When I joined Gooten as the CEO in 2015, my goal was to provide the best solutions and opportunities for online stores globally. While the path to understand what our merchant partners needed wasn’t always a straight line, I am extremely proud of how much we’ve grown. Our recent recognition by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the US is certainly a testament to the number of merchant partners that rely on Gooten to power their storefronts.
Over the past 5 years, Gooten has partnered with over 50,000+ merchants. Part of this growth is due to the increased awareness of print on-demand fulfillment and manufacturing in the e-commerce industry, but the driving force can be attributed to Gooten’s dedication to best-in-class service for our partners.
The Gooten Order Management System extends beyond the straightforward, transactional features of on-demand integration, product creation, and customer support – the market sees new entrants with these features seemingly open up shop every week. At Gooten, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the consistency of product fulfillment while simultaneously increasing the expectations of what merchants should expect from an on-demand manufacturing platform. Gooten strives to add value beyond printing and fulfillment—that’s where our relationship starts, but by no means does it end there.
Where Gooten extends beyond these core capabilities is the host of services we offer, from account-based management to enterprise-level business intelligence data. This is why we call our merchants our partners – we not only focus the growth of our partners’ businesses, we also invest in their success. Despite many options when it comes to on-demand providers, we believe none address the critical gaps in the industry in terms of valuing and addressing the true business needs of a merchant.
These needs drove the launch of Gooten’s Very Important Merchant program, or VIM for short. This program is a result of over a year’s worth of work from our team and represents a first of its kind loyalty program in the on-demand industry. I’m incredibly excited about this new initiative as part of our on-going innovation efforts to continue to better serve our merchant partners.
The VIM program codifies a number of services Gooten has provided for years, including best-in-class partner support and dedicated account management for our enterprise clients. Additional features include personalized campaign planning support and quarterly business reviews, which will fortify Gooten partners as we head into an eventful holiday season. The program differentiates status levels by tailoring benefits to the breadth of our merchant base, focusing on brand building for our small business partners, while providing operational efficiencies to multi-store enterprises.
The most exciting part of VIM is that it enables us to work with our merchant partners in unparalleled ways through developing products and services that will continue to reduce overhead, increase sales, and drive greater profits. With that goal, expect to see a significant expansion of offerings for each status as we continue to expand VIM into 2021.
Gooten has been paving the way for the on-demand industry and will continue to maintain an exemplary standard for online brands globally. To our existing partners, we thank you for trusting us with your business. We will keep aligning our services to your growing business needs. For companies and enterprises that are ready to take part in the on-demand world, we welcome you and look forward to developing your business in this exciting, innovative space.
