Pioneering E-commerce in Outdoor Equipment | David Smith from Arns Equipment

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Check us out on Pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode of Pathmonk Presents. Today we are joined by David Smith. He is the marketing e-commerce manager at Arns Equipment. David, welcome to the show.

David Smith: Thank you for having me.

Rick: Of course. I would say let’s get right into it. We were just briefly talking about setups offline. I love your background, but obviously our audience wants to know more about Arns Equipment. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about your e-commerce business, its approach to growth and sales, and what makes your brand stand out in the market?

David Smith: A quick rundown on us: we’re just coming up on 80 years in the industry that we’re in—the OPE world—which is not a space that a lot of people think of when they think of e-commerce and e-commerce integration. So we run two sides, and you mentioned the background that I’ve got here.

There’s Arns Equipment, which is our primary business, and we actually have an e-commerce company that we’ve been running for a long time called Parts House. Parts House is an online selling platform for us to sell parts to people. We’ve recently adopted the same platform back onto our equipment side here with Arns Equipment.

So we’re fairly young in the e-commerce game. I’d say we’re only about four years into it total—not even fully a year into the entire company being e-commerce based. So we’re still early in that journey. We’re still growing, we’re still developing a little bit. But for us, it’s been a fantastic opportunity to reach customers that we never reached before.

The OPE—Outdoor Power Equipment—world is very behind the times, I think would be fair to say. We’re a very aged industry. And so as a result, one of the things that we’re trying to do is bring that industry a little bit forward. E-commerce is a huge part of that strategy for us.

A lot of the ability to ship to areas that are unable to get equipment from local suppliers… Canada’s a huge country and we’re a proudly Canadian company. We have a lot of our e-commerce customers in places where they don’t have access to the equipment that we sell through a local dealer—or if they do, it’s 3, 4, 6-week lead times versus 3, 4, 5 days for us to send out to them.

So it’s been a huge part of us growing and developing our business platform overall.

Rick: That’s awesome, man. I’m sure that those people living in rural areas who struggle to get specific parts or equipment really appreciate that you cater to them. That’s awesome. Staying on your customers—who do you think is the best fit for your products? Outdoorsy people? Professionals? Can you expand on that?

David Smith: Yeah, so if I was to pick kind of three core categories that we really work with, it would be residential homeowners. That’s anyone from someone with a postage-stamp backyard all the way up to someone with 25 acres to maintain and clean. We handle all of those kinds of customers—they’re our everyday customer.

Then we do a lot with commercial landscapers. So if you don’t want to cut your grass yourself, someone’s coming out to do it for you. We cater a lot to those individuals. And again, we deal with guys who handle small yards for condo boards or homeowners’ associations, all the way up to companies maintaining tens of thousands of acres.

The last space we occupy is what we call hardscapers. Those are guys moving visual elements around—arborists, people laying paving stones, that kind of stuff. We sell equipment that goes to those guys. That would be our three core categories.

And then within that, there are a whole bunch—commercial landscapers, golf courses that we deal with (especially with a new line we brought on that’s used by the PGA). So it’s really cool to be able to say, “Hey, you want a PGA-level golf course? Here you go.”

We’ve got all kinds of customers across those spaces. And the other ongoing conversation in our space is gas vs. electric. We cater to both as well.

Rick: That’s an interesting one. How do most of your customers discover you? Are there any marketing channels that have become your go-to for bringing in new customers? Obviously, the website is a big one, but how do they come to Arns Equipment?

David Smith: Website’s huge and, for a long time, was pretty much our sole focus. Website and SEO were a lot of what we focused on. We’ve expanded our online advertising presence—mostly Google. We’re very heavily integrated in the Google advertising space. Things like Merchant Center are key tools for us.

One of our new projects that we were just talking about—we’re investing in a studio here in our space where we’re going to start making YouTube content to draw customers in through educational content about the products we sell and directing them back to us.

Rick: Got it. Okay. So as you mentioned, your website plays a huge role in bringing in new customers. When it comes to the website itself, is there anything that you think really works right now or anything you’ve got your eye on improving? We’ve got many e-com owners and marketers listening. Maybe you could share what really works or what could make a difference in the future.

David Smith: For sure. I think the number one problem us marketers get into is we love flashy, cool, shiny things. We’re always chasing the latest trends. Our website is sleek and modern, sure, but it’s designed to function the way our users shop.

We really built our web platform—and we’re in the process of iterating on that even further—as we expand our team, to build our website to be more conducive to the way our customers are actually using it. I’d say that’s probably been our greatest key to success. When we get comments through our chat system or emails or follow-ups after shipping products, people often say, “This is fantastic. Thank you for making it so easy to find what I need.” There are no hidden fees, no last-minute checkout surprises. It’s laid out clean and clear.

And we’re continuing to expand on that—adding features like payment calculators, finance application submissions online. We’re adding those features as customers give us that feedback. So if I had to give advice to someone building or redesigning their e-commerce website: talk to your customers. They know how they want to shop. Sometimes we have to guide them a bit, but they’ll give you everything you need to build the right website for the audience you already serve—and the ones you’re hoping to attract.

Rick: That’s a good point—to keep things simple and cater to your specific audience. Here’s one I usually slip in because I like to geek out on tech stacks. When it comes to conversions for e-commerce or the website, what tools do you see as essential to drive more sales?

David Smith: Our biggest one has been add-ons. In terms of actually converting people—and it sounds obvious—but from a sales perspective, yes, you always want to be upselling.

A lot of people rely on customers looking around the website on their own. One of our biggest upselling features has simply been a dropdown menu that says, “Hey, have you considered adding an extra battery to your trimmer?” And the number of people who say, “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea—I’ll need two,” is amazing.

Since we’ve been a brick-and-mortar store for so long, I know what our sales guys are saying at the counter, how they’re upselling—so we’ve tailored our website toward that. We’ve got about a dozen plugins that do various add-on functions. I couldn’t name them all off the top of my head, but I’d say really hone in on add-ons that make sense—not just upsells for the sake of it. Funnel people to the right selections.

Rick: That’s a good one. I particularly like the point about using the same language as your sales team. That way, it’s a seamless transition between the brick-and-mortar and the website. “Maybe you need a spare battery—you don’t want to leave a job half-finished.” That’s how you sell one more battery, for example. Pretty smart—using the same language, because at the end of the day, that resonates with your customers.

So, let’s leave technicalities and the website aside. I want to shift gears and talk about you as an e-commerce marketing manager. What’s a day in the life like for David Smith? What do you focus on daily when managing the e-commerce website?

David Smith: Every morning I start off checking what’s gone through in orders, looking at engagement and customer inquiries, and then routing that to our call center team—making sure the right people follow up.

I liaise with our shipping and marketing team a lot. One of our advantages is having a full shipping and receiving team—we’re not asking sales guys to do it. That’s a department in itself. I spend a lot of time making sure we’re not overloading capacity or hitting roadblocks.

I mentioned we’re in the middle of version 2.0 of our website. We just hired someone, so I’ve been building a detailed list of everything we’ll be focusing on. I also meet with department heads to identify blockers and hear what they’d like the website to do.

Beyond that, it varies. I’m in a lot of meetings—probably too many. I wish I were more hands-on. I also deep dive into our ad platforms to make sure we’re seeing the growth we want. I’m very hands-on. I should probably learn to step back and trust the system, but I still like steering to ensure we’re going in the right direction.

Rick: Got it. Yeah, sounds like there are a lot of moving parts. I did a little research—you also create content, right? Is that a personal thing or part of your company work? Either way, how does that help you understand what drives people’s attention?

David Smith: We talked offline—I create Dungeons and Dragons content. I’ll call it what it is. We have a group that does that. It’s funny how much I’ve learned in that space—about influencer partnerships, what that relationship should look like, what engagement should be like.

I’ve learned time management, how to talk to a camera (which is an underappreciated skill), and how to engage like a real person. Those skills lend themselves well to leadership.

As a dungeon master, I manage 4–8 people, telling a collaborative story while maintaining audience engagement. That’s helped me become very fluid and good at multitasking—skills I now use at work.

We’re building a studio to shoot content, and I already knew what we needed. I didn’t have to do much research. I was able to present the business case with expenses and projections from the get-go.

Rick: That’s interesting—how those skills crossover. Dungeons and Dragons has nothing to do with your daily job, but those leadership and content skills definitely transfer. I think it pays off to have a hobby like that—or just to be constantly learning.

So David, we’re coming to the end. Before we wrap up, we like to do a quick rapid-fire question segment. The only rule: short questions get short answers. Ready?

David Smith: Ready.

Rick: All right. Video content or books?

David Smith: Video.

Rick: What’s the latest video you watched, and did anything stick with you?

David Smith: A video by off-road creator Tal Say about the equipment on his truck. His presentation style—how he integrates ad reads and content seamlessly—really stood out.

Rick: You’ve got that critical eye. Cool. If you had a magic wand and could fix one frustrating thing in your marketing life with tech, what would it be?

David Smith: Social media.

Rick: In what way?

David Smith: I’d love to make it less time-consuming.

Rick: Fair enough. If you could go back and give your past self a pep talk at the start of your marketing journey, what would you say?

David Smith: Ignore the comments on social media and don’t listen to what anonymous people say on Facebook.

Rick: That’s a good one—for anyone, really. Even people who don’t create content get mad at comments on someone else’s post. Just crazy.

All right, David, thanks a lot for being on the show. I want to give you the last word. If someone forgets everything about today’s interview, what’s the one thing they should remember about your work at Arns Equipment?

David Smith: Don’t be afraid to take risks. We’re in an industry that doesn’t do what we’re doing. But we’re taking a huge risk—and it’s paying dividends. Just because nobody else in your industry is doing it doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea.

Rick: Be fearless. I like it—great message. Thanks again, David. Where can people reach you and get to know Arns Equipment?

David Smith: We’re most active right now through our website—arns.ca—or our alternate site, partshouse.ca. Both reflect who we are. If you want to find me, I’m “Alone Donut,” spelled out fully D-O-U-G-H-N-U-T, anywhere online. I’m happy to answer any questions.

Rick: Awesome. Love that nickname. Perfect. All right, thanks again, David. We’ll see you next time.