Client since: 2019
Uses: Sellercloud, Skustack, Skublox, Waytopay.me
Industry: Auto spare parts and car accessories
Founded: 2015
Headquarters: Paramount, CA
Company size: 10 employees
“If you’re currently looking for any sort of inventory management system that integrates with all of your current e‑commerce platforms, I would highly recommend Sellercloud, it has been absolutely great for us.”
Don McClintock, President, Trekline Motorsports
Trekline Motorsports engineers high-quality suspension kits for trucks and SUVs and sells primarily on Amazon and eBay as well as its own website. As a rapidly expanding business, they needed a software solution to keep on top of inventory management tasks.
Trekline Motorsports found more than one way to utilize Sellercloud’s features and products and make their operations significantly more efficient. They even got creative with some new ways of their own.
Based in Paramount, California, Trekline Motorsports was founded in 2015. The bulk of their business sells automotive parts, focusing on lifting, lowering, and leveling kits for the truck and SUV aftermarket.
Trekline Motorsports President Don McClintock tells us how he started selling parts on eBay while working full-time. Over time, he started working with different parts and vehicle fitments. Eventually, he quit his job to start his own company.
Things were slow at first. “We first started selling on eBay and focused the majority of our sales on there,” says McClintock. Not long after, Trekline Motorsports started selling on Amazon as well, and they really started to grow.
As Trekline Motorsports’ reach grew, their customers changed too. McClintock explained that, at first, they mainly targeted smaller installers working on their own vehicles. Soon enough, they began to work with large distributors who would buy large pallets from them and distribute them to smaller installers in their area.
Like many young businesses, Trekline Motorsports did everything from scratch initially. Starting at the company five years ago, Shipping Manager Reuben Harris explains, “We basically did everything by hand.” This would often lead to mistakes for their customers. “They could claim they didn’t get this and we couldn’t show that we didn’t pick that item because everything was written down,” says Harris.
They started with Excel but soon found out that it wouldn’t cut it. “I built this complicated Excel document. It helped us place our orders with our factory, keep track of inventory. But there was a lot of manual work, and we just got to a point where we needed something more,” says McClintock.
Working this way was never going to last and disrupted their efficiency, especially as the orders were growing and they had moved from a 2,000-square-foot warehouse to a 10,000-square-foot warehouse. “[As] we grew and had more people, it became harder to do,” Harris tells us.
It’s a familiar situation—inventory was getting harder and harder to manage as they expanded. They needed a software solution to help them manage their inventory tasks, keep on top of it all, and continue to grow.
McClintock researched many inventory management solutions before settling on Sellercloud. “I spoke to a few of them before Sellercloud and then the way they did the inventory wouldn’t exactly work with how we were wanting to do with our kits,” McClintock said, “So, then I reached out and started talking to Sellercloud […] everything that they currently offered was exactly how we wanted to do the inventory.”
Trekline Motorsports then adopted various Sellercloud products, most importantly Skustack and Skublox, to further improve its efficiency and inventory management processes.
On Skustack, McClintock said it was “a great addition to allow us to keep track of all the bins and everything that we needed to do in the warehouse.” This was especially important because they were still getting used to a larger warehouse.
On top of that, McClintock was immediately interested in Skublox because it was a put-to-light system, and he had a truly genius idea for how to utilize it—transform it into a mobile cart that could move around the warehouse and collect orders.
“[McClintock] came up with the idea of having it mobile because that way we could kind of get things done faster without having to walk back and forth,” says Harris. “We put on the battery pack all the lights for it, and now we have a fully functioning mobile pick cart that allows us to walk around our warehouse, scan in one of the bins, scan the product,” explains McClintock.
Harris has been particularly pleased with how much easier their Skublox mobile cart has made their tasks. “When we’re picking items aisle by aisle, we’re able to keep our kits together in one section instead of just grabbing everything,” says Harris, adding, “We were able to separate each order.”
The combination of Skustack and the Skublox mobile cart enables Trekline Motorsports to sort their inventory as they walk around the warehouse. “We’re basically building all of our kits as we’re walking around [picking in] the warehouse,” says McClintock, highlighting that it has been an absolute game changer in terms of efficiency. “We’ve cut down the amount of people needed for picking the products,” he adds.
Harris can’t help but emphasize how much things have changed since Trekline adopted Sellercloud. “It’s a night and day difference,” he says, “We’ve definitely upped our efficiency.”
McClintock explains how the boost in efficiency has helped Trekline Motorsports. “We actually were able to cut down the amount of overtime our employees were spending. We were able to use a smaller staff to accomplish the same work we were previously doing with probably double the staff.”
Skublox and Skustack dramatically reduced mistakes at Trekline Motorsports, too. McClintock says that one of the biggest changes was how “our mistakes on shipping [have] dropped down significantly.” Harris has also been exceptionally pleased with how the Skustack integrated Skublox cart combination has helped reduce mistakes. “We have to scan the item and then scan the bin that it’s going into. So, it’s like a double confirmation,” Harris explains, adding that “[it] helped eliminate pretty much all the mistakes.”
McClintock also described the service Trekline had received from Sellercloud as ‘fantastic,’ going on to say, “Anytime we’ve had any sort of issues, I email them, and I typically get a response the same day.” He also praised Sellercloud’s 24-hour support line, which always provides help immediately.
McClintock finishes, “If you’re currently looking for any sort of inventory management system that integrates with all of your current e-commerce platforms, I would highly recommend Sellercloud, it has been absolutely great for us.”
