California Apparel News

NuOrder, a leading B2B commerce platform, is launching a new buyer experience for Grassroots Outdoor Alliance retailers this fall.

Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is a network of 96 independent retailers with 195 locations in 42 states working together to help the growth of specialty, independent outdoor retail. Members are accepted after completion of an application, an interview, a review of key business metrics and final board approval, which then gives them access to a variety of events and services that can benefit their business. Grassroots Outdoor Alliance has been recognized as a catalyst for the success of its retailers and vendor partners and is seen as a key influencer in the outdoor industry.

The partnership between the two entities was originally announced in the fall of 2020 with a shared goal of revolutionizing the buying process with a new digital platform. When developing the platform, NuOrder used interviews and research to assess what retailers were looking for and found that they wanted a faster and more efficient order-writing process in addition to a single place where they could set ship dates for orders, review and adjust the orders as needed, and upload prebooking spreadsheets. Retailers also said they needed a platform that allows them to confidently place orders by visualizing the whole assortment before it’s in stores.

The platform is built to be visually driven to match the nature of the apparel industry, which is what helps set NuOrder apart from other sell-through-reporting companies. The visual nature enables buyers and brands to see reports in a form where they can more easily analyze their business as opposed to looking at rows of text and numbers in spreadsheets.

“The Grassroots partnership provides a critical voice in NuOrder’s mission to transform the retail process, with a key focus on helping independent retailers. This new season focuses on the first priorities that have been shared by Grassroots retailers, and we are just getting started. Our commitment to ongoing innovation will continue with each new season,” said Olivia Skuza, co-founder and co-CEO of NuOrder.

With the new platform, Grassroots retailers will be able to use enhanced ordering capabilities that include improved ship-by-date ordering, the ability to quickly create orders by importing UPCs and quantities, ATS reordering, and integration at POS. Grassroots retailers will also have access to the latest virtual-showroom features and the use of advanced capabilities such as NuOrder’s proprietary EZ Order functionality, which allows brands to send shoppable line sheets straight to a dealer’s inbox alongside easy removal of dropped styles, user-specific discount and pricing rules, and order export templates.

Grassroots has long advocated for a wholesale-buying solution with consistent processes across all brands. The partnership falls in line with Grassroots’ mission to invest in digital technologies that streamline the buying process. Going forward, NuOrder will be the only platform endorsed by Grassroots for its retailers to place orders.

“The historic offerings from B2B sales platforms have been built specifically to cater to the needs of a product brand, while NuOrder is working to build a platform centered around the experience and time concerns of the retailer. For a retail buyer, it’s much like the difference between shopping for a hundred products in a hundred stores versus shopping for a hundred products in a single store,” said Rich Hill, president of the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance. “The goal here is to directly improve the bottom-line financial health of retailers by making it easier and quicker to visualize, budget, plan and buy. Improved efficiency means better choices made during the buying process and more time available to spend on the shop floor.”

Updates and enhancements to the NuOrder platform will continue to be released throughout fall 2021. Those updates include the ability to import spreadsheets, add multiple colorways to the cart more easily and size by buyer-selected ship dates. Retailers will be able to organize and quickly make adjustments across ship dates with fewer clicks, have access to multiple order views and import orders from the platform through an integration into retailers’ POS systems. Future plans for the platform include using the sell-through integration to enable easy reordering so retailers don’t miss any sales or other key opportunities.

Earlier this year, NuOrder was acquired by Lightspeed, a provider of cloud-based, omni-channel commerce platforms to create an industry-leading bridge between buyers and sellers by simplifying product ordering for retailers.