How Stadium Goods Scaled with a Flexible Fulfillment Solution
When new retail brands like Stadium Goods begin to flirt with growth, they're seldom ready for the demands of rapid expansion. Order volume doesn't tend to follow agreeable curves that align with a strategic plan to scale the business.
In many cases, order spikes are sudden, sharp, and present a major challenge for the retailer to handle. Fortunately, there are partners with the solutions and experience to help companies in this situation out of a jam.
Stadium Goods Expands Out of Lower Manhattan
If you've ever walked the streets of Manhattan, you know that space is at a premium. That goes double for lower Manhattan, where the island tapers to its southern tip and retailers have to compete with investors, international HQs, and wealthy residents for premium real estate.
Suffice it to say, this isn't the ideal place from which to store and ship sneakers, even the premium kind that Stadium Goods delivers to delighted customers!
Stadium Goods began life five years ago as a reseller of sneakers and streetwear not far from Canal Street. The company operated from a modest space but was part of a rapidly growing market from the outset and clearly needed to expand at some point in the near future.
When co-founders John McPheters and Jed Stiller watched the brand's eCommerce sales spike in early 2017, driving 90% of the company's growth for that period, they saw it was time and started to search for an outside order fulfillment partner.
Custom Fulfillment for Continued Growth
To facilitate the required improvements and build a foundation for future success, Stadium Goods identified three key requirements for their expansion effort.
These were:
- Scalable eCommerce fulfillment.
- Engineered solutions for very specific applications.
- International shipping.
Happily, Capacity ticked all the boxes and a productive fulfillment partnership was soon underway.
The first step was to craft a purpose-built solution with room for growth. Stadium Goods had tasted that initial burst of growth and showed no signs of slowing down, so we had to build for the future as well as the present. The systems put in place to keep pace with that growth were engineered to deliver orders at increasing scale, without sacrificing the personal touches and attention to detail that defined the brand as passionate sneaker fans.
A bespoke storage solution was crafted for Stadium Goods’ unique SKUs, repurposing pallet racks by installing decked steel mesh racking to accommodate tens of thousands of pairs of iconic footwear. At the same time, our team worked with Stadium Goods to understand and prepare for the impact of the brand's new mobile app on sales. As anticipated, order volume spiked again and multiplied many times once fans had the ability to browse the latest high-demand items in the palm of their hands.
With Capacity in its corner, this ambitious retailer was able to have experts handle order fulfillment and focus more time on bringing premium sneakers and streetwear to fans of the brand.
Stadium Goods Continues to Scale
From those cramped early days on Canal Street, Stadium Goods has grown to become one of the hottest names in contemporary retail. The brand was born into a digital native marketplace and has no trouble connecting with fans on key platforms such as Instagram and YouTube (so many excellent unboxing videos to choose from!)
Beyond that, the company has correctly identified the value of a physical retail presence to build its brand. As well as a partnership to showcase its most in-demand products alongside rare items at Fred Segal stores in Los Angeles, Stadium Goods will also open its third store in Chicago. This builds on the company's physical footprint in New York City and hints at further bricks-and-mortar expansion in future, assuming fans show the same enthusiasm for the brand's in-store experience as they have with online ordering.
On that note, we'll close out with one of co-founder John McPheter's tips for growth and success. It embodies the Stadium Goods story so far and demonstrates why we're so proud to partner with this unique brand:
"When you own and run your own business, you’ve got to be creative and always be ready for solutions to problems that you didn’t even know exist. If the door is shut, go through the window... find a trap door through the ceiling and crawl through the vents."
Learn more here about the kind of clients we work with.