What if outdoor enthusiasts could get curated boxes of gear and equipment delivered right to their door? That’s the vision that sparked the creation of BattlBox in 2015. This outdoor adventure gear company has become a go-to for those who crave the thrill of exploration, primarily through its innovative subscription box service. Inspired by the success of other subscription boxes like Birchbox, BattlBox set out to create something special that caters to its community of adventurers.
BattlBox cofounder and CEO John Roman brings the company a wealth of experience from his B2B software background. He was drawn to the subscription box model for its potential to provide the steady, predictable revenue that has played such a significant role in BattlBox's success—with about 90% of the company’s revenue coming from subscriptions.
Since the subscription model thrives on a consistent, loyal customer base, John has made building community a key factor in shaping business decisions at BattlBox. The brand actively encourages interaction among subscribers through various platforms, such as a dedicated Facebook group with over 10,000 active members who share helpful tips and great experiences using their BattlBox products.
The challenge: Scaling the ecommerce mountain requires high-quality tools that are easy to use
Every seasoned outdoor explorer knows that each great adventure comes with its own set of challenges. BattlBox started out on a niche ecommerce platform called CreateJoy, and at first it was sufficient—but not for long. Once BattlBox set out to grow and innovate beyond the level of their early successes, they increasingly found themselves bumping up against obstacles put in place by the limited capacity and inflexibility of the platform.
"We initially used a niche platform called CreateJoy, but we quickly outgrew it,” says John. “Scaling was a major factor,” he adds.
A niche platform might have made sense in the beginning, but as BattlBox’s community of adventurous customers grew, the company’s ecommerce capabilities needed to expand along with it—which meant incorporating new features and capabilities, among other things. Without the built-in flexibility and extensibility of a platform like Shopify, the changes BattlBox needed to make would have required too much developer time and resources. As John puts it, the company needed to be able to “easily integrate various features without needing extensive custom development.” That just wasn’t possible on their first platform.
When a business gets busier, time comes at a premium—and BattlBox couldn’t take the time to plan for the next great adventure, or the next box of awesome gear, when they were spending extra hours training their team on how to use their complicated, inflexible ecommerce platform. As BattlBox’s customer base grew, their staff grew along with it, compounding the problem of time-consuming onboarding. “Onboarding new customer experience representatives used to take eight weeks,” says John.
BattlBox needed an ecommerce solution that could help them scale all aspects of their business and provide them with streamlined operations, efficient processes, and tools to build their capabilities to reach the next level of success.
We looked at various platforms, including custom solutions, but ultimately chose Shopify because of its leadership in the market and the extensive features it offers.
The solution: Find a partner who has the best tools—and is pretty good with maps, too
To reach the next stage of their ecommerce adventure, BattlBox needed more than just a platform—they needed a partner who could provide them with the tools they needed, and the knowledge of how to use them. So BattlBox made the move to Shopify, a decision that would change the game for them.
The switch not only enabled BattlBox to begin to scale seamlessly on Shopify’s rock-solid infrastructure, but provided them with countless options to streamline and improve their operations. “The features and functions provided by Shopify are unmatched compared to other platforms," says John.
For example, subscription management is a massive undertaking for a company with 90% of its revenue derived from subscriptions—and increasing that revenue means adding more and more subscriptions to manage. Enter the ultimate toolbox: Shopify apps.
After switching to Shopify, BattlBox started using the Recharge app for subscription management. Recharge is known for improving customer retention and satisfaction while offering businesses reliable performance and exceptional support—the kind of support that gave John and BattlBox the ability to focus their time and energy on expanding into new territory.
And expand they did—to more than 140 countries. But they didn’t have to go it alone.
Taking your ecommerce global is no simple proposition. Every country has its own laws and procedures, forms of payment, and tax regulations—and each of those presents its own potential bureaucratic hangup or headache. Just imagine filing tax paperwork 140 times: That’s a lot of headaches! It’s enough to run any global expansion effort into the ground.
Luckily, BattlBox had a partner with a map to lead them around that swamp of red tape. That map is a Shopify app called Managed Markets.
Managed Markets uses a company called Global-e as an intermediary for all of your global sales. They deal with filing the paperwork, setting you up to take payments, paying the taxes—all of it—so you don’t have to.
As John tells it: “We launched on Managed Markets… which streamlined our ability to sell in over 140 countries without significant effort on our part.”
With Shopify as a partner, BattlBox has the tools and capabilities they need to scale at the pace of their expanding community of adventurers, and a roadmap they can use to do business all over the globe.
I would recommend choosing the best in class. The features and functions provided by Shopify are unmatched compared to other platforms.
The results: New heights of success—and more time to plan the next adventure
The results of BattlBox’s migration to Shopify have been remarkable—just look at the numbers.
Since moving to Shopify, Battlbox has seen:
- A 95% YoY increase in GMV
- A 161% increase in site sessions
- A 120% increase in conversions
- Expanded sales reach in over 140 countries
It should come as no surprise that the seamless shopping experience should lead to more sales—and this is borne out by the 120% increase in conversions, as well as some truly impressive growth in the volume of merchandise sold.
“We've noticed significant improvements in operational efficiency and customer engagement,” says John. “We've also seen growth metrics, including a 95% year-over-year increase in gross merchandise volume.”
And as for that operational efficiency John mentioned: Remember the eight weeks it used to take BattlBox to train new employees on their old system?
“Now it takes about three weeks for them to get familiar with the platform,” says John. That’s taking away almost two-thirds of the time they used to have to spend onboarding each new person—meaning they can get to work much sooner, and boost those sales figures even further.
We’ve already discussed how Shopify made it possible for BattlBox to expand its sales to over 140 countries—but just to reiterate, the robust app ecosystem allowed them to take these bold steps using Managed Markets, which takes care of the red tape so they can keep selling the same way they always do. According to John, “[Launching on Managed Markets] has added revenue with zero process change.”
What's on the horizon
BattlBox now stands alone atop the mountain of outdoor-oriented subscription-based ecommerce—with market research platform Tracxn ranking BattBox first among active competitors. From this vantage point, what do John and the BattlBox team see when they look toward the horizon?
One thing is clear: The company’s commitment to its community of adventurers is not likely to change anytime soon. In September, the company hosted their first BattlGames in Savannah, Georgia, a four-day event in which 10 BattlBox customers were flown out to compete in a series of outdoor adventure challenges, to win a grand prize of $25,000. John described the event as “part of our strategy to deepen community engagement and create memorable experiences for our customers.” You can watch episode 1 (of 3) of BattlGames exclusively on BattlBox's YouTube channel.
That sort of bold initiative is not something that comes to a company—or a founder—who are satisfied with the status quo. At BattlBox, they are driven to create new experiences, new adventures, new successes. Since partnering with Shopify, the business has grown by leaps and bounds—and with their ecommerce site running smoothly and efficiently, and their team unhindered by operational snags and difficulties, BattlBox’s forward momentum is matched only by that of its enthusiastic community of adventurers.
On to the next adventure!
