PARK CITY, UTAH (Oct. 16, 2007) – It’s common knowledge: the best songs make the best mix tape; the best meat byproducts make the best hotdog; and the best vendors make the best retailer. Backcountry.com knows this. That’s why, at a raucous company party on Oct. 13, the online retailer of outdoor gear gave a big shout out to its 2007 Vendors of the Year: Mountain Hardwear and DAKINE.

“How can you not share the love with the guys who make you look good?” said Jeff Snyder, VP of Merchandising at Backcountry.com. “We work with hundreds of the best vendor partners in the industry. You have to be pretty stellar to stand out in a crowd like this, and this year these guys killed it.”

To select the Vendors of the Year, Backcountry.com’s buyers reviewed all vendor partners against the following metrics:

• Brand-generated customer relationship: customer awareness and brand demand
  
• Marketing partnership: partner-to-partner (P2P) links, marketing of brand, and content and image support
  
• Rep partnership: order monitoring, training, and attention to issues
  
• Inventory partnership: vendor stock support and ASAP fill rate
  
• Operations partnership: shipping accuracy, packaging, invoicing, and data feeds
  
• Business partnership: consideration of the retailer’s business method
  

DAKINE (repped by Warner Sales) was the cream among the hard goods and Mountain Hardwear (repped by Catalyst Sales) ruled the soft goods.

The Backcountry.com merchandising team acknowledged both vendors as leaders in their categories in year-over-year retail sales, margin, and GMROI increase. They are consistently category leaders in innovative new products and have the best purchase-order fill rates. They also have the marketing thing down and are easy to work with when it comes to P2P links or image and content support.

“Plus each vendor brings its own signature dish to the table,” said Snyder. “Mountain Hardwear is one of the leaders in our B2B initiative – they’re game to work with us via electronic purchase orders and Available to Sell. DAKINE has been one of the leaders in moving our top-selling items to direct import. These efforts don’t go unnoticed. We’re totally stoked that they commit to the extras when working with us.”

About Backcountry.com
Backcountry.com is an online retailer of performance outdoor adventure gear and apparel. The e-commerce site carries more than 400 brands in various categories, including backpacking, camping, hiking, climbing, trail running, paddling, skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and adventure travel. Backcountry.com also operates BackcountryOutlet.com, SteepandCheap.com, Dogfunk.com, Tramdock.com, and WhiskeyMilitia.com.