Westwood, Massachusetts (October 15, 2019) – ’47 Brand, an official licensee of sports fan apparel, accessories and memorabilia for the National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National College Athletics Association and others, has selected PlumRiver Technology’s Elastic Suite as its B2B ecommerce and digital merchandising interface with retailers. The use of Elastic is expected to greatly improve ’47 Brand’s ability to more profitably manage their growing and diverse product lines while deepening relationships with their retail partners.
“The entire team at Elastic is looking forward to serving the professional and college sports licensed apparel market with a quality manufacturer like ’47 Brand,” said Josh Reddin, PlumRiver Technologies CEO. “Licensed sports apparel is one of the fastest-growing and most popular consumer product segments. Elastic and the flexibility of our technology creates the perfect fit to help ’47 Brand reach even higher levels of success with both retailers and consumers.”
The licensed sports apparel business is highly competitive and affected by ever-changing trends in consumer preferences and product popularity. Maintaining strong retailer relationships and the ability to constantly innovate while creating new and profitable products are top priorities for ’47 Brand. The transition from printed to digital product catalogs will bring much more flexibility to product development and improve speed to market with new products.
Moving to digital B2B sales materials will also give ’47 Brand and their retailers considerably more time to strategically manage product lines, expand sales seasons and create more seamless seasonal transitions for retailers without the limitations and restrictions of printed sales catalogs. Additionally, they will benefit from brand enhancement through more sustainable, print-free business practices along with the accompanying cost savings generated from not printing and shipping product catalogs and sales materials.
Through platform standardization, the application of the most innovative features and a much more strategic B2B sales approach, Elastic helps both manufacturers and retailers achieve efficiency-driven cost savings and incremental sales growth. Cost savings come through streamlined order entry, print reduction, resource optimization, inventory management, online payment functionality and product sample reduction. Increased sales revenues come through brand-specific retailer/dealer applications, strategic sales planning, digital merchandising, product customization, managing complex pricing incentive programs, assortment planning tools, history-driven selling, strengthening brand equity, segmented sales capability, increased client acquisition/retention and enhanced product presentations.
PlumRiver’s B2B platforms serve clients representing some of the world’s largest and most iconic brands in the outdoor, surf, cycling, sporting goods, apparel and footwear industries. In addition to ’47 Brands, selected brands include: The North Face, Patagonia, Rip Curl, Timberland, Volcom, Shimano, Gordini, Kuhl, Outdoor Research, Pearl iZUMi, Rawlings, Stanley-PMI, TYR, Fjällräven, New Balance, 2XU, Boardriders, Crocs, Puma, Oakley, Reebok/CCM, Haggar, Lazer, Bauer Hockey, Easton, Burton, Reef, Hurley, Icebreaker, Fila, Nidecker, Black Diamond, Majestic, Osprey, Smith Optics, Bushnell, Fox River, Lowe Alpine, Rab, Carhartt, Dickies, Helly Hansen, Ariat, Marmot, Simms Fishing, Lole, Carter’s, Smartwool, Speedo, Golfino, Hi-Tec, Bell, OshKosh, Vans and CamelBak.
About ’47 Brand
’47 Brand is a leading manufacturer of licensed sports apparel, accessories and memorabilia. The privately held company was founded in 1947 by twin Italian immigrant brothers, Henry and Arthur D’Angelo. The company began by selling Boston Red Sox sports fan products at Fenway Park which eventually grew into a major retail outlet in Boston. With the Red Sox’s sweep to win the 2004 World Series over the St. Louis Cardinals, ’47 Brand expanded their scope nationally on the wave of their home team’s victory. The company has since grown dramatically and maintains licenses to create headwear, apparel and accessories for Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, National Football League, Minor League Baseball, Major League Lacrosse, National Rugby League and over 900 college institutions in the United States.
About PlumRiver Technologies
Founded in 2003, PlumRiver Technologies is a leading provider of B2B ecommerce SaaS solutions. Easy-to-use, web-based applications are tailored to the needs of manufacturers and wholesalers of footwear, apparel, outdoor, surf, sporting goods and other segments of the specialty retail market. In early 2016 PlumRiver acquired Elastic Suite Inc., the leading provider of B2B digital merchandising and sales enhancement technologies serving category-leading clients from a variety of manufacturing verticals. PlumRiver acquired CenterStone Technologies in 2018, bringing together the combined experience of a strong technology team behind the company’s Elastic platform as the industry standard wholesale purchasing interface between manufacturers and retailers. Some of the world’s biggest brands utilize the company’s Elastic technology platform that quickly bridges the gap between order processing systems, sales reps, retailers and consumers. Clients benefit further from Elastic features designed to quickly and easily integrate with existing IT infrastructure and ERP systems. For more information visit www.plumriver.com and www.elasticsuite.com.
