Challenge
At Congenius, a big part of our “genius” is our capability to deliver technology solutions to the everyday company. We design, develop, and deliver front-end and back-end IT architecture solutions for web and mobile applications. Recently, Congenius partnered with Fitted Retail, based in Eagle, ID, which provides innovative e-commerce and B2B solutions to hundreds of specialty running retailers across the US. Fitted was looking for scalable, high-quality technology delivery, and that’s where Congenius, specifically Tech by Congenius, came in. Congenius has been connected with Fitted for the past 6 months to seamlessly integrate improved technology solutions to better serve the specialty retailer shops they work with, and we are excited to see how our genius can continue to help Fitted grow in the future.
Fitted – Disrupting the Running Space, With No Finish Line in Sight
Fitted Retail, or Fitted, was founded in 2019 by Monte Keleher, Glen Bentley, and Andrew Bentley with the vision of keeping independent retail relevant and thriving. Fitted now partners with 220+ retailers with over 450 stores, 90+ global brands, and over $750 million in requestable inventory, and growing every day. The original mission of Fitted was to support retailers by spinning up an endless-aisle ecommerce site for them if they didn’t have one or couldn’t maintain one on their own. Then, COVID changed the world, and small, independent retail shops were hard-hit like so many others. Businesses across the world had to adapt to survive, and having an efficient ecommerce platform became more important than ever. The services offered by Fitted exploded in demand, and Fitted was able to help so many retailers stay relevant when their physical storefronts were forced to close.
Fitted’s leadership team estimates that “before the pandemic, less than 10% of run specialty stores had effective ecommerce capabilities, and now 80% do.” A huge part of that transition was due to Fitted’s speciality in assisting smaller shops in implementing and improving on their online sales capabilities by taking in their site and creating an ecommerce platform essentially overnight. Fitted offers a turnkey ecommerce platform for specialty retail shops like the ones linked below.
Dylan Smith, Product Manager of Fitted, states: “When Fitted started growing during the pandemic, our goal was to help small businesses quickly pivot to the digital world of e-commerce. By leveraging our existing relationships with manufacturers across the run specialty vertical, we were able to build a very successful, turnkey, e-commerce solution for these retailers to get up and running in just 24 hours with a fully built storefront and endless brand inventory. The key to this was not only a centralized catalog, but also centralized inventory feeds from each of our brand partners. Our retail partners could connect their point of sale system and not only sell their in-store inventory on our site, but also sell drop-ship inventory from the manufacturer.”
Now, at the end of 2021, while most storefronts have reopened, the new challenge is securing inventory to fill demand. Inventory is limited, delayed, stuck on cargo ships, etc.; so many retailers are wondering, “now what?” Fitted was able to launch Dynamic Distribution, an enhanced service that allows retailers to access and move product across an entire network across the United States, making Fitted Network the first ever Retailer-to-Retailer marketplace, with over $200M+ worth of retailer inventory. Have a product you don’t need? Dynamic Distribution allows you to place products on the network for other retailers to purchase. Have a customer who wants a specific product but you don’t have it in your inventory? Dynamic Distribution allows you to purchase it from another retailer – anonymously – and fulfillers get paid immediately and securely for products they sell to other retailers. No more calling around and asking your retail buddies if they have a product that they could send to your store to make your customers happy. Win, win, win!
Fitted is focused on building the future of B2B commerce, inclusive of a quickly growing network of retailers and brands, all connected to do business with each other at the speed of light. One of the big goals for the Fitted platform was to expand their list of integrations. “We still have our own e-commerce platform for retailers to leverage, but we started noticing that as we worked upstream to larger retailers, many of them already had successful e-commerce stores. We worked with Congenius to help us integrate our centralized inventory feeds into 3rd party ecommerce platforms, starting with WooCommerce.”
The plugin is simple in nature. Throughout the day, Fitted ingests warehouse inventory feeds from their brand partners. As these come in, they’re able to segment data by which retailers have access to certain brands and products, and relay updates to available quantities to the retailer’s Woo-commerce store. The plugin processes the data, matches products by manufacturer UPC (Universal Product Code), and augments the availability for those products being sold on the store! “Congenius was incredible to work with during every phase of the project which included; architectural design, UI/UX, development, integration services and testing. As a startup that is constantly evolving, they were flexible to take our changes in stride and work iteratively through the process.”
"The Biggest Revolution in Retail is Happening Right Now!"
Congenius Adds Tech Capacity | Integrates Fitted Payments & Platform Enhancements
Fitted and Congenius also partnered with Congenius on additional enhancements, specifically a new payment system integration, called “Fitted Payments” via BlueSnap. According to Anna Elemes (Product Owner, Fitted), “Fitted needed help and we knew we couldn’t do it alone or as quickly without Congenius. The partnership made sense and within a short period of time, a plan was in place and executed.” With the help of Congenius’s IT digital development team, Tech by Congenius, Fitted is now able to process credit card transactions and provide retailers with advanced features on an automated scale. This new payment system has created a cost-saving, more efficient method for payments with increased flexibility and the capability to further expand to payment methods like Apple Pay, Google Pay, enhanced reporting and beyond, when previously they were tied to strictly credit card transactions.
“Congenius was valuable in the sense that everything we wanted to accomplish was 100% customizable, which no one else was able to offer. We didn’t experience any significant hurdles or challenges; Congenius clearly has a solid management team and was 100% available 24-7 when we needed them.”
Tech by Congenius’ IT Engineering Leader (Architecture & Development, Deepu Vikraman, states, “Working with the Fitted team has been an enjoyable experience. They are very clear on what they set to accomplish, provide timely feedback and clarifications around their platform goals. They have the latest tech stack including GCP (Google Cloud Platform), pub/sub messaging, Next.js, and one click deployment to production with all automated testing.” Congenius’ Managing Partner, Sean Miller, added the following, “a lot goes into getting Fitted and their ability to facilitate specialty running shoes and accessories for their retail customers behind the scenes and we appreciate our partnership in helping to make this happen. Similarly, a lot goes into our Congenius platform which provides expertise in technology, emerging tech, branding and beyond for our connected company partners. The Fitted team is passionate about their customers, easy to work with, and extremely talented. We look forward to being ‘a fit’ with Fitted for many years to come.”
What Can a Partnership With Congenius Do For Your Organization?
Our passion is helping everyday companies scale up to the next level with increased efficiency, cost-saving measures, and solutions to all challenges. Like Fitted, we recognize that continually evolving and improving as an organization means there is no finish line. In a fast-moving, ever-changing world, we provide companies with our talented team of genius, whether you need a solution-focused consultant that can deliver with website design, digital marketing, mobile application development, web application development, IT Architecture, Artificial Intelligence (A/I) Machine Learning (M/L), or Cloud Consulting – we got you. Connecting with Genius is simple – email info@congenius.io for more info or tell us your story on our Connect My Genius page.
