Foal Achieves 7% Gross Margin Growth with Wiser Price Optimization

Background

Foal LLC (“Foal”), the owner and operator of OneStopEquineShop.com, is a leading e-commerce retailer specializing in equestrian equipment and apparel. Based in Illinois, the company has established a strong presence in online marketplaces, expanding its operations to platforms such as Amazon and eBay while serving international markets including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Spain.

As an experienced e-commerce retailer, Foal understands the complexities of online pricing in an increasingly competitive and dynamic market. Pricing fluctuations occur constantly, and brands must balance competitive positioning with profitability to maintain long-term growth. Effective price monitoring and strategic repricing are critical to remaining agile and sustaining an edge over competitors.

To achieve these objectives, Foal sought a comprehensive solution that would enable them to monitor competitor pricing trends, automate strategic price adjustments, and optimize margins while maintaining a competitive position in the market.

Challenge

Given the scale of its operations, Foal required a fast, scalable pricing solution to efficiently capture pricing across these diverse channels.

Key challenges included:

• Gaining real-time visibility into competitor pricing: Without immediate access to competitor pricing data, Foal risked falling behind, either by pricing too high and losing sales or pricing too low and eroding margins. A robust pricing intelligence solution was necessary to keep pace with constant pricing fluctuations.
• Identifying pricing opportunities without sacrificing profitability: Competitive pricing is essential for attracting customers, but maintaining sustainable margins is equally critical. Without a data-driven approach, price adjustments could become reactionary rather than strategic, leading to missed revenue opportunities and potential margin compression.
• Scaling pricing management across a vast product catalog: With over 300,000 SKUs available across multiple international marketplaces, manually monitoring and adjusting prices was impractical. A streamlined, automated solution was required to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and responsiveness at scale.
• Balancing operational efficiency with data-driven decision-making: As a lean operation, Foal needed a pricing strategy that could be implemented without placing undue strain on its internal teams. The company sought a solution that would simplify workflows, enhance decision-making, and improve overall efficiency without adding complexity to daily operations.

Without a robust, scalable, and automated pricing intelligence system, the company faced the risk of inefficiencies, revenue loss, and difficulty maintaining a competitive edge in an increasingly saturated market.

Solution

Foal turned to Wiser Price Optimization, which combines competitive pricing intelligence with a rule-based repricing engine, to inform pricing decisions that better align with their business goals. With Wiser, Foal was able to:

• Gain Comprehensive Market Intelligence: Foal leveraged Wiser’s competitive pricing intelligence to monitor the equine category and track price fluctuations from other sellers. This solution provided not only real-time pricing insights but also visibility into key products during price-sensitive periods, competitor margins, and historical pricing trends.
• Automate Dynamic Pricing Adjustments: By implementing Wiser’s automated repricing engine, Foal was able to adjust prices across all its online marketplaces, including Amazon and eBay. The automation was based on pre-determined rules, such as matching top competitors, applying a 20% discount, or pricing just below key competitors by less than 1%.
• Ensure Seamless Integration Across Sales Channels: Foal integrated Wiser’s intelligence and repricing platform into both Google Shopping and its webstore, ensuring rapid price adjustments with minimal manual effort from its pricing team. This enhanced pricing agility while maintaining internal operational efficiency.

“[Wiser’s] tools have been critical to our evolution into a business doing $10 million-plus annually, that's 20X growth.”

Alexander Lans

President & CEO

Results

The implementation of Wiser’s solutions had a profound impact on Foal’s business. The company quickly recognized how Wiser’s automated and hands-off solution aligned with its operations, allowing for seamless and strategic price management.

• Improved Margin Optimization: The automation and intelligence from Wiser enabled Foal to adjust prices dynamically while safeguarding its margins. The company attributes 7% growth in overall gross margin over the past five years directly to Wiser’s platform.
• Significant Business Growth: Since partnering with Wiser, Foal has grown into a $10 million-plus per year business, experiencing a 20x increase in revenue. As Alexander Lans, President and CEO of Foal, states: “Since 2014, [Wiser’s] tools have been critical to our evolution into a business doing $10 million-plus annually, that's 20X growth.”
• Time Savings and Scalability: The automation provided by Wiser’s pricing intelligence has allowed Foal to scale its pricing management alongside business growth. With more SKUs continuously added to its assortment, Wiser ensures that pricing remains competitive without adding operational strain.
• Market Leadership in Equestrian Retail: Foal is well positioned to excel in the competitive world of e-commerce. Its ability to access actionable pricing intelligence and automate repricing services means customers receive competitive prices while the business benefits from stronger margins and improved sales performance.

Conclusion

Through its partnership with Wiser, Foal successfully implemented a scalable and data-driven pricing strategy that supports its growth and market expansion goals. By leveraging real-time intelligence and automation, the company can maintain a strong competitive position, drive revenue growth, and ensure long-term sustainability in an evolving e-commerce landscape.