The back-end ecommerce platforms that keep an activewear brand running: My Best Tech

Mick Spencer is the founder and chief mover of activewear brand OnTheGo Sports, which he founded in 2010. Here’s how Spencer integrated his back-end systems allow his business to deliver customised sportswear, while his business remains lean enough to run a marathon. The company has just been announced as the official apparel partner of the 2015 Australian Triathlon, Endurance and Cycling (ATEC) Expo.

“We’re a fast provider of custom sportswear. In the first weeks, someone ordered 400 cycling jerseys and he needed them four weeks to the day. So as an optimistic 19-year-old, I got in touch with a factory in China that said they could get them to us in three-and-a-half weeks, and by using air freight, we cut down the order time.

“One of the big things for us is automating the design process. In niches like schools, corporates and health clubs, many people wanted customised sportswear. But the design process and sales process used to take a long time.

“We automated the design process, so on the front end the customer can have a choice over design and colours. We wanted to make it easy for customers to quickly see their design.

“And then on the back end, we send those orders direct to the manufacturers and logistics companies so we can track the order process. So there’s the customer end, and the back end is about making my company leaner.

“On the front end, we use a fully custom-built Drupal platform. The orders go into a piece of software called Unleashed, that is integrated with our manufacturers, and then plugs into our Xero accounting system.

“We’re constantly looking at integrating that ERP [enterprise resource planning] system, and we’re now adding further advancements, such as email notifications to customers about the progress of their orders.”