Skiwear Brand Spyder Gears Up For Growth With SaaS Solutions

By Debbie Hauss, Executive Editor

Spyder Active Sports is poised for growth using Epicor Retail’s Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to provide merchandising, POS, sales audit and analytics tools for its growing specialty skiwear business. Spyder is currently the largest specialty skiwear brand in the world and outfits the U.S. and Canadian Alpine Ski Teams. Since 2006, Spyder has opened five retail stores in the U.S. The company also sells its products to more than 550 specialty retailers in the U.S. and Canada, and in 50 countries around the world.

“The Epicor implementation began in late February 2008 and went live in three Spyder stores on June 1,” says Bard Higgins, retail business analyst for Spyder. “Since then the other two stores also have gone live.”

Spyder chose Epicor’s SaaS system after realizing that its current system would not support future growth. “Our first POS system was basic, rudimentary, and entry level,” Higgins notes. “When we took a high-level look at our long-term strategy, we realized that our original system would not support what we wanted to do. Epicor’s Software as a Service managed hosting model allowed us to add merchandising, POS and analytics very affordably.”

The pay-as-you-go SaaS pricing model allows small- to mid-size retailers to build an IT platform without breaking the bank. The Epicor solution includes implementation, integration, support and maintenance, as well as ongoing updates and upgrades. Upfront costs include a one-time start-up charge and a fixed fee.

“Epicor offers a tremendous value proposition for small to medium retailers such as Spyder,” according to Kevin Smith, CIO of Spyder, in a recent press briefing. “With Epicor we can have an end-to-end integrated solution that offers best-of-breed capabilities, the likes of which are used by large retailers, with minimal up-front cost and turnkey service and support…this basically eliminates all of the traditional barriers to entry for small to midmarket retailers.”

Four months to market
Spyder and Epicor took an aggressive approach to implementation, completing the project in just over four months. “While it might have been nice to have another six to eight weeks, just because we were also phasing in other things at the time, there was no negative impact from the aggressive schedule,” notes Smith.

To track the success of the solution, Spyder is monitoring specific metrics including dollars per sale and units per transaction. “We have seen improvement in time per transaction,” says Higgins. “And using Epicor’s tools for suggested selling and upselling, we have seen an uptick in both of those areas.”

Preparing for the future
Although Spyder does not currently sell products through its Web site, the Epicor system will facilitate growth into additional selling channels as well as more brick and mortar stores. And, with the acquisition of Cloudveil Mountain Works in 2008, Spyder has the option to quickly enter ecommerce through Cloudveil’s site. “If we move in this direction in the future, our Epicor Retail SaaS framework will enable us to support a seamless consistent experience across all of our channels…,” says Smith.

Cloudveil Mountain Works sells technical outdoor, mountaineering and fly fishing apparel. The company operates a flagship retail store in Jackson, Wyoming and sells online at www.cloudveil.com.

Find a good fit
Higgins recommends that retailers conduct a complete review before choosing an IT system vendor. “Every company we dealt with promised their system could handle every situation,” he says. “We were sold on Epicor after talking with client references who shared with us exactly how they use the system.”

Epicor also was a good fit for Spyder, Higgins adds, because of its experience in the specialty retail arena. “We are a specialty business and a lot of their customer base fit that model. And since our implementation, five or six other similar companies have gone live with Epicor.” Some of Epicor’s other retail customers include Aeropostale, American Eagle Outfitters, Ann Taylor, Zales, and Zumiez.