Ace and eBay expand their partnership

Ace Hardware is expanding its use of the services of eBay Enterprise to deliver omnichannel In-Store Pickup services to its customers, which is due to be implemented in a total of 1,000 stores nationwide.

“We had been searching for a solution to help us acquire new customers and drive additional sales to our brick and mortar locations,” said Jeff Gooding, director of consumer marketing at Ace. “The decision to implement eBay Enterprise In-Store Pickup has had immediate positive effects for us. The flexibility, ease of use, extensive training at the local store level and support from eBay Enterprise for our retail associates was key to making this initiative successful.”

The two companies originally launched the initiative last summer, when they first rolled out the cloud-based in-store pickup program.

The service came to 36 stores in the first wave of implementation, adding an average of 50 stores per month since. At the end of July 2014, there were more than 500 Ace stores using the eBay Enterprise In-Store Pickup program, coinciding with an average lift of 18 to 20% in ecommerce sales for Ace.

eBay Enterprise has been partnering with Ace since 2003, during which time it has provided various ecommerce, marketing, drop ship, fulfillment and customer service solutions.