I love how Positive User wraps email, SMS and web tracking all into one omnichannel automation hub, which fits our sporting goods wholesale and dealer outreach really well. We had a messy situation with a gear distributor out of Colorado Springs earlier this spring that showed me how broken our old setup was. Back then, we kept dealer contact lists, seasonal promo sequences, and restock alerts in separate email tools and spreadsheets. I updated their inventory alert preference in my offline tracker but didn’t adjust the automation workflow. Our system kept sending them weekly discount emails they’d explicitly asked to pause, and they got frustrated enough to pause all new orders with us. That headache pushed me to look for a platform where I can manage dealer segmentation and message triggers together.
What I value most is the flexible custom fields and audience builder. I set up fields for SKU groups, warehouse lead times, dealer tier pricing, and contract renewal dates. Every dealer profile holds their gear category interests, preferred message channel, and opt‑out rules right there. When we roll out a new hiking gear drop, I can segment the list, build a simple email and SMS sequence, and set rules so they only get messages matching the products they carry. After that Colorado Springs mix-up, I migrated all our regional dealer lists into Positive User. Whenever a dealer tells us they want to slow down promos, I flip one field, and all the automated sequences adjust automatically. No more sending unwanted messages by mistake.
The CSV import works reliably when I refresh our dealer lists before each season. I get updated contact and inventory data from our fulfillment partner in Denver, and I can map all my custom tier and SKU fields without fighting weird formatting. A few weeks ago, I imported a batch of new outdoor retailers ahead of our fall camping gear launch, and it took way less time than manually tagging each contact one by one. The contact timeline logs every email open, SMS click, and form submission, so if another sales teammate jumps in to follow up with a dealer, they can quickly see what messages have already gone out.
I also rely on the simple visual workflow builder to set up restock reminders and renewal nudges. I put a trigger in place to alert dealers when popular climbing gear is back in stock. A couple months back, a shop in Fort Collins had been waiting for that inventory. The automated alert hit them right when stock arrived, and they locked in a solid PO before the stock ran out. For our small sporting goods team, we don’t need a bloated enterprise marketing stack. Positive User keeps our dealer communications segmented, automations easy to tweak, and helps us avoid those annoying misfires that can burn dealer trust. It’s the first thing I open each morning to check active sequences and dealer opt‑in status. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Honestly, Positive User works solid for our dealer outreach, but there are a few frustrating quirks that slow me down, and I ran into a really sticky issue with a distributor out of Boulder last month that drove this home. I was bulk updating our dealer tier pricing and preferred notification channel using CSV import ahead of our winter ski gear launch. I lined up all the column headers, double-checked every custom field, and uploaded the file. Most records updated fine, but the tool randomly wiped the SMS opt-in flag for a handful of contacts. That Boulder dealer’s opt-in status got cleared completely. Our sales rep sent them a text about restock availability, and they immediately replied saying they’d only agreed to email updates. They were annoyed and threatened to hold off on their seasonal order. Now I always save a backup copy and run a tiny test upload before touching the full dealer list, which adds extra time every campaign cycle.
The reporting side feels really limited for our sporting goods wholesale needs. My manager asked me to pull a report showing which dealers opened our restock alerts, grouped by their pricing tier, the gear categories they carry, and whether they submitted a PO afterward. Positive User’s filters don’t stack well enough to pull that all together in one view. I had to export contact activity, deal data and order records separately, then piece everything together manually in Excel. That ate up most of my afternoon, and it’s easy to mis-match a dealer’s activity to their order history when I’m juggling multiple sheets. I wish we could save custom report templates built for wholesale dealer campaigns instead of rebuilding it every time we run a promotion.
I also wish the notification rules for internal alerts were more flexible. Right now, any time a dealer opens a message or submits a form, the alert goes to everyone assigned to that contact. A couple weeks ago, our marketing intern got an alert for a high-priority dealer inquiry and reached out without checking the prior conversation. They sent the wrong lead time for snowshoe inventory, and I had to jump in to correct it and smooth things over. It would be nice if I could route order-related alerts only to our sales team, and opt-out/compliance alerts straight to me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
