These are incredibly exciting times in the outdoor retail industry. Innovative products, high consumer demand and an almost audible buzz on social media are driving growth in all sorts of outdoor markets, from bicycles to camping and mountaineering gear to sleek and richly functional GPS units and audio-visual equipment.
The industry’s exuberance will be on full display on August 1–5 in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market (opens in new tab) trade show, with hundreds of vendors showcasing their wares. NetSuite has more than 30 customers that are exhibiting at the show – impressive! NetSuite will be there as well, sponsoring the event for the fourth consecutive time and meeting with dozens of our OR customers. Why is a cloud ERP software vendor sponsoring an outdoor retail trade show?
It’s simple. Cloud business management is the ideal solution for up-and-coming outdoor brands, as well as established brands, as they compete in a fast-paced industry that puts a premium on business agility, efficiency and customer engagement. In fact, NetSuite is the business management platform of choice for more than 40 outdoor retailers exhibiting at the event.
For all the opportunities in outdoor retail, the challenges are sizable. Firms scramble to manage overseas suppliers, adapt to constant fluctuations in cost, margin, availability and demand, and expand market penetration through large retail stores, Amazon and eBay marketplaces, and direct-to-consumer website sales. At the same time, they’re committing precious resources to product development, brand awareness, customer service and a superior web storefront.
There’s no room in the success equation for running a large and unwieldy IT shop. Nor can outdoor retailers afford poor visibility into business dynamics or time-consuming manual labor in rekeying data across disparate systems for order management, CRM, financials and more. That’s why dozens of OR exhibitors run NetSuite, capitalizing on the agility that comes with a single, integrated cloud solution that covers ERP/financials, CRM, ecommerce, order to cash, inventory and more. Hydro Flask (opens in new tab) is just one example. A fairly young company, HydroFlask was recently featured on Good Morning America for their innovative products.
Since deploying NetSuite in September 2011, the Bend, Ore.-based maker of double-wall, vacuum-insulated stainless steel water bottles, has doubled its revenue. NetSuite is the “backbone” of Hydro Flask’s business, running everything from third-party logistics to the consumer ecommerce site. HydroFlask will be exhibiting at the show and will be at booth BR335.
“NetSuite is a big part of our growth strategy and helps us integrate with our partners and streamline our supply chain,” said Scott Allan, Hydro Flask CEO. “We’ve been able to reduce lead times across our supply chain and that makes a huge difference in our ability to grow.”
Ranga Bodla - Director, Industry Marketing, Wholesale Distribution and Manufacturing
