We sat down with The Mountaineer to find out how they're using BrandKeep to organize everything they need for a successful season.
As any specialty retailer knows, staying organized is essential to running a successful store. Keeping track of workbooks, line sheets, order forms, invoices, and more can be difficult and time consuming. And, with some retailers working with over one hundred brands, the amount of digital assets that a store manages can multiply very quickly.
A 2022 Retailer's Challenge Report found that common organization methods like bookmarking pages, saving emails, using spreadsheets, or storing files on desktop folders are just a few of the ways retailers try to make sense of brand assets. But, those aren't retail-centric organization methods that support specialty retailers.
BrandKeep was created to enable specialty retail store owners and buyers to stay organized across all their brands so that running their stores is easier and more efficient.
Recently, we sat down with owner Charlie Wise and buyer Brittany Purdy of The Mountaineer, in Keene Valley, New York, to find out how they're using BrandKeep to store and organize everything they need to stay successful from pre-season to sell-through.
Both Charlie and Brittany started using BrandKeep as beta users at the beginning of the year and immediately saw the potential it had to positively change their organization strategy. Here are three ways BrandKeep helps transform the way they work.
1. All the digital assets. All in one place.
“Consistency is really the biggest thing,” Charlie said. “With BrandKeep we have a consolidated place where everyone is doing things the same way.”
Before working in BrandKeep, each department’s buyer managed their assets in their own way – from manila folders stored away in filing cabinets to email outboxes to spreadsheets on their PCs. Assets were handled in a variety of ways, making communication, organization, and findability challenging. However, with BrandKeep, consistency of process from buyer to buyer is established.
“[With BrandKeep], everybody’s going to organize their brand-related information and assets in a consistent way, regardless of what they are buying or what their department encompasses,” stated Charlie.
Now, things like B2B logins, brand information, digital assets, MAP policies, purchase orders, and other assets are entered into BrandKeep in one cohesive manner.
2. Easy to see. Easy to share.
Shared visibility between brand assets is another key component the organization gains efficiency through BrandKeep.
“We all know what we can expect to find and access when somebody is not around,” Brittany explained.
At The Mountaineer, many department heads work four-day weeks, causing varied schedules and less frequent overlap between employees. Before BrandKeep, that meant that certain B2B sites, catalogs, open order sheets, and assets were more challenging to access when that person wasn't physically available.
Now, The Mountaineer can set user privileges allowing buyers to see each user’s brand’s workbooks, key assets, contacts, important links, terms, MAP policies, and more through their Brand Cards.
“I know I’ve got all my rep’s information in [BrandKeep] — from an email, to a phone number, to the additional contacts, to the region, to the agency. Having a singular place for contact and login information for every brand is powerful,” explained Charlie. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to contact a rep, access a B2B, or review an open PO, but I didn’t know how to easily access the information.”
3. Busy buyers. Simple solution.
Buyers are busy and already have a lot to keep track of on a daily basis. They shouldn’t have to worry about digging through emails, searching out others for files, or sorting through the stack of papers on their desk. BrandKeep is here to help.
“We’re doing pre-seasons right now so I’m in [BrandKeep] every day looking for price sheets or catalogs,” explained Brittany. “Multiple people can find what they need and they’re not searching and digging. It’s just all right there.”
With Brand Cards keeping track of each brand’s information, KeepMail working as a one-stop inbox for receiving assets, and extensive search capabilities built into the platform, BrandKeep makes it easy for buyers and store owners to find what they’re looking for — the first time around.
“I've been telling Brittany, ‘If it’s easy, add the stuff, build the Brand Cards, and put the assets in, but don’t make a day of it.’ And to credit the system, she has been able to do that in a super lightweight way as part of her regular work and actually build quite a nice little platform for the shop,” Charlie said.
Get organized.
Charlie summarized it best, “When software works well and does its job cleanly to make your life easier, that’s what we’re going for.”
At BrandKeep, we’re all about making the retail buying cycle a little bit easier and a lot more organized. Click here to learn more about how BrandKeep can transform the way you work.
