Cat5 Gains Strategic Edge and Develops Stores Faster with Znode

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1 CUSTOMER SUCCESS Cat5 Gains Strategic Edge and Develops Stores Faster with Znode After opening and operating three stores, we recognized that we needed a solution that would allow us to quickly replicate our process and procedures, share resources and facilitate customization and integration so that we could achieve the scalability that we wanted. -Chad Weinman, President and Co-Founder of Cat5 Commerce CS

2 Customer Success - Cat5 Commerce Cat5 Commerce is a privately owned Internet retail company that has opened six stores, including BDU.COM, MilitaryBoots.com, HikingBoots. com, TacticalPants.com and GunHolsters.com since its launch in All six stores are supported by the company s shared call and fulfillment centers, warehouses and premium suppliers. Cat5 s vision for success involves developing and operating multiple online stores, destinations and marketplaces based on boutique, niche product categories, and marquis domain names. They use cutting edge technology and comprehensive online marketing strategies to gain a strategic edge in the ecommerce arena. Business Challenge Cat5 d former ecommerce platform inhibited business growth by forcing the company to manage multiple stand alone storefronts. The customer experience suffered from inadequate search and filtering capabilities and inability to customize. Solution Znode s Multifront was selected because of its single interface for multiple stores and accessibility of source code. Ownership of Multifront source code allows for complete customization - resulting in innovative and unique features. Multifront s Faceted Navigation has resulted in fewer abandonments and increased sales. Multifront s easy integration with third party systems, like suppliers and vendors, increases efficiency and lowers costs. Cat5 Commerce Edison Avenue, Suite B Chesterfield, MO Phone: (636)

3 Customer Success - Cat5 Commerce Scalability and Flexibility Required After launching its third online store, Cat5 had proven the effectiveness of its business model. The company knew that the most glaring inhibitor to its ongoing success was the ecommerce software it was using. There was not a single aspect of our original software that was customizable, and we were literally at the mercy of the company that developed the product, says Chad Weinman, president and founder of Cat 5 Commerce. After opening and operating three stores, we recognized that we needed a solution that would allow us to quickly replicate our processes and procedures, share resources and facilitate customization and integration so that we could achieve the scalability that we wanted. As Cat5 learned, most of the shopping carts on the market are self-contained solutions, which cannot share features, graphics, designs, or products across multiple stores. When using these solutions, any company launching multiple storefronts must manage each store individually. For Cat5, the idea of managing hundreds of standalone shopping carts and coordinating all aspects of order fulfillment was crippling. Moving forward with our original software would have put a lot of stress on our environment, Weinman stated. It would have made it difficult to support our business model. He added, Our old software kept us constrained and prevented us from going after low-hanging fruit like Google Checkout, product reviews and filtering. It also inhibited our long-term strategic objective of developing a quick and convenient way to build, launch and maintain multiple customized storefronts. We could not wait to be free from the offthe-shelf solution to be able to determine the look, feel and operation of our stores and to be able to fully implement our business model. Cat5 begins to fully realize its Business Model with Znode When Cat5 decided to replace its ecommerce software, the company had three core criteria: Multi-store capability with central administration to decrease resource requirements, site inconsistencies and customer frustration Ability to work in the.net environment and have a short learning curve Access to the source code to enable Cat5 the freedom to fully customize its online stores. We essentially had two choices when we began to move forward with deploying a new ecommerce solution, commented Weinman. We could build a system from scratch or find a solution that would provide us access to the source code. Having access to the code is rare, but because we wanted to customize everything, it was the direction that we needed to go. 3

4 Customer Success - Cat5 Commerce Comprehensive Search and Filtering Among the many things Cat5 wanted to offer its customers was comprehensive search and filtering functionality. Cat5 s old system required administrators to create a category for each feature or characteristic of a product. This made product searches cumbersome and led to customer abandonments. With Multifront, customers on Cat5 s HikingBoots.com can now select from extensive filtering characteristics - such as waterproofing, VIBRAM outsoles, colors, side zip or steel toes - to find the perfect pair of boots. The filtering is done in real time without reloading the screen. While comprehensive filtering seems like such a straightforward ecommerce function, it doesn t come standard. Our previous solution could not do it and many others on the market can t either, says Weinman. With Multifront s Faceted Navigation, our customers easily find what they are looking for fast, resulting in fewer abandonments and increased sales. Complete Customization With access to Znode s source code, Cat5 has customized each storefront with innovative features that have had a positive impact on the overall shopping experience. On Gunholsters. com, for example, Cat5 s developers integrated a custombuilt graphical wizard that matches customers weapons with compatible gun holsters; a process that has plagued law enforcement and the military for years. While comprehensive filtering seems like such a straightforward ecommerce function, it doesn t come standard. Our previous solution could not do it and many others on the market can t either. With Multifront s Faceted Navigation, our customers easily find what they are looking for fast, resulting in fewer abandonments and increased sales. Matching guns with holsters is difficult and the complexity has literally stopped people from shopping for holsters online, explains Weinman. Our matching application, which does not exist anywhere else on the web, has eliminated this frustration. It could not have been developed without Znode s source code. 4

5 Customer Success - Shop Direct Brands Integrating Third-party Systems Cat5 has also integrated its call center and fulfillment center operations, as well as its suppliers ERP systems into Znode s ecommerce platform. Customers are able to see real-time shipping quotes even when ordering multiple package types, sizes and weights from multiple locations. Primary suppliers are also tightly integrated. When a customer places an order, it instantly appears in the suppliers systems, eliminating a number of touch points and delivering a more efficient transaction. Having multiple suppliers, warehouses, shippers and touch points adds levels of complexity to transactions that can cause a variety of problems. Integrating all the pieces of our supply chain through a single ecommerce platform has opened doors to an unlimited number of opportunities, Weinmann said. As we develop and launch new storefronts, we now have the infrastructure in place to support our expansion and replicate the integration with potentially As we develop and launch new storefronts, we now have the infrastructure in place to support our expansion and replicate the integration with potentially hundreds of suppliers, merchandisers and fulfillment centers around the world. We really could not do the level of integration we have today without Multifront s source code. hundreds of suppliers, merchandisers and fulfillment centers around the world. We really could not do the level of integration we have today without Multifront s source code. Scaling the Business With each subsequent store launch, Cat5 is getting faster and more efficient, leveraging Multifront s multi-store capability to quickly and easily administer each of its storefronts. When a new feature is developed, it s easily deployed across all stores. All product information is accessed through a single online catalog, and because of the shared,integrated back-end infrastructure, Cat5 splits fulfillment and customer service costs across all of its stores. Today, Cat5 is building for the future by managing all ecommerce operations from a single touch point supported by an infrastructure that will allow the company to grow multiple times over. In 2010, the company plans to launch two new superstore sites built around the Znode platform. Our aspirations are to develop hundreds of stores with tens of thousands of products, Weinman concludes. Znode has been instrumental in getting our infrastructure to a place where we can really begin to scale our business. 5

6 About Znode, Inc. Znode a Columbus, Ohio based company has established itself as an industry leading ecommerce solution. Our highly flexible ecommerce platform enables businesses to easily build and manage rich, multi-store and multi-device ecommerce websites with a significantly higher ROI. Znode is trusted by leading global brands including LoJack, Waste Management, Wawa, Channellock, Arbor Day Foundation, Sonos, Fechheimer (Berkshire Hathaway) and others. Znode is ranked #223 on the INC 500 list of America s fastest growing companies. Znode is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yell Group - a Global company that owns several media brands with over 1.3 million customers worldwide. Contact Us Znode, Inc Orion Place, Suite 120 Columbus, Ohio 43240, USA Tel: Intl: Web: Resources Product Overview: Live Demo: Customer Portfolio: