BSA Trading Manages Massive Inventory and Cross-Country Shipping with ShipWorks
What began as a side job over a decade ago is now a thriving electronics resale business for Ben Salamon, CEO & Founder of BSA Trading. The brand, which does business under the name The Wires Zone, racked up millions in revenue last year and shipped out hundreds of thousands of products all across the country, all with a team of only twelve employees. Ben attributes his success to an attitude centered around constant forward thinking, discipline, and ShipWorks.
We sat down with Ben to hear the story of how he turned his big idea into big business and how he uses ShipWorks to stay focused on the future and in control of the present.
ShipWorks: Tell us the story of how BSA Trading came to be.
Ben Salamon: We started in 2010. I was working for another company, and in my spare time, I started a side hustle called The Wires Zone. BSA is the corporation; The Wires Zone is the trademark. So, I sold electronics on eBay, and it really started to catch on. With all my connections in the market and all the knowledge I had, I started to bring in a lot of traffic.
We became more and more successful. We were adding more and more products. Then, more companies and manufacturers were willing to sell with us. And here we are now, 11 years later — we have twelve employees.
How has your business grown since you began years ago?
Well, we have about 45,000 SKUs live online right now, and we’re seeing revenues of $7-8 million a year.
What sort of shipping volume are you experiencing?
We ship around 200,000 products a year. Most of our volume comes from Amazon and Walmart, as well as Shopify and NewEgg.
What was your company’s workflow like before you began using ShipWorks?
Before ShipWorks it was unprofessional. When you’re working in ecommerce, you want to do it quickly and accurately. When it comes to reporting and filters and so many other things that ShipWorks can give you, I definitely recommend it to everybody. It works perfectly as an ecommerce solution.
What, to you, sets ShipWorks apart from other shipping solutions?
I could use ShipWorks technical support every day, It’s very, very comfortable, and very friendly. I mean, it’s addictive. Once you use it, you can’t settle for something else.
Which integrations do you use with ShipWorks?
Our main software today is NetSuite. And NetSuite gives us the option to connect everywhere, to every platform in the market. There’s a connector between Shipworks and NetSuite called FarApp. It takes all the information from NetSuite and brings it into ShipWorks, and vice versa. If there’s a connection to any other marketplace, like eBay, Amazon, Walmart, NewEgg, or Shopify — all those marketplaces, all those e-commerce platforms — they’re all connected to the same place. And this has given us the benefit of less room for human error. It provides much quicker results and more accurately.
What is a business practice you believe in that has set your company up for success?
I’m very strict about the way I do things. I like to be very accurate, especially when it comes to accounting. And when it comes to inventory, I’m very, very strict. So we create pieces of puzzles, and we put them together to get the full picture.
How does your software fit into that vision?
We always stay updated, and we always keep up with software, inventory management, connections between the marketplaces or the websites, and accounting software. We invest a lot of money every year. We invest over a quarter-million dollars on brand new software that we customize to our needs, such as by integrating it with ShipWorks. We always think forward. We can’t stop. And today, I can tell you it works… It was worth the money and time.
Discover how ShipWorks can take your business into the future of shipping and inventory management. Try it for free today!