(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - MONDAY, JUNE 7 2021) – Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, the national organization dedicated to the health and growth of independent outdoor retail, announced this week the graduation of their Switchback data tool from pilot phase to general availability for all Grassroots members.
Developed in partnership with PivotPoint Retail, the new Switchback platform provides business performance and inventory insights using real-time anonymized data-sharing. With access to Switchback’s comparative analytics and metrics, store managers and buyers will immediately improve their knowledge of what to stock, what to sell, and what to mark down.
“The single biggest factor in the successful growth of Switchback has been ‘trust,’” said Rich Hill, president of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance. “This is a tool that was built from the ground up to benefit independent specialty retailers, enabling them to harness and take control of their own data, and to bring it into an environment that is built specifically to support their success.”
Switchback’s move from pilot phase into general availability comes one year into the onboarding phase for early adopting retailers. As of May 1, 2021, more than 40% of Grassroots retailers were onboarded and capable of participation, with more than 75% scheduled to join the program by fall.
“With 82 locations transferring inventory and transaction data nightly to Switchback and with 63 additional locations in process, Grassroots will be able to serve the outdoor industry as a trusted aggregator of specialty retailer performance and trends. It’s a tremendous achievement—we’re delighted by the positive response from these collaborative retailers,” said Greg Squires, Founder and CEO of PivotPoint Retail.
Switchback creates numerous actionable reports for retailers including “Sales Trends,” “Style Performance,” “Potential Markdown,” and “Potential Overstock.” Retailers also are able to access a “Compare my Inventory to Bestsellers” report which enables easy pivots on brand or category trends, as well as discovering where other shops are succeeding with products they don’t carry. Additionally, Switchback creates “Profit Opportunities” product alerts which spotlight available warehouse inventory by brand, offering a product and category discovery platform.
PivotPoint Retail, a data-driven marketing and analytics company, developed the Switchback platform for Grassroots, building upon a proven foundation of retail data management in the specialty book and gift industry.
The next phase for Switchback, also in partnership with PivotPoint, will be the November launch of the Vendor Tool Kit for Grassroots vendor partners.
For more information on Grassroots Outdoor Alliance and Switchback, please contact oryan@grassrootsoutdoors.com or audrey.centeio@pivotpointretail.com.
ABOUT PIVOTPOINT RETAIL: PivotPoint Retail is a California-based benefit corporation dedicated to strengthening specialty retailing by supplying data-driven intelligence and localized co-operative marketing solutions to retailers, networks, franchises, and brands. Serving nearly 500 indie retailers across the U.S., PivotPoint seeks to help specialty retailers thrive and flourish in their communities for generations to come. For more information, please visit www.pivotpointretail.com.
ABOUT GRASSROOTS OUTDOOR ALLIANCE: Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is a collaborative strategic network of 95 independent retailers with 195 retail locations in 45 states, working together for the health and growth of specialty independent outdoor retail. Through data collection and analysis, direct member support, specialty events and deep vendor partnerships, Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is creating both a vision and roadmap for the long-term success of independent specialty retail. Grassroots Outdoor Alliance is also recognized as a catalyst for the success of its retailers and vendor partners; an advocate for specialty independent retail; a promoter of education and community within the specialty channel; and a key influencer of the national outdoor industry. For more information on Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, please go to www.grassrootsoutdoors.com.