, crediting Elastic鈥檚 tools and incentives.

Elastic Provides Ease of Ordering Across Size Range

For retailers who stock products with numerous sizes and variations, this feature is a game changer. Take a fly-fishing shop, for example. When a shop stocks flies, it usually orders a ton of them, and in various sizes of each fly pattern. 鈥淔or [retailers] to be able to see a product and add multiple sizes at the same time without having to go into different screens or drop-downs is super helpful,鈥 said Ben Hoiness, CTO of Yellowstone Fly Goods. 鈥淎ll of our customers respond really well to that.鈥 And it鈥檚 not just anecdotal: Yellowstone Fly Goods saw roughly a 10 percent increase in sales in just its first quarter of using Elastic. 鈥淭he platform has really helped us grow into the modern era of selling.鈥

Elastic Suite lets retailers peruse digital catalogs that are updated in real time鈥攚hich both streamlines ordering and eliminates paper waste. (Photo: Courtesy)

Sales Reps Have the Tools They Need to Succeed

Since it began using Elastic, Stanley PMI has noticed a significant improvement in the way its products are presented by independent sales reps, Brown said. Now that reps have a centralized place to show buyers every single product offered, they can go into meetings ready to present a wide range鈥攆ar more than they can carry in physical samples. 鈥淚t鈥檚 deepened our relationships with dealers and made sales reps feel more like they鈥檙e a part of our team and our family in their knowledge of the brand,鈥 Brown said. In fact, since adopting Elastic in 2020, Stanley has seen dealer engagement with the platform grow to 87 percent. That widespread adoption and engagement, he explained, is a big reason for the brand鈥檚 growth in North American specialty stores over the past two years.

Retailers Understand Elastic

Elastic鈥檚 easy-to-use platform has already been adopted by retailers nationwide. This saves time and resources they would have had to spend on training and onboarding. That slashes time-to-market. When Yellowstone Fly Goods got on board, Hoiness said, he didn鈥檛 have to teach his retailers how to use the new system鈥攚hich made the whole ordering process easier for everyone. 鈥淎lready having that familiarity was super helpful,鈥 he said.

For Stanley PMI, Elastic鈥檚 powerful digital catalogs have totally replaced expensive print books. (Photo: Courtesy)

Printed B2B Material Costs Are Virtually Eliminated

Paper waste and environmental impact aren鈥檛 the only cons of catalog production. Besides the creative effort that goes into the process, publishing print media isn鈥檛 free. Elastic has provided Stanley PMI a better solution, Brown said: the platform collects digital assets all in one place, letting dealers and retailers easily navigate through the line before, during, and after meetings to connect the dots. Stanley PMI now saves up to $100,000 per season by not producing the printed materials it no longer needs.

The Bottom Line

Since adopting Elastic, both Yellowstone Fly Goods and Stanley PMI have seen better engagement from reps and dealers, bigger orders, and more-streamlined communication surrounding brand strategy and vision. 鈥淪tanley Global sales, since 2019, have been on a rocket-ship trajectory,鈥 Brown said, adding that North American specialty-store markets have seen particularly strong gains. Without a doubt, he added, 鈥淓lastic鈥檚 B2B platform played a key part in that growth.鈥澛


Elastic is a best-in-class B2B and wholesale e-commerce SaaS platform. Designed to help brands and retailers connect, transact and, ultimately, grow. By increasing sales revenue and creating cost efficiencies, Elastic is optimizing every step of the wholesale process. E-commerce is taken from transactional to transformational by bringing together ERP and backend data, sales reps, retailers, and distributors.

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The Billion-Dollar Battle of Outdoor B2B Platforms /business-journal/brands/the-billion-dollar-battle-of-outdoor-b2b-platforms/ Wed, 25 Aug 2021 02:18:02 +0000 /?p=2567252 The Billion-Dollar Battle of Outdoor B2B Platforms

As the world gets used to doing more business online, B2B e-commerce providers are sparring for market leadership in the outdoor industry. Dozens of brands have yet to adopt a technology. Welcome to open season.

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The Billion-Dollar Battle of Outdoor B2B Platforms

In Cody, Wyoming, there鈥檚 a little gear shop called Sunlight Sports that sits right at the center of town鈥攍oved and frequented by locals since 1971. It houses about 8,000 square feet of retail space but feels even cozier than that, a neighborhood shop by any definition.

It鈥檚 the kind of place where, browsing the aisles and picking through the gear, you might find yourself thinking, 鈥淗ell, I could run an outdoor store. How hard could it be?鈥

Air that thought to owner Wes Allen and he may chuckle as he walks you to the shop computer. There on the desktop, he keeps an Excel document that has gained almost mythic status among some members of the outdoor retail community. He might even pat you sympathetically on the shoulder as he opens the file, watching your jaw drop.

The document is a list of passwords鈥111 of them鈥攅ach corresponding to a different B2B wholesale portal Allen uses to place inventory orders with brands. Somehow, in the year 2021, it requires more than nine dozen B2Bs to run a single gear shop in the middle of Wyoming.

In our industry, the absurdity of that predicament isn鈥檛 an anomaly. It鈥檚 the standard.

鈥淲es鈥檚 list represents something fairly common,鈥 said Rich Hill, executive director at Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, the nation鈥檚 largest association of independent outdoor retailers. 鈥淥bviously, something is very wrong here.鈥

If you don鈥檛 work in retail, it鈥檚 possible you鈥檝e never interacted with a B2B, but it鈥檚 not hard to picture how they operate. You find the products you want to order for your store, key in some details, and click 鈥渂uy.鈥 The business model is equally simple. In general, brands pay to use these systems, while retailers access them for free. Much like the fantasy of running a gear shop, though, it鈥檚 a lot more complicated under the hood.

Right now, there鈥檚 a race going on in the outdoor industry. B2Bs are still in their infancy, but it鈥檚 obvious鈥攁s Allen鈥檚 111 passwords prove鈥攖hat they鈥檙e widely used and will factor critically into the future of outdoor retail. The market now is chaotic. You have small, boutique B2B companies serving a brand here and a brand there. You have massive platforms, funded by multimillion-dollar corporations, representing companies like Patagonia and The North Face. And you have some vendors with their own proprietary B2Bs, further muddying the waters. It鈥檚 a frustrating potpourri of overlapping technologies, nearly unmanageable for most shops, ripe for a good old-fashioned rollup.

Good news, retailers: we may be on the brink of one.

How B2Bs Came To Be

The history of B2Bs is long, full of mergers, and probably too wonky for the tastes of most. But it鈥檚 critical to understanding where we are today. In the outdoor industry, the B2B market started in 2000, when a firm called CenterStone Technologies got off the ground in Denver. CenterStone鈥檚 product catered mainly to apparel and footwear companies, and it enjoyed plenty of early success. The tech was sensible, eliminating much of the headache of faxing paper order sheets, which was business as usual at the time; outdoor brands and retailers were quick to adopt it.

Over the next 20 years, CenterStone inspired competitors in the space. In 2003, another player cropped up, PlumRiver Technologies, which started to nab market share quickly. CenterStone responded by expanding in 2005, launching a new platform called iVendix. In 2009, another challenger entered the scene, Elastic Suite. Then the acquisitions started.

PlumRiver jumped first. The company bought Elastic in 2016 and CenterStone in 2018, increasing its market share exponentially. In 2020, sensing the need for consolidation, PlumRiver went all in on Elastic, elevating it as the business鈥檚 flagship product. Less than a year later, in January 2021, Emerald鈥攖he public parent company of Outdoor Retailer鈥攂ought PlumRiver for $34 million, throwing the weight of its roughly $400 million market cap behind Elastic鈥檚 technology. Twenty-one years after CenterStone kicked the whole thing off, a behemoth was born.

But not the only behemoth. Over in the fashion and big-box retail world, another company called NuORDER was founded in 2011. The software exploded in that sector, onboarding some 3,000 brands and more than 100,000 retailers鈥攊ncluding icons like Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue鈥攊n ten years. This June, the Canadian software firm Lightspeed POS bought NuORDER for $425 million.

A Timeline of Major B2B Developments in the Outdoor Industry

CenterStone Technologies founded 2000
PlumRiver Technologies founded 2003
CenterStone launches iVendix 2005
Elastic Suite founded 2009
NuORDER founded 2011
PlumRiver acquires Elastic 2016
PlumRiver acquires CenterStone and iVendix 2018
PlumRiver makes Elastic its flagship platform 2020
Emerald acquires PlumRiver; Lightspeed POS acquires NuORDER 2021

Here鈥檚 where things get interesting. Last year, NuORDER formed a partnership with Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, working directly with the group to become the B2B of choice for some of the most influential indie outdoor shops in the country. Executive Director Hill said the reason for choosing NuORDER was simple: 鈥淓lastic is much harder for buyers. It鈥檚 infuriating. NuORDER is the exact opposite鈥攖hey built a system for retailers.鈥

Early this year, Outdoor Retailer rolled out a proprietary buying tool called Digital Market built on Elastic鈥檚 technology. Because Elastic has been present in one form or another in the outdoor space for two decades, it has some of the industry鈥檚 biggest brands already on board: Patagonia, The North Face, CamelBak, Fj盲llr盲ven, Icebreaker, K眉hl, Mountain Hardwear, Outdoor Research, Smartwool, Timberland, and Rab are all users.

In the outdoor industry鈥檚 battle of the B2Bs, two heavyweight contenders have emerged.

More Than One Way to Sell a Coat

Elastic and NuORDER aren鈥檛 the only players in the space, of course, but they鈥檙e the titans poised for direct competition in the coming years. Each business is now flush with cash, and each has a major partner in the industry: Emerald/Outdoor Retailer behind Elastic, Grassroots behind NuORDER.

So what鈥檚 the difference between these products, really? The platforms diverge in several key ways, but the biggest is probably this: Elastic siloes its B2B by brand, while NuORDER doesn鈥檛. Elastic is too cumbersome for retailers, NuORDER argues, because you can鈥檛 place orders from multiple vendors at the same time, or see your multibrand assortment on one screen. If you want to order from Rab and Smith Optics, say, you have to open two browser tabs, navigate to rab.elasticsuite.com and smithoptics.elasticsuite.com, log into each B2B separately, and complete two discrete order-writing processes. (A large chunk of Wes Allen鈥檚 111 passwords are logins for different Elastic portals.) NuORDER functions more like a walled garden, with all brands and retailers logging into the same central platform.

NuORDER CEO Heath Wells sees Elastic鈥檚 segmentation as a cardinal sin. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 have disparate experiences,鈥 he said. 鈥淵ou need to have one central platform and network if you鈥檙e going to think about the retailer in general.鈥

It鈥檚 a view widely shared by retailers themselves, for obvious reasons. 鈥淚n a perfect world, retailers would have one login for all the vendors we do business with and see everything in one place,鈥 said Todd Frank, owner of The Trail Head, a shop with two locations in Missoula, Montana. 鈥淲e鈥檇 be able to ask questions like, 鈥榃hat was our down jacket buy across all vendors this season? How many pairs of size-32 black pants do we have coming from all our brands?鈥 Being able to step back from your buy and look at everything you鈥檝e ordered in one place鈥攖hat鈥檚 the biggest advantage for us.鈥

Elastic, on the other hand, argues that siloing allows for a more powerful product on the brand side. According to CEO Josh Reddin, Elastic鈥檚 product is designed to integrate deeply into brands鈥 enterprise resource planning systems鈥攖he software companies use to manage core business functions like accounting, manufacturing, and marketing. 鈥淲ith our enterprise business, we鈥檙e heavily integrated into these massive, multibillion-dollar manufacturers鈥 daily processes,鈥 said Reddin. This provides Elastic with data to better understand its clients鈥 supply chains, operations, warehousing logistics, and more, Reddin said, which鈥攁t least in theory鈥攎akes for a better product.

NuORDER鈥檚 response, amplified through its partners at Grassroots, is to reiterate that Elastic鈥檚 customization hurts retailers. As Allen of Sunlight Sports put it, 鈥淓lastic鈥檚 pitch to brands is that you can customize your B2B. But when brands do that, you end up with a bunch of different layouts that are just dissimilar enough to cause problems. You have to spend a few minutes relearning each system every time you log in.鈥

Elastic, meanwhile, maintains that NuORDER鈥檚 vision of uniformity鈥攖he 鈥渆verything in one place鈥 approach鈥攊sn鈥檛 just unrealistic, it鈥檚 impossible to realize fully. 鈥淭his open-marketplace concept that NuORDER tries to execute falls apart when you start talking about the biggest brands in the industry,鈥 said Reddin. 鈥淧atagonia and The North Face will never share a cart in a B2B system, ever. These larger companies have tight product segmentation. If you think about a brand like The North Face, sold in places as disparate as Macy鈥檚, REI, and specialty shops, they want to make sure their retailers are carrying unique product mixes. That means they need to control what products different retailers see, what pricing terms and discounts are offered鈥攖hat kind of thing. That鈥檚 why, with certain manufacturers, we have to create that gated experience.鈥

Consider the Retailer

So, to recap: two big products, two approaches to the technology, and a fragmented market. Who鈥檚 going to win this thing? Will one company eventually gobble up enough market share to become the industry鈥檚 de facto standard, or will the battle鈥攁nd retailers鈥 technological headache鈥攃ontinue indefinitely?

The short answer is, it鈥檚 too soon to tell. The battle of the B2Bs, at this point, is anyone鈥檚 game.

Right now, Elastic is clearly ahead in user adoption. Because its business is built on legacy systems dating back 20 years鈥攁ll of which targeted the outdoor industry from the get-go鈥攊t鈥檚 had a massive head start onboarding the big players. It鈥檚 hard to overstate the importance of that advantage. Once a few big brands have selected a platform, they鈥檙e unlikely to switch without good reason. A crowded market is primarily the retailer鈥檚 problem, after all. As Allen at Sunlight Sports said, 鈥淲hen a brand chooses a platform, we, as retailers, are forced to follow.鈥 (Neither platform agreed to share its total number of brand partners for this article.)

It鈥檚 a point of assurance and pride for Elastic. 鈥淲e have who we have,鈥 said Reddin. 鈥淸These brands] are never going to leave鈥攌nock on wood. And so the retailer will always be using our tool, no matter what. When you have that leg up from an adoption and standardization standpoint, that鈥檚 a big win.鈥

On the other side of the equation, NuORDER has more money behind it and invests heavily in product development. And plenty of brands are still up for grabs. Alex Kutches, vice president of sales and marketing at Mystery Ranch, said his company recently signed on with NuORDER because it found the platform鈥檚 front-end functionality and user experience a better fit. 鈥淲e felt good about the integration process,鈥 he said. 鈥淭his is the first season we鈥檝e had a B2B solution, and honestly it came down to the wire between NuORDER and Elastic.鈥

Which Brands Use Which Platform: A Partial List

Elastic Suite

Altra Ortovox
Black Crows Outdoor Research
Buff Patagonia
CamelBak Rab
Fjallraven Royal Robbins
Helly Hansen Scott
Icebreaker Seirus
Jones Snowboards Smartwool
Kari Traa Strafe
Kavu Sweet Protection
Kuhl Tentree
Lowe Alpine The North Face
Mizu Thule
Montane Timberland
Mountain Hardwear 686 Technical Apparel

NuORDER

Arc’teryx Keen
Big Agnes Klean Kanteen
Black Diamond Mystery Ranch
Hestra POC
Ibex Tecnica Group

Perhaps all this is beside the point. The plight of giant corporations duking it out to dominate a crowded market isn鈥檛 all that compelling when you get right down to it. It鈥檚 the stories on the ground that matter: the small-business owners logging onto their shop computers and trembling at the sight of 111 browser tabs open simultaneously.

The B2B companies know this, too. Both Elastic and NuORDER insist that they care deeply about retailers. They work for both sides, they said. 鈥淪omeone鈥檚 got to solve the retailer鈥檚 side,鈥 said Wells. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we鈥檙e on a mission to do. We see this as a two-sided equation. Both need to win.鈥 Reddin echoed the sentiment. 鈥淚f we want to communicate with our retailers digitally, we can鈥檛 have them using 15 different platforms,鈥 he said.

Given this general outlook at Elastic and NuORDER, there鈥檚 another question at play here鈥攎ore cynical, but worth asking. Both companies are built on the premise that one platform, if it鈥檚 constructed well and reaches a critical mass of users, can solve the needs of brands and retailers simultaneously. It鈥檚 certainly an elegant idea. But is it realistic?

The user-experience philosophy of most B2Bs (including these two) ignores the reality that brands and retailers don鈥檛 have equivalent pull in platform selection. Yes, these products profess to serve both sides equally, but the fact remains that even hundreds of retailers collectively campaigning for the standardization of one platform may not be enough to convince the big brands to use it, too. On the other hand, as soon as a company like Patagonia or The North Face digs in its heels and says 鈥淲e鈥檙e using this one鈥濃攅ven with no explanation as to why鈥攔etailers are forced to follow. (Both Patagonia and The North Face declined to comment on their reasons for choosing Elastic. Arc鈥檛eryx, one of NuORDER鈥檚 biggest brands in the outdoor space, also declined a request for comment.)

If it turns out, then, that no single platform ever succeeds in monopolizing the industry (a very real possibility), retailers may always be at a disadvantage without some kind of third-party solution to fix the problem鈥攁 software, say, to organize and manage data from disparate B2Bs in a uniform way.

Up in Michigan, another company called Envoy B2B is working on just such a product.

Jon Faber, the CEO of Envoy, has directed his team to build a 鈥渞etailer-centric鈥 platform under the umbrella of a new company called BrandKeep. After interviewing more than 250 retailers across the U.S., Faber and his team have concluded that, right now, retailers鈥 biggest pain point isn鈥檛 the labor associated with placing orders through multiple B2Bs. 鈥淭he primary challenge is organization,鈥 Faber said. The only way to manage all the B2B systems productively is with another system designed to keep everything in one place.

To that end, BrandKeep, a cloud-based platform, won鈥檛 focus on order writing; instead, Faber and his team have dubbed their new tool a 鈥渧endor relationship management鈥 system, which they鈥檙e calling the first of its kind. More like a digital filing cabinet, it will allow retailers to manually organize their B2B links, order deadlines, MAP policies, seasonal workbooks, price lists, and all the rest in one place. Brands will also be able to participate in the platform, providing verified information to retailers. Gabe Maier, former vice president at Grassroots, is leading the project. It will be available as soon as this year for some users, though the team at Envoy hasn鈥檛 released an official timeline.

鈥淭he retailer鈥檚 world has become more and more fragmented as brands continue to adopt digital solutions,鈥 said Maier. 鈥淲e believe [the problem] can only be solved by building a platform that puts the retailer in the driver鈥檚 seat from day one.鈥

Maybe, or maybe not. Frank at The Trail Head says that, in general, B2B management products strike him as 鈥渕argin vampires鈥濃攕o-called solutions, usually subscription-based, that eat away at retailers鈥 bottom lines. 鈥淐ould I hire someone half-time, pay them to manage my B2Bs for me, and come out ahead?鈥 he said. 鈥淢ore technology isn鈥檛 necessarily the solution to bad technology.鈥

For retailers who find themselves particularly affected by the hyper-fragmented state of the market and do want to manage the problem themselves, however, it might be just the lifeline they need.

The Days Ahead

It鈥檚 worth noting that not everyone is sold on the idea of B2Bs in the first place. As with any technology, there are bound to be skeptics. Some predict, pessimistically, that B2Bs will sound the death knell for trade shows and independent sales reps, but those fears are probably overblown. Though it鈥檚 tempting to read Emerald鈥檚 (i.e. Outdoor Retailer鈥檚) investment in Elastic as a hedge against potential trade show declines, OR show director Marisa Nicholson is quick to emphasize her organization鈥檚 position on the new Digital Market buying tool. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see it as replacing the trade show,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 see it as the evolution of how we鈥檙e doing business. It doesn鈥檛 change the reason you鈥檙e coming to OR. Ultimately it just provides a more efficient sales tool.鈥

Ditto on the rep side. As Phil Flamand, a three-decade industry rep and owner of the agency Flamand Sports, which represents brands such as prAna and Thule, pointed out, it鈥檚 natural for folks in his position to worry about this kind of thing. 鈥淵ou start to think, if this becomes too good, they鈥檙e not going to need me anymore,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut the fact is, we now have a better pulse on retailers鈥 businesses because of these tools.鈥

In the coming years, the conversation is much more likely to pivot to issues like data privacy. 鈥淎ny investor in a publicly traded company in our industry would be interested in getting their hands on preseason sales data,鈥 Hill at Grassroots said. As B2Bs continue to add brands and retailers to their client lists, the opportunity to monetize data from those businesses will only grow.

It鈥檚 a concern that鈥檚 painfully present for many retailers. 鈥淭here鈥檚 too much money at stake here not to think there鈥檚 a data play going on,鈥 said Frank at The Trail Head. 鈥淭he big fear every retailer has is that this data will be weaponized against us.鈥 If B2Bs start selling sales data to brands (especially the ones with direct-to-consumer channels) as well as online marketplaces, he said, 鈥渋t will destroy the secret sauce we have as individual store owners trying to compete.鈥

For now, Grassroots has a written agreement with NuORDER that the latter won鈥檛 sell preseason order data from any Grassroots retailers. Reddin, over at Elastic, makes a similar promise. 鈥淚t never has been, and never will be, a short- or long-term objective to use our clients鈥 sell-in data for anything other than providing an intuitive interface that allows for informed and predictive buy recommendations,鈥 he said. Elastic doesn鈥檛 currently include language in its contracts that binds the company to this promise, but Reddin said he鈥檚 in the process of writing it in.

Still, looking to the future, it鈥檚 a concern both brands and retailers would do well to keep an eye on. User agreements and company policies can change.

All of this to say: we鈥檒l see what happens. The race is underway, and it鈥檚 not showing any signs of slowing. On the B2B side, spirits are high. Reddin said he believes 90 percent of outdoor brands will be using Elastic by the end of 2022. NuORDER, meanwhile, is currently investing millions in its partnership with Grassroots.

鈥淲e think the B2B market is just getting started,鈥 said Wells, adding for the record that he doesn鈥檛 like the word 鈥渂attle鈥 to describe what鈥檚 going on. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a big market,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e all keep each other honest.鈥

Back in Cody, Wyoming, though, Allen doesn鈥檛 anticipate his 111-password list shrinking anytime soon. 鈥淭here鈥檚 reason to believe retailers will not be the downstream beneficiaries of these systems,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the standard with any online service: if you don鈥檛 pay for it, you鈥檙e the product.鈥

The post The Billion-Dollar Battle of Outdoor B2B Platforms appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

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