Marketplace expansion was inevitable for Making It Count once they began working with SellerActive to sell online.
Brian Staudenmaier, the managing partner at Making It Count LLC, is definitely a busy man.
His business is structured as both a platform that helps companies develop growth initiatives, and an online retailer that offers essential commodities, so he’s frequently left handling many tasks at once.
Making It Count increased e-commerce sales about 12 years ago when Brian’s wife offered textiles for sale. The business then began to grow exponentially when personal care products such as vitamins, supplements, and hair care items were added to the mix.
As online sales continued to increase, Brian stepped in to help as they split the business into two stores on eBay. The Staudenmaiers began selling an assortment of products, and chose to use a popular listing software to manage their inventory listings, but soon ran into problems with it.
“The frustration was that they didn’t have a database separate from eBay, so they didn't keep our listings outside of the eBay portal. Our items would disappear [from the listing software], just like they do on eBay, after 90 days. That’s why we went searching for a different solution, and how we found SellerActive.”
Brian proceeded to research a variety of e-commerce software systems and was disappointed at the high costs many platforms imposed.
SellerActive, on the other hand, provided his business with much more efficiency, and at a better price.
"Your platform is not nearly as complex — it's point and click for the most part, and the data you have available is really good. But frankly, the images you provide within your tool makes your system more relevant for me, because in their tool, you can get the content, but then you have to provide the images, and that’s time consuming — I don’t want to have to do that. So that's a big selling point for using SellerActive."
Brian’s positive experience with SellerActive began when he chose to leverage our implementation service package twice for training and onboarding help. He said he really appreciated the one on one help, and having someone from SellerActive to work with closely, as he got started.
He also utilized our Professional Services to quickly get his listings up and running on various sales channels, and has definitely enjoyed how easy it’s all been.
“The listing interface is terrific, and I really love the fact that a lot of content is already in there, and we get an opportunity to produce listings pretty quickly. Plus it has pretty rich content with images, so that's all working really well.”
Making It Count has also seen great success with the Walmart repricing tool, particularly because it helps Brian remain competitive with his pricing, and he eventually utilized SellerActive to expand his business and include Amazon as a sales channel.
Brian and his wife now sell a wide assortment of products through these top two marketplaces in the country, and maintain continued growth on eBay.
“With SellerActive, the big change for me has been the speed and efficiency. If I wanted to, I could probably get through 100 listings a day now, for each of the three channels. Which before meant I'd have to work like 12-14 hours, non-stop, doing nothing else. Previous to SellerActive, getting 100 listings up would be like, a week's worth of work, right? I would have to take pictures, and edit them, and there's just a lot more work involved.”
Brian’s also a big fan of SellerActive’s integration with ShipStation, especially since they share each item’s shipping costs, and SellerActive includes them in the sellers' dashboard reports.
Overall, Making It Count’s transition to SellerActive has been a profitable business decision, and Brian is enthusiastic to watch his multichannel business continue to grow.
If you’re looking to expand your business to new online channels, a multichannel management tool like SellerActive can help. We offer comprehensive inventory management software with dedicated support at a competitive price.
Our multi-channel inventory management tool easily manages your inventory and helps you keep up with online shopping trends. Learn more about our e-commerce platform services and sign up for a 14-day free trial!