About: Austin Surplus Industrial, Inc. buys and sells a large variety of surplus electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic industrial components and supplies used in various manufacturing plants and industrial installations. Selling as many as 42,000 unique pieces, Austin Surplus needs an ecommerce solution capable of easily and effectively managing and marketing their products.
The Challenge: Austin Surplus needed a cost-effective ecommerce solution that allowed for easy channel integration, product management and numerous customizations to meet the needs of their company and several sales channels. Selling products through eBay and Amazon, as well as their own site, they needed an OMS platform that made updating and managing thousands of SKUs as painless and consistent as possible. After considering other platforms, ASI owner Dan Nicoson realized that Upshot was the only platform that could offer the customizations his business required at an affordable price.
The Process: With limited capital to find the perfect, customized ecommerce solution, Nicoson quickly came to realize that Upshot was the only platform that could provide them with the tools and custom programming they needed to get their business launched. From the outset, Upshot was able to provide those necessary customizations - and has continued to do custom programming as needed to meet changing ecommerce demands.
Seamless channel integration was another essential ecommerce component for ASI, as they have found great success selling through eBay and Amazon storefronts. With Upshot, ASI can coordinate sales across all its storefronts, manage an inventory of over 42,000 unique items, and upload new merchandise without difficulty.
Having a Go-To Person: Nicoson has been in the surplus equipment/parts business for more than twenty years, but with limited IT experience he needed an ecommerce company that could provide technical expertise to help him successfully grow his ecommerce store. In his Upshot Commerce point of contact, he found not only someone who could execute the necessary customizations for ASI, but also a go-to person for IT answers. As Nicoson explains, “if my contact doesn’t have the answer I need, he knows the person to go to who can get my issue resolved.” Having that experienced “go-to” person, providing next-level customer support, has been invaluable over the years. It allows Nicoson to focus on his area of expertise while relying on Upshot to be the “experts” on the ecommerce side of things.
The Result: ASI has used the Upshot platform since 2009, seeing great success across several channels. They continue to coordinate with Upshot for customizations and improvements to their ecommerce solution. Upshot still delivers on affordability and the seamless channel integration the company needs to grow and sustain their business.
In their own words
“Other companies have approached me about switching platforms, but they only offered an out-of-the-box solution that wasn’t what we needed. They haven’t offered the customizations like Upshot has. The customizations have been incredibly helpful.” - Dan Nicoson