Introduction: A Legacy Brand Ready for the Future
For more than eight decades, Mack’s Prairie Wings has been the world’s premier waterfowl outfitter. What began as a small section of apparel in McCollum’s Hardware Store grew into a regional powerhouse and, ultimately, an attractive acquisition target. With deep customer loyalty and a reputation for quality, Mack’s was thriving in its brick-and-mortar operations.
But there was a challenge: How could Mack’s evolve to serve modern customers online while preserving its rich heritage?
The Challenge: Bringing a Heritage Brand Online
Mack’s had a loyal following and an extensive product catalog, but its ecommerce foundation was outdated. The company faced:
- An underperforming website that lacked scalability and had thousands of technical errors.
- Inefficient product management, making it difficult to showcase its massive inventory online.
- Limited ability to leverage customer data for personalization and retention.
- A competitive landscape with major retailers like Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops dominating online sales.
Without an effective digital strategy, Mack’s risked missing out on substantial ecommerce growth and losing ground to competitors.
The Guide: Tadpull’s Strategic Roadmap to Digital Success
Mack’s needed more than a simple website upgrade—it required a strategic digital transformation. Tadpull stepped in as the guide, helping Mack’s build a scalable, data-driven ecommerce business that could compete with industry giants.
Key Steps in the Journey:
- Rebuilding the Ecommerce Experience: Tadpull helped migrate Mack’s to a fully integrated NetSuite-powered website, ensuring seamless product and inventory management.
- Fixing Critical Technical Issues: The Tadpull team manually redirected hundreds of thousands of URLs, fixing years of SEO-damaging errors.
- Developing a Custom Image Management System: With thousands of product images provided by suppliers, Tadpull built a custom web app to rename and organize files, ensuring accurate SKU matching in NetSuite.
- Optimizing for Search & Discovery: By enhancing technical SEO and using first-party data, Tadpull helped Mack’s rank higher on Google and attract the right customers.
The Results: From Local Retailer to Ecommerce Leader
With a strong foundation in place, Mack’s ecommerce performance skyrocketed.
Year-Over-Year Growth & Impact:
- Ecommerce sales expanded to 50%+ of total revenue (up from 25%).
- Website traffic increased 20% month-over-month for 15 consecutive months.
- SEO became a dominant driver, generating 60% of all site traffic—reducing reliance on paid ads.
- Revenue grew by 76% between 2017 and 2021 through personalization, segmentation, and automation.
- Built a scalable owned-media strategy, with 100%+ annual growth in SMS and a profitable email program.
The Power of Pond: Data-Driven Personalization at Scale
Tadpull leveraged its proprietary Pond software to help Mack’s:
- Segment customers based on real-time behaviors, improving personalization across email and SMS.
- Optimize ad spend and customer acquisition costs, ensuring high ROI across marketing channels.
- Make data-driven merchandising decisions, helping maximize inventory sell-through and margin performance.
Conclusion: A Digital Transformation with Real Results
Mack’s Prairie Wings set out to modernize its business while staying true to its heritage. With Tadpull as a guide, Mack’s built an ecommerce machine that not only grew revenue but made it an attractive acquisition target.
In May 2024, Mack’s Prairie Wings was acquired by Bass Pro Shops, solidifying its position as a premier name in the outdoor retail industry.
For heritage brands looking to future-proof their business, the lesson is clear: Data, strategy, and the right digital foundation are key to thriving in a competitive market.