Advancements in retail technology have given retailers opportunity to sell more with virtual stores, and Massey’s Professional Outfitters has had the hybrid brick and mortar + e-commerce approach to retail for many years. To accomplish this, they integrated Unite U e-commerce to their Retail Pro retail management software, which allowed for data convergence all in one platform. With Retail Pro, they are able to see data for every channel in the one place – which is the foundational prerequisite for omnichannel.
To the backend structures for omnichannel data visibility Massey’s added omnichannel fulfillment with a vendor dropship application from Retail Backbone. Because their inventory is shared across channels, there are occasions when the physical item that’s purchased online is simultaneously sold while the order was being processed. The dropship integration has automated the process such that, when the software acknowledges that the absence of the inventory upon order completion, it will send the order directly to the vendor for fulfillment, eliminating stock outs.
Gerry Fullington, the General Manager for Massey’s stores, says that this connected, total view across their physical and digital channels allows them to keep lower inventory, rebalancing inventory between stores and sending direct from the vendor via dropship, rather than pulling from the warehouse. Warehouse-based replenishment for web sales accounts for only 25 – 50%, resulting in significant efficiency gains.
With such error-proof workflows in place, Massey’s Internet sales across multiple sites were growing. At the time, increasing sales was more important to their strategy than growing the margin, and e-commerce was a convenient way to reach a larger audience with their products. “If you price it right for the internet, you will without a doubt find someone in the world who’ll want to buy it,” Fullington told us. And so, even though margin growth was minimal, the company focused heavily on driving e-commerce sales, until an uncontrollable upstream adjustment forced them to rethink their strategy.
Ecosystem impact: going back to brick
The company had strong relationships with their upstream vendors, but when suppliers put industry-wide restrictions on selling discounted goods, the minimal margin growth meant that the ROI for e-commerce was no longer there. So Massey’s Outfitters made the choice to shift their focus back to their brick and mortar stores. E-commerce sales with Unite U still continued as the brand’s critical global arm, but the change in strategic direction proved to be a favorable move.
Over the next few years, they enlarged one store, opened a new location at a Louisiana State University campus, and moved a third store to a better location with higher traffic – literally. One of their locations is about 50 feet from a popular bike trail.
The complexity of restructuring their strategy and growing their physical operations was mitigated by the ease with which Retail Pro is configurable to scale with the company. Massey’s Outfitters’ authorized Retail Pro Business Partner, Retail Technology Centers (R-Tech), provided their expertise and implemented the Retail Pro software at each new store. “Working with Massey’s – one of our first clients – and watching them grow from a single brick and mortar store to their current thriving multi-store, omnichannel business over the past 20 years has been a joy and our privilege,” said R-Tech owner, Gary Waters.
The search for a new location was not a simple decision, but one that had to be made in light of the reality of the company’s greater environment – socially, economically, and physically. Louisiana was still licking its wounds from utter demolition of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which caused damages of around $108 billion in 2005, according to Time magazine. Nonetheless, Massey’s owners decided to move their offices to one of the state’s depressed areas, and helped it come back stronger.
Their investment into the community has proved effective, and as the economy continues to recover, the local area is bustling with great energy and enthusiasm for rebuilding and developing. The company’s deep embeddedness in their communities has made them a trusted and welcome face in the Louisiana retail scene.
Community impact: needs-driven business decisions
Studies suggest that most local businesses are more likely to direct their e-commerce efforts at distant markets and the almost infinite audience online, instead of improving customer service on the home front. Massey’s Outfitters’ shift back to brick and mortar has made them an exception to the typical retail case, and their local customers are enjoying the change.
Massey’s structures its organization to be lean at the top, hiring many more sales associates than upper management personnel, so they can focus on the interaction that happens on the sales floor. They regularly check in with their staff to see what customers might be asking for that they don’t currently carry. Their aim is to better serve the customers who regularly patron their stores, and much of their strategic product decisions have been driven by this goal.
For example, because of the shift back to brick and mortar and to deliver on customer desires for immediate fulfillment, Massey’s now carries a deeper inventory, all managed through Retail Pro. In listening to their customers and analyzing what market opportunities might become available, Massey’s decided to carry Yeti ice chests and Big Green Egg grills (to cater to Louisiana’s famous barbeque culture). Each new product category is easily added to their inventory inside Retail Pro, and the clear organization within the software gives them flexibility in working with the data to drive better assortments and smarter replenishment.
In addition, they are building stronger relationships with their customer base by emphasizing customer engagement. They put on events in partnership with their vendors, doing Demo Days for their kayaks and hosting movie nights where they show documentaries from Teton Gravity Research, an action sports media company. They hold locally-driven seminars on topics like how to rig your boat for kayak fishing, a sport which gains them a broader audience, since it’s not just for the affluent.
“We’re confident in our ability to respond to our customers’ needs with Retail Pro, to give them what they really want,” Fullington commented. Whereas in their e-commerce-heavy strategy, the company saw much sales growth will little change in the margin, focusing on the physical locations has increased margins and the company is earning more profit.
Massey’s continues to adapt their tools and operations to better serve their customers’ needs and interests. In the past 18 months, they have integrated the new Genius payment processor to the Retail Pro POS, achieving additional customer security gains and decreasing retailer liability.
Massey’s has proven themselves to be an early adopter of retail technology innovations, driving productive and profitable change rather than continuously playing the catch-up game, like companies that resist retail evolution.
