ARI Network Services Inc. acquired the retail division assets of Fifty Below Sales & Marketing Inc., the Internet business solutions provider known as 50 Below, late last year.
In February of this year, Jon Lintvet, chief marketing officer and vice president of product at ARI, sent out a short question-and-answer release that provided an update on what has happened with the renamed 50 Below ARI since then.
Q. The acquisition was finalized on Nov. 29, 2012. What have you been focused on and what have you been able to accomplish?
Lintvet: "There were quite a few bumps in the road for the team and our customers leading up to the acquisition. As previously reported, we hired nearly every customer-facing employee supporting our customers, and we’ve doubled down in terms of proactively reaching out to engage them, help them make the most out of their website to help them sell more stuff.
"(We also have been focused on) customer needs and wants -- understanding what our customers need to be successful -- as we say, ‘sell more stuff’ -- and spinning up the product development resources to quickly begin delivering product enhancements to our customers.
"A lot is happening behind the scenes. We’ve consolidated offices and invested in the team’s work space; we’ve been actively recruiting to put additional resources to accelerate development and to support our customers. We’ve also streamlined reporting and teams. Overall, we’re doing a lot of the things you would expect in an acquisition of this size."
Q. What's in store for the next three to six months?
Lintvet: "We are working quickly to deliver enhancements to the platform to help our customers sell more stuff. As we speak, the product and development teams are working to deliver these new features, including:
* In the next (few) weeks, we will upgrade the mobile shopping experience for our customers, rolling out new layouts and navigation options that are based on online best practices, and proven to increase calls, appointments and sales.
* In the next month... we will upgrade the tire and wheel search experience and results to enable consumers to package tire and wheels, plus and minus sizing, and more easily find and compare search results. A better shopping experience equals more calls, appointments and sales.
* In the next (one to two) months, we anticipate releasing a new fitment-powered visualizer that enables consumers to see their vehicle and build their preferred tire and wheel packages.
"We have a lot of exciting work on deck that will clearly set 50 Below’s platform ahead of the competition and make work with our team the obvious choice for dealers that take this part of their business seriously and want to sell more stuff. Stay tuned (for) broader distributor and point of sale integrations, exclusive tire and wheel, and more.
"We’re committed to our customers’ success and have a much bigger team post-acquisition thinking about all the ways we can help them."
Q. How will the products you plan to roll out benefit wheel and tire dealers?
Lintvet: "At 50 Below ARI, we are all about helping our dealers sell more stuff, so the things we do are designed to help them increase sales online and in-store by generating more leads, nurturing existing customers and supporting them with the very best team in the industry -- folks who understand their business, who know how to put these types of solutions to work and are the experts, people our customers trust and rely on.
"We are experts in many areas, including eCommerce-enabled websites, lead generation, lead management, search engine optimization, search engine marketing and eCatalogs (parts, garments, and accessories)."
50 Below ARI specializes in websites for the tire and automotive industry. For more information, click here.
