The Beer Bat Hits an Ecommerce Home Run with BigCommerce

SOLUTION

BigCommerce allowed for limitless scalability. 

As McGee explored his options, two platforms stood out: Salesforce Commerce Cloud and BigCommerce. But in the end, he chose BigCommerce because it gave him a more realistic view for his growing business. 

“We got a lot of pie in the sky from Salesforce, but we were never going to be big enough for them,” McGee explained. “With BigCommerce, there was a more human experience. We got a more realistic view for a company our size, knowing that the numbers were there and we had the potential to grow into a multi-million-dollar company rather quickly,” he said. 

Once they settled on a platform, it was time to utilize all the tools at their disposal to realize their growth potential. 

B2B Edition made order management a breeze.  

B2B Edition provides next-level functionality on top of BigCommerce’s native B2B features. Using B2B Edition, McGee is able to streamline the ordering process and instead focus on growing his business. 

“We deal with over 325 different businesses. If all those called us at once, I’d be on the phone and talking to 325+ people,” he said. “Instead, B2B Edition automates that whole side of the sales process. Customers can go in and all their information is there. It designs their bats, which in turn builds their pricing and gives them a shipping quote. It’s all streamlined, and it’s so scalable.” 

One platform for B2B and direct-to-consumer sales. 

While B2B Edition made it easy for McGee to sell to wholesale customers, it was also easy for him to start selling directly to consumers.

“Once we had our wholesale model set up, we wanted to take it a step further and start selling directly to customers. When people saw the bat at the stadium and thought ‘Oh that’s neat,’ I wanted them to be able to come home and buy one of their own,” he said. “Making the shift from pure B2B to a hybrid B2B/DTC business model was simple on BigCommerce.”

The BigCommerce mobile app meant store management on the go. 

McGee is particularly impressed with the BigCommerce mobile app, which allows him to not only view analytics and customer data, but to manage orders and create discounts and coupon codes, as well. 

“It’s so great that I, as a business owner, can open up the BigCommerce app and see how many customers I have and see how much I’m growing,” he said. “Or, if someone I’m talking to is interested in the product, I can go in and give them a discount code right then and there. Then I can see and track their order in real time. It’s just amazing. I couldn’t ask for a better platform.” 

International expansion was made simple with Multi-Storefront. 

Baseball is a sport enjoyed by millions of people around the globe, so The Beer Bat had a lot of potential in the global market. When McGee had the idea to expand the business internationally, he wasn’t aware of how simple it would be on BigCommerce. 

“When we started building the sites for new markets, I knew I wanted the experience to be exactly the same, even down to the transaction,” said McGee. “I didn’t want to have 17 different sites with 17 different transaction portals and all these different currency exchanges. 

“BigCommerce’s Multi-Storefront worked out perfectly,” he continued. “I don’t need to be technical or have any of the know-how for each one of these different regions. All the tools are there for me.”