A Seattle outdoor gear brand · $140K → $820K MRR.

The archetype represents a slice of Seattle outdoor DTC we ship into reliably: a hardgoods, technical apparel, or backpacking-essentials brand operating from Ballard, Capitol Hill, or Fremont, $140K MRR with 60 percent direct + 40 percent through 12-15 PNW specialty dealers, REI-trained customer base with high return-rate sensitivity, seasonal product cycles tied to spring shoulder + summer peak + fall PNW shoulder. Pre-engagement state: $140K MRR on Shopify Standard, no dealer-network B2B portal (orders via PDF + email), refund-default returns policy, Klaviyo flows that ignored seasonality, no exchange-first option.

Three structural problems compounded the revenue ceiling. One, returns ran 18 percent of revenue with refund-default — every refund killed the original margin and the customer often did not buy a replacement. Two, dealer orders came in by PDF + email and a sales rep keyed each into Shopify Admin — bottleneck capped dealer onboarding at 2 new stores per quarter. Three, the email program treated December the same as June — no seasonality, no shoulder-season campaign timing, no PNW-specific weather triggers.

Workstream 1 · Shopify Plus migration with SEO preservation. Theme export, URL inventory, top-200 ranking export, full 301 redirect map. PNW outdoor-keyword cluster (alpine, climbing, Cascadia, backcountry) preserved. Post-launch organic dipped 3 percent week 1, recovered to baseline by week 4.

Workstream 2 · Exchange-first returns flow. Re-architected the returns flow so exchange is the default option — return path goes to "swap size" or "swap color" first, refund only as the bottom-of-funnel option. Custom integration with Loop Returns for the workflow. Margin recovery: 22 percent because exchange preserved the original sale.

Workstream 3 · Dealer-network B2B portal. Launched dealer self-serve via Shopify Plus B2B + NuORDER integration for the dealer-channel B2B catalog. Per-account pricing, NET-30 terms, dropship-from-warehouse fulfillment. Dealer count moved from 12 to 30 in 12 months.

Workstream 4 · Seasonal Klaviyo flows. Built shoulder-season campaign templates (spring backpacking, summer alpine, fall layering, winter backcountry). PNW weather-trigger flows (rain forecast triggers shell-and-rain campaign, snowfall triggers ski-and-snow campaign). Email revenue moved from 8 percent to 29 percent.

Workstream 5 · Warranty-registration + community program. Lifetime-warranty registration program tied to a community Slack + monthly trip-report newsletter. Repeat-purchase rate moved from 19 percent to 36 percent because the warranty kept customers in-orbit between purchases.

The pattern this archetype represents (Seattle outdoor DTC in hardgoods or technical apparel, $100K-$300K MRR, mix of direct + dealer revenue, returns rate above 15 percent, no warranty program, no seasonal email cadence) is one of our most-shipped engagement shapes in Seattle. The 16-week timeline holds steady; the workstreams compress or expand in the same proportions; the metrics typically land within plus or minus 25 percent of the archetype numbers.

Five capabilities transfer directly: Shopify Plus migration with PNW-keyword SEO preservation, exchange-first returns flow with Loop Returns, dealer-network B2B portal with NuORDER, seasonal Klaviyo + weather-trigger flows, and warranty-registration + community program. Every Seattle engagement starts with a 30-minute discovery call. Pacific Time, same-day response Monday to Friday 9 to 6.