Supply Chain Reload: How Flxpoint Helped Rifle Supply Automate & Grow

Speaker A: M. All right, what's going on, everybody? It's a Wednesday here. The sun is shining. I hope it is for you as well. Welcome to another edition of the Modern Merchant podcast. I am the VP of Marketing here at Flexpoint, Ben Frank. And today I am joined by Chris. Chris is the director of E commerce for Rifle Supply. If you're in the firearms industry or in the market for firearms, I expect you've heard of them. Big brand in this space, doing a lot of exciting stuff. So super pumped to have you, Chris. Welcome to the Modern Merchant podcast.

Speaker B: Hey, likewise. Thanks for having me, Ben. Uh, really stoked to be on here, meet, um, the team, and also to also connect with you and meet you as well. So thanks for having me on.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah, it's a pleasure is all ours, I promise. So, um, we'll jump right into it. But, uh, I think to get started, Chris, if you could tell people who may not have heard of Rifle Supply or may vaguely know a little bit about what you guys do. Um, we were chatting a little bit before we, uh, started the podcast about some of the, um, brand initiative you guys. You, uh, guys have and then kind of what's your role and what your focus is.

Speaker B: Awesome. So, uh, my role here is kind of like a growth role, but mainly, uh, what I'm responsible for is our E commerce, um, team Stack and also customer experience as well. Our customer service customer experience team. Been, uh, with the company for about a year and three months. Um, I came from, you know, startup, startup life before all the rug pulls, the bank pulls. But I've been in startups all my life. Um, a little bit about rifle supply. We've been in business since 2015. Um, we are a firearms retailer manufacturer based in Huntington Beach, California. Um, we specialize in retail sales, gunsmithing, laser engraving, cerakoting, um, and just delivering an exceptional customer experience both in store and online. Um, I think, uh, we. Where we hit the mark is just, you know, ensuring people are provided that non ego or leaving the ego at the door type of experience at a gun shop, which is kind of hard to find. So.

Speaker A: Love it. No, it is, in essence, it's amazing to have just a really approachable, friendly, no ego. Everybody's welcome, um, in that kind of setting. And you know, I love. I uh, love the engravings you guys do. Love some of the custom stuff you do from a brand standpoint. Yeah, playing around with some of that. But that's, uh, that's awesome. So awesome. M. I know we'll get into it a little bit further I appreciate you giving us the overview there. Absolutely. And then if we, if we look at uh, this year, you know, obviously you know, things are ever changing. Right. Coming from the startup world, it's always pivoting. Right. It's trying to figure out, you know, trying to balance all the different initiatives and all that stuff. But what are your, your uh, your top priorities, uh, as you move into the rest of this year and maybe beyond that?

Speaker B: I mean this biggest priority within I would say the E commerce portion is expanding our product feed. Um, drop shipping capabilities are just pretty much offering a one stop shop as my uh, COO would say it. Justin, uh, Baca, shout out to him, shout him out. Um, is expanding our product categories uh, and just product offering in general online. And that will just allow us to focus on growing our business nationwide and just refining our E commerce strategy so we can scale. Um, we're at this tipping point where uh, business like locally, our local presence in California has been very steady and uh, there was a strong like huge explosive growth I'd say for rifle supply within um, during COVID and post Covid. Um, you know I think everyone was just kind of at that state like kind of really at unease and just wanted to protect themselves against like who knows what's going on in the world. I don't want to get to that because that's a whole nother conversation. Um, but we've had this amazing explosive growth for the last four to five years locally, uh, and just with statewide and just trying to really focus on scaling how we can help and provide that experience outside of California and just really making rifle supply that staple brand nationwide.

Speaker A: Awesome. No, I love to hear it. And Covid basically a whole different time. Right? I'm glad that that's, we're more past that. There are after effects too and I think that E Commerce obviously saw a huge massive growth right on the Flexpoint side. I mean we were here, you know, we had front row seats thankfully to help a bunch of folks figure out how to expand the product line, how to get you know, more suppliers onboarded and, and also how to just how to improve the, the uh, online presence as well. So you know it's, it's great to see how that's continued, that trend's continued and then just the prioritization of, of E Commerce. So um, awesome that you guys, you know, obviously I think you've done a really good job um, in general, you know, you guys have a ton of great uh, organic content, you rank really well. Um, you're up There with some of the top, I think firearms retailers from an E Comm perspective in the US and so you know, getting more additional suppliers and more products listed, all kinds of stuff's only going to help. So that's awesome.

Speaker B: Um, I mean obviously we use ad refs so it's really important to know where we stack rank against those larger guys. And again I see that, I see the gap like in a sense of like the local businesses that are around us and then just the gap from where these bigger brands are. I won't give them any shout outs but um, yeah, I'm hoping to get us there. Um, and we are very bullish as a team to get there as well.

Speaker A: Great. No, I love it, love it. And I have a full confidence that you guys absolutely will so well on your way. Um, that's good. And from a tech stack perspective, I mean obviously I have a good, good view of it, but um, the website that you guys are on, C platform is BigCommerce. Is that correct?

Speaker B: That's correct, yeah. I mean it, man, what a powerful tool. Again, I'm not trying to shout them out but just BigCommerce goes hand in hand with Flexpoint. I'll just say that, um, the other products that we're kind of running to is uh, Klaviyo for our email, um, email marketing and automation. Uh, HubSpot for, you know, customer engagement. No, um, fraud. I just want to call that one out because you know that does help out with all the weird and whack orders and then what helps our um, shipstation and search spring. Um, I won't get into the weeds of all the other finite apps that we run but in a nutshell that's pretty much what rolls up into BigCommerce. Uh, solid tech stack.

Speaker A: Yeah, we love BigCommerce here. We will shout them out obviously. Great, ah, platform. There are other great platforms but BigCommerce is probably one of the most common ones we work with, particularly in this space, um, as well as a handful of other industries. But um, just a, yeah, great tool and then familiar with all the other ones. Uh, obviously HubSpot. You know we use that here as well. Been a believer in HubSpot from. I don't, I would say day one, day one, but close to uh, it's a great tool.

Speaker B: Yeah, I've had um, I actually implemented that uh, prior in prior workspaces and I just remember my first time working with it and it was like kind of that, all right, this is going to work. Otherwise I'm going to be really blunt, otherwise you're not going to be type of moment and thank goodness that it honestly helped us, you know, worked really well. So, um. But yeah, it's shot them out too. But I think, um, yeah, I want more shout out to BigCommerce though, is like, I just love that. And Flex Point is, um, I just love how the both work together. I was already mentioned that. But honestly, like, I love that there's no like, limitations in the sense of what we do business wise. And they're in full support of you and your business, uh, regardless of what industry you're in. Um, but yeah, kudos to both of you guys for that, man.

Speaker A: Appreciate it. Chris. Yeah, we love BigCommerce. Have a really good relationship with them. M sponsored. Co sponsored. At happy hour, we were at shot show doing another one at a trade show coming up. So, yeah, they're fantastic. And it's just, it's a powerful platform. I won't, uh, we won't say any, but there's like, you know, there's a lot of like cookie cutter stuff out there that can kind of, you know, maybe get people started. Um, which is great if that's what they're looking for. Um, but yeah, from a. Just a power perspective, from a customization, you can. Sky's the limit, you know, and that's the beautiful part about it. It's as simple or as complex as you need it to be. And that's right in line with who we are as a business and what we stand for, obviously with the flexible and Flex Point.

Speaker B: And I think, um, again, um, Flex Point in general, I think if you can think it, you guys can make it happen. That's what I've loved so far. But we'll get into. I'm sure we'll probably get into that a little bit later.

Speaker A: As much as we want to get into that early, we can. Chris, I'll let you do the whole thing.

Speaker B: I love it.

Speaker A: No, but it's great. Um, and happy to hear things are going well. It's solid tech stack. I mean, you really got the right pieces in place. So that's awesome. It's half the battle, right?

Speaker B: It is definitely half the battle. And it's like, I feel bad because when I'm in my office and I'm just sitting there and I'm not sitting there, it looks like I'm sitting there, right? Because they're only seeing my face, not what's on my screen. It's just like. Well, I think, um, for anybody out There who manages anyone in tech. It's just like, think of it as whoever's in charge of your tech stack is managing like over 30 different tools that if one of those tools tends to break or there's something wrong, guess what? That's your business. Right? So that's um, and another way to look at it is anyone that's using those tools to operate or to perform their day to day, is there. My customers internally. Right. Um, so that's how I kind of like to paint the landscape here. Um, just coming from tech and then segueing into something a little bit way off the scale from that. It's been, it's been fun. Um, my team always gives me a lot of good grief about it, but man, I love, I love it, so.

Speaker A: No, it's great. I love it too. It's uh, we could sit here and nerd out about tech and all that stuff. I've, you know, played a lot in the Startup World and SaaS and worked in a HubSpot agency. So. You're exactly right though. I mean it's, it's powerful. Right? And it's funny because it's one of those things that when everything's going exactly how you want it to, nobody really notices. Right. It's like it's great. Someone updates and it breaks or you

Speaker B: never know or like a new features rolled out and you might have like, you know, forgotten about it or you just skimmed past it in your inbox and it's like, oh crap. Gotta, yeah, gotta pivot to that or gotta make it work or what's the fix for that?

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's a full time job, that's for sure. And great when it's all running in the back end too. So that's awesome. Um, well, as we talk tech stack and we get into some of the details of uh, process and operational stuff, tell me a little bit about what was uh, your process like and just internally dealing with uh, e comm operations and everything else that, you know, Flexpoint is really helping with today. What was it like before? Um,

Speaker B: so before we brought on uh, Flexpoint, we, I mean we're mainly using Flexpoint for our uh, distributor feeds. Um, we didn't have a solution, to tell you the truth. Um, when I onboarded it would have been the, the shot show of 2024 and I just made a suggestion to say, hey, like I think I need to go to this because there's going to be many vendors in the space and I want to familiarize myself with, you know, who's in the playing field, what's going on, you know, what's, what will work, what won't work. Um and you know came across a lot. Right. I came back with just a plethora of information. Uh but uh, to recap what your first the question is we didn't have a process. Uh we weren't using distributor feeds. We didn't have a process, we didn't have a solution for that. Uh mainly everything was just organic on our website. Um, traffic was fed through any of our social channels and or emailing lists, uh email marketing. And we were very wary that um, we were very aware sorry not wary aware that unlocking distributor feeds would obviously grow our business in this different facet. Um but we attempted to use you know um, old fashioned FTP feed into our, into our, into bigcommerce and we, we did try it and ended up messing up everything. Um and I think the person that I succeeded had to just you know reorganize everything post that. But obviously you can't make that happen unless you have a tool and the only tool, the best tool flex Point uh to make that happen. Um but yeah it's completely unobtainable.

Speaker A: It's tricky. It's a lot. How many? We don't have to get into specifics but if you want to just provide how many products do you think you were managing in total, um manually. You guys were before we came I

Speaker B: uh would say nine. Like 8,000.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then now uh we are about to onboard. Well we, we did like a phase kind of rollout just to prove the validity of like hey are we going the right path pathway with this? Um we rolled out 5,000 products and then we're about to onboard another um 25,000 products. So we'll essentially like 40, like 35, 40,000 SKUs on a website. So really, really excited for that.

Speaker A: Yeah that's a ton of growth. I mean it's to 4 exit basically and relatively short amount of time. That's super exciting and certainly would have been an extremely daunting task to do via either an old fashioned FTP setup or manually.

Speaker B: Let's, let's just say that the titles that uh for the first three to five thousand products because uh our, the titles are really just wonky. Just uh, my team and I updating the titles for 5,000 products took us about a month to do manually.

Speaker A: That's a lot

Speaker B: fitting pieces, puzzles together. Um and it was like a project that we would do. Not like it wasn't from like okay eight Hours. We come into that, we come into our, uh, into our shop and this is what we're going to work on for the like next eight hours. But it was like, you know, we'd put in like a couple hours a day at it. But yeah, Yeah.

Speaker A: I mean, unless it's the only thing you have to do and for just about everybody, that's not the case. Right. It's like, it's the last thing you want to do.

Speaker B: Three or four hats here, man. So.

Speaker A: But it's fun.

Speaker B: It's what keeps us on our toes. So.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's, that's great. I mean, to say that amount of time and if you continue at that pace to try and go from where you were to 30, uh, 5, 40k months and months and months. Right. To get it all up there.

Speaker B: I, I don't even want to think about that. Cause it just gives me a headache. But man, I honestly just like the time. I mean, I think even with like pricing too, like, you know, we're having to adjust, you know, pricing, um, because our vendors and our distributors are providing, you know, their costs are raising so we can't operate at a, at a loss. Right. So just even updating, like just going, okay, what do I want to update all these products to? Ba Bam. Flexpoint honestly owns that for us. And an exercise that would normally take like a week to do, like a project to do, like Flexpoint allows us to do that in like a matter of mere minutes or whatever. The, the sync. However long it takes the sync to say, hey, I'm going to start and

Speaker A: then complete weeks to minutes. Uh, yeah, it's great. And that's the mission of our platform.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker A: We're trying to save people as much time as possible so you guys can focus on what's absolutely important, which is great, you know. I'm glad it's working that way for you. Awesome, man. Well, I know. Um, so from a, from a listing standpoint, we talk product management, uh, all that stuff. Pricing, obviously, that's a big one. You know, if, if. And prices are gonna fluctuate, we all know that it's gonna continue and continue. And if you miss, if you have 35,000, you miss 10% of em, and you're at a loss for those, you know, those, those orders that come through. Whatever your conversion rate is, it adds up over time. So, um, super. I mean, glad, just glad we could help with it. You know, that's, that's really makes, makes us happy. Right. That's why we're here.

Speaker B: And Then during our like, validation phase, I mean it was obviously like a scaled approach. We like, we're processing like it went to 50 and then it went. Every month it's, it's doubled, you know, and we're kind of plateaued right now at uh, roughly around three to 400 orders, uh, that are being processed. And these are just by the way, uh, our drop ship or distributor feed orders. By the way, we're plateaued. But I honestly think, um, you know, come the holiday season and then just um, come tax season, I think post tax season, that's when, uh, everyone will start to, you know, start shopping and get out there. And um. But, but yeah, no, I think we plateaued around 400 orders currently. But honestly, just generating an average of like anywhere from 50 to like $90,000 passive income monthly. I mean, I think that's the perspective that, you know, uh, what, what we need to, how we need to look at it. Um, because. Yeah, yeah, I'll get into different numbers later, but I mean it's, I'm just really excited to see that order volume just jump and grow month over month as we continue to roll out the, the number of products. So.

Speaker A: Absolutely. I mean, if the conversion rates hold for what you guys are at, to get into those specifics, but you, you know, add another 25k products, like that's, that's a massive game changer, massive opportunity. And then of course you get all the SEO power behind that too, to bring additional people to the site. That too as well.

Speaker B: You know, like, it's just going to be like, okay, like, how'd you go from here to here? And then we're now crawling like 30,000 pages versus, you know, the 10 or 15,000 that we have now. Um, but yeah, no, I'm super excited for that.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's gonna be great. I'm m excited for you. I'm gonna be watching. I'm gonna check in with you every, every month, once, once everything's up to date. I'll just check in with you. I've got, I'll have a note. All right, time to kick with Chris and see how things are. Please do, man.

Speaker B: I mean, anytime. I mean, you, you obviously can tell that I'm a huge promoter of Flexpoint, man. Like, I think that, um, in any way, shape or form, um, I even have friends that are like in the car industry. And I'm like, well, you know, you sell these parts and you're working through one or two distributors that I know that are on Flexpoint. I was like, have you considered this tool, you know, to help you out or, um, I have another friend where he's working with the distributors and at the time I'd found, I think Justin, uh, or Anna might have told me that they can, you know, from one point to another point, you guys can help automate that. And I, um, was like, hey, have you guys thought about any, any chance that I, I mean, I think the cool thing, what I'm trying to say is in a nutshell is Flex Point works for all industries in any way, shape or form. So. But yeah, and yeah, God, we appreciate

Speaker A: it obviously, and automotive's big for us. Um, it's a space that we've, we're super, super familiar. We've got some really great, um, great teammates here who've spent a lot of time in that space personally on the retail side. So they really understand it. Obviously we understand the data limitations. That's the biggest thing with Automotive. Like if, you know, and for the audience that's listening here, if you think it's bad in insert other industry, Automotive probably has it the worst. Right? It's just, it's crazy, dude.

Speaker B: I mean, just seeing the data, I mean, God, man, I mean even I would love to go. That's a whole nother podcast. Probably just talking deep diving the data, like the data, but honest again, that, that honestly speaks to like how, you know, how much of a better experience you can provide your customer. Right. If, if you're able to see those types of things. But I mean, most of the time we don't, um, because we are so limited to just, you know, what ball is in front of us, so.

Speaker A: Very much so, yeah, it's, you know, you get tunnel vision and that's not a bad thing. Everybody's. I think there's a beautiful, uh, element to being in the moment and focusing on what's in front of you. You're exactly right. There's a lot, there's a lot out there. And I mean we uh, don't. Obviously our goal today is not to talk automotive, but uh, it is, is an exciting space and yeah, uh, you know, we love it. We're at SEMA every year and, and if, if you're listening and you're in a, you're getting an automotive retail store, you're trying to get an E Commerce or you're an E Commerce business and you need some help, we can help with the data problems and a bunch, a whole lot more. So. Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Well, let's, uh, let's talk journey a little bit. So we touched on it. You know, you went to Shot, not, uh, surprised. You came back with a whole list of potential vendors. Not just in what we do obviously, but all kinds of stuff. Um, Shot's insanely large. I mean thousands of vendors, thousands of booths to go to ranging from tech partners to typical partners to obviously, uh, suppliers, distributors and everything in between. Um, retailers, manufacturers, the whole nine yards. But what was your search like? I know you maybe looked at a couple different tools. What ultimately led you to Flex Point?

Speaker B: Oh man, what a journey. So like as I mentioned earlier, um, shot shot show 20, 24 man unlocked who the real players were. I'm talking about solutions by the way, not like other local businesses or vendors. I'm talking about actual tech vendors. Um, literally laid out the landscape for us and I'm so glad that I was able to go. Um, and then you know, I was tasked with finding a very viable like drop shipping partner and personally like I contacted over 12 to 14 vendors, um, and then we landed on inventory. Well, Flex Point, right. Um, as a solution. And a lot of those other vendors in there were like all in one solutions. I guess you can say that they're platforms. I wasn't looking for that because um, for those that are, just a little bit of advice for those that are out or you know, who do listen to this is when you're in an all in one solution, you're kind of just locked into that solution and it doesn't allow you to scale or operator use like really powerful tools like flexpoint to help grow your business. Eventually you reach this growing or this growth point where you're, or this tipping point. Where do you grow or do you stay at the same pace? Um, when you're using those platforms, you're literally handcuffed to that platform. And when you do decide to segue out of those platforms, it's going to cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars depending, depending on what your, your business size and volume is. I'm not trying to knock on the other guys that are out there, but that was my like, thankfully we were already on BigCommerce and as I mentioned the, you know, the other eight or nine, ten applications uh, that we use that um, are Tech Stack, but um, I did not want like I'm so glad that our tech stack isn't underneath one umbrella because we wouldn't be able to find a partner like you guys. Um, with you know, flexpoint, you have so much flexibility and you know, versus the other platforms because I think it was like, hey, you flip a Squid, you flip a switch, you log in and everything's coming in versus if you had a choice or not. There's no way to, you know, select unique SKU numbers for your drop shipping items or your product feed items. There's no differentiators. Um, again, for me, I just looked at it from a, hey, how's this going to scale? I don't think people, I, I don't think most people look at it from that perspective of how do you scale or how, how do you roll this out and scale? It's always like, okay, this fits, this fits our budget, this fits our immediate need. Let's, let's sign on. You know, um, and I, that's, I, I feel confident saying that because I was once in that space right where you're just like, wow, that looks really shiny, that looks really beautiful and it's affordable. Let's, let's, let's lock it down, let's land with it. Right? And based on my experience, I've seen not the shortcut route, but I just know what happens when you're not launching or rolling out the best platform or solution available for your, whatever brand you're supporting at that time. But with Flex Point, we were able to seamlessly integrate drop shipping into our existing tech stack without being locked into a single ecosystem. So it just worked hand in hand for us.

Speaker A: That's awesome. I really appreciate you sharing that. We've heard similar feedback from other folks that did exactly what you're talking about. And this is, uh, obviously we're not knocking that. Either you make the decisions based on the data, the situation that you're in and that's totally fine. Some of those all in one platforms will work for a while, some time for businesses and, and other times you're ready to scale. Like, you guys were right where if you've done something like solution, you would have quickly hit your limit and you'd have, you know, you've had to flip right pretty quick. Um, but yeah, we hear it all the time. It's like, you know, you can the kind of cookie cutter out of the box stuff, but very little customization, very little flexibility. And you know, again, if it's a small operation, might be fun. Um, if you're trying to go from, you know, a handful of thousand, let's call 10,000 products to 40,000 and really make a splash and really increase your presence, then yeah, um, obviously you want something that's going to be able to scale with you. And I think, I mean my experience, I'd love to Hear your, uh, your thoughts on this too, Chris. But I, I've seen a shift where it seems like there was a mindset maybe, um, a few years ago where I think that predominantly people were looking for the, hey, here's my budget, here's what I need to do. Let's, let's knock it out. That way I can move on to the next thing or, you know, just whatever we can get by on. But I feel like in general people are a little bit more future focused these days. Um, I think that, I think that the advancements in technology and just where we've really come from, a feature standpoint, compatibility integration standpoint, API connections are better than they've ever been. All those things have just allowed us to do more, um, than we could in the past. And so I've seen a lot more people taking the approach that you took where it's. Yeah, does this. Check the scalability box, you know, versus just. It's got everything I need for now and let's do it.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, and no one knows. Everyone wishes that their business goes from like five to, I'd say 100,000 or a million following. Right. I, um, think that, you know, the, everyone's. Again, I think that the people are just unaware of the offerings of different products that are. Especially in our space. It's pretty intimidating for other, you know, humans to just kind of say, hey, like, why do I need 20 different things to manage one thing versus why don't I just sign up with that? I, um, think more, I think more technical or just humans that are familiar with tech in familiar or unfamiliar spaces to be able to influence, um, is what this industry is kind of missing out on. I would say it's more industry based. Um, because I even have friends. I had one or two friends that I used to work with actually, um, were like investors in other firearm shops. And unfortunately they did sign up with, uh, one of those all in one platforms. And I hopped on a call with him because he was like, hey, I heard that you're working for this brand and xyz and just after kind of shooting the crap with him and just catching up with him, um, he was kind of telling me like his experience in the space and um, how familiar, like, you know, how his knowledge is in the firearm industry. I was like completely blown away. Um, but I think where, you know, he appreciated just the genuine feedback was just his limitation to just understanding tech. Um, but again, that's why you want to partner with or hire and partner with like great people and Put place good people on your team who are going to be able to influence, uh, making those good decisions. Because yeah, there is that. That at the platform and app offering out there is so fragmented. I even have a tough time of, of choosing, you know, what is a valid, what's going to be valid or what's not going to be valid. Um, but I think just, you know, to kind of summarize what, what we are, you know, what you brought up is partner and hire the right people so that they're making these good choices for you. Um, and don't look at their salary. I'm joking. Don't look at, you know, as a, as closing the door. Like, but you know, like if. I think it was just very rare for me to also fall into the space because um, my, my best, one of my best friends, um, is, is married to our coo. So it kind of fit hand in hand. I mean after the, the rug pull, the startup rug pull. Um, yeah, I just kind of landed here. But uh, it was just really ironic and. Yeah, no, I, I think that every, every company should have someone experience, especially if they're not, um, trying to toot my heart by the way. But I just, you know, just hire someone who's experienced or partner with an agency or consultant that's experienced and you know, and just make sure your goals are aligned because there's a lot of, there's a lot out there, man, and it can be very, very, very confusing and just, you know, speak to a lot of people and hear what their thoughts are and if obviously if that's an alignment of like where you're at growth wise, then you know, their feedback should be invaluable.

Speaker A: Love it, man. Yeah, it's always, uh, try and elevate the room, right. Or the team and with different ideas, different experience. And I think this day and age, I mean everyone that's listening to this later will probably agree, but tech is so important and experiencing tech is so important. Especially if you're looking at whether that's platform side, whether that's uh, CRM side, whether it's all these different things. Like, especially when we start talking about ecosystem, right? It's everything, everything runs through time. Um, so couldn't, couldn't agree more. And I'm glad that uh, you know that you, you joined the team and you're rocking and rolling over there, so. And I know they're happy to have you.

Speaker B: Oh, thanks man. Appreciate that.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Um, awesome. Well, speaking of teams, uh, let's talk a little bit about Your onboarding experience and working with our team there. Um, how was, uh, how did that go for you? Have any feedback for us? Any hiccups? Any, uh, uh, shout outs to make?

Speaker B: Um, huge shout out to Adam and Justin? Um, obviously I remember their names because I, you know, they left such a great imprint on my onboarding experience. And, um, again, like, when we onboarded, it was all. It was so quick and it was like crap. Like, I don't even think I have this mapped out yet because I like to map everything. I'd like to be prepared. Um, but as I mentioned, Flexpoint was a new tool for me in a sense of learning and what, what it does and what its capabilities are. Um, I was pretty overwhelmed because it is, uh, pretty technical. But, uh, like anything else, once you start to use it, it. It's like second nature now. It's like I use an iPhone and if someone gave me, uh, an Android, I. There would be a learning curve. Right? Uh, hey, like, how the hell do I even just make a call on this thing? Or where are my contacts at? It was, it was that in the sense of technicality. It wasn't in a sense that it was, you know, there's anything wrong with the UI or anything. But, um, like I said, Adam and Justin walked me through the entire process. Made was, uh, very, very detailed, ensuring that I was confident on what was being implemented, uh, what would be a good baseline to be started, um, you know, what to do, what not to do. And they were very, very considerate about, you know, each milestone that I had for this rollout because I didn't want to just go all in. Um, I'm sure you probably know by now that I'm not that type of person that just wants to throw the ball from freaking one end zone to the other end zone. I just, uh, go and, you know, in steps and phases. But they're very, very considerate of that, and I really, really appreciate that. But their support and their patience throughout everything was seamless, man. It only allowed me to obviously learn the platform and navigate it, uh, inside and out.

Speaker A: That's awesome. I love to hear it. And Adam and Justin are fantastic. They're in the office today. I told them we were meeting for this podcast. They're like, oh, let's tell GR said, what's up? You know, I know Justin saw you shout.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So they really loved working with you on the page and continue to work with you. Um, so that's. That's great. Appreciate you sharing your experience.

Speaker B: Have a, um, call after this do you really? Yeah, to catch up. Yeah. And I mean that speaks volume, you know, that speaks volume. You know, like the fact that I, that that chant, those channels are open just speaks volume of what Flexpoint provides, uh, customers.

Speaker A: So yeah, we love it. I know every company at ah, least pretends to say or tries to say that we're all about customers and that's why we built the product, that's why we're here. We're just a bunch of E commerce nerds, uh, that are super passionate about this space and passionate about growth and all that stuff and uh, really just love our customers. So as much as we can, um, you know, we want to spend time with you. So I'm super happy to get to talk to Adam. I'll tell just if I see you say hello. Let's go. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Um, well, I know how I'm going to combine a couple I think questions into one here. Um, I know that you guys are looking at looking into other elements of the Flexpoint software. So I'll combine the kind of, uh, two questions we talked about. One of the what successes have you seen within platform? We talked a little bit about it already. And then also, you know, what are you, um, looking into? What other features are you looking into or ways to expand as you move forward beyond obviously the additional products that we discussed.

Speaker B: Absolutely. So to hit on the first, um, successes, I guess, um, I mean I think I brought out the different passive revenues earlier. Um, but I think the way people um, should frame it. So just based out of the 3 to 5,000 products that we added, let's just say 4,000 products meet in the middle. Uh, that as a test period, um, you know, once that was done, I went, so I went line by line. I was like, okay, well it just made an export. And then I used my assistant chat GPT to uh, me. But um, so for an example, like SKU A there was five and it, the cost would be a hundred bucks and then sku b would be 10 and it would cost 50. Um, I took every SKU that I add, like, you know, that I had imported into our online store and whatever the inventory number was and cost value was, I calculated it and I was blown away by how much, you know, that was worth. I mean it was $300 million worth of product that I added to our web store. And I think when I was talking to, to Travis and Justin, that shot show, they're like, wait a minute, you, you looked at it from this perspective and, and they were like, why? And I was like, well, you know, I'm not gonna bore you with the detail. Bore you with why? But honestly, like, that's how we should be looking at it. Do you know what I mean? Um, and I think that, you know, not looking at the costs of just everything and just being able to showcase that to my CEO or to Justin and, and John Kukio. Shout out to John. He's our CEO.

Speaker A: Um,

Speaker B: they're like, yeah, this absolutely makes sense because obviously that's 300. That's $300 million. We didn't have to buy in inventory, right? If we were to just acquire everything that was offered right then and there. I mean, no one's going to acquire a thousand of this or you know, but it then goes to say, hey, like, we're ready to service the nation, right? We're not just here to service, um, you know, local and statewide where we, we can, we can be this outfit that also helps everybody else and provide, you know, the best experience possible.

Speaker A: Love it. No, that's, that's fantastic. And I'm, um, I love that you look at it that way because I think that, you know, when I'm talking about, and a lot of times when we do these interviews and things like that, it's exactly the right way to look at it. How would you be able to do that without a drop shipping component? Right. Yeah. You don't want to sit. Nobody has $300 million. And if you did, it's a egregiously terrible use of capital, like to go and do that. But it's great. And it's also from just a cash, uh, on the table, you know what I mean? Like somebody looking for those products that may not have been listed before, you might be out of stock. No way for them to purchase it. If you don't have another way to fulfill it, maybe they could back order it. But I deep most people, as you and I both know, if I go to a website particularly, and I'm like, all right, I'm looking for this particular product, it's on backorder, I'm going to go look somewhere else. Right? Or even if it's not in stock, ready to ship, you know, I'm going to go look somewhere else. So it's huge. But I love that you did that and you actually calculated the amount. That's absolutely amazing.

Speaker B: I mean, even if you wanted to figure out like what that would be worth if we sold all that product, I mean, just, you know, put your margin in and that you have it, but I mean it was. That's. That's huge, you know, in the sense of like, just goal. Like goals, like personal goal and milestones. So I look, I really, I really like to reflect on that because it's, It's. It's big. And I think that if anyone that is using Flexpoint and using their distributor feeds, um, even though the stress of a product and distributor feeds, even though the stress of rollout and project planning and, you know, not having enough resources, I think you should really reflect on that, that goal, that milestone once you do add all those products to your website, because that. That's huge. And, um, that definitely puts your brand or your company that you're trying to build in the space of, you know, replacing her, eventually replacing her, becoming that next. That next bigger player in the game. So.

Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah, I totally agree with you. Um, and it's. And it's a great way to look at it, I think, from regional or even statewide to the ability to get in on a national level. And obviously, there's a lot that goes into it, you know, but it's, it can be a game changer for sure. So that's awesome, man. Um, well, I appreciate it. This has been great. I think we'll do a couple more questions. I know we're at the very end here. I don't want to take up all your time. I know you got to meet with Adam after this, so, yeah, he'll come knocking on my door like, hey, come on. Uh, yeah, it's been great. Um, I think the next one I'd ask you is just if you have. Do you have any tips or tricks for anybody that's maybe looking into a solution? A solution like Flexpoint?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I mean, couple things, and then I'll say, like, I'll kind of go in and out of things, but I think, obviously, um, know where you want to go. Ah, that's the biggest tip. Excuse me. Um, but just navigating through Flexpoint, I would say, you know, your understand, you know, your source, your catalog, and then the three different major buckets understand that really well. Um, navigate through them very frequently, use filters like crazy. It helps you manage everything a lot easier. M. Save customizable views. Um, I like looking at different, uh, properties or properties, meaning whatever data is available. Um, in a sense of how I'm, um, merchandising or what I'm looking for, what we're trying to roll out or push to roll out, that helps out a lot. Um, but I think the biggest thing is learn, um, or hop On a call with Adam or Justin, um, or the support team, um, take a deep dive and have someone walk you through the automation and workflows so you can really tweak your efficiencies because that can drastically improve your process once you get it dialed in. And um, I think what we're, once we pass this third milestone, we. What I'm really excited for is just the whole warehouse, the warehousing automation, you know, like that was like, like stars in my eyes. I think when we were you know, being um, you know, when we were touching base to onboard, uh, Flex Point, that was like whoa. Like even in the sense of like your own act, like physical inventory, like it. That was really mind blowing that, that Flex Point can manage that for us. So.

Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah, I appreciate the feedback there. Yeah, it's interesting because some you touched on it, the warehousing element. I mean there's so much to it, right? Like you do have the drop ship component, additional products, you've got the listing management which makes that a whole lot easier. Especially if you've got multi channel M, the warehouse order fulfillment and that routing process, the ability to go by rules like what's closest. Right. Prioritize products. If you got duplicate products from multiple suppliers or even owned inventory, what do I want to sell first and how do we route that? You know, there's just where do they order it from and what's closest to them to minimize M shipping costs, there's a lot, uh, a lot underneath the platform.

Speaker B: You know, let Flex Point manage that for you and automate that for you. And usually when you hear automation it's, it's like, oh crap, what's going to break downstream? Um, I just love also, let me also shout that out. I love that flexpoint has also really thought out of like not just like that immediate, you know, that immediate, I guess work or process or step that you need automated, but all the way downstream. I mean you're, you're not going to have to worry about anything breaking. I mean at least in our, in our industry or how we have things set up, it's like, whoa, whoa. What's going to happen? They're like, oh well, just, you know, just align this or just you know, like let's just prioritize this and that will fix it. But I um, think that the time saved for strategic work, um, that's one thing that I really appreciate about Flex Point because as I said, the merchandising side of it is I can go in there and go, okay, what do we need. But then it allows us to plan out what our marketing and our ad strategy looks like. And then also I think the biggest call out is being there for my team and making sure that they have a North Star and they're being guided and they have the resources they need. All in all, that's flex. Thank you. Seriously, thank you.

Speaker A: We're happy to do it, Chris. Thank you. Of course, uh, what's the point of building features if no one's going to use them and love them? And so that's exactly what we do. Super awesome moment for us when, you know, you get your hands into it and it does simplify things and it does allow you to focus on strategy. Just this monotonous day to day stuff. It lets you get home for dinner in time or, you know, you not have, uh, crazy work schedules and things like that on top of what you're already doing because you're already juggling it.

Speaker B: Oh, yeah.

Speaker A: Oh, yeah. It's the mission, man. Awesome. Well, like, this has been great, man. I'd say I'm here and talk with you for the next hour. I think we could just get a nerd out about all kinds of different systems, all kinds of fun stuff. But, um, I think the last, last thing I'd ask you this will be, this is more for just, you know, the industry as a whole, I think. But for anybody that's, that's watching this, that either, um, owns a gun shop or has a, you know, e commerce business and trying to grow or a combination of both. What, uh, what recommendations would you have for them based on what you're seeing in the industry, trends, things like that, man.

Speaker B: I would say obviously focus on your, your tech stack, right, and improving that to no one. Everyone needs to like ensure that they're, they're growing that backbone. Uh, I want to say that it is a back. The backbone of every business and it should, it is literally the backbone of your business. And don't focus too much on your storefront. Uh, but really, you know, betting on what your tech stack looks like and rolling out solutions like Flexpoint and you know, not worrying about your physical inventory and um, we're really relying on just your, your product offering that your distributors are just saying, hey, like, there's this facet of your business that we want to just help grow, you know, really leverage that. Um, but yeah, um, this industry is, it's kind of a wild one M, you know, and all the different rules and regulations and whatnot. But, um, what I like to do is, you know, think about how we, like, what if those, what if that curtain isn't there? Like, what are we gonna do? Right. But always be prepared. And it honestly doesn't hurt to, um, if you're looking for different solutions, it honestly doesn't hurt for you to size or it doesn't cost you anything to size and do your due diligence on what's out there, you know, and I think that you should be prepared for that. Um, and, you know, a lot of, A lot of the times sales reps are not, you know, the great ones are there to always be there and say, hey, like, what are you up to? Like, can we catch up? As opposed to trying to sell you something and just know where, you know, the state of your business is or wanting to do business reviews with you so that you can implement it at the right time. So I won't shout out their name, but there is a product that, you know, we've been in touch with since I've started here and, um, it's an ERP solution, by the way. Uh, nothing. But, you know, we've been, we've been in talks with them since I've been here and they, they understand that those are the types of relationships that I very like, I value. And that's very much how Flex Point was for us as well. That's why I'm bringing it up, um, for us when we were onboarding, because it was like, hey, like, when the time is right, you need to know when you're going to pull that trigger and you need to be aligned with, you know, that, that reliable partner so that you can make moves happen quickly. And, you know, I'm so blessed to have just had that, that open line of communication with you guys because you guys made onboarding fast, easy and met. Met very, very, very crazy expectations. So thank you for that. But, yeah, that's my advice. That'd be my advice.

Speaker A: That's great, Chris. Now, uh, love it. And I'm with you. Those are the types of. Whenever I'm looking for a solutions partner and same deal, right? Like, you want somebody that's going to be more consultative than anything else. More like, tell me about your goals and what you're trying to do and let's partner up on it. And you know what, Even if you don't decide to move forward with Flexpoint or ERP or whatever it might be, like, let's keep in touch because you never know. You know what I mean? We could help you down the road. So. Love it, man. Love it. Well, uh, this has been great. Super. Appreciate the time.