Company: Overton's
Software: Ability Channel Feed
Challenge: Manage 8,000 SKUs in Amazon
Result: Increased Amazon Web Sales by 106% In December and 72% in overall sales in 2010.
Company Profile
Overton's is a leader in the marine and water sports marketplace. Almost three decades ago,
Overton's began selling water sports equipment with a simple desire to meet the needs of boating enthusiasts. Since then,
the Greenville, NC based company has become a retail leader in water sporting equipment.
Business Challenge
Without the internal resources to increase or manage online sales on Amazon.com, the company needed to find a way to
take advantage of the Amazon name to substantially increase online sales without placing added burden or responsibility
on their staff.
"We did not have the workforce or the time to give our 8,000 products the attention they need on Amazon.com," said
Dan Owens, Strategic Marketing & Direct Business Coordinator at Overton's.
Solution
Determined to grow online sales and expand their selling season, the company turned to the software solutions of Ability
Commerce. Ability Commerce is an ecommerce software firm that provides web
development and marketing solutions, Microsoft Dynamics GP™ accounting software and support, and accounting
integration software to meet the specific needs of catalogers and direct marketers.
Since integration of Ability Commerce's Ability Channel Feed software in April of 2010, Overton's saw an online sales
increase on Amazon.com by an astonishing 106 percent in December, compared to 2009 sales for the same period.
Overall, in 2010 the company saw a 72 percent increase over 2009 overall sales. In June, the company increased online
sales on Amazon.com by 367 percent, compared to 2009 sales and also saw a 277 percent increase over their busiest sales
period, the Fourth of July holiday weekend. However, the biggest surprise was the third quarter increase of 133 percent
over 2009, which has historically been when their sales season has "ended".
The company credits Ability Commerce's sophisticated software solutions for the drastic increase. "Ability Commerce
has simplified the ecommerce process for our company," added Owens.
Diane Buzzeo, CEO of Ability Commerce, said, "Amazon.com is a great resource to retailers when used efficiently. It
requires a lot of attention and monitoring. Ability Channel Feed simplifies the process, and our team is a great resource
for companies that do not have the time to do the work internally."
"While summertime is the prime season to sell water sports, Overton's has products that are sellable year round," added
Buzzeo. "Overton's great success in 2010 shows us that they have the ability to expand their selling season to be a
powerhouse year round."
Overton's utilizes Ability Channel Feed software to simplify the marketing, buying and fulfillment process of selling on
Amazon.com, by integrating their order management system with Amazon.com systems and allowing them to offer a
wider variety of products without the increased costs of manual entry.