With SellerActive, KidsStuff was able to more than double their business during COVID-19, without having to hire more people.
The team at KidsStuff saw success for decades, but when sales started to drop, they needed a solution that would both generate more revenue and provide an easier way to manage inventory. SellerActive provided them with that and much more.
The Beginning of KidsStuff
In the 1970s the owner of EA Carey, a tobacco product institution, was running a mail order catalog and membership company and decided to expand into other markets.
The owner purchased the catalogs of both the Natural Baby and Perfectly Safe brands, and created the membership company Jeannie’s Kids Club while continuing to run EA Carey as a separate business.
Eventually, the catalogs were consolidated under the new name KidsStuff, and the businesses grew well into the ‘90s. As the internet became more popular, they switched their business model and moved everything online, where they remained successful over the next couple of decades.
When sales began dropping, however, the team searched for ways to bounce back.
Testing Multichannel E-Commerce
After a few solutions faltered, Jen Thames, general manager of KidsStuff’s parent company Zenvesco, elected to start offering their products directly through eBay’s, Amazon’s, and Walmart’s online marketplaces. This presented new problems, however, because selling on multiple sites meant they had to track inventory in 3 different places.
“We were manually entering every eBay and Amazon order into our database, and then we would go back to eBay and take the inventory out. If we sold it on our website or on Amazon, we would have to go back to Amazon and take it out of eBay. Inventory was everywhere. It was so time-consuming to manually enter orders and to keep up with our inventory. It was a nightmare.”
Partnering With SellerActive
Amidst the search for a way to automate their database in 2015, Thames discovered SellerActive. She recalls SellerActive’s pricing strategies and integrations with multiple online channels as very appealing and was pleased to learn they would import all the inventory from the various marketplaces, and help KidsStuff with listing new items. This included their recent expansion to Walmart’s marketplace, which Thames reported as an extremely easy process.
Thames also spoke highly of working with SellerActive throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that produced a global economic turndown in 2020.
"SellerActive has just done wonders for our business, and we would not be where we are today without them. A lot of companies have closed over COVID-19, but because of SellerActive, we were able to more than double orders within a few weeks and stay on top of everything."
Additionally, working with SellerActive has prevented KidsStuff from having to increase the number of people on their staff — Thames was thrilled to see their business grow and said that without SellerActive, they would’ve needed to double or even triple their workforce.
As part of this new work relationship, Thames became very familiar with SellerActive’s Implementation Team Lead Specialist, John Gorman, and Customer Solutions Lead, Jon Thompson.
“There aren't enough words in the world to talk about how great John Gorman was. He was very patient with us, and did such a great job of breaking things down, one step at a time. It was such a big task to get our entire business switched over from one database to another, with neither being compatible with each other, and John Gorman was amazing about it all.”
Thames adds that she’s happy to get on the SellerActive chat with questions because she frequently gets to address her questions to Jon Thompson.
“I know I'm going to reach one of the John’s every time I get in touch with SellerActive. That is really important to me because right now I'm also dealing with a support issue where I get a different person every time I reach out to them, and I have to start over every time . . . I mean, you have to start over basically every time with tech support. It is not like that with SellerActive.”
Multichannel Selling Features That Work
Thames has thoroughly enjoyed working with SellerActive. The software’s integration with DesktopShipper, a key channel for KidsStuff, and the various e-commerce solutions have made SellerActive a great fit for growing the business A few of Thames favorite features include:.
- Bundling: KidsStuff can have one listing on one inventory, and they don’t have to manually take inventory out if an item is purchased in quantities of two or three. SellerActive’s bundling feature does it for them automatically, instead.
- Software improvements: The continual evolution and frequent addition of new features ensure that the business can stay competitive selling online.
- Reporting: “I like that in your reports, when you want to look at profit, SellerActive brings in the shipping costs from DesktopShipper, the cost of the goods that I input, and the fulfillment costs from the marketplace. So you can see your profit for one item individually, right there in one place. And that’s fantastic.”
- Order management: SellerActive and DesktopShipper’s streamlining of the business, where tracking numbers and inventory counts are automatically updated when orders ship.
- Work on the go: A remote desktop isn’t required to work on a SellerActive store, which makes it easy to conduct work from home, or anywhere else.
A Successful Solution
SellerActive’s software has certainly proved itself an extremely effective solution for Thames and KidsStuff.
“It's really hard to believe how far we've come in four years, because SellerActive has completely changed our business. They've connected all of our marketplaces into one and allowed us to expand into other marketplaces with their integrations.Thanks to SellerActive we can spend more time growing our business and less time filling orders. I would recommend SellerActive to any company selling items on multiple websites and/or marketplaces.”
If you wish to improve how you manage your inventory online and expand to more e-commerce channels, try SellerActive’s free 14-day trial today.