True Spec Golf is the global leader in custom club fitting and building. Founded in 2014 in Scottsdale Arizona, True Spec Golf sells through a mixture of in-person fitting studios and ecommerce channels, and has scaled significantly in the last ten years. From managing their inventory through Google Sheets, to managing millions of dollars of stock, they’ve scaled using SkuVault Core to manage their inventory and warehouse processes. 

We caught up with Ben Foster, VP of Operations at True Spec Golf, to find out what challenges their ecommerce business was facing — and how SkuVault Core has overcome them and helped scale their business exponentially. 

Moving away from manual processes 

“Before we adopted SkuVault Core, we were basically counting inventory on spreadsheets by hand, manually updating quantities every other day,” explains Foster. He continues, “It was a much smaller operation back then, and in order to scale, we needed a system like SkuVault Core to be able to track our inventory properly.”

Unlocking scale was a core challenge for True Spec Golf — as were greater levels of automation. Foster describes, “When you’re working on Google Docs, or a spreadsheet, it’s just a very unique archaic system and we were doing a lot of manual labor to keep things updated.” He continues, “We needed a more automated and a more advanced system — especially to scale. We had grand plans to grow exponentially and we have in the years since we’ve been using SkuVault Core. We’ve grown from five locations to almost 40.” 

True Spec Golf made the decision to implement SkuVault Core — and address some of these challenges ahead by doing so. 

“We had grand plans to grow exponentially and we have in the years since we’ve been using SkuVault Core. We’ve grown from five locations to almost 40.”

Scaling up — and managing complexity — with SkuVault Core 

The adoption of SkuVault Core marked a turning point for True Spec Golf. Foster highlights this, commenting, “SkuVault Core changed everything for us — just that ability to scale. As we grow, we went from maybe tens of thousands of dollars of inventory to multiple millions in inventory.” 

Scaling up has added complexity to True Spec Golf’s business, and SkuVault Core has helped them navigate these changes with confidence. Foster explains, “Now we have an ecommerce website, we do some fulfillment, some third party fulfillment for other ecommerce websites, on top of the brick-and-mortar stuff. So, the complexity of the business has grown.” He continues, “Having SkuVault Core to maintain our inventory, using warehouses and different locations, just the very basics of what SkuVault Core does has made a huge difference for us.” 

Growing from five locations to forty 

Since integrating SkuVault Core, the company has expanded from five locations to nearly forty. Thanks to the operational efficiency that SkuVault Core has given them, the team are also making more sales. 

“We don’t have an inventory team at each location. So we have to rely on the salespeople,” Foster explains. He continues, “SkuVault Core is tracking the inventory for us so I can pull the inventory data from our Miami studio and say, “Oh, they’ve sold through the 15 hats that we sent them. We need to replenish that inventory” and just knowing that can create sales for us. We’re not going to miss out on sales we could have had because we don’t have the inventory.” 

Ensuring training staff and re-ordering are “a breeze” 

SkuVault Core has had a significant impact on the speed to train new team members at True Spec Golf. Foster explains, “When we’ve hired a new picker, it’s typically the first day that they’re able to go do a pick on their own. It happens pretty quick.”

He continues, “That’s what’s so great about SkuVault Core — it’s so straightforward. You don’t need to have any warehouse experience, and so it makes training that much easier.”

Replenishing inventory is another area that SkuVault Core has revolutionized for True Spec Golf. Foster highlights this, “We place large, pre-booked orders at the beginning of the product life cycle, and having the Sold SKUs Report where I can pull historical data from is great.” He continues, “I can pull that data in two seconds — it’s right there at my fingertips — and I can use it to help me forecast what I need for this upcoming pre-book.” 

Foster concludes, “There are plenty of software that track inventory, but it’s the specific details of SkuVault Core that make it stand out for me. All these details, on a day-to-day basis, make my life that little bit easier.”

“That’s what’s so great about SkuVault Core — it’s so straightforward. You don’t need to have any warehouse experience, and so it makes training that much easier.”