Founded in 1969, Matman USA is a leading manufacturer and retailer of wrestling and combat sport apparel and equipment. Originally a wholesale business, Matman USA pivoted to ecommerce during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has experienced significant growth across channels. 

We caught up with Ben Fosnick, Head of Ecommerce at Matman USA, to find out more about their ecommerce journey — and the important part that SkuVault Core has played. 

Background and Pre-Linnworks Scenario

“Historically, Matman was only a manufacturer and sold wholesale to authorized dealers,” Fosnick recalls. He continues, “However, the pandemic kind of forced us to get into the ecommerce game. We had a couple of wrestling seasons back to back that were non-existent or barely existent, and so dealer orders weren’t that great.”

And so began Matman USA’s ecommerce transition. Fosnick highlights, “At the start of 2021, we started to dive into eBay and Amazon — and then we’ve always had a Shopify store, but it was pretty severely lacking. I came on as a consultant towards the end of 2020, and then halfway through the year of 2021, I came on basically as full time Head of Ecommerce to run our Shopify, eBay, Walmart, and Amazon stores.” 

Inventory management was a key challenge as Matman USA embraced ecommerce. Fosnick explains, “At that time we were using a static inventory management software. So we had to physically take it in, or physically take it out. And with ecommerce channels, if something sells on Amazon and the inventory doesn’t reflect on eBay, It makes things very difficult.” 

This made Fosnick’s job challenging. He describes, “My job was to keep the machine running, and it was just time-consuming. We could only really put in half of our available inventory to avoid selling something we were out of stock on. And so it was a bit of a mess.” 

Matman USA recognized the need for change. Fosnick remembers, “We knew that once we got through our busy season towards January and February 2022, we needed to kind of make that jump to a more dynamic inventory system that would give us live numbers across our ecommerce channels. We did our research, and found SkuVault Core.”   

SkuVault Core: Immediate impact — and growth 

“We implemented SkuVault Core, and so far, we’ve been very happy,” Fosnick explains. He continues, “It’s freed up a lot of my time, and it takes away the worry. I don’t have to be like “Oh man, we’ve sold something that we didn’t have in stock.” 

Peace of mind was just one benefit. Fosnick also describes the impact SkuVault Core has had on their operations and growth, “It’s just simplified the process a lot and allowed us to really have our full inventory available on all of our ecommerce channels, which in itself has boosted sales, which is pretty nice.”

With inventory managed dynamically using SkuVault Core, Fosnick has been able to focus on higher value tasks. He explains, “What I specialize in is running the eBay, the Amazon, the Shopify and not necessarily out there counting inventory and shipping. But, with a small business, you do what you have to do when it comes to crunch time. It’s been really nice to spend these extra hours actually focusing on higher ROI items that I think are really going to benefit us once we get into.” 

“It’s just simplified the process a lot and allowed us to really have our full inventory available on all of our ecommerce channels, which in itself has boosted sales, which is pretty nice.”

Doubling sales with SkuVault Core 

“Let’s say we look back at 2021, we were just getting started on Amazon. The first half of the year, we were doing 25-30,000 a month on Amazon,” Fosnick recalls. He continues, “Over the next six months, as we got things optimized, we did like 850,000 on Amazon.” 

“I look back at our eBay and our Shopify, and we’ve basically doubled sales over the last three months versus the previous three months. And those previous three months are typically our busiest three months out of the year,” Fosnick explains. He expands, “Part of it has been me spending some time finding those listings, adding better photos, and improving listings quality. But really a lot of it has been actually having that product in stock at a time when I imagine a lot of our competitors are still struggling, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Matman USA and SkuVault Core: A fruitful partnership

“I basically view SkuVault Core as all this basically kind of an employee we have for a few hundred bucks a month. It does 20 hours of work basically every week, and so it’s a hell of a bargain from that viewpoint.” 

For Fosnick and the Matman USA team, SkuVault Core has unlocked vital capacity for the team, enabling them to focus on high value tasks — while having the confidence that their ecommerce operations are managed accurately. This has secured considerable growth for the organization — to the tune of doubling sales in three short months. 

“I basically view SkuVault Core as all this basically kind of an employee we have for a few hundred bucks a month,” Fosnick explains. He concludes, “It does 20 hours of work basically every week, and so it’s a hell of a bargain from that viewpoint.”