Content sponsored by Kinsey’s Inc.

The term “customer experience” is often used in business-to-consumer settings — such as describing a customer’s buying journey as they lean on your business to fulfill their self-defense or sporting needs. 

As a leading distributor in the archery, firearms and outdoor industry, Kinsey’s is elevating the business-to-business experience for its most valued partner: the storefront dealer. 

Kinsey’s recently rolled out Phase One of a multiphase website update to better serve dealers. Updates were made live at the end of June/early July, with more being rolled out through July. With a streamlined interface, enhanced search features and more, the new website will enable dealers to efficiently place and manage their orders — giving them more time to spend on accomplishing other tasks.

Here’s a look at seven upgrades to the new website, and how they’re positioning Kinsey’s to be a more valuable business partner in 2023.

1. Greater Inventory Visibility

Thanks to Kinsey’s upgraded system, dealers will now be able to see the exact quantity of available inventory at each of its warehouse locations in Mount Joy, Pa. and Louisville, Ky.

“Prior to the upgrade, dealers would only see one in-stock number. But now, they can see what’s available at each warehouse,” Gorman said. “This is important, more so, with freight minimums and dealers looking to meet the threshold to get free freight. Knowing what warehouse the products are coming from gives dealers a clearer picture during the buying process.”

2. Custom Dealer Carts

Not only can dealers see the live inventory at each warehouse, they can now choose their preferred warehouse to minimize freight costs.

Gorman explained, “When a dealer goes to build their order, our website will automatically split the order into two shopping carts — filling items from each warehouse location. Dealers will have the ability to drag and drop the items they want sent from which warehouse, but the system will look to optimize the order based on their location.”

3. Enhanced Search Bar Logic

To streamline the ordering process for its dealers, Kinsey’s has developed enhanced search bar logic — making search results more accurate for oddly spelled brand names, hyphens, numbers and punctuations.

“When dealers are ordering online, they’re trying to be more efficient and find exactly what they’re looking for in a sea of items,” said Justin Gorman, Kinsey’s VP of sales and marketing. “Our new enhanced search logic feature removes punctuation variables and misspellings to give them better and more detailed results based on an optimized algorithm.”

“We want to make doing business as streamlined as possible so you can have everything you need to execute a purchase order as efficiently and quickly as possible.”

Justin Gorman , VP of Sales & Marketing
Kinsey’s

4. Enhanced Category Filters

Another upgrade is Kinsey’s new enhanced category filters. These filters provide increased functionality by displaying and organizing category-, brand- and item-attribute filters better.

“Simply, we’ve made the category filters very straightforward to use,” Gorman said. “In the past they were cumbersome but now — visually — they’ll be an easier piece to move and manage. It’s another way to ease a dealer’s ability to search and find exactly what they’re looking for.”

5. Increased Promotion Features

As part of the imminent Phase Two update, sale items on the Kinsey’s website will soon be identified easier — with standard and sale pricing shown together. 

“With the new upgrade, you’ll see the promotional sale pricing next to the everyday price so you can very easily see your savings,” Gorman said. “Combined with the enhanced search bar, a dealer can search for a specific product they want to run a promotion on — say a 5″ barrel, .45-caliber pistol — and easily see which items are on sale or discounted.”

Kinsey’s will also be rolling out a new tagging feature to make it easier for promotional pricing to stand out. Gorman noted promotions run all year, based on seasonality and vendor-specific sales events.

“If you go on our website, there’s always a special promotion going on,” he said.

6. Online Dealer Payment

Dealers will now be able to fully pay invoices via credit card or ACH online. 

“Previously, dealers who had a net 30 or extended terms could not selectively pay their invoices online. But now they can visit the ‘My Account’ screen and see all the open invoices and pay them whenever is most convenient,” Gorman said. “We realized retailers have different working hours, so they no longer need to call in during our business hours to pay invoices. It’s another way to boost convenience for the retailer.”

Additionally, unused account credits will be visible and redeemable online.

“If you have any account credits, they will be easily accessible,” Gorman added. “You can use any credits you have on your account prior to making payments.”

7. Special Order Memo Lines

As part of the Phase Two update arriving soon, dealers will be able to create memos at the item level — which will flow through to the invoice for special order notes (such as customer contact info, etc.). Gorman noted this new feature can serve multiple purposes.

“This feature is a tool dealers can use to manage special orders or any promotions they’re running. They can note any items with a special tag using the free text field and it will flow through to their invoice upon receipt,” he said.

And, It’s Just The Beginning

These subtle refinements help set Kinsey’s apart — making it a better business partner in 2023 and beyond.

“We know there are 1,000 different reasons someone might choose to do business with a particular distributor, so something we’re really focused on is simply being easier to do business with,” Gorman said. “In today’s world, we feel having a flexible website able to provide dealers everything they need to do business is the best way to achieve that end.”

Many of these refinements are the result of input from Kinsey’s esteemed dealer council, which consists of several dealers who provide feedback and suggestions on what they’d like to see from their preferred distributor.

“Dealer feedback plays a critical role for us. As we plan to roll out additional improvements in 2024, we’re going to continue to lean on our dealer council to ensure we get it right,” Gorman stated. 

As Gorman alluded to, these enhancements to Kinsey’s website mark just the beginning of what will be a multifaceted update — all with the aim of enhancing the dealer’s experience.

“Building an industry-leading website is the focal point for us as a company right now,” he said. “We want to make doing business as streamlined as possible so you can have everything you need to execute a purchase order as efficiently and quickly as possible.”

For more information on becoming a Kinsey’s dealer and learning more about its cutting-edge programs, contact the Kinsey’s team at (800) 366-4269 or visit KinseysInc.com.

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