Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, the national organization dedicated to the health and growth of independent outdoor retail, announced the graduation of its Switchback data tool from pilot phase to general availability for all Grassroots members.
Developed in partnership with PivotPoint Retail, the Switchback platform provides business performance and inventory insights using real-time anonymized data-sharing. With access to Switchback’s comparative analytics and metrics, store managers and buyers will improve their knowledge of what to stock, what to sell, and what to mark down.
“The single biggest factor in the successful growth of Switchback has been trust,” said Rich Hill, president of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance. “This is a tool that was built from the ground up to benefit independent specialty retailers, enabling them to harness and take control of their own data, and to bring it into an environment that is built specifically to support their success.”
Switchback’s move from pilot phase into general availability comes one year into the onboarding phase for early adopting retailers. As of May 1, more than 40 percent of Grassroots retailers were onboarded and capable of participation, with more than 75% scheduled to join the program by fall.
Switchback creates numerous actionable reports for retailers including “Sales Trends,” “Style Performance,” “Potential Markdown” and “Potential Overstock.” Retailers also can access a “Compare my Inventory to Bestsellers” report that enables easy pivots on brand or category trends, as well as discovering where other shops are succeeding with products they don’t carry. Additionally, Switchback creates “Profit Opportunities” product alerts which spotlight available warehouse inventory by brand, offering a product and category discovery platform.
PivotPoint Retail, a data-driven marketing and analytics company, developed the Switchback platform for Grassroots, building on a foundation of retail data management in the specialty book and gift industry.
The next phase for Switchback, also in partnership with PivotPoint, will be the November launch of the Vendor Tool Kit for Grassroots vendor partners.
For information on Grassroots Outdoor Alliance and Switchback, contact oryan@grassrootsoutdoors.com or audrey.centeio@pivotpointretail.com.
