Driven by a mission to create products that inspire joyful shared memories, Kent Outdoors recognizes that a strong wholesale network is key to its success. Its portfolio includes Hyperlite, HO Skis, O’Brien, Connelly, FatSac, Aquaglide, BOTE, Seipel Marine, Barefoot International, and Liquid Force. Kent Outdoors needed a scalable platform to support growth across its brands while deepening its retailer relationships. They partnered with Elastic Suite, a B2B platform that simplifies and enhances the wholesale ordering experience.
Why Kent Chose Elastic: Success in snow sports
Kent’s journey with Elastic began with Arbor Snowboards, a well-established brand in the snow sports industry. Arbor had a great onboarding experience and saw widescale industry adoption. Following this successful transition, Kent decided to use Elastic to streamline operations across their entire watersports division.
By joining Elastic, Kent streamlined its wholesale processes and created a seamless experience across its diverse lineup. The multi-brand dashboard enables Kent to manage all its brands in one place, delivering an efficient ordering process that makes it easier than ever for retailers to place orders and access inventory.
“Elastic provides valuable insights on behavior and trends, allowing us to make informed decisions that benefit our customers.”
– Pete Surrette, O’Brien SVP & general manager
With Elastic, buyers can search by SKU, product name, or category and have full access to inventory so that orders can be placed with just a few clicks. Order history, status, and tracking are intuitive and allow for simple re-ordering that improves sell-through and ROI.
The Path to Implementation and Training
Kent Outdoors phased its rollout of Elastic, ensuring each brand felt comfortable and capable with the platform. Today, all seven brands are successfully live thanks to steady support, key milestone alignment, and a go-live launch on New Year’s Day.
Elastic’s flexibility with integration and support for multiple instances of Microsoft D365’s ERP allowed Kent to customize the platform to each brand’s needs. Throughout this process, Elastic account manager and former rep Brad Bradley provided invaluable support and additional training to bridge the gap between technology and real-world sales challenges.
Supporting Reps and Retailers with Streamlined Ordering
Reps quickly adopted Elastic into their day-to-day workflows. Many of their specialty retailers already used Elastic for other brands, making the transition smooth.
Ordering is now faster and more accurate. Reps can place orders, add products to shipments, and finalize everything over a quick call instead of dealing with all the back-and-forth that plagued the old manual process. Creating digital catalogs has saved money and decreased the reliance on print materials, while Kent works towards a fully digital future.
“Harnessing the power of the Elastic Suite offers our dealers 24/7 inventory access, small and large order capability, at-once and prebook orders, drop ships, and multiple ship dates.”
– Tom Curtin, HO Sports general manager
Staying Ahead in an Ever-Changing Retail Landscape
Kent Outdoors is committed to shared success with its retailers, delivering a technology-driven wholesale experience that meets today’s needs and builds toward tomorrow’s goals.
Since adopting Elastic Suite, Kent has increased retailer engagement and grown order volume. With tools like real-time inventory updates and options to add products to existing shipments, Kent’s reps can process orders faster and more accurately – a win for brands and retailers.
“Our partnership with Elastic will reinforce our commitment to retail partners and enable us to provide the best in B2B commerce and customer support.”
– CJ Vlahovich, president of Kent Watersports Division
See how industry-leading brands are scaling their B2B business with Elastic
