PARKERSBURG, W. VA. (October 2017) Woodcraft Supply employees earned two prestigious national awards recently for effective use of technology to forecast product demand and to offer content to Woodcraft.com users.
Jason Guthrie, director of purchasing, received the Avercast Crystal Ball Award at the Avercast 2017 Customer Conference in Philadelphia. Ryan Knost, chief information officer; September Fleming, digital marketing director; and Kyle Crabtree, director of email and social media; accepted the King of Content Award on behalf of the Woodcraft staff during the WebLinc Workarea Summit 2017, also held in Philadelphia.
PHOTO: Woodcraft employees Kyle Crabtree, Jason Guthrie, September Fleming and Ryan Knost, from left, display the Avercast Crystal Ball Award and the WebLinc King of Content Award they received at national conferences recently.
“Woodcraft applauds the initiative and the ‘above and beyond’ attitude that these awards reflect on the part of many employees. Their efforts benefit not only our company, but also our customers,” president Jody Garrett said.
Based in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Woodcraft is one of the nation’s oldest and largest suppliers of quality woodworking tools and supplies with stores in more than 70 major metropolitan areas in 35 states. The company sells over 20,000 products at its stores, through two million catalogs and online at Woodcraft.com.
Avercast Award
“This award recognizes Jason’s mastery of the Avercast forecasting system and his innovative use of the product to produce high forecast accuracy,” Jerry VanCamp, vice president of distribution and purchasing, said. “Jason’s skill in deploying the system results in substantial inventory dollar savings and increased sales for Woodcraft.”
Guthrie said, “I use the Avercast software to forecast 12,000 items from over 400 vendors to support sales at 75 Woodcraft stores and sales online and through the catalog.” Guthrie does monthly forecasts for a 24-month period to guide Woodcraft buyers who place orders with vendors.
“I am also heavily involved in the product selection for tabs (monthly sales fliers). The Avercast demand planning software helps us to identify potential promotional items that we might have otherwise missed,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie came to work at Woodcraft in 2005 as a buyer, and was promoted to purchasing director in 2009. He was sales manager at Lowe’s prior to joining Woodcraft.
King of Content Award
When Woodcraft unveiled a brand-new website in February, Garrett commented in the press announcement, “In planning a major redesign of Woodcraft.com, a number of issues were addressed, including the need for more than just an improved presentation of our quality products. Woodcraft takes seriously the tagline ‘Helping You Make Wood Work,’ so it made sense to focus on expanding and improving the how-to content during this comprehensive upgrade.”
The King of Content Award is the result of the extensive efforts on the part of the Woodcraft staff to dramatically expand the amount of quality content that informs Woodcraft.com customers about Woodcraft products, as well as how to purchase them and to use them. It also reflects delivery of content in a way that makes it easily available at several points while browsing the Woodcraft.com website.
“This award illustrates how important content is to our website. The integration of Woodcraft Magazine, Woodworking Adventures and articles written by our very own team of woodworking professionals into Woodcraft.com boosts our search engine optimization so that people can easily find Woodcraft, while using search engines like Google,” Fleming said. “The context of the award exemplified our creative use of the Workarea Blogging system by incorporating articles, videos, instructions and blogs on our product pages, within our search functionality, and in the Toolbox, as well as an informative article section categorized by topics and disciplines easily identifiable to woodworkers.”
While adding content to the website is an ongoing process, it was not an easy task to ensure that when the new website went live it reflected both quantity and quality in content. “This was truly a team effort that involved employees in many departments to support the folks who made it happen through their expertise with the Workarea technology from WebLinc,” Jack Bigger, vice president of sales and marketing said. “Woodcraft is proud of their dedication and commends them for their hard work.”
To learn more about Woodcraft, please contact the store nearest you, visit Woodcraft.com or call (800) 535-4482. To learn about Woodcraft franchise opportunities, visit Woodcraftfranchise.com or email Woodcraftfranchise@Woodcraft.com.
